When Diogor reached home, she gisted her mother how everything turned out, how Ugonna believed everything they told him, and then, they laughed over it.
“That Ugonna is so weak. He loved and trusted Diogor without having any second thought all because of his strong feelings for her… Hmm” Nneoma said silently
Ugonna in a fleet anger marched into the compound calling out for Dimma.
“Is that not Ugonna’s voice? Why calling Dimma like that?” Ngozi wondered, stepping outside
Then, Dimma had already rushed out to know why Ugonna was shouting her name like that.
“Dimma, what is it? What is your problem, so you are now an armed robber?”
“What? How dare you call my daughter an armed robber, have you suddenly gone crazy?” Ngozi asked, shockingly looking at Ugonna.
Dimma stood dumbfounded, watching him in confusion.
“You won’t say anything now, right? Because I have finally find out about your horrible life style. You think I won’t find out?”
“Hold on! Ugonna, what is going on here, what horrible life style are you talking about?” Dimma asked, giving him a serious questioning look.
“Yes, answer her, what life style are you talking about?” Ngozi added
“Mama, this girl you think is the most responsible girl on earth is nothing but a thief, an armed robber at that. She came to my restaurant and robbed my workers with a knife.”
“What? Ugonna, how dare you say such a thing against your sister?” Ngozi flared up, approached and slapped him
Ugonna was surprised, he never expected his mother to raise her hand at him.
While still holding his left cheek, he asked: “Mama, so you raised your hand on me all because of this armed robber of a child.”
“Shut your mouth or slap you again. I am your mother and I will do it again!” Ngozi scolded
Ugonna stood, continued burning in anger, searching for a way to recover his money from Dimma.
He then moved to where Dimma was standing shocked, watching what was happening.
“Dimma, I demand you hand over my money to me, I mean now!”
“Ugonna, leave my hand now! I demand you leave my hand now!” Dimma forcefully release her arm from Ugonna’s hand
“The only thing I will tell you now is that, I don’t have your money, I haven’t stolen from anyone before and I won’t start doing it now. If you like, you believe me, if you don’t, that’s your own business” she said, heading back inside.
“Mama, you see that? She walked out on me. See what your precious daughter has become. You keep pampering her, that’s why she chose this dangerous path. But let me make this clear now, I’m giving her until the next morning to return my money to me and return it complete, otherwise, she will regret ever having me as a brother” Ugonna warned, heading to his room.
“Chineke, hope you are in heaven watching what is happening? My son is no longer himself, my children no longer see eye to eye, why all this God? Have I failed in my duties as a mother?” She lamented, looking up to heaven with.
She then went to her son’s room and began asking him what happened.
“My son tell me exactly what happened?” She calmly asked
“Mama, this is the question you should have asked instead of raising your hand on me”
“Yes I know, that’s why I came to your room now to find out exactly what happened”
“Mama, could you believe that Chidimma has been threatening to hurt Ebube ever since she began working at the restaurant. She said she will cook up a plan that will force me to throw her out of the business. They hid this from me because she is my sister, so that I don’t get into a fight with her. And this night, she came to the restaurant with a knife and robbed them the money we realised this evening. All the evidence they found pointed to her. I’m so disappointed”
“Who told you this?” Ngozi asked
“Ebube and Diogor”
Immediately he mention their names, Ngozi felt weak.
She began crying:
“My son, I said this earlier that employing Ebube will bring about your ruin. How can you believe them?”
“What are you talking about Mama?”
“OK this robbery incident, when did it happened?”
“This night”
“You see, and your sister has been reading since morning. She never stepped out of the house”
“Oh come on Mama! How would you know if she left the house or not, were you in the room with her all night? I also heard that she is going with special centers for the exams, which means she will be spending close to 40 thousand for the exam, now where did she get such amount of money from?”
“My son, those people are simply manipulating you. Your si”
“Enough Mama, I don’t want to hear any more of it. I know you won’t see reasons from my own side, but let me give you a piece of message to deliver to your precious daughter, if she fails to give me my money before tomorrow morning, she should forget the exam” he said, interrupting his mother
“What? You simply don’t mean that, do you?”
“Mama, please leave my room now, you have overstayed your time”
“You are asking me to leave your room?”
“Yes Mama, leave. Just leave, there is no point of you staying here, you should be with your daughter, advising her to bring out the money from wherever she hid it…. Just go please”
“Hmm, alright…. I’m going…” She then left, feeling sad.
And then headed to her daughter’s room and began narrating all Ugonna said to her.
“Dimma my daughter, I want you to tell me the truth, did you go to the shop today?”
“Mama, I can’t believe you are asking me that?”
“Off course you didn’t, but he is so serious about stopping you from writing the exam tomorrow. Dimma, if you had listened to me and returned to the restaurant, all this things wouldn’t have been happening. How can I see my children fighting like this, you two want to send me to my grave before my time”
“I don’t know why you are worrying yourself over this. Forget him, he is only ranting, he can’t do anything. I want you to go to your room and sleep. Forget Ugonna, he is only making noise” she said, helping her to stand up.
The next morning about 6:12 am when Dimma was getting ready, Ugonna stormed her room, asking her to give him his money.
“Ugonna, as you can see, I’m getting ready for my exam, please leave my room”
And Ugonna felt insulated, as his anger aggravated.
He then grabbed the door and shot it, locking it from outside.
“Let me see how you will write that your stupid exam today. Nonsense.”
“What is the meaning of this? Ugonna, open this door. I demand you open this door now.”
“I’m with the key… You are not going anywhere until you return my money to me”
My Sugar Baby by Ngozi Lovelyn
To be continued…
Warning – No part of this work should be copied, use, reproduce, redistribute either electronically or manually without permission from the author.
Copyright – ngozilovelyn.com 2018
