AMID SECRETS - CHAPTER 28
*Nwanyieze’s POV*
He’s also an orphan?.
Time seems to slow down, but the jolt that passes through me is faster than the speed of light. The amusement in his eyes have evaporated and all I see are raw sadness and pain. I want to hold him, to tell him that he’ll be fine, that I’ll be here and I won’t leave him like his parents did.
But words are wind, and I’m likely to disappear from his life anytime soon. The thought is bitter, that two people who have lost everything and found each other at the wrong time will inevitably part.
That’s why he’s so good to you. He understands, in a way. Will he understand when he finds out about you?
My throat clogs up with unshed tears, my breath catches in my throat as he looks up at the ceiling and sighs. I don’t say anything, I just settle my head back onto his chest and listen to his heartbeat. It is fast, beating like the drums I used to dance to during school ceremonies in primary school, when my life was simpler and I had no idea I was an orphan, about to be abused, thrown out and sucked into the dark world of the night.
I can’t talk now; and so I snuggle closer, entwine my legs with his, stroke his jaw. My dress, a chiffon gown in light green, hikes up to my upper thighs but I ignore it. I doubt he’s paying attention to that.
“I’m sorry, Maduka. I really am,” I finally say after a few minutes.
“It wasn’t your fault,” he replies in a raw voice.
“I wish I could do something.”
He chuckles, a sound that is devoid of amusement and full of something dark in nature that I cannot describe. The hairs on the back of my neck stand, and I know that this Maduka isn’t the same one who had welcomed me into his home with a smile and called me his baby girl. But I hold on; I hold on because I can relate to what he’s feeling now.
Nobody can do anything to take the pain away. You learn to live with it.
“They died, just like that. I found their corpses in bed. After that, I ran away from home. I was seven. My mother, she was pregnant and I used to feel the baby kick anytime I touched her belly. They were all gone just like that.”
“Why did you run away, Maduka?”
“Nobody would want me.”
“Oh, no.”
And before I know it I’m kissing him, trying to pour all my emotions into that contact, to tell him that it wasn’t true, please it wasn’t true.
“You have to listen, I have to let it all out,” he groans when I withdraw, both of us breathless. “I slept in the back of a truck after wandering in the bushes…”
_____
*Maduka’s POV*
My feet were hurting. I’d been running around on bare feet, after Kunle the corper had discovered me, the whole clan had been thrown into confusion and chaos. My uncle’s wife, Ndidi, had whisked me away to her compound and offered me food. When I rejected it, she force-fed me, bathed me, and kept me in her room away from prying eyes.
Her room had been a small one with a concrete floor, the window had been without bars and so I’d pushed open the sliding glass panels, slipped out and ran into the bush behind it, half-blind from tears. Terror, confusion, and disbelief were what I felt.
They had been cold, so cold and stiff lying on their bed. The baby wasn’t kicking, my mother wasn’t smiling, my father wasn’t sighing like he usually did when I woke him up.
Night time came and I emerged from the bushes, but I wasn’t returning home. I knew what death was; I knew they weren’t returning and that if they did, Papa would know where to find me and he’d have done so long ago.
Three houses away from mine, I could hear the noises. Voices, lots of them in my father’s compound. I heard my name being yelled.
“Maduka! Maduka, lota! Biko, lota ooo!”
It was Daa Ndidi, her voice was strained and full of tears. I saw a lantern coming in my direction and without thinking, I scrambled up into the back of an old pick-up truck that had been beside a mound of red sand, the same mound of red sand where I had sat and built sand cities with my cousins a few days ago. I crawled underneath the trampoline covering and lay still, holding my breath.
My body ached, I was cold, my stomach grumbled and my eyes were swollen from all the crying, but I had resolved never to go back home. Daa Ndidi passed by the truck, and I heard her loud sobs. I loved my aunt; she always wiped my runny nose and gave me extra bean cakes or an extra piece of meat whenever I ate at her place.
“Maduka, nwa m.” Maduka, my child.
Her voice faded, and so did the last of my strength before I fell into a deep sleep, into a dream where my parents and unborn sibling were alright.
The next day I found myself in a new environment. The truck owner had driven off with me in it, fast asleep. He hasn’t bothered to check the trunk, either, because when I climbed out I saw no sign of anyone who could own it. People were everywhere; and yet no one noticed me. There were vehicles, more than I’d ever seen. Noise filled the air, small stalls occupied every book and cranny of this place. I later learned that I was in the Owerri market. I wandered, walking the crowded streets and dodging vehicles and people, my stomach grumbling. The sun beat down on me, making me dizzy.
I’d fainted a few hours later, right inside a puddle of dirty water.
A knock on my front door interrupts me. I’d totally forgotten about our food.
“I’ll get it,” she says quickly, getting to her feet and running to the door before I can move. She pulls it open and I hear her gasp before taking a step backwards.
“Nwanyieze? What is it?” I ask, sitting up.
“Did you miss me, Queen?” an American-accented voice asks, full of amusement.
Saheed.
