Chapter 24 Chapter Twenty one

Chapter Twenty One

"They say desperate times calls for desperate measures, but those decisions we take in those desperate times may play a huge role in changing our fate"

***************

Mid July.

Mayfair Estate,

Lagos.

Amanda.

She phoned Konye an hour after breakfast, right after the Dame retired to her chambers and she retreated to Denola's office for a little privacy.

'I've been trying to reach you for hours now' Konye said immediately the minute she answered.

"Sorry" Amanda said looking around the office suspiciously as if the walls could see and record her actions.

"I've been busy, things haven't been going well around here, we'll talk about that later. What is the problem?" She asked concerned.

'Kadin!' Konye replied, the name alone sent shivers down their spine.

Amanda clenched her fists "How?  He's clueless.....I left no trail...nothing. If anything he should be in Lagos, not Jos" Amanda said.

'I don't know Sans, maybe the wedding or something......some men.....they've been hanging around my neighborhood.....I'm scared'  Konye said, the fear in her voice was obvious.

"It's nothing sis, I'm not sure they have anything to do with Kadin" Amanda tried to assure her sister.

'It's not nothing, my gut is never..... Look you have to help me get out of here okay? How is your plan with Denola going?' Konye asked.

"I'm trying, it is as easy as I was expecting. I just lost my business, I'll try and raise funds for you to leave Jos and get settled someone else in... " she was saying when Konye cut her off.

'You don't get it do you?  We're not safe anywhere in this country. If they find out what we did, Kadin will do something extreme. If he doesn't then you know who will'  Konye warned.

Amanda closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "What do you want me to do?" Amanda asked.

'I want to leave for good....I can find her and take her with me' Konye said.

Amanda shook her head before realizing that Konye couldn't see her. "No, I think we should worry about getting you settled first. I will come to you later once I get Denola back on my side" Amanda said.

'I think it's best that way too. I've been talking to someone who wants to help me. I need some money to get a new identity, start processing my papers, and  more money to sort myself out when I get there' Konye said.

"How much do you need?" Amanda asked tapping her fingers on the table impatiently.

'A lot of money Sans' Konye replied.

"I don't have a lot of money now Kay, I just said I lost my business. You have to give me some time Kay" Amanda said raising her voice.

'I don't have time, I need to leave. You're married to a wealthy man who is wrapped around your pinkie. I'm sure there's some money stashed somewhere. Please...you know I really need your help now'  Konye begged.

"Fine!" Amanda hissed. "Tell me how much you need, send me an account number  and I'll do the needful" Amanda said.

She heard Konye's intake of breath over the phone. 'Thank you sister, I won't forget this' Konye said.

"Okay bye" Amanda said and ended the call.  She punched the table mildly.

There was only one way out of her problem, she had to use the money in that cursed account Atalia had gifted her.

*

"I think the dress code for the party should be turquoise blue and silver" One of Atalia's snobby rich friends said in her irritating nasal voice.

Atalia chuckled "Turquoise blue is a little too popular these days, what do you think Amanda?" Atalia asked.

Amanda rolled her eyes, all she wanted to do was go to her room and try to come up with a game plan to get her life in order but no! Atalia had insisted that they join her friends for their little Tea Party at the Dame's gazebo where they would plan another party for the weekend.

"Anything is fine, you said it's a house party after all" Amanda responded.

"Anything is not fine, and it's not just a house party. The deputy governor's wife will be present, we have to look our best" Atalia said in her usual cool and condescending tone.

Atalia's friend hummed in agreement. "Amanda, how did you meet Denola?" One of them asked curiously.

"They met at a business conference in Canada. Amanda used to run a Decor firm before she and Denola got married" Atalia answered.

"Ohhhh" the ladies chorused.

"That's nice.  I don't understand why they got married in such a hurry and out of Lagos too" another of Atalia's friend said.

Amanda rolled her eyes and picked up a spoon beside her cup to stir her tea.

"Such a shame honey, I know a few magazines and TV stations that would have covered the event" Atalia's friend continued.

Atalia laughed, Amanda wondered if she was the only one who heard how false it sounded.

"You know how romantic the kids of this generation can be. They decided to elope and get married" Atalia said.

"Where did they get married again?" one of her friend's asked.

"Santorini" Atalia lied through her teeth.

"Awwn, how romantic, Denola is definitely Prince charming. You're so lucky, did you know my daughter had a crush on him? I always thought they'd end up together" One said wistfully.

Amanda mentally hissed and continued to stir her tea in hopes of distracting herself.

"Could you stop doing that?" One of Atalia's friend said to Amanda with a false smile plastered on her face.

"What?" Amanda said noticing that all eyes in the gazebo were on her.

"You keep stirring your tea noisily and you're using the dessert spoon instead of the tea spoon" Someone else said.

Atalia glared at Amanda for embarrassing her.  "Oh forgive my manners" Amanda said with a saccharine smile.

"Please excuse me" she said getting up hastily,  she had to leave the gathering immediately before she did something crazy to one of these snobby bitches.

"You're excused" Atalia said dryly and watched her daughter in law leave hastily.

She turned to her friends "Forgive her manners, she's still learning how to be the model Mayfair woman" Atalia said with a small smile .

Her phone had been pinging while she'd been speaking so she picked it up the minute the ladies turned their attention elsewhere. She checked the notification on her screen. Her eyes lit up, Amanda had transferred a huge amount of money from the Mayfair account into a certain account few hours ago.

The clueless girl had no idea that for every transaction she'd make, Atalia or Jadesola would get a notification, Atalia chuckled.

