“Stanley, since you married that prostitute, you have lost all the respect you have for your father. Just look at how you disobeyed me, squeezed my hands and fondled out this paper” Ohadike complained
Stanley’s mind was so fixed on the book, he was so eager to see what his mother wrote.
After dispersing the paper, he arranged them…. “She inocen”..
” She inocen? She inocen? She inocen?” Stanley repeated, trying to understand what his mother meant by that.
“Mummy, you wrote something? Do you mean she is innocent? Mummy, just blink twice if its really what you wanted to say.. “You mean Lizzy, she is innocent?” Stan asked
But Gloria did not say anything, she was so frightened on what Ohadike might do to her after he found out she knew the truth.
Stanley was able to understand the fears in his mother’s eyes: “Why is she not saying anything? She always feel uncomfortable eachtime my father enters her room. “She is inocen” who else could she be referring to if not Lizzy?.. I think I should ask my father to excuse us”
While Stanley was racing in his mind on the new development, Gloria was really feeling frustrated within her.
“Lord, can you please deliver me from this sickness? Can you? My children are now in danger, I don’t care about my life anymore, but my children’s. They need their happiness back and I am happy that my son has gotten some clue that his wife is innocent, but what about Ohadike? I know he will do anything within his power to make sure that the truth remains hidden.
After seeing what he did to Lizzy that night, I came to the conclusion that I married a beast in the form of a man, and he won’t rest until he destroys anything that will bring the secret to the open. Lord please, come to our rescue. Let your infinite wisdom befall on my son. Give him the wisdom like you gave to King Solomon, so that he will make his father face the full wrath of the law for what he did to that innocent girl. Lord, please do something.. I am pleading, do something.” Gloria prayed earnestly in her heart.
When Stanley noticed that his mother was not saying anything, he then warmly asked his father to leave the room for them.
“Are you out of your senses, Stanley? Why should I leave the room, am I now a stranger in my own house? The house I built with my own money?” Ohadike flared
“No father, its not like that, just that I need to get her to say something, she always feel shy whenever you are around, and I quite understand her because, as a wife, who used to be beautiful, flashy and adored in different kinds of golds and diamonds is now seen in a fixed position. She can no longer move nor do anything on her own, you know its the pride of a woman to look beautiful for her husband to admire her, so now she is like this, how do you expect her to feel? Off course, she will be feeling shy and uncomfortable……….”
“Stanley, just listen to your self” Ohadike cut in: “Do you think I’m a kid or what?
Why do I get the feelings that you guys are conspiring against me? See how this girl is trying to play you into turning you against your own father who raised and made you what you are today.
Its now obvious she has fed your mother with her concoction too and she is now turning my own wife against me. That is why Adaeze and I maintained our stance because we have not taken anything from her. But you two have fed from her pot of evil and cunning charms, and now see, she has succeeded in making you loose all the respect I enjoy from you as my son”
“Father, what are you talking about? Are you indirectly saying that who mummy was talking about in that book is Lizzy?”
Stanley then turned to his mother, and asked her one more time, but the woman remained quiet.
“Father, you don’t want to leave so I can freely ask her what I have in mind?”
“Keep asking her, I’m not going anywhere, I am not going to give anybody the chance to plan evil because this is my house, you get that? This is my house!” Ohadike refused to leave.
“Father, nobody is planning evil against anybody” he replied..: “But why is he behaving this way?……. This man is hiding something. I think its time I visit that hospital. All the answers I need should be there.”
Stanley was still busy planning on how to go to the hospital, Lizzy entered the room and asked them to leave and they left.
Stanley grabbed his car keys and headed to the hospital.
When he left, Ohadike called the doctor who was treating his wife
and relayed to him the new development on Gloria’s health.
“Chief Ohadike, are you sure she wrote something, she made use of her fingers?”
“Yes, she just did, just that it was not that coherent, but its readable, so does that mean she is on the verge of recovering or what?”
“Chief, your wife is a strong woman, she is really fighting that sickness, and with this thing you told me now, there is a strong hope she will make it. When I come for her therapy tomorrow, I will take a look at other things she can do”
“Oh no! This is not good. From the attitudes Gloria has exhibited so far, it means she know something, first she made Lizzy returned to the house, and now the text..” Ohadike said in his heart and then asked: “Doctor, you mean there is hope she will recover!”
“Yes Chief, this is unbelievable. I never expected this goodnews to manifest at this early stage, that’s why I requested for Lizzy to return to the house and be taking care of her like she requested, you see, she is really doing a good job and……”
The doctor had not finished making his statement when Ohadike hung up on him.
He got irked by what the doctor was saying.
“Gloria, you better stay out of this matter, or else, I won’t think twice to get you out of the way. Anything that will make me to be confined to the four walls of the prison again will be gladly eradicated… I can’t allow Stanley to find out. Never!”
Stanley had reached the hospital and requested to meet the doctor, after all much questions and everything, the doctor still maintained that it was abortion that he performed on Lizzy that day.
He tried all he could, he even bribed him with a huge sum of money and promised to protect him but he refused and Stanley then left the place. But he never gave up…
Before he met the doctor, he sat at the reception monitoring some of the nurses that worked in the hospital to know if there will be anyone who can be truthful to tell him what happened the day Lizzy came to the hospital.
His eyes caught one named, precious. After he left, he sat at a restaurant that was apposite the hospital and started waiting for the nurse to step out. Immediately he saw her, he entered his car and followed her.
When Precious reached her destination, Stanley alighted from his car and approached her.
“Ow, sir, are you not the patient who came to the hospital few hours ago?” She asked
“Yes, I am. Actually, I have an important question to ask you, it concerns a person’s life.. Someone’s innocency is at stake and also lives are on danger. Please Nurse, let it touch your good heart to save them.”
“Save them? How? I don’t understand Sir”
“OK let me explain” Stanley said as he explained all that happened.
“Sir, please, I beg you in the name of God, don’t put me in this situation. I have a sick mother to look after, I don’t want to be in trouble. Please, look for somebody else to help you, I am sorry, I can’t, I don’t want any trouble”
