Chapter 11 THE TRUTH AND THE BAD GUY

S E G U N

That AHA moment.

I've gotten to it.

The one where you wonder if you're watching a thriller movie or if it's your life that's actually going to hell.

That moment where you think, maybe you'll wake up and find out it's all a dream, and go 'whew, I'm safe.'

That weird off key moment when you feel there's no going back, if this is actually real.

But whatever moment I've felt before, definitely cannot compare to how I feel now as I gaze in astonishment and overwhelming disgust at the man that claims to be my father.

"Come again!" I intone, gazing at him in disbelief.

"It's true, hijo (son)," Mama pipes up, as she stands up beside Mr. fucking Faseun.

I round up on her, knowing if eyes could kill, she'd probably be dead and incinerated by now. "You don't get to have a say in this matter." I spit my words out with enough force that could have cowed a lesser man, but mama stands tall and undeterred by my outburst.

But I'm not done yet.  Actually I'm just getting started.

"You've given me no reason to trust you lately, what with you bringing your stooge to try to force her bastard kid on me. What mother behaves the way you do Are you even my mother?"

Her eyes widen imperceptibly, and then her gaze drops to the floor.

"Wait! You are my mother, right?" I'm waiting for her to scold me as is her usual fashion and tell me; 'Ofcourse, don't be stupid, I'm your mother, how can you even ask that question,' but all she does is stare hard at the floor.

"I think we all need to sit down and talk about this rationally." Mr. Faseun speaks up from somewhere behind me.

I'd totally forgotten he was still here.

I ignore him and get on my knees in front of mama, begging her silently to look up at me, to tell me this whole shitty situation is a joke and laugh about it, then I can proceed to kick Faseun out of my house. Instead, she twists the knife into my heart even deeper, brings it out, and stabs me repeatedly, by turning away from me and going to stand at the window, gazing out and ignoring me completely.

"I know this is hard for you, but you've really got to keep it together right now so I can tell you the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I promise." Faseun continues speaking.

He got my attention at the word 'truth.' So nodding, I stand up and walk to one of the stools scattered around the island, making sure to position myself far away from him, but close enough so I can hear what he has to say, and at the same time keep an eye on mama as well.

Something fishy is going on here and I want - no - I need to get to the bottom of it.

Mr. Faseun sits himself on one of the stools, crosses his legs as is his usual fashion, and cracks his knuckles. This irritates the hell out of me, because I'm not a patient man at all. Just as I'm about belting out for him to open his mouth, he smiles charismatically at me, clears his throat and begins to speak.

"Once upon a time there was a man -- a man who did things he was not very pleased about, but it was able to put food on his table. He met a woman he loved and couldn't see past his nose that the woman was good, so instead of treating her like the queen she was, he used her and took her for granted. That woman was put in the family way and had a child. The man felt he needed to show his dominance by taking the child from her, and so . . . "

He falters in his speech, drops his gaze to the ground avoiding my eyes in the process. "I . . . I felt I needed to take you from her, and so I did. Worst mistake of my life, and everyday I wish I could turn back the hands of time."

The woman was good?

Does that mean . . . ?

"Your mother went back to her country home in Italy to live with her parents and got sick and . . . passed away shortly after."

My head is reeling with this new information. I feel suddenly caged in, like a wild animal that's sure to break loose anytime. Before I can help myself, I fast walk to where mama is pushing away from the window, about to walk away. I know the words I'm about to speak will definitely break our relationship forever, but I spew them out nonetheless.

"Why?" Just that word is enough to do some major damage to her. It seems her whole body caves in on her, as she immediately let's out a whimper and her shoulders slump. She's not able to look at me as she stares dejectedly at the floor. "Why, mama?" I ask again, this time with more force. "Why did you think it was right of you to keep the truth away from me?"

She's begun to shake like a leaf, making me wonder if my utterances are worth it, but I can't stop. I need to push through.

She lifts her head and stares at me forlonly.

Her face is like an open book as emotions flit, lightening fast, across it. "Son, please ----"

"Son? Do I fucking look like your son? All this while, you let me think you were my mother. You made me believe you birthed me. You made me think I belonged to a family - your family. You stood by and watched your husband verbally tear into me. How could you be so cruel?"

She winces and rocks back on her heels, like I just delivered a mean slap across her face. I honestly wish I could, but I'm not that heartless. After all, she took care of me all these years, so I've got to be grateful for that if for nothing else.

