Chapter 46 OFFICIALLY OVER

S E G U N

Have you ever experienced silence so grave it begins to sound loud?

The silence that reigns is so loud, I begin to hear ringing in my ears.

Or is it just my imagination?

But just like a thief in the night caught in mid-act, it suddenly sneaks away giving way to real noise.

Noise that seems magnified.

The erratic beat of my heart, the sporadic chirping of the crickets and the damn maddening ticking of the clock.

With every tick-tock, my nerves become more strained, that is, until I set my eyes on Stacy's books splayed all over the table . . .

And calmness washes over me in waves.

Slowly but steadily, my heart rate reduces to it's normal beat and my mind swings immediately to Mr. Faseun.

It's not news everyone within a mile radius knows he likes to stick it inside the pants of different women.

It disgusts me I used to be that way. Thankfully, I'm a changed man and I have Eve to be thankful to.

As thoughts of her take control of my mind, sadness engulfs me once more.

How is it that I found . . . then lost her.

The love of my life.

My face crumples and I sink my head in my hands.

How long I stay this way I don't know, but a hand lands on my shoulder. The slight tremor I feel from it makes me realise the person is wary. I look up to see Tracy staring at me with an emotion I can't quite place flitting across her face.

Needing to put my attention on the matter at hand, I shake off her hand still resting on my shoulder and face her.

"You have my sincerest apologies on the demise of your mother, but right now let's get back to why you didn't tell me you knew Mr. Faseun was The boss all along." Once I finish, I stare straight ahead.

Dipo clears his throat, wanting to say something, but I put up a hand.

"You'll get your turn soon, but right now I really need to get to the bottom of this."

Tracy gets up and goes back to her initial seat. Deep grooves appear on her forehead, and her skin turns blotchy red. She opens her mouth ready to say something, most probably to send me to hell with her words, but as suddenly as her anger appears, it dissapears and she turns her attention to the ground. Once she lifts her head, her clear complexion has returned.

"You're right. I shouldn't have burdened you with the story of my past." She cleans the side of her eyes where a stray tear had begun sliding down. "But you'll have to bear with me a little longer so you can understand the genesis of this whole saga." She clears her throat, juts her chin, and begins speaking. "The sting of the death of my mother never left me, so as I grew older I vowed to revenge on Mr. Faseun somehow. I got a scholarship which took me to the United States.

'Years later, I got admitted into the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Guess who my first case was? Mr. Faseun was caught with a large stock of contraband ammunition. You can imagine my joy when I sent him to jail. Sadly, it was only for three years and after serving his sentence, he came out. All efforts to look for him proved abortive. It seemed he'd dissapeared off the face of the Earth. Years came and went and I decided to center my attention on other cases. Then talks of The boss came along and instinct told me him and Mr. Faseun were one and the same man. I wasn't sure, but then you came along and I saw an opening, and -----"

"That's where I come into play," Dipo cuts in.

I turn to him, wondering what he could have had to do with this.

"I met Roxy, and ----"

"But what has she got to do with this?"

"A whole lot, bro. If you could just be a little more patient and allow me continue . . ." He raises a brow pleadingly, so I reign in the impatience oozing to seep through and nod for him to continue.

"When Roxy kept popping up wherever I went, I knew she was too beautiful to want to be with someone like me, however she seemed enamoured with me and so I flung myself headlong into the friendship, or whatever you want to call it."

Oh Lord! Sob story alert!

I stifle a yawn threatening to slip through and roll my eyes as he drones on.

" . . . and that's when Tracy came along."

I sit up immediately, wondering where this is leading.

"Tracy introduced herself to me, said she was an FBI and needed to catch the head of a cartel. She said she had reason to believe some of them were posing as students at Detroit university. She told me to keep an eye out for Roxy, and so I began following her discreetly. That's when I found out you two were actually getting it on behind my back." At this juncture, guilt floods my being and I look away from him as he continues speaking. "At first I was hurt as well as livid, so I confronted her. You know what she told me?" He immediately stands up and backs me.

Let me just say this. Dipo isn't known for the theatrical.

That's my forte.

I'm guessing he's watched me one too many times, because he delivers a blow I never saw coming.

"She told me she was in love with you." He sighs and turns round to face me. "She also told me about the drugs as well as Mr. Fas---"

"Hold up!" Confusion and anger have begun to build up inside of me. "You mean to tell me you knew Mr. Faseun was my father and you never breathed a word of it to me?"

"That wasn't how things went down. She hinted at it, saying you were a son to an important man and she needed to have a child for you so as to secure her future. She niggled me every chance she got. She called me a lot of unprintable names too, top on the list was 'looser'. She said the only reason she was with me was to make you jealous. Along the line she got pregnant and later told me she poked a hole in the condom you used on her. That was when I realised this was beyond mere likeness. She was obsessed with you. It was later on with the help of Tracy, we put two and two together and I found out she actually wanted to be with you because . . . because . . . well, because you're The boss's son. Even then, I wasn't --- we still weren't a hundred percent sure." He points to Tracy and back at himself.

