Kora

"You have to go in."

"But I don't want to go in. I'm not ready to go in. I want to go back to the hotel."
She turned to walk away before he grabbed her arm and pulled her back to the door.

"It's been two days Kora. You can't run from home forever. You can't stay in a hotel forever. I already promised your mum I was going to bring you home today remember?"

She turned to face him quickly, clapping her hands together and rubbing them against each other like she was about to beg him.

"I just need two more days, two days and you can bring me home I promise. You don't have to bother about paying the hotel bill, I'll take care of it."

"Come on Kora."

Their whispers were getting louder and louder at the start of each conversation. It was easy driving Kora home but she changed her mind the moment they got down from the car. She wasn't sure she was ready yet, she wasn't sure she was ready to be inside that house again, to see her mother again after what she did, after what she found out.

She still needed a break, some time to get her head straight. Jeremiah had already called to inform Lilian of their whereabouts two days before so she didn't have to worry so much. Not like she had a choice, she knew that Kora's heart was still broken from learning the truth and she needed some time to heal, so she didn't argue a lot. She had to give her her space.

"I can't let you stay in a hotel all by yourself again." He whispered again. "I have to stop by the hospital remember?"

Kora exhaled, she didn't like it. She didn't like it at all. Jeremiah exhaled and turned to the door, he was going to ring the bell when Kora grabbed his arm and pulled him back. He rolled his eyes. The back and forth was getting really frustrating. He turned to her.

"Please, don't." She shook her head. She really didn't want to.

The door opened immediately and it made Jeremiah turn in response while Kora just grabbed on to his arm, shutting her eyes and biting her lower lip in regrets. She wished she had just made a run for the front gate when she could. Now she couldn't because Lilian had already opened the door and was standing right behind her

"Mrs Olori." Jeremiah had a bright smile on his face as he looked at her. She managed to return the smile back.

"Jeremiah." Her voice shook. She looked really nervous too, not like she had any good night's rest since Kora left the house. Her heart was heavy with worry and fear, seeing Kora standing there, made everything better. "How are you?"

"I'm fine Mrs Olori." He slowly turned to Kora, she gave him the look but he totally ignored it, he pulled her forward and turned her around slowly till she faced Lilian. "I brought her home as promised."
Kora turned her head slightly to eye him. So it was planned? She couldn't believe he could betray her like that.

She let out a shaky breath and then turned back to the door, Lilian had her eyes glued to her. She took her eyes away immediately and then stormed into the house.

"Thank you so much for looking after her Jeremiah." Lilian couldn't forget to show her gratitude. "It really means a lot to me."

"No worries at all. I should get going now, I have somewhere to be."

Lilian nodded, permitting him to be on his way. She on the other hand, she was really anxious to shut that door and go after Kora. She still had some apologizing to do since it looked like Kora had not forgiven her yet. She ran up the stairs, after her, hurrying as fast as she could so she could meet up.

"Kora?" She called her name as she got to the door while Kora stood in front of it, searching for her keys and opening her door when she found it. "Kora can we talk?"

Kora walked into her room.

"No." She said. "I don't want to talk to you." She closed the door immediately.

*************************************************

Meanwhile,

The past two days had been the worst for the other part of the Ozor's. I'm talking about Christian and Natalie. It had been exactly two days since what happened, two days since Natalie got her surgery and nothing remained the same after that, not for her and definitely not for Christian.

There he was, opening another bottle for beer again, drinking in broad daylight, it was all he ever did. He had taken a short break from babysitting after Kodi had volunteered to help, and the little bar close to the hospital was the first place he found himself. This time, he wasn't drinking alone.

"You should stop drinking." Emmanuel was sick of it. He had been going on and on for over an hour now. "Drinking isn't going to change anything. It's not going to help Natalie or you. How do you intend to face her when you reek of alcohol."

"It's easy for you to say," Christian poured himself a drink. "You have no idea what it feels like being in that room." He dropped the bottle. "Being constantly reminded of how much of a failure you are and how much you can't even protect anyone?"
He raised his glass to his mouth and took a quick drink from it. He exhaled loudly when the cup was empty and then dropped it with a loud thud on the table. He reached for the bottle again.

"You have to slow down or you'd hurt yourself." Emmanuel tried to warn him. Not like he could blame him for being that way. Anyone would lose their mind the way he was after being what he had been through the past two days.

