LOVE & JUSTICE! Episode 6.

To read the previous episode, click here

*****

(Joseph)

I left the home of Lucky to a very quiet place to be alone with my thoughts. This was the first time someone had called me a bastard. My house was the least place I could go to vent out my anger, pain and emotion. As I recalled the insult from Tom Okoye, the tears from Lucky made my bones turn weak. He spoke to me as if I was the cause of not knowing my real parents. It brought tears to my eyes that because of that, I might never be with woman I passionately love with all my heart. I will never back down on Lucky. No matter what happens, I will fight for her. 

My phone buzzed inside my pocket, I took it and checked the caller name. I thought it was Lucky but I was surprised to see it was Sebastian. I refused to answer. The tears from my eyes won’t stop, even when I tried to, more tears drained down to my neck. I wiped off my face with my bare hands and cleared my throat after it rang the third time. I answered.

“Hello.” I said.

“Why have you not been picking?” he asked. “Have you met Lucky’s parents?”

I stayed quiet. I was ashamed to tell him the truth. The humiliation was too huge to swallow. I remained silent.

“Joseph,” he said. “I will not take silence for an answer. Did her family reject you?”

I sighed and mumbled silently. 

“Talk to me!!”

“Her parents did not accept me.”

I heard a shrug in his voice. “Where are you?”

“I want to be alone for now.”

“You cannot be alone. I am sorry her parents rejected you but you have to talk to someone about it. You have to let it out!! Tell me exactly where you are now!”

I gave up. I told him of my whereabouts.

“Do not move an inch!” he uttered. “My driver will come and get you. He will take you to my house and I will join you.”

“Please don’t stay long.”

“I won’t.”

 *****

“Dad how could you?” Lucky asked her father continuously without a feedback from him. Her mom had ceased her phone from her. She never bothered, whenever she wanted to see Joseph, she knew where to go to. She followed her father to his room and fell on her knees.

“Stand up Munachi!!” he shouted at her. “You will be making a terrible mistake if I allow you to marry that man!”

She remained on her bended knees. The tears that flooded from her rainy eyes could fill up a bucket. He sat on the edge of his bed, looked at his daughter, and his heart divided into two. The tears that littered on her face were not the cause of his broken heart. He no longer saw the smile that always fondled on her lips. It had vanished. It faded away the moment he disapproved of her relationship with Joseph. Even when his wife tried to take the ring off their daughter’s finger, she refused and fought back. 

He loved his daughter. He wanted her happiness and the right man for her. Tom made those awful statements to push Joseph away. His real reason was that he thought Joseph was after his daughter’s riches.

“I am sorry for calling him a bastard.” he implored.

Lucky lifted her face up and looked straight into her father’s eyes. “You should apologize to Joseph and not me. You hurt the man I love. How could you call him an outcast? He did not create himself but God did.”

“I will never stoop so low and say sorry to a man that is not on my level. I will continue to say the truth. He will not be able to take care of you!”

She cleaned her face with the back of her hands but her eyes were still watery. “I will take care of myself. I am a woman and I know what I want.”

“Stand up Lucky.” he said in a firm tone.

She stood up out of respect. 

He spread out his arms and said to her. “Please come forward.”

She sniffed her nose, moved a few steps and entered into her father’s arms. “I want the best for you my daughter. I know love is a beautiful thing but you have to think of your future. I loved the fact that Joseph was bold enough to profess his love for you but how do I know his love is true?”

“He truly loves me father.”

“The moment I handover the Construction Company to you and you get married to Joseph, my sweat, my establishment becomes for the two of you. I want you to get married to the right person and not a man that want to reap from where he did not sow. I have never told you or Nathan this before, but I will tell only you. Your mother was not the woman I was supposed to marry.”

She widened her eyes. “You never loved mother?”

“I liked her a lot and she had everything I wanted for a wife. I wanted an already made woman for a soul partner.”

“Are you saying the woman you truly loved was from a poor home?”

He shut his eyes and lips tightly. He heaved a sigh, opened his eyes, and looked away. “Yes.”

“But why father?”

“She would not have offered me anything. Your mother and I were successful people, and we got married.”

