Lady K
"Mtchew"
You could hear his hiss even if you stood at the other end of the big hospital room. The VIP room at the hospital was loaded and had the most comfortable bed ever but still, Jeremiah was really good at showing his discomfort. He hated hospitals and he hated the fact that he couldn't leave the most. It had barely been twenty four hours since he opened his eyes but he was already acting like he hadn't just left the operating room. He had woken up really early to stare at his phone all day and plan on how to quicken his discharge. He couldn't wait to be out of that place, to be back to his life.
Knowing about the updates on Kora's arrest was the first thing that came to his mind when he woke up. Kingsley made sure he got all the information he needed and it gladdened his heart to know Kora was released from the NDLEA. Now he just wanted to see her but he wasn't allowed to leave yet. His father had made sure there were security guards surrounding the hospital. He could already see some of their shadows whenever someone opened the door or got out so escaping wasn't really in his favor. Kora wasn't the only thing on his mind. His mother was too.
He was really worried about her. He might have managed to lie to everyone about how he got the wound but he was almost sure they were able to guess who had stitched him up. He was going insane sitting in that bed, in that horrible hospital bed and just staring into his phone hoping one of them at least called him even though he knew it was close to impossible. He exhaled and dropped his phone slowly, turning his gaze to the far end of the room where Emmanuel was sitting with his legs crossed and his eyes glued into his papers. Of course his father was going to leave Emmanuel in charge of baby sitting him. He always did.
"Anyone that sees you staring at me the way you are is going to get the wrong idea." He said, his eyes still focused in the paper. That was the thing with Manny. He wasn't called the four eyes ripper for nothing. All the bodyguards owned by Benoil were properly trained for stuffs like that.
Jeremiah exhaled.
"Are you going to sit here babysitting me all day?" He had to ask. "Don't you have anything else you'd like to do?"
Manny raised his gaze from his papers slowly. He shook his head.
"Not really." He told him. "I'm free till twelve."
The door opened slowly and it caused both of them to give it their attention just as Natalie walked in slowly, leaving the door open behind her. She had a huge smile on her face, a bright smile. Jeremiah looked at her for a long second.
"Jerry," she started. "There's someone here to see you."
To see him? Jeremiah blinked twice. He didn't understand why Natalie would have to announce anyone's visit to him. He hoped she explained better but instead she just stood out of the way, away from the door so Obianuju could walk in with the basket in her hands. Jeremiah's frown got worse. More like surprise.
"M-mum?"
He had no idea how those words escaped from his mouth. How on earth was that possible? How was his mother there? There was no way his family was ever going to let her appear in front of him so easily. Was he seeing things?
He didn't think so especially since she began to make her way to him with a huge smile on her face, holding on tightly to the basket. It had been a long while since he had seen her smile so brightly. What on earth was this mirage? But it wasn't a mirage. He wasn't seeing things. It felt so real.
"Jidenna." She called his name as she got to stand beside him at the bed.
"Mum." He whispered her name, staring into her eyes.
Natalie signaled Manny. She knew they both needed their personal space especially since it might be the last day they were ever going to see each other. Manny understood. He stood up slowly and wrapped the papers, leaving the room with Natalie without Jeremiah even noticing. They shut the door after them.
"It's a good thing I came on time." Jeremiah watched as she walked to the corner of the bed and picked up the bed table the moment she dropped the basket on the tall locker beside him. She opened it and placed it across him. "Natalie told me you had not eaten all morning."
She reached for the basket and then started to empty the tiny dishes in it on the table.
"I made all your favorites." Jeremiah froze as he buried his gaze on all that food in front of him. "Jollof rice, grilled turkey and coles law, yam and egg sauce, oha soup and pounded yam, and then yam pepper soup for your appetizer." She opened all the six dishes one after the other and boy did they smell so good. It was just as he always remembered.
"You still like them don't you?"
He slowly raised his head to look at her. How was he supposed to eat all that? What was going on? What had come over her? Was this a dream? Was he dreaming?
"Oh I forgot the spoons." She turned to the basket again and in a second, she got out a spoon.
