Three generations episode 43
TITLE: THREE GENERATIONS
WRITTEN BY: OGECHI ALABI
CHAPTER 43
Danny had had enough. He took a bath and left the house. He wanted Nwanneka out of his house and didn’t know how to get her out. She was the daughter of an army officer, if her father comes to look for her here, all hell will be let loose. He remembered when Chucky (Chike) asked him how sure he was her father was an army man, he told him her security men confirmed it. Army green coloured vehicles come to drop him every night. Chucky knew her very well. He went to Chucky’s house. He needed his help to get her out.
He narrated his ordeal to Chike. He said she had moved in with him and he didn’t want her.
“She came to my job and now she’s harassing me at my house”
“How did she know your office and house?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know how she knew. She is obsessed. She doesn’t want to leave. She is fraternizing with a girl I picked up for the night. They cooked and ate together. She claims her father sent her out of the house because of me but I don’t believe her. She must have run away from home because of the money I spend on her”
“Her parents are rich; why would she be enticed with your money?” Chike asked genuinely confused with everything he had heard.
“I think I went overboard. Now she is in love, what do I do? Please Chike, come and talk some sense into her. Help me get rid of her. I will be indebted to you if you do this ”
“Let’s go to your house, maybe I can talk to her”
They went together to Danny’s house. When they entered, the girl and the security man were cleaning the house while Nwanneka laid on the couch.
When she saw Danny she announced, “The house was too filthy and dusty so I recruited two of them to clean up for us. You will have to pay them. He called the person that does your laundry. I gave him the bedsheet and pillowcases and also your dirty clothes in the basket. Sandy washed the bathroom and toilet. She did an awesome job. I thought her how to use bleach and toilet wash. You have so much to pay for but it is worth a clean house”
“Now do you understand what I am saying?” Danny asked Chike in a whisper.
“Very well.” He responded to Danny. He turned to Nneka and asked, “what happened?”
“I don’t want to talk to you. I have told you I am with Danny” she replied
“But Danny doesn’t want you? He is not what he made you believe he was”
“You are just jealous. Let Danny tell me to my face he doesn’t want me. He sent flowers, chocolate and cake to me in the office. Everyone said how rom-ntic he was. How would he say he doesn’t want me anymore? He took me shopping and picked things he felt I needed, why then would he say he doesn’t want me? He took me to restaurants in Victoria Island, what more do I want. I don’t want him to waste money that is why I came here to live with him.” Nwanneka turned to Danny, “See what I have done so far, can’t you see you need a woman’s touch. Why then are you claiming I am obsessed?”
“Danny, tell her yourself how you feel and she will get it. Confess to her so she can be free” Chike replied.
“Nwanneka, I am not interested in marrying you. All I said and did was not to marry you but to have relations with you. I don’t love you. Please stop all this and go back home before your father comes here looking for you”
“What are you saying? So everything you said and did were lies?” Nwanneka asked Danny.
“I am sorry. I made a mistake. I know I hurt you, please forgive me” Danny replied.
“So, the hotel room you wanted us to lodge in was for you to deceive me into giving up my dignity when you didn’t love me? What can of wickedness is that? You made me fall for you meanwhile you intended to use me and dump me? Thank God I know where you live, work, and where your mother lives. I have every information about you. You think you are wise but I am wiser. I suspected you would play me that was why I gathered all the information I needed and gave my father’s boy to investigate you. He was the one trailing you. He told me you came home last night with a girl. You wasted my time and you have to pay dearly for it otherwise I will allow my father’s boy pick you up right now. Some men are waiting outside to do just that”
“Ah, Nwanneka! I beg you in the name of God, don’t do this to me. What do you want? I will make it available to you. Chike, please beg her for me, I don’t want to enter the guardroom”
“Nwanneka, what is it you want? He will provide anything you want and keep away from you. He promises to do that. Just name your price”
“Chike, was Danny aware we had a relationsh¡p?”
“I told him and explained to him what made it end”
“Danny, were you aware Chike and I had a relationsh¡p?”
“Yes, he told me.”
“Why didn’t you ever mention it to me or even ask me?’
