Aeipathy ➳ Normani ✓

twenty-two

None of that bothered her for that night because she'd had the most magical time with Ifeka earlier that afternoon.

She was glad she'd listened to Normani and Joseph and had taken a few hours off from her chores to see him.

They'd met at the market place and he'd come bearing great news, "Ife'm, I've made enough money to get my own place. Soon, I will make enough money to support the both of us, sha, and I can finally marry you. We will be happy."

He'd said it with his larger than life smile and she'd allowed herself to be whisked away by the charm of such a dream and it had filled her with an indescribable joy.

Ayoola loved Ifeka with a desperate type of love - the kind that held on with both hands and prayed for the best.

Ifeka was the first person that had showed her what it meant to have love be the driving force of all one's actions. Even though she didn't think she'd ever be free from Madam Ikande's clutches, it was nice to dream about a happy little home with Ifeka and their future children. They'd find a way to make ends meet with the little that they had and it would be blissful.

She was sprawled on her bed, deeply dreaming about the man she so loved when the lights of her room flicked on. She sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. When her vision came into focus, her heart seized in fear.

"Madam?" she mumbled and sat up straighter. Mrs Ikande was standing at her door, staring down at her with a look that could bury live humans into the ground within seconds.

She rubbed at her cheek and cringed when she felt wetness there and quickly wiped away the drool before Madam could chastise her for it.

Madam Ikande was dressed in a night dress and wrapper, her hair was wrapped in a silk headscarf and she wore her expensive blue silk slippers.

Ayoola wondered what was so amiss that it had to be addressed so late into the night. She couldn't help the gnawing fear that began to grow in her belly.

"Come with me," she said.

Ayoola bounded out of the bed and followed Madam Ikande on unsteady legs all the way into the kitchen.

Had Madam Ikande found out about Ifeka? If she had, her life was well and truly over.

Madam Ikande had told her years before that if she'd ever found out she had a boyfriend or if she'd ever brought any friends into the compound, they'd be hell to pay. Madam had never been the type to play around with threats. The woman meant business, Ayoola knew first hand.

"Sit down, Ayoola," Madam Ikande said and Ayoola obliged and slinked into a bar stool.

"What do you know about that American girl?"

"Miss Normani?" she asked.

"Are you stupid? What other American girl could you possibly know?"

"I'm sorry, Madam," Ayoola replied.

"Tell me what you know." Her tone was demanding and angry and Ayoola wished that the ground would swallow her whole so that she didn't have to be there in that kitchen and with that woman.

"I don't know anything, Madam."

The harsh glare of the kitchen lights made Ayoola uncomfortable and she fidgeted with her hands.

"You mean to tell me you've been serving that girl, wearing her clothes and going shopping with her and not picking up anything about her?"

"Anything like what, Madam?"

"She is a lazy American girl with poor work ethics who spends her days dancing on stages half naked with other men - all this foolishness and you mean to tell me that she isn't perverse in other ways?"