I had gulped down half a bottle of Hennessy in the presence of Chuks, the hotel manager. But I still wasn't satisfied. He looked at me surprised I was drinking so much. I wanted to empty the bottle.
The man I loved, for whom the world meant something to me, was dead and gone. Ten years of marriage had come to an abrupt end. I sat down trying to imagine how life without him would be like.
"You know he's gone, Chuks? I won't see him again. I won't." I sighed, while taking the bottle again and filling my glass. Chuks came and took the bottle away from me. I tried to stop him but being a man, he overpowered me.
"Sunshine, that is not the way to go. Soon you'll destroy yourself."
"And what do I have left in this world?"
"You still have a family. Your mother and father, you still have them." I slowly shook my head.
"No, I don't. If I had, I wouldn't have gone through all of this."
"What do you mean, Sunshine?" He asked.
"They put me through this. They made me marry this man too quickly. As if they knew all of this would happen."
"Sunshine, it wouldn't be right to blame them for what happened." I looked at the hotel manager telling me my parents couldn't have been responsible for all that happened.
"And who else should I blame?"
"Well think of your late husband and your best friend. Think of his family too. Sunshine by the time you look deeply, you may find a truth much more bitter and horrible. It's why I keep telling you to move on and leave everything behind you."
I had gulped down my drink and felt my head spinning. I couldn't give up now. I wanted more drink. I looked around while breathing heavily. I was getting drunk but managed to lift myself up from the chair. I almost fell but suddenly felt the strong arms of Chuks the hotel manager, gripping me around my waist, preventing me from falling. I stared at him while I kept breathing heavily.
"Sunshine, I think you've had enough. It is better I take you up to your room."
"No! You... you.. don't go there! Nobody goes there, except my husband." He gripped me with both hands and pulled me to him. For once I felt like, it was Ola holding me that way. I wanted to relax my head on his chest and allow him embrace me. But I resisted. I only stared at him.
"Sunshine you are drunk you need to rest. Let me take you to your room." He said.
"No, I can get there on my own. In fact my husband will get angry when he sees you holding me like that." As he slowly removed his arms from around my waist, I was slowly closing my eyes. I guess I was sleepy.
I finally closed my eyes and slept. I woke up to find myself lying on the divan. Chuks had used a bedsheets to cover me. I looked around to see if he was anywhere in the room.
I guess he must had gone out when I slept. I got up and left the private room and went up to my room. On my way up I saw the receptionist and asked her the time. It was 10am in the morning. I guess I had slept a lot. I rushed up to my room and opened it.
As I entered and locked the door, I quickly looked underneath the bed for the bag with the money in it. I had no idea what went on during the time I was asleep. But luckily, it was there. I brought it out and opened it.
The money was there. I heaved a sigh of relief and closed the bag and put it back underneath the bed. I sat down on the edge of the bed and looked around the room. It looked haunted, cold and unfriendly. It wasn't like that when I came here the first time.
But when I heard of Ola's involvement with Kemi, everything around me seemed hostile. I had to leave the hotel. I got up and went to the bathroom and took a shower. When I came out, I packed my bag and placed it on the bed. I wanted to tell Chuks the hotel manager that I was leaving.
Taking my handbag with me, I went down to the reception and asked the receptionist where the manager was.
"Let me call him for you." She replied. She dialed his number and told me he was in his private area. I thanked her and went there. When I knocked and he opened the door for me to come in, he held my hand.
"How are you this morning, Sunshine?" He asked. I looked at him like he had done something wrong; like he had taken advantage of me while I was drunk.
"Don't think for one minute that I took advantage of you Sunshine." He said.
"I have no idea what went on. And besides... " I paused.
"Go on say it, Sunshine. Say whatever you want to say." I closed my eyes as I didn't want to argue with him.
"Okay, okay, that's enough. I have more problems to think of than bothering myself about what happened."
"Nothing happened."
"It's okay Oga Chuks. I only came to inform you I am leaving."
"What?! Sunshine, in this condition?" He asked.
"I have to. I have to find out what happened." His eye widened when I said that. He took my hands and led me to the dining area.
"Let's have breakfast first, okay?" Another breakfast? I still remember it was after the first time we had breakfast together that the revelations started.
What was he going to tell me this time? I quietly obeyed him and took my seat opposite him. We sat down to a quiet breakfast and after that, we went to sit down again on the divan, just like the first time. He got himself a drink and came to sit down again.
"Excuse my bad habit but, as you see, I can't avoid it." He said as he sipped his whisky. I quietly stared at him feeling the urge to have a glass. He quickly understood my intentions.
"You should have see yourself when you were drunk yesterday." He eyed me and winked.
"I guess you've seen it all, haven't you?" I asked him.
"Seen what, your nakedness?" I nodded.
"You are a beauty, and it would have been quite easy. But I'm not that kind of a guy."
"It was quite easy placing your arms around my waist line. So why didn't you take advantage and have me?" I asked. He looked at me and saw the tears that were slowly falling from my eye. He came over and wiped them.
"Sunshine, there must have been a reason why all of this happened. And I can think of only one reason."
"Tell me you know what happened? Tell me you know why he was killed?"
"I can't tell you, because I don't know. What I can tell you is that... "
"That what? You know more than what you are telling me?" He observed me like I was accusing him wrongly.
"I mean, I'm not accusing you of being Involved. Just tell me what else you know." He sighed as he sipped his drink.
"Sunshine generally when such things happen, it might be due to disobedience.
"What do you mean disobedience?"
"He may have taken a warning lightly and it cost him his life."
"He never told me he had problems with anyone... "
"Sunshine I still remember the letter you showed me." He interrupted. "In it he wrote that old scores had turned into new threats." I slowly nodded.
"This might mean he had unfinished business. Some business he tried to settle before he married you. But he couldn't, and brought it into the marriage." I tried to understand what the hotel manager was telling me. Then I remembered the dream again.
"Disobedience. I warned him." I said bending my head. "I warned him."
"Who did you warn, Sunshine?" He asked. I looked up at him undecided if I should tell him about the dream or not. But I had to get it off my chest.
"I had this dream in which I saw him being shot by a woman... "
"A woman?" He asked
"Yes. When I asked him, he denied involvement with any other woman."
"But you've seen the photo of him and your best friend." I laughed, bending my head back on the chair.
"And thinking, he would always tell me to avoid her. He feared she would end up giving me to one of her Alhaji friends." Chuks laughed.
"I guess he was afraid you would really end up with a rich Alhaji like she did."
"So what was he doing with her, when he told me to avoid her?"
"I have no idea. That is unless..." He paused and observed me like he was holding back something.
"Unless what?"
"They knew each other even before you met..."
"Impossible." I shook my head in disagreement, " I disagree with you. Kemi and I were secondary school friends. We were called the twins."
"Well that was then. So many year have passed."
"And so many things have happened." I looked at him. "Oga Chuks what did I do wrong?"
"Nothing. You probably loved the wrong guy. Or the right guy with a past he never wanted to share with you."
"Why? Didn't I have a right to know what that past was?"
"He didn't want to involve you." I sighed.
"Sunshine, forget everything and move on." He pleaded, "leave everything and save your life." I looked at the hotel manager in shock. He was telling me to save my life.
I least expected him to say that. It got me thinking, he could in some ways be involved. If that was the case then perhaps, I was involved in something much bigger than I imagined.
True and like he said, I had to save my life. But from who or from what? I had to find out what was going on. Staying in the hotel wouldn't offer me that possibility. I had to leave. I had decided, I must leave.