"Mum,"
"Here." She placed it on the table, neatly and then exhaled. She forced a smile on her pale lips. "Phew. I had to wake up really early to get this together. You better eat them before they get cold."
Jeremiah turned back to the foods. He was having a hard time believing all that was happening in front of him.
"What?" She asked him with a glaring look of surprise in her eyes. "Don't you like them?" She asked him. "Are you still sick? Don't you have an appetite?" she slowly raised her hand to his forehead to feel his temperature.
"H-how are you feeling?" Her voice was trembling. Her hands too. He could feel it. She tried to feel his face too. "How is your wound? Does it still hurt?"
She was barely even looking in his eyes. She couldn't. Jeremiah had never thought he'd live to see that day. To see his mother that way about him.
"Mum,"
"I was scared." She didn't even let him speak. "I was so scared when I heard what had happened. I thought I was going to lose you." Her voice broke. "I don't know what I'd have done if I-" she paused for a second. She knew she had to be strong. She knew she couldn't cry in front of him. She shouldn't. She took a deep breath.
"I'm sorry." She told him. "I'm sorry I put you in danger like this."
"Mum why are you being like this?" Jeremiah slowly reached for her hands. "You're acting really weird. The Obianuju I know would rather die than admit she cares about me collapsing from an infected stab wound." He tried to joke about it. He wanted to. It was the only way he could ease the atmosphere. He slowly brought her hand away from his face.
She sniffed.
"You're right." She held on to his hands. "I've been a terrible mother to you haven't I?" She squeezed his hands. "At first I abandoned you all alone in that big house and then I never came to see you, not even when you had that big accident when you were abroad. I've never fulfilled my duties you you as a mother. I've never given you a reason to call me your mother have I? I've never really done anything for you. Instead I keep failing you and pushing you away and I'm sorry." She finally brought herself to look into his eyes. He had tears in them just as much as she did.
This was not a dream or a joke. His mother was right in front of him, saying all the things he had waited for her to say to him in eleven years. What had happened? What had changed? Jeremiah sniffed. He knew that wasn't the right time to get as emotional as she was. It was so obvious she felt really guilty for what had happened to him. He couldn't feed her guilt. He knew he could at least try to change her mood. He had to at least try to show her he wasn't disappointed, he was okay and there was nothing she was ever going to do that was ever going to change the way he felt about her.
He sniffed, pushing his tears back and then turned to the table.
"Woah." He managed to say even though his voice was shaky. "Look at all this food. I had no idea it was just going to take almost dying to get you to cook for me again. If I had known, I'd have probably tried to kill myself a thousand times."
He grabbed his spoon and then turned to her, a huge smile covering his face.
"Thank you Miss Obianuju." He told her. "I'm going to eat all of it until my tummy bursts."
She forced a smile on her face as she watched him turn back to his food and take a spoon full of rice into his mouth.
"Oh my god." He said stuffing his mouth again. "This tastes so good."
She rushed to the basket again and got out a flask of water and a cup. She filled it up for him.
"Be careful. Eat slowly so you don't choke." She handed it to him and he took it slowly. Taking a huge sip right before he turned back to his food. He had waited for this moment, prayed for this moment and now that it was in front of him, he knew he had to make sure he had all of it. Obianuju watched him. She was trying so hard and fighting within herself not to cry. He still did it. Just like he always did when he was younger. He still stuffed his mouth with her food. Now that she was looking at him, she could see how he reminded her of the Jeremiah she gave birth to, the Jeremiah she shared a bedroom with and washed people's laundry to take care of. The Jeremiah before the Ozors happened. Her precious little boy. Her son. It brought a lot of tears to her eyes as she watched him. Nothing had changed. How could she leave him again? How could she hurt him again and abandon him like she did before? How was he ever going to forgive her after it?
She sniffed.
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Two hours later...
It was so hard to say goodbye. She thought she could do it but she couldn't. She was never going to be able to. Spending the past two hours with her son made her realize how much time had passed her by. While she was busy running from him, running from anything that had to do with him, she had missed out on a lot. She had missed out on the opportunity to know him, to really know the kind of man he had grown out to be and it made her realize that she didn't want to leave anymore. She wanted to know him. To really know him but it was too late. She was never going to get a second chance to be a mother to him after that second. She sniffed as she walked out of the room.