Lucky strode to face her father. “But the woman you left would have given you undying love, care, commitment and everlasting happiness. You let her go because she was not rich. It’s unfair!”

“I had no choice. Your mom loves me and I love her too.”

“Do you think my mom would have loved you if you were poor?”

He rubbed his lower lip with his left index finger. 

She spoke after no response. “I think you already know the answer to that question. Where is this woman?”

“I have no idea. I gave her money to start a new life but she rejected it and left. I never saw her again.”

“I am happy that you married my mom and gave birth to my brother, and I. However, if there is another life and you had the same opportunity, marry the woman you love, and I assure you your life would have been better and brighter and you will not have made such hateful words to the man your daughter loves.”

“I don’t regret getting married to your mother and I will do the same thing over and over again.”

“Why?” she asked stunned.

He sighed audibly and held her hands. “She gave birth to a selfless and the most amazing woman I have ever come across with and that person is you.”

Her eyes began to get misty again. She smiled with her shaky lips.

Tom Okoye added. “I also have a wonderful son.” he quickly wiped away the tears about to drop from his daughter’s eyes. “I will rethink about Joseph and I will give you my final word after I get back from my trip.”

“Will Dominic still follow you?”

“Yes. If you marry Dominic, he will help our Company grow. We are in the tenth position in Nigeria. Dominic is ready to be an investor and become one of the board-directors.”

“It’s a good idea.” Lucky said. “But he does not have to be my husband for him to do that.”

“I will make the right decision when I get back.”

“I want you to always know that your decision will determine my happiness for the rest of my life.”

He nodded, and smiled. “Your happiness is my priority.”

******

(Joseph)

Mrs. Ayo Akande received me warmly into her home. She offered me a cup of hot tea, she left me alone for a while and later came and sat down beside me.

I drank the remaining last drop of my tea when she asked what my girlfriend father said to me. I had concluded that Sebastian had briefed her over the phone before I came. 

“If I had a daughter,” she said. “And she presented you as my future son in law, I will not think twice. I will accept you.”

I gave her a sincere smile. “Thank you ma.”

We heard the horn of a car. I suspected Sebastian was back. 

His mother said. “Whatever challenges you are passing through, if you cannot speak to me about it, let my son know. He is ready to help you in any way he can.”

“I know.”

“If it’s money that is the reason that your girlfriend father’s cannot accept you, I will tell Sebastian to give you money to start a lucrative business of your choice.”

I explained what happened. Sebastian heard as he entered into the living room. Mother and son exclaimed in shock. She moved closer to me and wrapped her right arm around my neck to console me. I became emotional, the tears I struggled not to pop out from my eyes poured on my face.

“What do you want to do now?” Sebastian requested and sat down. Mrs. Akande released me and scurried away. She was in tears. I wiped off my face and looked at him. His eyes were red. He was staring at me angrily.

“Lucky and I will discuss about the next step to take.”

“You still want to be with that woman after what her father said to you?!”

“I cannot abandon Lucky because of her parents. I have to prove to them that Lucky and I love each other.”

“I do not know the reason why your family abandoned you but I expected you to make her father pay for calling you a bastard! Say yes and I will take any contract awarded to their Company. I will do everything I can, to bring them down!”

“You destroy the company, you hurt Lucky. I do not have the heart to do that. I will sort myself out.”

“If you were my real brother,” he said in a furious tone. “I would have wrestled you and beat you up so that you can receive some sense from me!! There are so many fishes in the river, why do you want to kill yourself over a woman? Must you get married to her?!”

“Who changed you?” I asked.

“What?” 

“Was your heart broken before?”

Sebastian made a face and rose on his feet. He told me about Michelle. 

“Even if she did that to you that does not mean all woman are bad.”

“Please shut up and let’s talk about Lucky! Leave her alone with her family!”

“Don’t tell me to shut up!!” I swiftly lifted up. “I know that you are a good person. You are hiding your true character because you think people will ride on you when they know your true self. I do want to have any misunderstanding with you because I respect your mother, you and our friendship. The only thing I will not take likely with you is if you disrespect my woman!”

 

“You are defending her but she could not do the same thing to you in front of her parents!”

