Melissa

hm.

Melissa

She still couldn't believe that her father was coming to meet her. She sighed when her thoughts crash landed and brought her back to reality.

At the moment, she was supposed to be cleaning but she regretted allowing her muddled brain to switch off when Dami was giving out instructions the previous day because she was now trying to assume where she was supposed to be situated.

Which explain why she was in Agnes's office acting like she was supposed to be here. If her guess we're correct, when you add facts like Agnes dropping obvious clues for her to follow, then she was in the right place.

Her thoughts drifted to the fact that her father was coming to meet her the following day. And how her mother have been acting weird since the revelation of her parentage.

She didn't understand why parents tend to underestimate their children that when those children do something great said parents are either surprised or... surprised.

For crying out loud, Susanna had called Agnes grandmother the day they'd first arrived at this house. If she hadn't latch onto that one clue she should have dismissed she won't be where she is in her investigation.

She sighed as she sulked. She was the only one in Agnes's office and she didn't know what she should be doing. Her eyes did a sweep of the entire room
Agnes had hinted that she could find something in either her room or office if she looked hard enough.

But before someone would look for something the person would have to have a clear vision of what the hell they're looking for. She could get into trouble if someone should just barge into the room to find her rummaging through Agnes's things and if she should lock the door, it'll raise suspicions on what she was doing in Agnes's office.

Some Nigerians tend to be fetish towards an explanation with no evidence to back it. So, they'd assume she'd gone to plant some bad juju to get at the sweet, sly woman.

So she needed to hurry because she knows that Dami would soon invite someone who'd disrupt the peace and quiet she's grown fond off in sort a short while.

She walked towards the woman's shelf.

"Wow." She gasped as she looked at the old books laying there on his shelves.

Looking through the ends of the books. She stumbled upon one that looked too similar to the one she'd seen in the storeroom she'd nearly finished- the photo books.

She didn't remove it from its position, instead she just took note of where it's settled.

Why?

Because where she wanted to hide the book was the cleaning cart, and she and whoever was her partner had yet to rummage the cart.

She knew this room was one of the few ones that didn't have cameras. This room, Agnes's room and the storeroom, well this room and Agnes's bedroom because she's the master of the house and her decision is final then the storeoom because it was new and cameras hadn't been installed. She picked the book, quietly walking to Agnes's table, tucked it in one of her table's drawers.

She'd just stood and relaxed into her standing position in the center of the room when the door opened to reveal Karen. She looked at Karen with mock tiredness that lasted a blink before it was gone.

"What are we meant to do?" She asked the lady whom she'd been suspicious of since she came here.

"Clean" Karen deadpan.

She said nothing as she dug into her fingers into the fingers of the gloves and began cleaning. Good thing her father was coming tomorrow to take her away- after she was through searching through the pages of that photo book.

***

They'd just finished and she had put the photobook as inconspicuously as possible in her cart.

Who was she deceiving?

The moment Karen left the room for a nanosecond she slipped it in. Then purposely left her bucket of water in the room for when she'd return the photo book.

She sat behind one of the many shelves in the storeroom before she opened the book. With a dried up but functioning gloves.

For some reasons, Dami demanded they were gloves when using their "filthy" hands to handle the madam's things which came in her favour with the ancient looking book in her hands. She opened the pages slowly.

She saw a picture of Agnes's wedding. A family photo- one that included Ebube and Elvis.

'So Adekunle knew of them' She thought as she continued flipping pages. Through the children photo then to each of them graduating from high school, then through university.

Until marriage.

Recalling what those guards- Richard and Olise had told her more than two weeks ago about one of the sons marrying twice. And she saw the first wife of... Francis.

Francis was the first child- not Thomas.
She looked shocked but she didn't have time to reel from it. She safely dropped it on the floor and took a picture with her phone. Then she turned to the next and took a picture of his second wife who looked more his age than the first wife.

She flipped through and found the marriage of the other three. It seemed that Agnes made it her deal to find a wedding photo of Ebube.

Then the grandchildren. Taking in their ages, they were all older than her by the date written at the end of each page.

She froze when she saw the one of hers. With Susanna holding her in her hands, a small smile tugged her lips.

Sadly enough, she didn't see a picture of her father in the photo book till she reached the ending. Because written in it was a statement that she'd carry with her.

'In here is the picture of a man who chose duties over heart'

***

She dropped the book safely at its original position before she went to her bucket of water.

"What are you doing here?" A voice asked in a poor attempt to scare her. She looked at Karen.

She'd been expecting the twenty something years old girl to jump at her since they started cleaning. It was almost like Karen was waiting for her to slip but would she?

She rolled her eyes but said nothing as she picked up a bucket by the table.

"Oh" Karen said.

She quietly thanked God because if Karen had barged in a second earlier then they would be in a complicated twist of things. She placed the bucket in her cart then wheeled it downstairs to dispose and place the items of cleaning where they were supposed to be.

"Why do you do that?" Karen asked.

She said nothing because she knew that Karen, judging from her voice, was a lady on a mission that will fail.

"Why do you treat me and every other maid like we're stupid? I thought Suliat was just being her usual self but even I have noticed." Karen asked.

'Ugh, spare me the whining woman' She thought irritatedly but breathed quickly to dispel her raging thoughts that that photo book had elicited.

"Okay" She said instead which rendered Karen confused.

"You asked me a question but I don't have to answer it." She explained dismissively mentally shutting the whiney female's noise and concentrating on her breathing and her work.

She went outside to pour the water away when she realised that Karen was still following her. She gave a small inaudible sigh but held back a grunt when a hand grabbed her shoulder roughly and turned her around.

She bristled at her guts but her expression remains impassive.