Sitting opposite Kemi and looking defiantly at her, I thought about my life and the people surrounding me and how in their various ways they were influencing me. Kemi as I had come to realize, wasn't sincere with me right from the start.
And here I was sitting opposite her trying to figure out in what direction she was about to take me.
"Kemi, if I knew anything, I wouldn't be here looking for answers." I replied after the brief pause between us.
"So what made you finally conclude I am the one who had a child for him?"
"You tell me what you had with him. I've asked enough questions to know, I won't get answers." She sighed in response and bent her head. I didn't remove my gaze from her and when she looked up again, she blinked.
"We met at a party years back. He had come with a woman whom I believe was his girlfriend back then. I was there alone. But from where he was sitting, he kept glancing at me." She blinked making me doubt her story a bit, but I listened as she talked.
"Later on while the party was in full swing, he came up to me and asked if I wanted to dance with him. I ignored him but after that day, we met again and he was alone. We talked a bit and that was when he asked if I would like to be his girlfriend."
"And you agreed, right?" I asked nodding. She didn't answer but only stared at me. Then she started talking.
"Yes, actually I agreed, but that was it. I mean, the relationship never took off. I kept wondering why, and that was when I found out that the same woman he came to the party with, was his girlfriend. And in fact, he had even planned on marrying her."
" You didn't ask questions before you accepted to get involved with, did you?"
"I mean I was attracted to him so much it never crossed my mind to ask."
"You gave in to his good looks, perhaps. So you didn't care much about asking questions." I said laughing.
"And what's so funny, Tola?"
"Here you are telling me, you want to know what made me decide to marry him. Now you have the answer."
"Well I didn't go beyond simple friendship. You tied the knot with him." She said. I stopped laughing and gave her a serious look.
"So you then planned a revenge party which lead to his death, right?"
"Tola, even if I wanted too, I wouldn't have been able to do it. That's why I decided to leave the country."
"Yes but you came back."
"And so, what does that mean?
"You waited all these years to hatch out a decent foolproof plan."
"Tola, I am not a criminal. So stop painting me like one, okay?!" she shouted.
"So what are you saying, that you came back when you heard he was with me? I mean surely you must have forgotten me after all these years." I asked.
"I should have but I never did. And that's because...," she paused again. "That woman in the picture, Nancy, and I became friends. Even when I traveled out we were still in touch." At the mention of Nancy's name my eyes widened. So Nancy was there right from the beginning? I asked myself. I was awestruck by this revelation.
"So Nancy knew about the two of you?" I asked still unable to digest the fact.
"Nancy and Ola are much like family. They grew up in the same area and both families were very good friends. So Nancy knows more about Ola than any other person." I was worried as I couldn't quite understand the role Nancy played. But it led me to question her reason for traveling.
"Is that why she traveled out? And is that why you came back?" I asked. Kemi giggled.
"What?" I asked, seeing her giggle, "I mean, surely she must have known you were planning something. She must have know Ola was about to be killed." I added.
"No, Tola?!" She shouted much to my surprise. "She didn't have anything to do with his death if that's what you are insinuating."
"Well she must have known something was about to happen."
"Okay look, before you got married she called me and told me she was worried you were getting married to him. So I asked her why and she said she feared Ola was making a mistake, but that he had no control over the decision to marry you."
"And why was she worried if she encouraged me, even when I told her I wasn't ready for such a responsibility?"
"She told me it was the wish of both fathers. Because she sat down with the two men while they were deciding on making sure both of you got married. She told me how you went back to the veranda with Ola the second time. That was because they knew the first time, Ola was about to tell them it was over between the two of you."
My eyes widened at this revelation such that the whole story was already starting to confuse me. I couldn't tell who was involved in making this tragedy work out perfectly well. I only knew that every person close to me had contributed one way or the other, in making it happen.
I sighed as everything I had heard up till this point, didn't answer the one question that was foremost on my mind; who killed Ola and why? And while I sat opposite Kemi, I kept wondering how both my father and Ola's father knew Ola had decided to end our relationship.
"Tola don't think I came back to take revenge. I only came back because when Nancy told me you got married to him, I had to do something."
"What?" I asked more surprised than ever.
"Yes, I came back because of you." She said nodding. "Why? Because if it was the father's wish that both of you got married, it left a woman who had a son for him out of the picture."
"So his son's mother perhaps arranged for him to get killed, right? Or perhaps he wasn't the target." I said, now certain that I was.
"Are you saying you might have been the target?" Kemi asked
"Perhaps. I mean a woman being denied that right to tie the knot could end up becoming a monster. Or like your friend, a bulldog." I looked up to see the menacing stare of the man Kemi had told me was her bodyguard. Kemi noticed his presence and got up to talk to him.
After they finished talking he looked at me and walked out of the front door.
"Kemi how can you keep someone like him around you?"
"Why what is wrong with him?"
"Dis na bulldog, now. Make am vex and he go chop you and nothing go remain for your body." Kemi laughed
"Don't laugh because I'm still struggling with the loss of Ola."
"So what are you saying I should terminate his appointment?"
"But why do you need him in the first place?" With that her face saddened again. She looked up and down and then looked at me.
"You know Tola, I used to go with Ola to this hotel because he was under pressure and he wanted to talk to some..., "
"My God, Kemi? So you were really doing things behind my back." I interrupted her.
"Listen, this may be the only time I will ever get the chance to tell you anything, okay? So listen." I kept my silence when she said that.
"Your husband was under pressure to leave you and settle down with that woman. You know what he told me? He said it's the first time he's found something unique and feels he may not enjoy it if the threats continue."
I opened my mouth in shock. Who was putting so much pressure on him? And why did he choose to settle it on his own?
"I told him if it gets so bad, I could help him tell you. But he said it was his responsibility to tell you by himself. I think that is why he told me not to come to your house anymore.
The time we spent at the hotel was the time I tried to convince him to tell you. When he kept saying no, I told him I would tell you myself. Shortly after, we had a quarrel and that is when he told me that he already had a son by that woman."
I realized that what the hotel manager told me and the story she was telling me coincided a bit. I kept listening as she continued to talk.
"He left the hotel room angrily and that's when I picked up the phone to tell you to meet me at my place so we could go shopping."
"I got to your house and the gate man told me you had just gone out." I said
"Well it's what I told him, but I was actually at the hotel. I had to see you and tell you what was going on. Then just as I was preparing to leave, some armed men came and dragged me out of the hotel."
The hotel manager was right about her being dragged out. She had just confirmed it. But something didn't make sense here. I had to ask her why the gunmen came after her.
"Kemi why did the gunmen come after you?" Kemi had a thoughtful look when I asked her that question. It seemed she had no idea who had sent them to her.
"Tola to be sincere, I don't know. All I know is I was dragged out, blind-folded and taken to an unknown location, until I was released."
"I saw Nancy on the news. She was head of the operation that released you." She nodded.
"It's why I told you not to look further. I saved your life once, you may not have a second chance." Fear suddenly gripped me hearing those words. It looked like someone was after me. Someone, whose only reason perhaps, could be that I had taken away what belonged to them-Ola. But who could that person be?