I had no intention to argue with him anymore. In other to avoid a rift between us, I simply walked away from the living room. 

“Where are you going to?” Sebastian asked.

“I need to tell your mom I am leaving.”

“You are going home?” he asked surprisingly. “I thought you were going to spend the night here?”

“Not anymore.” I replied him and left.

******

The next day Lucky came over to my place to ask for forgiveness on behalf of her father. She had reduced a little weight overnight. I made it known to her, it was not her fault but her father must apologize to me one day. She narrated what her father told her.

“What makes you think he will agree?” I asked.

“He wants my happiness. Have faith love, we are going to get married.” She smiled and kissed me. “Does Sister Theresa know about what happened?”

“No.”

“Will you tell her?”

“She knows something is wrong. She asked me before she left the house this morning and I believe she will continue to pester me to say the truth.”

“Will you tell her the truth?”

“I cannot lie to her.” I replied.

Lucky gave a faint smile and took a deep breath. She told me the real reason why her father does not want me to marry her. “He said those things to spite you.”

I told her I did not want to talk about it anymore. I only craved for some free time and spend with her. 

Sebastian called me on the phone and expressed regret for shouting at me. 

“It’s in the past.” I said to him. “I have forgotten about it.”

We scheduled to meet the following weekend. Few days later at 9: pm, Sister Theresa came to meet me in my room and requested for my attention. I rose from the bed and sat on it. 

“I want you to tell me exactly what happened between Lucky’s parents and you.” 

I narrated the ordeal. An enormous frown puckered on her face; still, her ageless beautiful face did not change. I wondered why she became a nun. If she had married, her children would have been adorable. Even in her early fifties, her beauty never washed-out.

“How I wish I followed you there,” she continued. “I would not have taken such hostility from her father! Who is he? What does he even do?”

I told her he was the CEO of TOK Construction Company.

She opened her eyes. “Tom Okoye is Lucky’s father?” she asked in an surprised tone.

“Yes.” I asked with my left eyebrow up. “Do you know him?”

Sister Theresa touched her chest and blinked her eyes. “No…n…no..I…I…I do not know him.” she stammered and turned to leave.

“Mom, is everything okay?” I asked.

“Yes, everything is okay my son. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

*****

After work on a Thursday evening, Lucky called me to meet her up at a hotel she had booked for the night for the two of us. She took me unaware of a romantic dinner of different varieties of delicious meals and fine wine. She wanted us to have an alone time and talk and plan our future. Her father and brother had travelled.

“There’s something you should know.” I said to her. “I bought a small land three years ago. I am going to start up a business of my own.”

“Have you thought of any business?”

I informed her that my friend abroad I do help to sell his cars, promised to order for new and quality vehicles for me. I sell them and pay him.

“That is good but your friend has to be honest about it.”

“I know.” Joseph said. “I have also seen a two bedroom flat for us to rent when we get married. It is a new building and the owner, the manager of the firm I work with has given me between now and two months to move in.”

The smile on her lips spread wide. “Are you saying you want us to get married before then?”

“Your father is coming in two weeks’ time, right?”

“Yes.” she replied. 

“The day he says yes to our relationship, we will plan our wedding.”

“I want a small wedding. It will just be us, the pastor, our family, your colleagues and close friends.”

“Anything for you my love.”

After dinner, we went to a decorated room. Candles, flowers surrounded everywhere.

We bathed together before romancing the bed. Lucky was the first to attack me with a hot wet kiss. We glued each other, we devoured ourselves, kissed our lips, and I cuddled her soft and warm body tenderly. I wanted our first love making on our wedding night but the urge overpowered my brain, mind and body. The feeling was on an extraordinary level for me to stop. I made love to Lucky and it became the greatest night ever.

“You are my knight,” she whispered to me before she fell asleep into my arms. 

As early as five in the morning, I went into the bathroom for a cold bath. I heard my phone beep, Lucky woke up, checked my phone and she informed me I had a text message from Sebastian. I gave her the permission to read it loud for me.

*****

After the secretary of Sebastian had finished giving him a blowjob in his office, she went back to her respective desk and found a woman asking after her employee. She went to inform him of his guest and when he mentioned her name, he agreed for her to see him.