There's raw pain in her eyes as tears cascade down her cheeks, mingling with snot escaping her nostrils.

And suddenly, it all makes sense now.

All the hatred her husband aimed at me. The name calling - words like 'bastardo and 'filth,' ricochet around my head, and knock around, refusing to let go. I stumble back and away from her, not wanting to relieve the painful past.

My head is a clouded web of horror and rage now.

"This isn't mama's fault, I gave her to you when you were but a baby of five months because I couldn't look after you myself. I'm not proud to say it, but I was going to jail and didn't yet know how long I would be convicted for. You needed a mother's care and she was my housekeeper back then when I was in Mexico, so when I posed the question if she'd look after you, she gladly accepted to take you in, but unfortunately we lost touch and when I came out, it seemed you two had dissapeared off the face of the Earth.

"It was years later, after an extensive search of you through my contacts, that I found out you were living with mama in Detroit and that you'd gotten into some trouble with ----"

I don't let him finish, as I stand up and face him squarely. "So when you found out I was in Detroit and had finished university, you decided to bring me to Nigeria to work for you, yet you never let on you were my father, why?"

Something closely resembling pain, flashes across his face as he stares at me. "I'm sorry, son, I honestly don't know what I was thinking by not telling you, but I'm glad now that you know I'm your father and you're my son, we can have some bonding time, get to know more of each other."

The audacity of this man that claims to be my father is absolutely appalling. "ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE? I'M TWENTY EIGHT YEARS OF AGE AND ALL MY DAMN LIFE I'VE LIVED WITHOUT A FATHER, AND NOW YOU THINK YOU CAN WALTZ BACK AND PICK UP A RELATIONSHIP OUT OF THIN AIR?"

I can't take his prissy attitude anymore as I lunge at him, dragging him up from the stool and shoving him towards the door. "Get out, just get out now. I've got no father, neither do I have a mother."

Mama whimpers from somewhere behind me, but I ignore her. With all the strength I can muster, I push Mr. Faseun out of the kitchen and he allows it. He allows himself to be shoved, all the way to the sitting room door and outside it.

Unfortunately, I still don't stop.

Fuelled by blind rage and another emotion I can't quite put a finger to yet, I keep pushing him out towards the gate. At this point, I realise I'm not able to see well. Lifting my hands to clean my eyes, I notice moisture smeared all over my finger tips.

I've been crying and I didn't even know it.

Now the tears come, fast and furious and as I walk back to the entrance, I'm not able to go further, so I slump to the ground, distraught and feeling weak from finding outt my whole life has been a total lie all this while.

You know that moment when you're having a nightmare and you wake up and heave a sigh of relief, thanking your stars it was a dream?

Yeah, well . . . lucky you, because I'm living my nightmare right now and I'm wide awake with nowhere to run.

The woman I thought was my mother, is a stranger I honestly know nothing about, while the man I've been working for, for the past seven years, the guy who by the way caused the death of my unborn child, is now my father -- the ultimate bad guy.

Yup!

Welcome to my living nightmare!

E V E

Once Aureliano goes inside the house, I turn my attention to my phone, noticing six missed calls from Tomide. I had to put it on silence on the drive to Aurey's place, because I didn't want to put him under undue pressure. Crazy reasoning, but I felt he didn't need a distraction while driving, coupled with the fact that Ebere and I had been WhatsApp chatting. She said Dipo had been acting antsy ever since Roxy's declaration about Stacy being Aureliano's child.

So not wanting to burden him with the whole drama all over again, I'd kept mum and busied myself trying to make him as comfortable as possible by not saying anything about it.

My phone lights up, and I look down to see Tomide's name boldly splayed on the screen. Immediately I pick the call and put it to my ear, he begins speaking. "Eve, please tell me you're back in Lagos." He sounds agitated, like he's desperately trying not to cry.

"Tomide, what's going ----"

"It's Ronke, my girlfriend. She's freaking out, saying she'll kill herself if I leave her and ---"

"WHAT? AGAIN? Did you do something to hurt her. Answer me this minute, Tomide."

There's a long silence on the phone, and just when I think he's cut the call on me, he speaks out, sounding deathly tired, like he hasn't slept in days. "She saw us kissing, but it was nothing serious, I mean I didn't even intend to kiss her. You know, she suddenly kissed me, taking me by surprise and I froze. I just didn't know what to do."

