The restaurant was packed full with the upper class of the city. There was a chandelier that was suspended from the artfully decorated ceiling, lighting up the painstakingly made up faces of the women who were all dressed to kill. Elegantly dressed, handsome waiters and waitresses glided from table to table with heaped trolleys of the best food money could buy on the Lagos Island, depositing their burden on the tables of the patrons and their painted trophy women who would have to pay a hefty sum for whatever food they had chosen to eat there.
The swinging doors of the entrance opened, and two women stepped in, and for a moment, the air around the room seemed to cease for moment. Adamma looked breathtaking, dressed in a light brown sheath dress that accentuated the color of her eyes and dramatically heightened the lightness of her skin, showed off the shocking blackness of her hair which hung down to her slim shoulders in artful disarray. Her eyebrows hung in a full arch above her wide, light brown, luminous eyes which had been touched up with frosty dark eye makeup; her lips was outlined in red, a color that went with the thigh-length Jimmy Choo boots which she wore, and her leather Prada clutch bag.
Beside her stood Amanda who had assembled herself into an all-grey ensemble that looked breathtaking on her and which she'd worn to show off her new toned body which she'd gotten after five weeks of grueling physical punishment her fitness trainer had doled out to her after the birth of her latest baby. She looked lovely, though she paled into insignificance beside Adamma who seemed to radiate some kind of inner light that rendered her so ethereal and magical and had the richest men falling over themselves to please her.
The two women moved to their reserved table, with all eyes following their progress, and Obinna watched them too. He just couldn't stop himself; she was too beautiful, too magically irresistible for him not to look at her. In his own twisted way he was very proud of her and all that she had achieved for herself. He watched her sit down with her friend and flash a dazzling smile to the older couple who were seated to their left. They ordered their food, and Obinna waited for a few minutes for them to get settled before he downed his glass of wine, stood up, and then went over to their table. As he pulled up a chair to sit on, he was aware of the fact that the two women who had been chattering away like schoolgirls on a lunch break had shut their mouths up.
'Hello, ladies,' he said in greeting, and with a flourish he signaled a waiter and placed an order for a plate of crab soup. He looked straight into his wife's eyes and smiled at her, and he was lost for a moment in those shocking, mesmerizing eyes that had trapped him forever when they had held him in their depths all those countless years ago.
There was no emotion there, no shock that he had disrupted the meal between two close friends all simply because of the fact that he wanted to see his wife who had sworn to be completely inaccessible when she was needed. He realized with a pang that tonight was the very first time he was seeing her in a very long time; she had only dominated his thoughts and his mind due to the fact that her face was everywhere, that beautiful, devilish face that had sworn to haunt him forever.
Adamma smiled at him after they had held each other's gaze for very long moments, to the exclusion of every other thing that were around them. At that moment, when their eyes had locked together, it was as if electricity had swept over her at the sight of this handsome, impossible man. A lot of feelings had swept over at the sight of him, but they had all been too brief for her to be able to analyze them fully as they had flashed through her mind. And then came the avalanche of questions: what was he doing here? How did he know that she was going to be there? But there was something about him now . . . what was it?
'Darling, what a surprise,' she said in her best hostess voice. She was not a public figure for nothing; she knew how to work a room, and she was not going to give these hawks who were all straining their stupid necks to hear her conversation between her and the man she'd separated herself from the satisfaction of seeing her fall apart. Oh no, that would make the frontline news of the early editions of tomorrow. So, the charm had to be there.
'I decided to surprise you by coming out here since you had made yourself unavailable to me,' Obinna said slowly. He turned to Amanda. 'You look lovely, dear, and congrats on your new baby boy. I hope you love the little toy I sent to you.'
The woman's eyes lit up. 'Love the little toy? My God! It was magnificent. Thanks for that; I never got the chance to call you and personally thank you but it was magnificent.'
Adamma watched this exchange with a small smile of contempt for her husband since she knew that he was trying to use the over-active emotions of her closest friend and spy on her, but she'd seen through the ploy. She was no fool.
'What do you want?' she asked him succinctly, though she still kept her voice pitched very low, as if she talking to an intimate lover. And he was indeed the intimate lover that she had, one that she loved more than anything else in the world.
Amanda almost choked on the glass of water she had raised to her lips. 'Adamma, don't be silly, please. We are having dinner.' Her eyes were imploring.
A muscle in the jaws of the singer twitched, and though she'd seen the look of plea, she had no intention of paying any heed to it. 'I am not eating dinner,' she said coldly.
'Yes, obviously you're not eating anything,' Obinna said as he looked down into the plate of fresh green salad she was eating without any mayonnaise, and the plate of water melons beside it in distaste. 'You're right, darling, you're not eating anything if what I see in your plate is anything to go by. If I were to start eating the way you do, then I will be dead by now.'
