EPISODE 15
Tania stayed more than the time
on the credit card because Skyby
took care of her remaining
expenses. Even her husband
called and asked why she was
extending her stay, she gave him one flimsy excuse or the other.,
until he stopped asking.
However, Skyby told her that he
wanted to go back to the city as a
job was waiting for him. It was
then that Tania decided it was time to return to her husband. It
was also then she realized that
Skyby was not the kind of guy a
woman married, Damilola was. No
matter how much she felt he had
betrayed her, he was still stable. Skyby was only good for the
sheets, or so she thought. Tania: “I will visit Calabar from
time to time” she said as she
packed her things into her two
suitcases. Skyby: “Sure, I am going to miss
you, Ima mi” he said and
smacked her butt. When she got back to Lagos, Bella
called on her. Her heart skipped a
beat when she saw Bella. Bella
was a thorn in her flesh and she
was beginning to think that
perhaps she should take care of Bella. She decided she would talk
to Skyby about it, didn’t he say he
was there for her? Bella: “Why do you look like you
have seen a ghost?” she asked
walking majestically into the
house, she could smell fear all
over her. What was Tania hiding,
she wondered. Tania: “What do you want?” she
asked. Bella: “I didn’t know I needed a
reason to come and see my
friend. I heard you and Damilola
are trying for a child again? Well, I
don’t know if he would be
interested now that he knows Dayo is his son” she said flicking
off invisible dirt from her
fingernails. Tania: “What did you say?” she
asked suddenly alert. Bella: “While you were holidaying
outside Lagos, your husband was
intensifying efforts to find Dayo
because he just found out that he
is his son” she replied, still acting
nonchalant. Tania: “Bella, what do you mean
he just found out, didn’t you tell
me he knew?” she asked, as her
heart began to beat faster. Bella: “A little over sight, I thought
he knew” she quipped, still not
concerned. Tania: “Bella, you lied to me that
my husband made a deal with
your husband to keep Dayo with
you guys, and now you are
telling me you thought he knew.
Did you use me to get rid of Dayo?” she asked inching closer
to Bella menacingly, but the latter
was the least bit afraid. Bella: “And did you try to get rid
of him, is that the reason he ran?”
she fired back into Tania’s face.
Tania backed down and asked
Bella to leave her house and
never return. When Bella was gone, she broke down and
began to cry. Tania: “I allowed her manipulate
me, I allowed her use me.
Damilola never betrayed me. He
was the loyal husband he has
always been. Oh my God, I have
done so many evils because I thought he betrayed me” she
cried. Dayo, walked through the village
all night, when he was tired, he
would slump on the floor, but
when he remembered his
mother’s voice in the dream, he
would get up. When the first light of dawn broke through the trees,
Dayo spied a river, he hurried
there and bathed in it. After the
river, he continued his journey
and saw a mud house, outside
was a line on which clothes hung. He took a trouser and shirt and
wore it. He felt clean and fresh,
but he also felt the first pangs of
hunger since he absconded from
the hospital. He saw a rickety
signpost that read ‘Epetumodo’. He didn’t know where that was,
but he followed the road until he
saw a church, it was a catholic
church. In front of the church was
a long bus, and people were
boarding the bus, Dayo did not ask questions, he lined up too
and got into the bus. Inside the
bus, he smiled at everyone, and
nodded his head at every
question. But after listening to the
conversation of some of the people who conversed in English,
he found out that they were
going on a church retreat in
Oshogbo. His joy knew no
bounds as he thought of going to
look for his Madam Lagos. He planned a way he was going to
look for Madam Lagos, and it was
asking from person to person. The bus journeyed for hours and
finally got to Oshogbo. It was
night by the time the bus reached
Oshogbo, and Dayo decided to
sleep in the church building
where the others would sleep. In the morning, he would go look
for his grandma, madam Lagos. Tania called Skyby and talked
endlessly about teaching Bella a
lesson for using her for her own
selfish agenda. Skyby asked her
what she wanted to do to her,
and Tania told him that she wanted Bella dead. Skyby asked
her if she was sure, many times
that Tania should have been
suspicious, but she replied in the
affirmative. Skyby: “Alright, I will get her for
you, but you will be the one to kill
her yourself” he said. Tania: “Kill her myself, I thought
you would just take care of it” Skyby: “It is you, who knows
how much she has hurt you” Tania: “Alright, alright, I will do it.
When will you be in Lagos?” Skyby: “I will let you know” he
replied and rang off. Tania: “I am going to use you as
much as I can, and then I am
going to dump your ass. I might
have gushed to you, but my heart
lies with my husband, especially
now that I know that he did not deceive me” she said to the
phone. No matter how Gberan tried,
there was no headway in Dayo’s
case, it was like he vanished into
thin air. His mother, Madam Lagos
did not eat or drink, she locked
herself in the guest bedroom, and sometimes at night, her cries of
regret could be heard in the
house. She regretted bringing
Dayo to Lagos, she told herself
she could have taken care of him
in Oshogbo. If she had done that, Dayo would still be with them, she
thought. Even Bella was not at ease since
Dayo disappeared, her curiosity
kept getting the better of her, Ken
was the only one who was happy
and at peace. Even though his
father still did not spend time with him, and scolded him instead, he
was still happy that Dayo was
gone. Bella’s curiosity got her into
the net of Skyby. She was
watching her son do his home
assignment when her phone rang. Skyby: “Meet me and I will tell you
what Tania did to Dayo” he said. Bella: “Who is this?” she asked
and Skyby could hear her fast
breathing. Skyby: “Do as I say, I shall send
you a message, it would contain
the address of where you would
meet me” he said and hung up.
As he had said, a few minutes
later, a text message came into her phone. She read the message
and contemplated within herself if
she should go or not. She
thought of the power that the
piece of information would give
her over Tania and she decided to go. She called the housekeeper
and put Ken in her care before
she drove out of the house. The address was a warehouse on
a deserted part of Tin can Island,
she parked in the bushy path that
led to the warehouse, and
walked the short distance to the
warehouse. As she entered, she met a muscularly built man, it was
Skyby. Skyby: “So you want to know
about Tania?” he asked. Bella: “Of course, what did she do,
did she try to kill Dayo?” she
asked anxiously, as she looked
around the warehouse. There
was an eerie feeling to the place,
like trouble lurked in its shadows. She was too preoccupied with
badgering Skyby for answers,
she didn’t realize that Tania had
walked into the warehouse.
When she decided that Skyby was
not going to tell her what she wanted to know, she turned to
go and stared into the nuzzle of
Tania’s gun. Tania: “My friend Bella, did you
really come to hear my sordid
deeds?” she asked sarcastically.
Bella looked on with fright, her
mouth dried and unable to move
to form words. But one thing was sure in her mind, that she was not
going to leave the warehouse
alive.
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