_____
*Nwanyieze’s POV*
I take another step backwards. Saheed steps in, followed by Jide. Maduka comes to stand beside me, sensing my distress.
“What a surprise,” he tells Saheed, then gives Jide a nasty look.
Jide looks away, uncomfortably.
“Yes, what a surprise,” Saheed drawls. “I came back yesterday and thought I should drop by with Jide to see if you’re free for a night out. Turns out you’ve been quite…busy.”
His eyes fall on me, those light brown eyes that make me feel like an antelope transfixed by the stare of a lion. He is dressed in dark blue slacks, a black shirt and black loafers. He has allowed his beard to grow out, so it contrasts with his light skin. A stud glitters on his right earlobe, making him look more dangerous.
“I like your dress, by the way.”
“Thank you,” I manage to reply without choking. “And welcome back.”
“Hardly the sort of welcome I was expecting, but we can’t always get what we want, can we?”
I can feel the tension emanating from Maduka- it is like he is coiled tight, waiting to spring at the slightest provocation. He saw me at Quilox with Saheed; that was the night he’d given me a ride for the second time.
However, Maduka offers them drinks. Jide declines, but Saheed graciously accepts and makes himself comfortable on the couch. When I try to move towards the kitchen to get them, Maduka tells me not to bother. I perch on one of the seats in the sitting room while Maduka leaves. Jide follows him a minute later.
No, don’t go, I want to say, but I’m already alone with Saheed.
“Nice phone,” he compliments with a smile. It is weird, seeing him looking so different and yet the same. His eyes still shine with mischief, but his smile is surrounded by all that facial hair.
“Thank you.” All of a sudden I feel cold; all the warmth I’ve been feeling some minutes ago has ebbed away.
“You truly are full of surprises. But guess what?” He asked.
“What?” I try to put up a brave front. Saheed can destroy what I have with Maduka just by snapping his fingers.
“I like surprises. I thrive with them. And they are usually so pleasant.”
I shiver. Saheed is the kind of person whose smiles could mean anything, but I’m sure it mostly spells something bad. Maduka and Jide step in with drinks: a bottle of Hennessey, some beer, ice and glass cups.
“You know Nwanyieze, Saheed,” Maduka says before seating himself beside me. I feel more secure all of a sudden. In fact, I lean towards him so my shoulder touches his.
“Of course I do,” he replies. “I’m still feeling guilty about that night at my party.”
My heart skips a beat. The night I was on a job.
Maduka’s hand closes around mine. He takes it up to his lips, never breaking eye contact with me, and kisses it. I swallow.
I’m done. Saheed will tell him who I am.
“Love is a beautiful thing,” Saheed sighs. “Getting to know each other, flaws and all and still wanting to be together.”
Jide has never said a word to me since he got here. He stares at his phone, the walls, the clock; anywhere but me.
My appetite has fled; all I want to do is run away from this house, run to the safety of my room without looking back. I get up to my feet and announce my departure.
“Our food isn’t even here yet,” Maduka tells me in a low voice on the patio.
The night air is cool and it clears my head a little. “You have visitors, and you haven’t seen Jide in a while. Catch up with him, I’ll come another time.”
“Is Saheed making you uncomfortable? Because I can tell him to leave-”
“No, don’t do that.”
“You don’t like him.”
I am silent to that statement. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, Saheed shows up. This isn’t fair.
And even if he didn’t show up, what were you thinking? That Maduka will still stay when the truth eventually comes out?
“Nwanyieze, did Saheed do something to you? Aside from throwing you into the pool? Did he tell you anything you didn’t like when I went into the kitchen?”
Under the yellow light, his features are fierce.
“Because I’ll go back inside and-”
“No,” I answer quickly. I touch his injured arm. I’m not ready to watch a possible bloodbath and have him receive more injuries. Also, I don’t want him provoking Saheed, who is all smiles but as dangerous as a viper. “I just want you to entertain them; I’ll be here soon again.”
His expression tells me that he isn’t backing down from this easily. To soften the blow, I rise on my toes and kiss him.
“I want you here,” he says, defeated. I can hear his frustration.
We were having a moment before the interruption, and I know that tonight won’t yield anything anymore. Plus, I need to go home and do some serious thinking now that Saheed is back in the picture, a picture that was meant for Maduka and I.
You think so?
“Jide just got back from Dubai, didn’t he? Catch up with your best friend.”
In less that five minutes Maduka has booked me a taxi on his phone, and he refuses to leave my side until it comes. We hear loud laughter coming from inside his house.
Is Saheed laughing at us? I wonder.
I lead him to the gate, where he holds me against himself for a few moments, kisses my forehead, and lets me go. I say nothing throughout the ride except for a hello to the driver. My mind drifts back to the surprise I’d seen on Saheed’s face when I opened the door, which he had immediately concealed. The man is handsome, and probably thrice as rich as Maduka. He could have anyone he wanted, but I fail to understand why he can’t skip me by and be on his way.
What was he expecting, that I would ‘wait’ for him, when in the first place, I never wanted him?