'Then die, you bloody bitch,' the singer hissed at him in a very low voice that wasn't meant to be heard outside their table. But she was still smiling at him with the forced sweetness of a cat trying to befriend a mouse before it moved in for the kill. 'First, you come stalking me here just to see me_'
'That's ridiculous,' Amanda interrupted in annoyance. 'He was not stalking you; this meeting here was just a coincidence.'
Adamma looked so furious Obinna was almost afraid that either her stunning face peeled off with the force of her vicious anger, or that she would hurl that horrible plate of healthy nothing she was eating straight at his face_ she had done it to him once upon a time right in the middle of the both of them having sex and then had sent him flying out of the room with her bare hands and then slammed the door shut and slid the bolt in place.
Though, on that occasion she had made it up to him the following day by saturating his privates with cream and licking off every drop before they had gotten into bed and had sex the whole day. He almost smiled just to think of it, but now he knew that it would never happen to him if he were to pander to the extent of making her to haul the plate of her food at his face.
'He was stalking me,' Adamma said in a dangerously low voice. Her face was hardening the more, and she looked changed, with her eyes flashing with the force of her emotions. 'First, you had to refuse to give the money I had politely asked you for to the young woman I had sent over to you.'
'I think you meant bimbo,' Obinna said with a low chuckle. 'The bitch had such a full chest that I was almost unable to see what she had for a face. Her legs were too long, her skirt too impossibly tight and stretched over her ass it looked almost painted on. Then there was the fact that she looked just like a hooker who had run away from a nightclub without her clothes on, what with all that massive, expensive virgin Brazilian hair she'd sewed on to her scalp in the name of looking trendy and fashionable.'
'For your information, Isabella is a highly paid underwear model and one of the backup dancers I lined up for my new dance video,' Adamma snapped, her voice deadpan. 'And I knew you would be very difficult, so I sent her there to seduce you and fuck you senseless so that you could fork over the money I need for the project I'm working on.'
Obinna had been smiling with satisfaction at the fact that he's bested this impossible woman, but when his wife dropped the bomb about what he'd been expected to do with the stunning bimbo she'd sent over, his smile was wiped so fast, there was no expression left to cover up the ensuing blankness. The shock wave that swept through him rendered him momentarily speechless, and beside him, he could feel the other woman freezing up with shock that equaled his, her jaws now slack.
'You what?' they demanded simultaneously.
Adamma smiled, and there was a viciousness in her face, an icy coldness and triumph, that rendered her husband shattered. Jesus, he thought, this woman can kill.
She continued, obviously now enjoying herself immensely at his expense. 'From the moment I called you, I knew you would be an impossible jerk to handle so I decided to unleash one of my girls on you. Remember how you used to say that I was a whore? Well, I almost still am because I have a horde of girls, all of them recruited from the streets in the Lagos State University so they can work for me, seducing bitchy men like you and having them bend to my will. It was all too simple, telling her what to do with your silly ass and divulging the information that I was going to be here tonight so you could come and continue making such a fool of yourself. I knew you would never resist the chance to see me again after all we'd been through and_'
'That's enough!' Amanda rasped, though she had to keep her voice low so as not to attract the attention of the other diners who were occasionally stealing glances at their table. 'This is a private conversation between the both of you and it would be stupid for me to listen to you.'
Adamma looked at her so coldly, so icily, that the woman almost shrank back into her chair as she quailed before the devil in Adamma's eyes. The latter said; 'You are not going anywhere. I brought you here so you can witness and see for yourself what a bastard he is and how cruel he can be to me. But if you still want to leave, feel free to do so; then you'll have to find your own way home because you will not enter my car. You won't enter his too because then I will call up your darling husband and then you'll have to tell what you were doing in mu husband's car.'
She smiled as the impact of her words sank in and the woman paled thoroughly under her makeup. 'Good dog. So you'll stay, yes?' She waited. 'I did not hear you, dear. You will stay, yes?'
'Yes.' Amanda had aged by ten years.
Adamma patted her on the thighs. 'That's good.' She turned back to her husband. 'And you; I had to do what I had to do in order to get you here and to give me the money I want.'
Obinna stared back coldly into those haunting, mesmerizing eyes that were boring into him relentlessly. 'No, I will not give you the money you want. It must have been for a good course, but do not think that I approve of your blackmail, so I will not give it to you and nothing will happen.'
'You will give me the money I want, and here's why.' Retrieving her purse from the floor, Adamma pulled out a long brown envelope which had been folded into two and then tossed it in the middle of the table and lifted her spoon, her face now merry. 'Open it, darling. You too, Amanda; you'll both love it. Now please do not disappoint me by not touching the envelopes. I brought them especially for you here today. Enjoy the evidence.' Merrily, she dug into her plate with gusto.
Amanda was the first to lift the envelope and open it to look through the contents. After a few moments she let put a gasp, making Obinna to pick up the envelope and extricate the Polaroid shots that were inside. Then he gasped too and turned shocked eyes of disbelief on his wife who was busy eating her food happily and gulping down her bottle of mineral water as if she had no worries in the world.