The only reason he let her leave was because she had succeeded in lying to him about taking care of some things at home and then coming right back. Only difference was she was never coming back. Her heart broke with every step she took further from the room. She was scared and confused and had barely realized that her grip on the basket wasn't as tight as she thought she would. At least not until she bumped hard into someone, causing the entire basket to fall from her hands in a loud thud right in front of the elevator. The crashing sound alerted everyone that passed by temporarily even as Obianuju failed to stop herself from falling right with the empty dishes. She gasped the moment she had noticed some pepper soup spills on the red shinny heels that had come to a quick halt in front of her.
"Oh my God," Oma gasped, raising her hand slightly in the air to show her disgust. "Oh my God, oh my God."
"I'm sorry." Obianuju crawled as fast as she could, raising the hem of her floral dress so she could clean the spill off with it. "I'm truly sorry."
"Can't you see?!" Oma yelled at her. "Are you blind?!"
"I'm sorry." Obianuju kept apologizing and cleaning even though she had almost wiped out all the stain.
"Get off me!" Oma kicked her away causing Obianuju to fall back to the ground with all the empty dishes. "What on earth is wrong with you?"
Manuel was rushing to the scene as fast as he could the moment he had seen what was going on.
"That's enough Oma." Amanda grabbed on to Oma's arm. "It was a mistake. She already apologized, let it go."
"Let it go?" Oma scoffed. "This lady just ruined my shoes with this smelly, disgusting- Urgh! what is this?! It smells, oh my god I'm going to puke. How can I let it go? It suede!"
"I'm sorry." Obianuju kept apologizing even as Manuel helped to get her back to her feet.
"You're sorry?" Oma asked her. "What can an apology from someone like you do? What am I going to do when you ruined my shoes? I only just got them. Do you know how much these cost? They are Prada. Can you afford it?"
"Just let it go Oma." Amanda told her. "Let it go. Jerry is waiting."
"Your mother is right Miss Richards." Manny had to step in. "Jeremiah has a few minutes left before his visiting hours is closed till afternoon."
"How am I supposed to see him like this?" She looked like she was going to cry. "I can smell her food all over me, he's going to smell it too. How can this hospital let just anyone have access to the VIP floor?"
"Come on." Amanda pulled her away.
"Mum." Oma stomped her feet even as Amanda managed to pull her away.
Obianuju needed a second to breathe. A second to process what had just happened and then she turned back to the dishes to pick them up after Manny bent over to help her too.
"Are you okay?" He asked picking up the dishes he could, putting their lids back on them and placing them back into the basket.
"Is that her?" Obianuju asked while she did the same. "My son's fiancée?"
Manny paused for a second. He didn't know how to answer that. He didn't know what to say.
"It's her isn't it?" She slowly raised her head to look at him. There were a truckload of tears in them. Manny exhaled. She sniffed and then managed to force a little smile on her lips. "I never even got a chance to meet her in person. There are so many things I don't know."
"Oma is really a nice person." He got up and picked the basket with him. "I'm sure one day, you'd get to know her. One day she'd get to acknowledge you as his mother."
Obianuju managed to widen her smile. She slowly took the basket from him.
"Thank you Emmanuel." She told him. "For being there for my son. For taking care of him, for making him your responsibility."
Manny smiled.
"I didn't really have a choice."
"But you did it so perfectly and for that I'd be eternally indebted to you." She pursed her lips and Manny bowed then turned back to the elevator. She had no words, none at all. She pushed a button and then it opened. She walked inside and turned back to Emmanuel.
He stood still as the door began to shut slowly until it closed completely.
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Lily had her eyes focused outside through the window but her mind in several different places. Ever since she and Kora had returned back, all the things that had happened before were beginning to play in her head all over again. She was nervous. Really nervous and she didn't know what to do with how she felt. She was still so upset to even sleep in her bedroom the entire night. She slept right next to Kora under the pretense of wanting to keep her company but that wasn't all. It was her way of avoiding him, of avoiding Peter. She exhaled again. Her exhales were louder than she thought.
