The Rise of Damola

Chapter 24- Confrontation

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This chapter contains depictions of bullying and physical abuse as well as strong language. Reader discretion is advised.

"It all started when we got married. I should have noticed all the sounds, the warnings. All those times you would go to sleep and have terrible dreams or wake up with blood soaked sheets. Hell, even the fires," Bunmi sighed.

"Babe," Damola pleaded.

"No! It's my turn now and you will listen. I knew it had to be something but you claimed it wasn't. You kept gaslighting me! I tried to help, Dee. I did but you pushed me away, every single time. Then when Mama came to the house the day of the fires with that lady and her daughter, I lost it. I couldn't imagine you having a child with someone else so I got a paternity test. And turns out it was positive Damola!"

"I can explain...."

"No! Allow me to talk. I have been here listening to you talk about anything and everything. Now it's my turn so let me speak!," she said before taking a deep breath.

"So I found out she was truly your daughter. Damola your blood and I was beyond devastated. In fact what I felt words can't explain Dee. I felt betrayed, used and ashamed. I guess I just thought life would be better without me aka the nuisance so I tried to end it. It was the only solution I could think of to get rid of the excruciating pain I felt once and for all!"

"Baby," Damola cajoled, his eyes flooded with tears.

"Let me speak!," Bunmi commanded once more.

"Habiba said she knew someone that could help with the dreams and so we went to him. Do you know what he revealed to me Damola?!Take a wild guess!"

"He told you about the Oogun owo,"

"Correct! And he also told me about the charm too."

"Ahhh! Bunmi what did you do?!, " Damola bellowed as terror swiftly overtook his face.

"Did you touch it Bunmi?," he asked taking shaky breaths but he was only met with silence.

"Answer me! This is very important!" He barked.

"No. I never had the chance to do anything. God save you I'm not fit to beat you from here I would have drilled seventy shades of sense into you. Why didn't you tell me?!," Bunmi yelled.

"Why should I? I knew you would behave like this after all."

"Well I deserved to know as your wife. We were starting a family together, did you really think you would die with it?, Damola the amount of movies and stories I've heard about this has taught me one thing, these things always come to light and worst of all if they're not done correctly. Do you know the billion and one things that could go wrong?!"

"Oh please save me the preaching. I know okay! I was ashamed for goodness sake. You already had your own perception of me. I was your perfect handsome angel that got delivered in a golden package straight from heaven. How on earth was I supposed to tell you that I was Hades himself! It would have broken you and I just could not do that to you so I kept it under wraps, I had to."

"Well you did a hell of a job there because I am broken and our marriage would have blown to shit and who knows, maybe it would have gone up in flames taking one of us along with it or both of us and our families too. Hey! Damola oooo!," Bunmi whined as her eyes bored into him.

"Babe I didn't think it was going to be like this, I swear. At that time it was just about getting money and revenge. Then came Rachel, I mean Mirabel and I knew I had to make other girls feel the way she made me feel. Although I am remorseful for breaking their hearts now, at the time I had a different perception of love. I was the man and I did not do all that for one girl, to come and run me over," Damola defended.

"God! Can you hear yourself Damola. Everybody chops breakfast it's just how it is! What made you think you had the power to play with girls? You are not some god! They have hearts, feelings not just flimsy objects to play around with!," she said with a sigh of irritation.

"I know! I realized that a long time ago but the damage had already been done. I felt horrible you know, but that was only after I met you. You changed my view on life and treated me like a human being not like scum or as though you were after my money. I couldn't tell you for exactly that same reason," he stated with a sense of guilt.

"Look Damola, I will not lie and say you are a saint but I want to know and I'll only ask once. What exactly did you do for the money?," Bunmi asked in a level tone.

"Are you sure you want to know? Is this the right place?," the business tycoon questioned, motioning at the camera situated at the edge of the room.

"As much as I don't want to admit, you are right. Hold on," she stated before pressing the button used to call a nurse.

"Yes Ma," said a tall woman with purple scrubs as she came through the door.

"Sorry my dear, this might be an odd request but can we have some privacy," Bunmi appealed looking at the camera and then back at her husband trying to hint the nurse.

The nurse caught on quickly, her mouth suddenly fell open.

"Oh Okay but Ma, Do you think you are strong enough? You just woke up," she inquired as a flush crept on her face.

"Thank you very much for the concern but I think I will be the judge of that. Don't worry," Bunmi answered with a forced smile.

"You're welcome," the nurse said meekly before walking out and closing the door behind her.

"How do we know she's going to fall for it?," Damola asked.

"She looks like a hopeless Romantic. I'm sure she will take the bait and even if she doesn't, I know a guy," Bunmi revealed confidently. I

"Even on this sick bed, you don't seize to amaze me," Damola expressed clearly marveled.

"Okay so should I answer now?," Damola questioned.

"Whenever you're ready," Bunmi replied staring intently at her husband.

"Okay so I'm sure you remember what I said about my rough childhood," he began, then waited a few seconds for a reaction before proceeding.

She nodded.

"Well, it was the watered down version. The real story is much more gruesome, but here it is! I used to get laughed at and bullied countless times by almost everyone. I mean every single day, wherever I went, nowhere was safe for me. There was this group of boys, they called themselves the S-4; Tayo, Alabi, Garba, Dosunmu and Ajayi."

"Wait Ajayi your best man?," Bunmi asked as she connected the dots.

A muscle in Damola's jaw twitched.
"Yes, that Ajayi and no interrupting!," he snapped.

"Right, okay," she muttered.

"They would humiliate me every chance they got. Trip me purposely during break or steal my lunch which was half a loaf of stale bread, sometimes it wasn't even up to half and they would do all this knowing fully well that I couldn't afford to eat anything else. They all knew of my background and I felt like that alone made me a target.

I was about eight when they began to notice me. I would often come to school looking scruffy with no shoes and you could just imagine the name calling. They would cover their noses as I passed, throw their drinks or wrappers at me sometimes saliva anything they felt like throwing really.

There was this day, we were all in JSS3 at the time, preparing to write our junior WAEC and one of them took my notebook. I'm sure you are probably thinking 'it's just a book'. Well, if only you knew how much I cried for just that book, how much I begged my parents to give me money to get it, how much I saved cause what they gave me was not enough.

Other people in class had one for every subject but I had only one for everything and they took it without batting an eyelid. At first I did not know who took it but I had a feeling it was with them so I mustered up some courage to walk up and ask them. If only I had known what they had planned, I would have ran the other way and left them with the book rather, I stayed being the silly boy that I was and got handed what they thought I deserved."

"Do you know what they did?," Damola asked as a mixture of sadness and rage clouded his features.