There in the shots were pictures of Isabella, the bimbo his wife had turned loose on him; her face looked puffy and swollen; there was blood on her lips, and she looked as if she had been thoroughly abused by a sadist who had beaten her to a pulp. The terrifying part of it was that the pictures appeared to have been taken after the time the young woman had come to see him_ he could tell that particular detail by her dress.
'What is this?' he demanded, only for the stunning woman to look up from her plate and regard him like a person would a mentally handicapped person. Their eyes locked together, and he saw the pure animal predator that lurked in their depths. He knew he was lost.
'What does that look like?' Adamma said patiently, her face lit up by a smile. 'That is the evidence of what you did to my girl. She came to you in my name to seek for the funds which I need to go and do what I have to do for those starving little dears in Tanzania and you battered her to pieces. She admits that you did not rape her but what we have here is a case of aggravated assault and battery with grievous bodily harm which you doled out to a woman who does not deserve it. You are in for a hell of a long ride, baby.'
'This is bullshit!' He banged his hand down on the table, rattling the dishes there, and he felt the warning look from his wife's eyes which seemed to say: easy, darling, we're in the public. 'This is a mere fabrication and you know it!' he hissed, his face leaning forward towards the face of this woman who was an angel-faced she-devil. 'This is sheer crap!'
'I wish I can say it was otherwise,' Adamma retorted, and then she gave a small sigh. 'My dear, you are in serious trouble. Isabella is going to sue you.' She turned her attention to Amanda who looked ready to pass out. 'Would you go and wait for me in the car for a few minutes, dear? I would like to talk to my husband for a few minutes, and then we can go. Thank you.'
Amanda rose to her feet unsteadily, her face almost grey with shock. 'You are a monster!' she hissed at Obi, right before she grabbed her purse and fled for the doors.
Adamma then looked at her estranged husband critically for the first time since they had entered the room. Her face was devoid of feeling, bereft of all emotion. She was deadpan. 'I know this is a shock for you to handle, but now I control you and you shall dance to my tunes like a puppet.'
'You're lying,' Obinna said, though he remained shell-shocked with disbelief that she would go to that length just to get what she wanted from him. 'This is a farce, a sham! I never touched her. I never did anything to her and you know it. How can you just manufacture all these crap and then come here to blackmail me? I thought better of you.'
Adamma laughed mirthlessly at him. 'You never thought any good of me. To you I was just a whore you had married for the fact that I was unfortunate enough and stupid enough to have borne your children. You thought very poorly of me. I could see the way you looked at me_'
'With desire,' Obi broke in desperately.
'And there was disgust there too, you fucking bitch. You had that look on your face, and the times the look was there was when you watched me sleep sometimes; or rather, when I pretended to be asleep while you watched me with those rich playboy eyes of yours which could never hide anything from me. You hated me, and staying with you was oppressive and boring. Now, you've gotten one of my girls beaten up mercilessly when you did your sadistic crap on her, and she is going to file charges against you tomorrow. Get ready to face the music when her lawyer calls on you.
'And please do not tell me that you are innocent, for that is the most used rule in the book. Thank God she said she has a recorded tape of what you did to her; about how she had pleaded and pleaded with you to let her go, that she was just a girl trying to make a living and work her way through the university, but you were brutal. It saddens me terribly to hear what you had done to that beautiful girl. Now, you shall pay for it.' She emphasized the last four words by jabbing her fingers into the air in front of his face, and there was a look on her face that spelt out war clearly.
And that was when Obinna knew that he was a dead man. He sat there as if thunderstruck, his mind reeling with shock, his brain struggling to work out the details of exactly what had transpired between him and the girl who had come on to him at his office and whom he had been so amenable to that he had foolishly entertained. That was when he knew that he was in serious trouble, that this fucking wife of his had played him like a useless puppet, that she had him now firmly by the balls. At first he had thought that they were playing a game and he was the master of the game, but now he knew that he was nobody in this deadly game of life and death he was playing with his wife and that she was the one that held all the aces. She was the owner of the game, and he was just a small inconsequential player who had no say in the matter.
A waiter stopped before their table and out down a plate of fruit salad, a unique mixture which Adamma used to prepare for him and call her secret recipe when they were still together. He used to love the dish, but the sight of it now, after all these long months of battle, sickened him and he wanted nothing more than to throw up into Adamma's sheath dress and slap her senseless. But he dared not do that; he knew now that she was an opponent he could not easily best in this game.
'Here's your dessert,' Adamma told him. 'I had the house prepare it especially for you, darling. I hope you like it.' She smiled at him. I hope you choke on it, you beast. 'And for now, I have to go.' She was already on her feet, all set and ready to go. 'Oh, but before I leave here tonight, I have a parting shot for you.' She withdrew a small tape recorder from her purse and kept it on the table before Obi. 'Listen to this when you get home, dear. I will be in touch with you soon. But until then, do not do anything stupid you may regret. By the way, the bill for my dinner and the takeaway bag I will leave here with are on you. I hope you don't mind that terribly.' She bent forward and brushed her lips on his left cheek.