"Mum?"
She turned around immediately she heard Kora's soft voice call out her name. It only took her mother's loud exhales to wake her up from her seventeen hours sleep. Not like she had slept the entire night anyway. She was still in too much shock to. She still couldn't believe everything that had happened to her. She still couldn't believe Grace did that to her.
"Baby." Lilian hurried as fast as she could so she could have her in her embrace. She was quick to sit beside her.
"Mum are you okay?"
Lilian forced a smile on her face.
"Yes." She lied. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"
Kora looked at her mother funny. She had known this woman so well that she of all people knew when something was definitely not right with her.
"I'm fine. Really." She placed a hand to gently grab Kora's arm. "I'm just glad that we got you out of that place in time. Now we just have to figure out how to get you back to school."
Kora exhaled. She really hated to be reminded. She really didn't want to go back to that place, to that hell hole. To NAUN. She didn't even need to say it. Her facials explained how she felt perfectly.
"What is it?" Lilian asked her. "Are you scared? To go back there? Are you worried about what people might say?"
"It's not that."
"Is it because you were framed?" Kora hesitated to state her reasons. It wasn't just because she was framed, especially by her best friend but because of everything. She was mentally exhausted by all the hardships and troubles she had been through just because she got that black card. She had seen another side of the world she never knew. Of the world she thought she knew and it was something she was probably never going to heal from.
"I can't believe someone did that to you. Tried to frame you and ruin your life. I honestly have no idea what the authorities of that school are doing. How they let their students bully and treat each other like this. I mean, you all are just kids. How can children be like this? Act so cruel? Be so heartless?" Lilian exhaled. "This won't do. We shouldn't even be considering this. It shouldn't be up for a debate at all. You should transfer out of that school before they do something worse to you-"
"Mum." Kora slowly reached for her mother's hands as fast as she could. She pursed her lip and then shook her head. It wasn't really necessary anymore.
"What?"
"I don't want to transfer from NAUN." She couldn't believe she was actually saying those words, but that was how she truly felt. She had began to get so attached to that school and there were a lot of a things she was going to leave behind if she did leave. Luke was one of them and Grace. She still needed to know. She needed a reason. Grace was never that kind of person. She was never the kind to betray anyone. Something must have happened. And then there was him. Even though she had tried to convince herself about how she felt after what had happened, Kora knew she didn't stand a chance at lying about her feelings. She still cared about him. Jeremiah. A lot and leaving was never going to make it easier.
"I'm sure that by now, the school is already working on finding who the person that framed me is." Now she was trying really hard to convince her mother. "I know that whoever it is would be found soon and my innocence would be proven. Running away like this is only going to prove that they won. I've been running all my life Mum, we've been running. I don't want to run from anything anymore."
Lilian rubbed her hands gently and then lowered her gaze to their joined hands. She drew a deep breath. Talking about running made her so exhausted mentally. She needed to talk to Kora about something.
"Kora, honey," Kora stared at her. "Baby what do you think about us leaving this house?" She asked her. "Just me, you and Micheal. Temporarily." She raised her head to look into Kora's confused eyes. "Or even permanently if you like. I've saved some money. We can get an apartment somewhere not too far from your school. You know, just the three of us. Wouldn't you like that? And I promise, I'm not trying to get another husband or anything. As a matter of fact, I've decided that this is going to be my last marriage. I just want to spend the rest of my life with my babies. Happy with my babies that's all."
"What did Peter do to you?" It just had to be something related. "Did he hurt you?"
Lily scoffed.
"Hurt me?" She faked a chuckle. "Of course not. I just-" she squeezed her hands. "I just want us to go back to how it used to be when it was just you and me. Is that wrong?"
Kora frowned. There was definitely something her mother wasn't telling her. She could feel it.
Her phone began to ring.
Kora slowly reached for her phone. She hesitated when she saw the caller ID. She gulped hard and then slowly turned to her mum.