He rose up the moment she entered. “How are you Lucky?”      

                   

She dashed to his desk, dropped her handbag on the table and remained on her feet. “I am doing well.”

He offered her a chair but she declined. 

“I am only here to warn you to stay away from my love life.” she said in a serious tone.

Sebastian upper lip lifted up and he dipped his hands into the pockets of his trouser. “I am listening.”

“I met Joseph before you,” Lucky said. “You have no right to tell him who he should love. It’s a warning. I saw the text message you sent him. How could you? How could you tell him to look for someone else, if my father thinks he is not good enough for me? Am I complaining? Are you supposed to tell him that to make him feel better or worse? What do you gain from this Sebastian Kehinde Akande?”

“Have you finished ranting?”

“You call this a rant?” she asked in a dazed tone.

“How can you burst into my office and talk to me in such a way? This is not about what I think about your fictitious affair but the fact that you have never liked me. You want me out of Joseph’s life!”

Lucky grunted and shook her head. “You need deliverance! I cannot choose who should be my fiancé’s friends but…”

Sebastian roared into laughter disrespectfully. “Fiancé? You have to wait for your father’s approval to call him that. You are taking Joseph backward, let him go, get married to the punk your father want for you! That will make Joseph more determined to succeed in life and your father will regret his maltreatment on an innocent man! I have told Joseph that if your father refuse to apologize to him and he eventually marry you, our friendship is over!”

“That is blackmail! How can you come into his life, made him to think you are the brother, close friend he never had. How could you? You are trying to intimidate him!”

“I am trying to make him strong Lucky!”

She sneered. “You lie! You are trying to make him turn into you.” he gave her a puzzled look. “You are full of yourself, egocentric and rude! I am not going to quarrel with you any longer. I am done trying to make Joseph think he can change you into a better person. I believe in my man, I believe we will be together but I do not know about you. I do not think you can ever put yourself in line to safe anyone!”

“You are wrong,” he said with earnestness from his heart. “You don’t know anything about me. You have no clue what I am capable of doing. I can do anything for anyone I love.”

“Then if you truly love Joseph Dolapo as a brother,” she said with sincerity from the tone of her soft voice. “Lead him to the right path. Guide and protect him. I want you to fight for him!”

Sebastian looked into her eyes and smiled. “I will try my best and help him.”

Lucky nodded and faintly smiled. “I have to go now. Take good care of yourself.”

“Won’t you stay a little longer and take a drink?”

“I have a lot of work to do at the office.” she carried her bag, turned to the entrance of his door. He watched her as she walked away.

*****

Two days later, Lucky received a call from Joseph that he was dismissed from his job. His boss had sacked him without any concrete explanations.

“This is the handwork of my mother!” she spat out in an angry tone. From the day they began to date, he has never heard her speak in such tone. “I will confront her!”

“You will do no such thing! Let her be.”

“How can you say I should let her be? Can you hear yourself?”

“I will start up a business. It might be a blessing in disguise. I will also send my proposal to different companies so that they can invest in me. I might be lucky.”

“Send it to my Company!”

“I will do no such thing.”

“What about Sebastian?”

“No. I will help myself. Whatever I achieved in the past, I did it on my own. Don’t worry my love, everything will be alright.”

Lucky cut the call on him and flung her phone on her table. She was not only angry at what had happened but she was also furious at Joseph.

*****

Mrs. Ayo and her brother Adebayo, a medical doctor peeped through one of the windows from the living room. They were staring at Joseph and Sebastian under the car park. The two men were having a drink and cracking jokes. 

“What are your plans now that you know you are jobless?” Sebastian asked Joseph.

Joseph had no idea Lucky confronted him. He put down his glass cup in front of him and stared at him. “Thank you for reminding me.” He explained his plans. 

“This is suffering and smiling. You are stressing yourself Joseph. Come and work for me.”

“Thanks but no.”

“I don’t think Lucky has not seen this side of you. You are very stubborn.”

His face brightened. “Thank you for the compliment.”

“You are not serious.” Sebastian pushed Joseph by the shoulder teasingly. 

“I feel so guilty whenever these two are with each other,” Mrs. Ayo Akande said to Dr. Adebayo. They sat together on a long sofa “Will Sebastian ever forgive me?”