‘Is that relevant right now? You didn’t mention it so I believed you didn’t want me to know”
“Raise N50,000, I want it here by this evening. Settle Sandy for her activity last night. Then you will pay them N500 each, they are doing a good job.”
“Nwanneka where will I get N50,000? I don’t have that kind of money. Please reduce it to something I can afford”
“I will take your car until you pay up”
“Don’t do that, please. Let me look for N20,000. I will be able to raise that much if I run around friends. I can give you that. I beg of you”
“Nwanneka, that amount is fair. Please forgive him. Wait here while we rally round for the money”
“No, you will stay here while he rallies round for the money. I don’t want your money there”
Danny went in search of the money. While Chike stayed with Nwanneka. She laid on the couch and closed her eyes while Chike watched her. He was still very much in love with her but the love had skyrocketed after her performance today. He knew she was putting up an act and he felt Danny deserved the punishment because he had hurt so many ladies by deceiving them into a relationsh¡p and dumping them once he has had his way. It didn’t end there; he would give details of the encounter including body shaming them. He did this sometimes in the presence of the girls. That was why he begged Nwanneka not to have s€× with him.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Nwanneka asked.
“Because you’re a genius.”
“I am not. I didn’t expect him to call you”
“He knows how I feel about you. He didn’t have a choice”
“Let’s not start please.”
‘It is the truth; I am still very much in love with you. I will do anything and I mean anything to have you back. My boys don’t want to see with any other lady in the house except you. The security men keep asking after you. I didn’t know you give them food. The attendants at the supermarket ask after you. Even Iya Seun that always frowns her face was asking why you don’t come around again. I confess, I made a big mistake but please, I beg you please forgive me and take me back. I swear to you today; it will never happen again. I will not lay with another woman in life ever again. We were good together. You are the woman for me”
“But, I have a child. Your family won’t accept her”
“Says who? It is who I want to marry I will marry. If the girls I impregnated had kept the pregnancies, I would have at least four children today. I judged you wrongly. You chose to have the child and that was brave of you and your mother. I want to make you my wife and we can build this empire together”
Nwanneka was quiet. She was hurt by what Chike did but he had apologized steadily. She wondered if he deserved a second chance. At least he helped expose Danny to her. Auntie Uloma liked him a lot after the first meeting. She told her he was her husband; she felt it in her bones. Nwanneka had laughed over it because she knew they had separated. Well, she had to consider giving him another chance now. She closed her eyes and stopped talking to him.
It took Danny three hours to raise the money. Nwanneka took the money from him and asked him to pay the two workers she recruited for him which he did quickly. She waited until the work was completed, reminded Danny he had clothes with the laundry guy and then asked him to drop her at home. He begged her he didn’t want to go with her. For someone who made so much noise, Danny was lily-livered. What the military was doing to people then, your family will look for you for months and you will be nowhere to be found.
“I will take you home,” Chike offered.
“I have a taxi waiting for me outside, thanks for the offer. I will see you on Monday as I will require some information from you”
“Consider what I told you. I mean it”
Nwanneka left the house. Danny was able to breathe. He said to Chike, “My man, thank you so much. What would I have done if they had picked me up? You are a true friend”
“I didn’t come because of you; I came because it involved Nwanneka. I still love her. Everyone that has had encounters with her will testify to her character. I know she is a good girl”
“Which good girl? Girl I would have f-cked if not that she caught me with another girl. Abeg, leave that thing”
“She wouldn’t have had s€× with you. She already knew you had a girl in the house before she came. It is not like my case. She played you. She’s a smart girl, very smart. She came to your house because you refused to bring her here. She knew you were hiding something. Did she ever tell you she was in love with you? When was the last time you saw her? It was not a relationsh¡p. Immediately she realized we were friends I am sure she killed whatever interest she might have had in you and used me seeing two of you together to deal with me. See how she cleaned your house. That is how she made my boys clean my place and she worked with them. My house hasn’t been the same. I want to marry her”
“What are you waiting for? Go and tell her father, he will support the marriage. After you have been locked in the guardroom in Maiduguri, your eyes will clear.”
“I will go to her family and make my intentions known. Thanks for the advice; I wish you were always this wise”
“Go there at your own peril”
Tbc