Hmmmm.... Jackpot. She would get Jadesola to look into, she was sure Amanda was hiding skeletons in her cupboard.

She couldn't wait to start digging.

*

As if having lunch with Atalia and her snobby rich friends wasn't bad, she'd run into Hakeem the minute she stepped into the house.

"Denola is at work" she said sparing him no pleasantries. They were enemies as far as she was concerned.

They only ever put up a show of friendship whenever Denola was around.

Hakeem nodded "Well good for you then, I came looking for you actually. Let's speak somewhere private" Hakeem said.

Amanda's heart plummeted immediately, did it have anything to do with Kadin? she wondered.

She looked at Hakeem closely but his expression gave nothing away.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"Let's use Denola's office" Hakeem suggested leading the way.

Amanda followed, she knew their discussion would be Kadin related. He was getting closer and closer to finding them everyday. She needed to get her sister to safety first and then she needed to get out of the country too, if only Denola would stop playing family ties and elope with her.

Amanda locked the door the minute they were in the confines of the office. "What is so important?" She asked leaning against the door.

Hakeem sighed "The last time we spoke about Kadin, you told me some bullshit story. He was your boss, you stole from him and ran away to avoid being killed when he found out...." Hakeem began.

"Yes...." Her voice was shaky now. Had he found out the entire truth already?

"You lied to me" Hakeem said angrily.

Amanda took in a deep breath "I had no choice, I didn't trust you. I couldn't tell you the truth" She said.

"I don't trust you either. Whatever game you're playing Amanda, you're losing, sooner or later Kadin will catch up with you" Hakeem looked her square in the eyes.

"I'm not playing games Hakeem. I'm trying to protect the ones I love, Kadin wrecked my family. I had to run away, everything I do,  I do it for the ones I love" Amanda said defensively.

"How about Denola? When he finds out the truth what are you going to do then, will you run away again?" Hakeem asked.

"You said you wouldn't tell him" Amanda said holding her breath. If Hakeem breathed out a word to anyone now,  her plans would be ruined.

"I agreed to that because you said you were going to tell him the truth but you didn't do that did you?  You took him away and coerced him into a secret marriage!" Hakeem yelled at her.

Amanda was about to defend her actions when Hakeem held up his palm to stop her.

"I am tired of hiding things from my best friend. Every time I see him, I want to tell him the truth. I want to tell him that he's married to a stranger, a woman who would ruin him" Hakeem said.

"You don't understand....." Amanda said.

Hakeem shook his head "Leave Denola and go back to where you came from" Hakeem said with a note of finality.

"What?...I can't do that. Denola and I are married" Amanda said.

Hakeem sneered "That doesn't mean anything to you, you're only after his wealth to buy your freedom from Kadin, that or to escape him.  You won't succeed, this is my last warning.  If you don't tell Denola the truth by month end, I will.  And I have a lot of evidence to prove what a scam you are. Gather all you have and get lost" Hakeem said threateningly before he shoved her aside, opened the door and walked away.

Amanda suppressed the urge to cry,  she couldn't cry. Not now, not when her life was being reduced to shambles.

She was the strong one, she had to be strong now. She was trying to get her thoughts in order and willing herself not to crumble when the door came open.

Atalia poked her head into her son's mini office. "I just saw Hakeem leaving here, what did he want?" Atalia asked curiously.

Amanda rolled her eyes at Atalia's nosiness, she wanted to scream at the woman to mind her own damn business.

"I don't know, why didn't you ask him?" she replied sarcastically as she walked out of the office.

Atalia smirked in response, soon, very soon, she'd get her victory but for now she'd swallow the bitter pills.

****************

It wasn't until Sunday family dinner when the Dame started talking about grandchildren that Amanda realized she hadn't had her period.

Could it be late? She hoped so.

She didn't want a child now,  her life was too messed up at the moment.

She had too many burdens, too many things she was worried about.

She'd been so worried about a lot of things, Hakeem threat, the men on Konye's trail.

The men processing Konye's papers were taking too much time to process.

As if that wasn't enough, she'd lost some of her clients after news of the loss of her office had gotten round.

Mercie had resigned unexpectedly, she'd announced out of the blue that she'd gotten a job offer from a firm in Canada and that she couldn't turn it down because Mandy's glam didn't have a future anymore.

Her exact words, those words had kept Amanda awake at night. Despite Denola's support and comfort, she couldn't stop hurting.

The Mayfairs were slowly ruining her,  she was losing everything. First She'd lost Denola to work, then she'd lost her business thanks to Atalia.

She was confused, disoriented more like it and unable to think properly anymore.

"Amanda?" she felt a nudge immediately pulling her out of her thoughts.

Denola was looking down at her with concern. "Are you alright love?" he asked.

She nodded even though her head was aching dully from all the stress she was going through.

Her heart skipped everytime Denola hung out with Hakeem,  everything was happening so quickly and she didn't know how to control it this time.

"You look pale Mands" Davina who was sitting by her right whispered. Ever since she married Denola and moved into the Mayfair estate, Davina had become a regular at their family dinner.

"I'm fine" Amanda said forcing a smile that didn't fool Davina one bit.

She shook her head mentally, she could tell just by looking at Amanda's slumped shoulders and dull expression that Amanda was carrying big problems, too big for her to handle.

She wanted to help but she couldn't because this was Amanda, Amanda hated having people in her business and she had so much pride in her that she would rather die before she begged for help.

Davina looked at Denola who was also looking at her now. They were both thinking about the same person, Amanda and how to get through to her.