After the men left, Emeka called Vincent, telling him what happened and advised him to be out of sight.
Immediately Emeka left to open the door, Rose took the box and hid it inside the sack of rice that was in the kitchen. She hid it inside thinking that Chitto had located her to Emeka’s place
After Emeka called his brother, he received another call from his secretary who informed him of his need to be in the office, that he had a government job, about printing a billboard. On hearing that, he quickly got prepared and left for the office, promising to return as soon as he was done.
Rose began taunting herself for ever trying to tell Emeka about the gold, and got glad she never did.
She then began making calls, asking some of the rich sugar daddies she knew for contacts on how to sell the gold.
She later got a dealer who bargained to buy at N80million. He was the highest bidder and she sold it to him.
When Emeka returned to the house, she couldn’t find her.
“Baby, you are not here?”
“Yes, I left, I’m in my lodge now”
“In your lodge? But I told you that I will be back soon to be with you?”
“I got scared of staying. What if those men return again while you were away? So I had to leave”
“What about my gift then, you took it with you?”
“Baby, that thing is not a gift. It’s something I got from a friend, I wanted to show it to you to see if you can help me locate the buyers.”
“But you told me it was a gift?”
“Yes, it’s a kind of gift”
“What kind of gift?”
“Don’t worry, when I come, I will explain it to you, in a way you will understand “
“OK…..then”
Some minutes later, Emeka received a call from home.
“What? They took Udoka, to where?”
“I don’t know oo.. I am in pains here, but that is not the problem, they said that before they release her, we will give them 90million”
“90 what? Oh my God! Where the hell are we going to get that kind of money from?”
But Vincent was gnashing in pains as the nurses were attending to him.
“What of Mama, where is she?”
“She is at home.”
“What is all these nonsense now? See the problem you put us in when you can not learn how to control your urges. You knew you had such an important thing with you, and you still went ahead to bring in a woman into the hotel room?”
“Please stop reminding me of that, the mistake has already been done, let’s think on how to save our only sister”
“Vincent listen, if anything happens to my sister, I swear, I will never forgive you”
“Let’s stop arguing please, nothing will happen to her. How much do you have in your account?”
“What kind of question is that?”
“Let’s raise money for her release, that is our only option”
“Vincent, I’m a young man who just started life newly, I don’t even have 3 million to my name.”
“I guess my option will be to sell all my lands. All the money I managed to save while I was in Australia will now be gone all because of my reckless mistake.”
“Yes, that is what you deserve”
Vincent couldn’t raise the complete money, he gave them only 25 million and promised to complete the rest after he return to Australia.
But Ernest refused to release his sister.
“Maybe, she can do well raising the money for you”
“How do you mean?” Vincent asked
“Yes, you know how girls hustle Australia? You are so familiar with that”
“Please Ernest, she is my only sister, don’t exploit her, it’s not her fault. I have sold everything I have, why can’t you have mercy and give me sometime to complete the rest?”
“Vincent, you know that gold is not mine, the owner is raking. I’m giving you only 5 days to complete the money. I think I’m being merciful enough, right?” He ended the call
Vincent couldn’t help but burst into tears.
Emeka was getting worried.
“Why don’t we involve the police?”
“Please don’t, he has contacts everywhere and our sister will be in danger”
But Emeka still went ahead to inform the police and that aggravated matters for them.
Ernest’s police informant leaked the information to him.
He quickly called Vincent.
“Your brother reported me? Listen, I hate people who disobey my orders. Your sister will be the one to complete the money now.”
“Hey you. Bring the girl over here”
He ordered his men to draw the closer while he was still on call with Vincent.
“Now say your final farewell to your brother” and the phone was set close to her.
The sister was heard crying
“Brother, this people are wicked, please come and take me home, I want to see Mama”
“Udo, just hold on for me, I’m coming to take you home.” Vincent promised
“Enough with the chat now” Ernest said disconnecting the call.
Vincent feared for what he will do to Udoka.
“I have to do something, I really have to.”
He asked his brother to help him raise some money so that he could return to Australia.
“You are sounding desperate, hope you are not going there to do drug?” Emeka asked
“I don’t have any choice. That is the only easy way I can raise enough money to save our sister.”
“You want me to loose my brother too? What if you get caught?”
“Then the risk will be worth taking”
Emeka doesn’t have enough money. He emptied his account when they were raising money for Udoka’s release.
So in order to help his brother, he sold his only car.
Later, Vincent returned to Australia. But he wasn’t successful. He got caught and sent to prison.
Emeka broke down when he heard the news. There was nothing he could do for him, he only hoped for the best.
Rose was doing fine. She opened a massive cosmetic shop with some of the money. She told Emeka that her uncle granted her a loan.
Months later, on Emeka’s birthday, she bought him a brand new SUV as his birthday gift. He couldn’t believe it. He was overwhelmed with joy. Days later, he proposed to her.
After all that happened, he took Rose as the only source of happiness in his life after his mother died of heart attack. The pain of loosing her children was unbearable.
Months later, they got married.
Udoka was still held by Ernest, Vincent was still locked up in Australian prison.
Five years later, they were already blessed with 2 beautiful boys and was still expecting another one. Rose was the beautiful and kind wife any man could wish for. He never stopped thanking God for blessing him with her as his wife.
Life was going smoothly and beautiful for them until Emeka received a call from Vincent, asking him to come to the airport to pick him.
RUN by Ngozi Lovelyn
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
