The church next door episode 4

THE CHURCH NEXT DOOR – Episode 4
The drive to Southern Sun, Ikoyi is the most difficult drive I have embarked on so far in my life. It was a miracle that I did not ram into other vehicles on the road or drove my car off the bridge. The guilt in my heart was overwhelming. I knew that trying to kill Anita Magbere was wrong, but the fear of losing my wife and my family was driving me to it. The voice of the devil in my head was so loud that the fear I felt was magnified over ten times its proportion. When I thought of the joy, the new life and peace I felt in me when I turned back my life to Jesus in that church on my street, I trembled at how fast I was drifting away again. “So Lord what do I do?” I asked with a little scre-m, expecting no reply. Almost immediately I heard a voice in my heart, “Thou shalt not kill.” I felt a holy chill from my head down to my toes.

When I arrived at Southern Sun Ikoyi, I was shaking from my head to my feet. Steeling my weakened conscience, I rang up Annie, “Hello Anita, which room are you in?” “I am not at Southern Sun right now, boss,” she replied with so much excitement in her voice. I was infuriated. “So where are you?” “I am at the office sir. I think you should come over to the office. We have just had a big break sir. Procter & Gamble have given us the contract you have been chasing for months. There is so much money to make, sir! You have to come now!” She was beside herself with excitement. My scheme to end her life at Southern Sun had effectively been crashed. She was right, there was so much money to make. The contract from Procter & Gamble could fetch my company over half a billion Naira. As much as Annie was a s–t, there was some good in her. She loved to make money, especially for my company. Also she was very good at her work. With the contract from Procter & Gamble having been offered to us, there was no way I would kill her.

At least I must wait till the contract had been fully executed. Realizing Annie will be very much around for months, I began to hurt. That was in spite of the fact that I may not have been able to have hurt even a strand of hair on her body. After I had heard the voice of God saying to me, “Thou shalt not kill.” I was certain I would not have touched her in defiance to the word of God. Like a child who had lost his way, I turned my car away from Southern Sun and drove to my office. At the office, Annie was full of energy and was working hærd like a horse. Even though I was cold toward her and maintained my distance, she seemed not to care. On this day, you would have thought that she was the boss and I was working for her. She kept on barking orders to everyone, including me. Making money was simply her second nature. It did not matter to her who owns the money, making it was her only interest and from what I saw, she derived so much joy from it. At some point in the day, she finally took notice of how lazily I was working; and much to my dismay, she yelled at me in front of my other staff, “Excuse me boss, if you are not ready to work, go home! We have a job to deliver to a Fortune 500 company and you are working as though that was not important to you!” My face turned red and I looked at some of my staff present. They all turned away their faces and pretended they did not hear Anita. In that moment, my mind began to play games on me. Could it be that they know I have been sleeping with Anita in my office? I thought. God I am finished! One way or the other my wife will find out. A couple of them know her! While I pondered all these, my knees tottered and seemed to go off their joints. I wanted to step over to where Anita was and give her a hot slap just to save face. However, when I turned toward her, I met her gaze fixed squarely on me. She seemed poised for a fight. g q y p g The look in her eyes cut the appearance of one who was reading my mind. A few times in the past she had successfully read my mind. When I asked how she did it, she simply put it down to the fact that she was having s€× with me regularly. I wasn’t expecting it, but she did it. While I stood fixed to my s₱0t, she walked over to me, brought her mouth to my right ear and whispered, “If you don’t get a hold of yourself, you are going to do what you will regret for the rest of your life. Stopping thinking they know that you have been f**king the hell out of me. They don’t know a thing about that. I am sorry if I embarrassed you; but you have to start working like the boss I know. When we get this job done, I will do whatever you want me to do, I promise.” It wasn’t meant to be, but her word gave me a glint of hope and I began to work more like myself. When she returned to her table, she said out loud, “Boss I am sorry I embarrassed you. I think I am over excited about this contract. You know we can work things around a bit and convince Procter & Gamble to pay us up to one billion.”

The heavy burden of guilt in my heart was dissolving fast. I smiled and said to her, “You are forgiven Annie.” My face turned sour immediately. I didn’t mean to say ‘Annie’ but ‘Anita’. Annie was the name I called her when we had s€× – something I was ashamed of. Thank God, my words seemed to loosen everyone present and so we began to work like we used to. Long after everyone else had left the office, Anita and I continued to work till 8:30 pm. While we worked she did not bring up the subject of her pregnancy for me, nor about our relationsh¡p coming to a sudden end. She did not make any advances toward me and I was happy to keep my distance from her. It was like those days she had joined my company newly. When she came into my office to say was about to leave, I said goodbye to her without raising my face from what I was doing on my work table. There was something different with me when I got home that night. It had started from the office. I had a ring of joy in my heart which I could not explain. Right from the entrance door, I began to play with my children. They punched and kicked me for not playing with them the previous day. I let them drag me down to the floor and sat on me. I was still in my suit and I did not mind. The sound of their laughter and the joy ringing out from their hearts was worth more than anything in the wh0le wide world. When my wife came out and saw us playing on the floor, she scre-med with her hands over her mouth, “Oh my God!” She was pleasantly surprised. Even our dog, Chloe (a white Samoyed breed), joined us in the play. When I finally got away from the children and embraced my wife, my left hand found its way into her undergarment, running my fingers over her pub-c hair, I whispered, “I am ready to shave it off tonight. I am in the mood.” She guffawed and whispered back, “I can’t wait. I left it for you to shave. God knows I would not have shaved it in ten years if you did not.” My briefcase was still by the door. My children and our dog had turned it into a play object and I didn’t care. Lifting my wife, I put her on my shoulder and made for the bedroom. in,side we ripped off our clothes and I bore her to the bathroom. It took over an hour before we came out. Life was back on track at the home front for me, though there was still the threat of Anita Magbere out there. The next day I arrived at work still happy. I and my staff worked till 12:00 noon and still there was no sign of Annie. She had not shown up for work and neither could anyone reach her on her mobile phone. At first I was happy that she did not show up for work.

However, when no one could reach her till 6:00 PM, we all became worried. I had to send someone to her house to find out what was wrong with her. The lady I sent to her house got there and called to break the news that no one had seen her since she left for work the previous day. We could not go to the police because it was too early. Annie’s disappearance dragged on into the third day. Both she and her car were nowhere to be found and neither could her phone be reached. On the third day we reported her disappearance to the police. All of us at my company were quizzed by the police and nothing came up which might help them. They had to turn their attention to her mobile phone carrier network to help them track her movement in the past three days.

STORY CONTINUES…