"Tom, please calm down and go slowly because you're not making much sense to me right now." I plead.

He takes a deep breath and launches into the story of an old school mate he met recently at their primary school's reunion party. They'd hit it off instantly and planned to meet up at an ice cream parlour some days later.

While eating ice cream, some of it had slipped and fallen onto his shirt, smearing it, so while helping him clean up, their faces had been very close to each other, and she had made the first move by kissing him.

Unfortunately for Tom, at that exact moment, Ronke had walked in and seen the fusing of their lips and all hell had broken loose.

"She immediately rushed out and of course I had to rush out afer her and cue the water works and the talks of suicide all over again."

Silence reigns after he finishes talking. I have a niggling feeling Ronke tailed him to that ice cream parlour. That kind of behaviour borders on obsession. I guess this is the best time to ask him the question I've been meaning to ask but never got around to doing so.

"Um . . . Tom, do you feel stifled by her?"

Without missing a beat, he answers immediately, confirming my suspicions all along. "I'm so sick and tired of her shenanigans, Eve, you don't know how much I regret being in this relationship and stepping into the shoes of her father."

"What are you talking about? Shoes of her father?" I'm really confused as to what he means.

"Do you know this isn't the first time she's tried to kill herself?" Not waiting for me to ask any questions, he surges ahead. "When we first got together, I noticed she was a bit clingy. I felt it was because she was unsure of herself and that with time, it would pan out, so I told her all the time she was beautiful, which she truly is, and it worked out well for awhile, but I must tell you it became obvious she has a screw loose. If she saw me talking to a girl, she'd begin to scream at me and threaten to take her life. She said it so many times, I didn't believe her, until one day she happened on a harmless WhatsApp chat on my phone between a female friend and I, and - BOOM - she went apeshit, took a blade to her wrist and slit them open, all the while telling me she couldn't live without me.

"She even wrote a letter saying she would hurt herself because of love, and guess what --- she included my name. She was hospitalized for a week and I had to hush it up with a lot of money so the police wouldn't be involved. Do you know how taxing and incriminating that was for me?"

I'm about to reply when my attention is diverted as I see someone rushing past me in a blur. I quickly pull up the chair from the reclining position it's in and sit up with a start. Craning my neck, I'm only able to see the person's back, but when I eventually figure out who it is, shock spirals through me when I see Mr. Faseun dissapearing inside his car and zooming off as if the hounds of hell are after him.

What the hell was he doing here?

My eyes travel back to the door, only to see Aureliano slumped against it. Without thinking, I cut the call, not minding the fact that Tom is still talking. I send him a quick text, informing him that something came up and I'll call him later.

Pocketing my phone, I step out of the car and rush to Aureliano who has his head in his hands.

"Are you okay?" Crouching before him, I take a hold of his hands and gently lift them away from his head. His eyes are bloodshot and full of mositure, like he's been crying. He looks helpless and defeated. When he looks into my eyes, I gasp in surprise. The light seems to have left his eyes; the light to live, that spark that sets him aside from every other person.

When he focuses on me, he crushes me to him so hard tthe air gets knocked out of me. I don't mind, because I know he needs this right now. He needs to feel some comfort.

"It's all a lie." He whispers into my ear raspily. "My whole life has been a huge lie."

He lasps into silence for some time, but holds on to me like a lifeline as he clutches me to him tightly, almost cutting off my breathing circulation. Just when I'm about to protest, he eases of me and sits on his hunches. "I'm sorry. Was probably choking you there for a bit."

"It's okay, Aurey. Nothing to be sorry about. I'm here for you." I stroke his cheek reassuringly.

He shakes his head forlonly. "I don't think you'll be here much longer when you find out who my real father is."

Goose pimples immediately burst out on my skin, as pin pricks race up and down my spine.

"Mr. Faseun, that bastard . . . is  . . . " His Adam's apple bobs, and I know without him even finishing his statement, I wouldn't like what he's going to say. "Well . . . he's my father. Can you believe it?"

My eyes go wide as tears sting them. I stumble up and careen backwards and away from him in a wild daze.

Mr. Faseun

is

my

father.

I shake my head, blinking away his words, but they remain fixed solidly in my head.

Tears blur my vision as I rush to his car, open the door and pick up my hand bag from the seat.

As if from far away, I hear my name being called, but I don't acknowledge it as I run to the gate, open it in a daze and rush out.