Titi Iku: Until Death (Sequel To Irikuri)

1-Until Reunion

My heart was beating so loud in my chest that it felt like my entire body was vibrating. I couldn't get enough air. That happened a lot those days, so I had learned to deal with it. Let me give some context:

It had been a week since Ade and I eloped at a small chapel in Cape Town South Africa, on June 28th, 2028. The marriage was to avoid the possibility of him being forced to testify if I was tried for Ximenes' murder. He was the sole witness and there was little to no evidence left, so our marriage pretty much guaranteed I would get away with it. Not too long after, I was forced to go to the American embassy to get a new passport. Considering I was a known missing person, that also meant I had to explain everything. I made a few modifications to the story to maintain our innocence because murdering X was only one of many illegal things we had done. The gist of the story was: X had kidnapped me because of my parents and planned to sell me, but became obsessed with me. Then, Ade found out about me and we struck up a friendship which led to us uncovering Ximenes' entire trafficking operation and forwarding proof to news and media outlets. I left out everything else, including breaking into warehouses, burning traphouses down, etcetera, but eventually it became public suspicion that we were definitely the ones to blame for those occurrences whether we did it ourselves or had accomplices. Of course the story launched Ade into the spotlight. Before he had been COO of the richest company on earth and the second richest man on earth, now he was the CEO and richest man on earth. Those benefits also led to a wave of conspiracy theories proposing the idea that Ade had known and worked with Ximenes' enterprise and turned on him to get his things (position, money, assets). Anyways, since Ximenes had no family, Ade was listed as his next of kin and all Ximenes' money went to him. He invested every cent of it and about fifteen billion more dollars of his own in a foundation for victims of trafficking and other human rights violations. While all this happened, he waited with me in South Africa for a week so I could get my passport. That week was a whirlwind of police questioning and stress in general as I struggled to readjust to the world. My one saving grace was that Ade promised to keep my name and involvement out of the press. Organizations such as the FBI had to know because without me there would be gaps in Ade's story, but the fact that I could at least seem like a normal teenager on the outside was the only thing keeping me sane.

Another week later, I was standing on the porch to my front doorstep, trying to breathe. Since I was 18, the police weren't legally obligated to tell my parents where I was, and regardless my case was way above their pay grade so the local department knew nothing about me. I opted to find my parents myself instead of having the police contact them. Ade was in California making up a shit ton of lost time at work, and I was on the other side of the country feeling awfully alone and extremely scared. What do you even say to someone who probably thinks you're dead?

I turned and sat on the porch steps, resting my head in my lap before I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. Down the street, someone familiar was walking to the mailbox. I stood and began to walk towards the house, uncertain if it was the person I thought it was. Her thick thighs jiggled in her leggings as she walked to the mailbox with a bonnet framing her round face. She looked up and when her dark eyes met mine, we both lost it. I sprinted towards her with tears streaming down my face as she did the same. We met in the middle, holding onto each other for dear life.

"Oh my god Asante. I don't think I've ever been more happy to see anyone in my life." I was so muffled through my sobs that I wasn't sure if she heard what I said, we were both sobbing uncontrollably and loudly.

"Nkiruka...I don't even have words...Is this real life? My best friend is back? Everyone thought that you were dead but I could feel it in my soul. I love you so so much. You don't understand how much I missed you. Oh my god I know you hate hugging, I'll let you go now, I'm sorry."

"No, no, it's fine. Just this once, hug me tighter. I love you too."

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Hand in hand, Asante and I approached my front door. I finally let go, waving goodbye to her, and mustered the courage to knock. I could've opened it by voice command, I was sure my voice was still saved in the system, but I almost felt like a stranger now. The door cracked open and my younger sister's face contorted into one of shock. She crumbled to the floor sobbing and I gathered her in my arms. One by one the remaining members of my family came to check what was wrong and joined us, sobbing on the floor. I could never tell you how long we spent on the floor crying and hugging and kissing and praying, but by the time we pulled ourselves together it had become dark outside. I told my parents everything excluding my marriage and most of the illegal shit. Basically the same story we told the police.

That night we ate all my favorite foods, my mother and father told me every second that they missed me and loved me. Deep down, a part of me felt cautious because I didn't know how long it would last. I wondered what type of person I'd be if they had given me 1/100th of this affection and affirmation growing up. I had always assumed that our family just wasn't capable of open affection, but I realized I had no problem with it when I was with Ade, and my parents had no problem with it now. It actually felt....nice. I had deprived myself of this feeling for so many years. I could never do that again. Another realization settled on me like a ton of bricks, I was not the same person. For better or worse, I was both hardened and softened from the past month. I had killed a man. Yes, he was my kidnapper and abuser, but a man no less. I had killed other men too, but those deaths my conscience could excuse as being for the common good. To save the trafficked. But Ximenes? That was personal. It changed me. Just knowing I was capable of what I did changed me. I would never be the same. However, my desperation during X's reign of terror led me to truly accept love and affection for the first time. My stupid ass had fallen in love. I had experienced two things I thought I would probably never experience, all in the span of a month. I had learned what it feels like to kill a man, and what it feels like to fall in love. The girl my parents knew was long gone, and I felt anxiousness bubble in my chest as I worried they wouldn't like the person I had become.