"Who is it?" Lily mouthed but Kora picked the call before she could give her an answer. Her eyes still glued at her mother.
"Hello?" She paused for a second. "Nanny?"
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Three p.m. it's been exactly five hours since she left. Five hours and she wasn't back yet as she said she would. He couldn't even reach her on phone. Her number was switched off.
He bit his thumb hard as he paced to and fro in front of the huge glass window. This wasn't right. It didn't feel right. Something was wrong. He could feel it. He was starting to feel that way again. The way he felt eleven years ago when he was abandoned. She promised. She promised she was going to be back. Her phone was never switched off for any reason. Not even when she didn't want him to call her. He was scared. Really scared. Maybe he wouldn't have had reasons to be if she hadn't acted weird the whole time she was there. He should have known. He should have known she was never going to cook for him so easily or say all those words to him. She wouldn't have cried that way except she was leaving again. He froze.
That was it.
She was leaving again. She was going away again. Why didn't he think about it sooner? She couldn't leave. How could she leave like that? How could she leave him again when he was just starting to know her again. He had to stop her. His heart was beating so fast but he knew he had to stop her. He rushed to his bed quickly and then grabbed his phone. He hurried to the door and was about to open it when it opened first. Two men in suits walked in and stood right in front of the door. They were standing in his way. They just have known he was going to run to her. Jeremiah stared at them for a second. He was never going to let them stop him from doing what he wanted but they did when he took another step to the door. Jeremiah froze. Looked like he was right after all. He scoffed. This family was sending her away again and this time, they had sent guards to make sure he stayed in place.
"Get out of my way." He told them and then tried to walk past them but they placed a hand in front of him.
"I'm sorry sir but you're not allowed to leave your room."
"What?" He asked them. "Why aren't I? Who gave you the right to stand in my way like this?"
The men didn't say a word. Instead they cleared their throat nervously.
"Get out of my way." He tried to leave again but this time they pushed him back gently and then they grabbed his arms.
"Let go of me!" He told them. "How dare you? How dare you treat me like this? Whose order was it? Who ordered you to do this?!"
He struggled to free himself but they didn't let him go. They grabbed on tighter to him.
"Leave him."
He froze the moment he heard Christian's voice. The men too. They slowly let him go and then they bowed, moving to the side so Christian could walk in. Jeremiah was breathing so fast now but he couldn't get his eyes off Christian. Talk about perfect timing. Christian examined him for a while and then stopped when he got to the tiny blood stain on his dress, around his abdomen level. He turned his head halfway towards the bodyguard at the right.
"You were asked to stop him from leaving the room. Not hurt him or open up his stitches."
"My apologies sir." He bowed to show his regrets.
Jerry scoffed.
"Did you do this?" He asked him just as Christian slowly turned back to him. "Was this your idea? Is this you? Are you responsible for this?!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, glaring at him.
Christian stared at him.
"You're sending her away again aren't you?" He asked him. "I won't forgive you. I'd never forgive you if I find out you did this. "
"Your stitch is open." Christian tried to change the subject. "It might get infected again. A doctor is going to have to come see you. Stop making a fuss about everything and stay still. You've caused enough problems as it is."
Christian turned to leave. He took a step towards the door.
"Please." Jeremiah's voice made him freeze. "I beg you. Don't send her away again." At this point he knew yelling and fighting wasn't going to solve anything. "I'd do anything you ask me to. I'd go back to the states if it's what you want just-" his voice broke as tears filled his eyes. "Please." He shut his eyes. His hands were shaking. "Brother please, don't send my mother away again." A drop of tear fell from his eyes and then another one. He wasn't as strong as he thought he was.
"I'd never go where I'm told not to or do anything to hurt our family again. I'd do everything. I'd live as if I was dead. Please, please help me. Please save my mum. Brother please."
Christian exhaled and then took another step towards the door. Like he cared or was going to listen to anything Jerry said. He walked out of the room.
"Christian!" Jeremiah yelled his name as he rushed to the door to stop him but the guards grabbed him immediately. "Christian!"