"Do you know what it's like being in that room and not being able to face her?" Christian raised his glass up a little bit and then paused. "I can't even look at her without feeling guilty. Without feeling like ripping my heart out. I look at her and it's the doctors voice all over again. I can barely take the fact that she lost the baby before we even got the chance to raise it, to see it, I can't imagine how she's keeping up...how she's keeping up after the surgery." He drew a deep breath.

"Oh Emmanuel, you weren't there. You weren't there when the doctor told us that the baby was gone. You weren't there when the doctor told us that she had to have a hysterectomy surgery to take out her womb because it had been damaged thanks to the chemical in that tea that my own step mother gave her. When he told her that there was zero possibility of her ever giving birth in the future? She couldn't take it. She didn't even do anything wrong to deserve it, her only crime was being my wife. That was her only offense, getting married to someone like me, someone selfish, someone that cares about no one but himself. I couldn't even protect her. She won't cry or say a word to me since after her surgery, she keeps acting like she's okay so I don't feel so horrible about it but she's not. I can tell she's dying on the inside."

He raised the glass to his mouth and drank all of the beer. He exhaled again and dropped the glass, time to pour himself another drink.

"But drinking isn't going to help you or Nat." Emmanuel had to remind him just in case he had forgotten. "Drinking like this isn't going to comfort her. How do you think she's going to feel when she sees you like this? You said it yourself, she's only holding back because she doesn't want to see you miserable. Nat lost a baby and her womb, that's a lot to take in, you should be consoling her, not drinking and making her worry, she has enough to be worried about. Besides, it's not the end of the world Chris. Nowadays there's hope for partners in you and Nat's situation, you both can still be parents, you can still have kids through other means, IVF, surrogacy, even adoption. People do things like that nowadays. It's not the end of the world."

Christian scoffed.

"Have kids?" He scoffed. "That's if she doesn't leave me after this. I ruined her life Manuel, my family, this family, we did this to her. How is she ever going to get over it? Get over what we did to her? How am I even supposed to face her parents? Natalie asked that we didn't tell them now but i don't know how they are going to take it when they find out."

He took a deep breath, he looked so miserable, felt so miserable too. He sniffed and then turned back to the bottle.

"What about that witch? That murderer? Have you found her yet?"

Now he was referring to the author and finisher of everything that was happening. Susan.

"Not yet." Manny told him. "We still haven't found her. She checked out of her hotel two days ago. We think someone tipped her about it, she has been on the run since then. If she's running, It only means one thing, she is guilty."

"Of course she is. She gave Natalie that tea she's been drinking. It was her plan all along, to keep Dad's fortune in her family line."

"She was last spotted boarding a train to Kaduna. She fled the moment she found out that she was being followed. Your father and I are doing all we can to find her so there's no way she can leave this city without us finding out. We already informed all the authorities, they are working with make sure she's apprehended." Emmanuel exhaled. "You have nothing to worry about, we'd get justice for Natalie. I'll burn this whole city to the ground if I must, just to find her."

Christian raised his head to him. He wished he had any smiles left but he didn't. Hearing those words form Emmanuel warmed this heart a little bit.

"Thank you brother." He said right before his phone rang. He swallowed hard as he reached for his pockets in search for it, he got it out and answered quickly.

"Kodi?" He was feeling drowsy a little bit as he rubbed his forehead and then his eyes opened wide the moment he heard Kodi. "W-wait, slow down and say it again."

"Natalie's parents are here." Kodi said from the other end of the phone. "They are causing a scene and asking that the hospital discharges her. I think they found out about what happened. They are really upset and won't listen to me or her, they want to take her away."

*************************************************

Christian ran as fast as he could down the hallway leading to Natalie's room in the VIP ward, passing about five men in suits that looked like they were guarding the room while Emmanuel rushed as fast as he could right behind him. They could hear the hoarse voice that belonged to Natalie's father even before they got to the room. Christian had his head all over the place. He looked a mess and he had barely even shaved. He cleaned his hands nervously on his trousers as he followed the loud voices into the really huge room. Kodi ran to him first, she looked so confused and so scared and didn't know what to do.

