The Silence Within

Chapter 7

The week rolled by faster than Lola wished for. Before she knew it, it was Friday, a day she dreaded the most for the first time. Her grandmother had not allow her go to work. She had said she needed to stay in the kitchen with the cooks in order to supervise the cooking. Lola knew where that would lead to. When the guests talk about how delicious the food is, her grandmother would comment and praise her for the good cooking. But it was a lie. She does not know how to cook. It was something her mother never took serious when they were growing up. In fact, she would say she knows nothing about household chores. She had grown up with maids who did everything from cleaning to cooking. After grumbling, complaining, a series of sweet words and sweet smile from Rebecca and almost screaming due to frustration into her Euro size pillow, she stayed back home.

They lived in a storey mansion located in Ikoyi. It was owned by their father with one of the best and unique architecture that made it stand out among other houses. It was surrounded by trees, sea of green grasses including a garden that had always been tended to by gardeners. There were lot of bedrooms with each child having theirs except Taiwo and Kehinde who had chosen to stay in the same room. Everyone had their bedrooms decorated to their taste irrespective of what they wanted. It was one of the perks of being a billionaire's grandchild. The security was tight with guards and security cameras everywhere. The fence was not the kind to scale through. It was high, more than twelve feet with electric barb wires. They had maids at their service, ready to work and put everything in order. The maid had their uniform. An ankara sown into a knee length gown and the male servants wore buba and trousers. Very traditional.

The mansion had a well-equipped gym, a ball room, and five sitting rooms which vary in size and uses. There was a living room for private meetings, one which their father uses when he has meetings at home. At the back, was an outdoor pool, built on a plot and half. Inside, there was an indoor pool. Behind the house, water passed through making it possible to have the yachts parked there and watched by guards.

The maids had gotten into motion to make the house sparkling clean. Windows were wipes, floors were bleached, the curtains were changed, crystal master pieces glistened and the surroundings were trimmed and scoured to perfection.

While the preparation went on, one person was displeased, Cynthia. She had no choice but to give in. She does not know where this was leading to but she had a very bad feeling about this expected guests' visitation. The night before when her husband had come to see her before going to bed, she had tabled her problem down.

Nearly a decade ago, Cynthia and Richard stopped sharing beds and bedrooms. That was how bad their marriage had turned out to be. He cheated on her. He betrayed her and broke the trust she had for him. It left their marriage feeble. Days rolled by with arguments that made the children scared. He was not resentful which hurt her the most. She was a rich and successful woman who does not need her husband's money for any reason but she yearned for one thing throughout that time, the man she fell in love with, not the one she had grown to loathe. She wanted to leave but she knew the effect of a broken home on children. With no choice, she stayed back for her children but Richard can't say a word without getting rebuffed. They argue and fight and virtually everything and most times, they barely talk to each other.

Sarah rushed out of her room, full of worry and fear. Her best friend was missing. She had left Daisy on the bed to get something that would keep her mouth busy from the kitchen. Sarah returned back to the room to find Daisy missing.

"Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!" She yelled out, eyes searching the hallway. She heard no sound that's familiar to Daisy's and caught no sight of her. Her heart sank, apprehension intensifying. Where can she be?

Music, loud rock and roll, rang from the walls of one of the rooms. She turned her attention to the room then rushed to the door.

"Sarah!" Samson shouted, the loud music halting. "Why will you barge into my room like that?"