He sighed systematically. “Do you want to tell him the truth?”

She looked at his face. “I can’t. I made a terrible mistake. I can no longer amend it anymore. Ever since Joseph came into his life, he has been very happy. His twin brother should be the one to have that place in his heart. How can a stranger have such a great effect on him? I still cannot believe it.”

Adebayo hushed his mouth when Joseph entered and told them he was leaving. 

Mrs. Ayo questioned. “Is Sebastian escorting you?” she asked.

“Yes. He will drive me home.”    

                                                                                                         

“He will use the opportunity to meet your mom,” she said. “Next time, I will follow you so that I can meet her too.”

“She would be happy to receive you in her home.” Mrs. Ayo, smiled, hugged and prayed for him before he left. Sebastian and Joseph entered the back seat and the driver sat in front. The car was about to move when Sebastian told his driver to leave without him, he was having a running stomach. He apologized to Joseph of which he understood. He came out and watched the driver drive the car away.

Unknowingly, Mrs. Ayo continued to speak as she became unaware of her son approaching the house. He paused at the doorstep when he heard his mother talk about his twin brother.

“I do not know if I should trace the whereabouts of Sebastian’s twin brother. How can I tell my son that his brother never died but I abandoned him because of my selfish reason?”

A magnanimous shock of wave engulfed the whole of Sebastian’s body. If not for his strength, he would have fainted. He remained quiet to listen more.

She continued, “I am ashamed for what I did. I don’t even know how Stefan Taiwo Akande would be doing now. Whenever I see Joseph, I feel bad for leaving my son. I don’t even know the name he will be bearing by now.”

“You thought you made the right decision,” her brother said. “If you think this is eating you up, reveal the truth to your son and ask for forgiveness.”

The anger that had consumed Sebastian could turn into a grenade and tear his mother apart! He opened the door and it startled them.

“Forgiveness?” he asked and walked towards his mother.

“Oh my God!!” she exclaimed out of shock. She fell on her knees, her eyes were scared and her body shivered. Tears rolled down her face. “Please forgive me my son.”

“How could you lie to me?!” he asked her. His eye had turned red hot. “You made me think my brother died after childbirth, you made me feel lonely for thirty one years when you knew my twin is alive? What kind of a mother are you?!”

“Please forgive your mother.” Adebayo pleaded.

Sebastian closed his eyes. “If not that you are older than me, I would have told you to shut up and leave my house!”

“I am sorry.”

He opened his bloodshot eyes and tears gushed out. He said to his mom, “I will leave and never come back if you don’t tell me the truth!! I need answers and you must tell me what really happened!”

She swallowed. “Will you forgive me if I tell you what happened?”

“Don’t make me change my mind. Give me an explanation!”

She sniffed her runny nose. “Before I became pregnant for your father, I was his house maid for him, his wife and children. After he lost his family in a plane crash, I slept with him after he mourned his wife. I became pregnant and your father threw me out. He said I seduced him because he was rich and he felt the pregnancy was not for him. My brother and I were poor! We used the money we had for my antenatal care, feeding and medication. I gave birth to you and your brother. I did everything to make sure you survive but your twin brother was always falling sick. I was scared he would die out of poverty. I had no choice but to take him to a place I thought was safer. It was after two years your father came back to ask for a DNA test to prove if I said the truth to him. The result came out positive!”

“Did he know about my twin?”

“I lied he died after falling sick that was why he married me legally, showered you with love, helped my brother with his education and gave you everything he had.”

“But why didn’t you tell him the truth about my twin brother?”

She shook her head and more tears leaked out from her eyes. He had seen his mother cry before but he never saw such volume of tears from her eyes. It did not move him. 

She answered him. “If he had known what I had done, he would have taken you away from me. I was afraid of losing you too!”

“Where is my brother?” he asked as his lips tumbled. “I have to look for him!!”

“I don’t know!!”

“Where did you take him to? You have to remember!!”

Mrs. Akande looked at her Sebastian’s inflamed eyes. “I kept him in a basket. I placed your twin brother in front of a Catholic Church!”

******

To be continued on Thursday morning