I'm shocked into silence at the information overload.

"That's why she actually wanted to have a child for you so she could have a hold on you but when she found out Stacy was a girl and not a boy; she decided to give her up for adoption."

"WHAT!" Shock gets me standing up from the chair I'm sitting in.

"But . . .” Dipo puts up a hand, indicating he still has more bombs to throw around. "I told her I'd be a father to her."

Now I'm fully shocked into silence. All I can do is stare at him, mouth agape. It's honestly difficult to wrap my head around what he just told me, but I have to know everything.

"So she gave Stacy to you and bailed?" Anger lances through me like a knife.

He nods.

"But why didn't you tell me?" I can't for the life of me understand why he would keep such things to himself.

"I was going to, but you were already going through so much. You were in jail at that time so I couldn't very well burden you with more woes."

Dipo avoids my gaze and stares at the ground instead.

"Oh my God!" It comes out in a whisper. I feel weak and spent as I sag into a chair.

This time Tracy is the one who speaks up.

"It was my entire fault. I told him not to tell you, because ----"

"You used me as bait, didn't you? That's all I ever was to you -- bait."

This time the anger rears up and she lets it. "You're a fine one to talk, Aureliano, I told you I loved you and ----"

"You lied to me, Tracy. You kept important information away from me. What fucking good was your love when it couldn't even get me out of jail, huh? TELL ME?" As I speak, I stand up once more and advance towards her. "The same man, Mr. Faseun, my father, got me out and gave me a new life. At least he knew to come through when I needed him. So next time when you tell someone you love them, you better damn well make sure you show it." I come to a standstill in front of her when I'm done.

I ache to shake out that self righteousness oozing out from her and make her see it my way, but I know it wouldn't change anything. Instead, I curl my fists and hang them at my sides.

"Bro, please calm down!" Dipo puts a hand on my shoulder but I shake it off and round up on him.

"And you . . . I've been carrying the guilt right here for so long." I tap my chest hard. "The guilt of messing around with Roxy while you were dating her. I never knew all this time the joke was on me. You call yourself my brother?" I move back and shake my head. "No! You're nothing but a traitor."

"Is that what you really think of me?" He moves around and comes to stand in front of me.

"That's about right!"

Whatever's gonna come out of this, I'm ready.

"Do you remember when you found me in the car, all doped up?" He doesn't wait for me ro say something, he surges ahead. "I was on a date with Roxy. She got a call and excused herself. At that time, Tracy had just come to me intimating me about her, so I followed her to the ladies where I overhead her talking to someone on the phone, saying she had some drugs in her bag to give to you. She said she was going to drug you and sleep with you to get her pregnant, so I ran back to where her bag was, searched for the drugs, and without thinking, poured it all in my drink and waited for her to come back. Just before gulping it all down, I told her."

"ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY!" He could have died that day. I had to rush him to a hospital where they pumped out the contents of his stomach. Because of that incidence, he was assigned a psychologist once every week to talk him out of his suicidal tendencies. All this was done hush hush, because we didn't want his parents to find out.

Suddenly, it clicks.

He did it for me.

He did it to save me from Roxy's machinations.

All this time I thought I was the one shileding him from her, whereas he was the one shielding me from her madness.

"I'm so sorry, D." I move close to him expecting to be rebuffed, instead his arms are wide open as we hug it out like we haven't seen each other in ages.

It pains me I wasted so much time and energy resenting him years ago because I felt Roxy chose him instead of me, whereas she had her own agenda all along.

Someone clears their throat and we reluctantly move apart.

I turn round to see mother watching us, a smile playing at the corners of her lips.

"I'd like you to meet someone, son."

As I'm about protesting, she moves to the side and someone else stands in her place. Her gaze is fixed solidly on the ground, but when she lifts it up, I'm shocked to see who it is.

"Mama!"

She stays put. She seems scared to come forward, but I rush to meet her and pull her into a bear hug. It's slow, but once her hands find their way around my waist, they don't let go.

Tears flow freely from both our eyes. Happy tears.

We remain this way for a long while, with her whispering apologies in Spanish into my ear over and over again.

I say nothing, except to hold her tightly. All I'm able to do is soothe the years of pain and sorrow away with a gentle back rub.

After awhile, we all sit and chat amiably like nothing bad had just transpired. Like my whole world didn't just turn upside down once again.

Tracy clears her throat after a few minutes and addesses me. "There's something else you need to know about Mr. Faseun. He wasn't just a dealer in drugs, he also ran several prostitute joints." This time she pauses and suddenly takes an interest in her jean trousers. She fingers a thread that seems to have come loose.

"What else, Tracy. Spit it out, I need to know."

"Well, um . . . we have reason to believe Eve was taken as one of them."