"I tried to stop them." She told him

"It's okay." He assured her as he gently pulled her out of his way, his eyes focused on the bed and the old couple in front of it. Natalie's mother had her hands around Natalie's hands and she was crying as hard as he had ever seen her, while Natalie looked like she didn't know how to comfort her. She looked like she was pushing a lot of tears back in while she breathed oxygen from her NC. Her father stood above the bed, supervising and instructing the maid that had come with them who was busy folding all of Natalie's things into a small box.

Christian pushed himself further into the room. Taking his gaze slowly away from Natalie and drawing it back to her father. The old stern looking man with a red cap on his head, complete native attire and a long walking stick noticed Christian immediately and his frown got worse.

"Dad." Christian had to be as polite as he could. "Dad, I had no idea you had arrived from your vacation in Greece." It was the first time, the first time Christian had ever called any of Natalie's parents that way.

"Dad?" The man turned fully to face Christian. He took his hand back and by the time it came back, it struck Christian's face hard. Everyone gasped.

"Dad," Natalie forced those words out of her mouth as tried to get up but her mother pulled her back. She wasn't going to let her interfere this time, Christian deserved what was coming.

"How dare you?" The man asked Christian, his voice echoing around the room and even the hallway, that was how thick his voice was. "How dare you and your father do this to my daughter? How dare you!"

He knew. Kodi was right, they had managed to find out what had happened and he had no idea how.

"Is this what you had in plan when you asked for her hand in marriage? You planned to make her barren? To destroy her life?"

Natalie's mother got up from the bed quickly and rushed to them.

"You wicked child." She was pounding on Christian's chest with both her fists but he just stood still. He couldn't stop them or look at them, he was weak, from head to toe, he was embarrassed. He deserved it, he knew he did.
"After making her cry for two years, after neglecting her for two years, you finally finished me, you've finally killed my daughter. You animal! What wrong did we do? What wrong did we do to give our daughter to you? What wrong has my daughter done for you people to do this to her? To make her barren. To destroy her life like this!" She was crying so hard and no one could stop her.

A drop of tear fell from Christian's eyes as she pulled him to the ground with her, bringing him to his knees while he tried to hold her from falling. Manny rushed to help her up while Christian remained on his knees, he was so ashamed to stand up. So ashamed to face them.

"Father, mother." He placed his hands on his thighs. "I'm sorry." He apologized to them. "I'm really sorry for the way I treated Natalie all those years. I'm really sorry for not being able to protect her but I beg you," he raised his head to them as the tears that fell got even worse. "Don't take her away from me, she's all I have, please."

Natalie's father scoffed.

"I'd do everything right from now on. I'd protect her from now on please all I ask for is one more chance. One more chance to make things right."

"You have some guts asking for such a nonsense favor." He told her. "You want me to leave my daughter with you so you and your father can finally kill her? I should have known. I should have taken her away from your cursed family the moment I had the chance. As from now on, my daughter comes with me, she would get treated at our family's hospital and come back home, to her house where she should have always been. Send all her things to the house for me immediately, I don't want you or your family to have anything to do with my daughter as from today. She has nothing to do with you anymore."

He turned to the maid. She was done packing. Natalie's mother hurried to help her up. Natalie got up slowly, she wasn't going to resist. She barely had enough energy left besides she knew her father wasn't the one to joke with. If he said he was leaving that hospital with her, then that was what he was going to do. She knew she had to leave so Christian didn't get hurt.

"Get to the car." Her father instructed her and her mother as the maid walked in front of them with the box, leading them to the door.

"Natalie," Christian rushed to stop her from moving. Natalie turned to him slowly. She had tears falling from her face. "Natalie please don't do this, please don't leave me." He tried to beg her. He couldn't even help himself now, he was crying so well. "I don't know what I'm going to do without you, I don't know how I'd live without you please,"

"I said get to the car now!" Her fathers hoarse voice made her and her mother jump a little in fright. Natalie sniffed and then turned to Christian's hand on her wrist. She slowly reached for it and pushed it away. She was heartbroken and didn't know what to say, she could barely speak and was still in shock from what had happened.

"I'm sorry." She managed to whisper and then turned to the door and continued to limp to it with her mother's assistance.

"No," Christian tried to stop her again but Manny hurried to him and grabbed him. He knew he had to stop him from making a scene. The minister's bodyguards were right outside and were going to do all they could to stop him. That wasn't a good time or a fight that they were going to win.

They walked away.