Kora

I slammed the door, the moment I got down from the Uber.

"You wan break my door?"

I ignored the driver completely as I rushed towards the front gate. I began to hit the gate with all my strength.

"Ahmed!" I hit the gate again and again. "Ahmed!"
The peep through hole opened immediately, and I saw an eye peep through to me.

"Aunty Kora?"

"Ahmed, open the gate!" I ordered. It only took a few seconds before I heard a creaking sound, and then the gate opened quickly.

"Aunty kora, wetin happen?" I could hear the concern laced in his voice, but I just didn't care enough to explain to him, I didn't have to. The only person I needed to talk to, was in that big house right in front of me. I hurried as fast as I could, rushing to the front door. It was closed. How late was it anyway? It looked like everyone was already asleep or preparing to sleep. I started to bang at the front door. I wasn't going to stop until someone opened it.

I kept hitting the door as hard as I could, even though my hands were getting bruised and numb. The door opened after a few seconds.

"Second young madam." I could hear the surprise in her voice, and the look in her eyes as the maid stared at me.

"Where is he?" I asked her. I was sure I had even confused her the more. She must have been thinking who it was I was referring to.

"Kora?" I turned to the stairs the moment I heard my mother's voice. I watched her pull her robe tighter on her skin to cover her really tiny nightdress. She had a dashing look of surprise on her face. "Honey," she walked down the stairs, and then turned to the wall clock. She turned back to me. "How are you here and not in school, and so late?"

I let out an exhale, and rushed to the stairs. I knew exactly where he was. I could tell I had completely startled my mum with the way she was running up the stairs after me, yelling my name as loud as she could. I kept walking. All the questions I wanted to ask him flooding my head, as I further approached the brown door. I turned the knob, and then barged in.

There he was, Mr Peter Olori. The man who had become the antagonist of my story from that moment. The man that had deprived me of my love and my happiness. Watching him sit still the way he did, even after I had barged into his room, with his eyes still glued to his paper from behind his rectangular glasses, made me even more irritated.

"Kora!" I heard my mother yell my name as she rushed into the room, and that gave him the morale to finally drop his paper and raise his head to me. Exactly what I was waiting for.

"What is the meaning of this?!" He raised his voice as he glared at me.

"Peter," my mother rushed further into the scene. Close enough to where I stood with my eyes focused on the potbellied man in front of me. I was so angry. "Peter, please don't be upset." My mum said in my defense. "Kora just had a long day at school today. I'll talk to her."

She turned to me quickly, and then reached for my arm.

"Let's talk outside."

I pulled my hand away from hers immediately, my eyes still glaring at him.

"Why did you do it?" I finally had the words to say to him. His frown got worse. Did he not understand? Did he not know what I was talking about?

"What is the meaning of this Kora?" My mum whispered to me. "Stop this nonsense at once." She kept tugging my arm, so I could look at her. I did, I just couldn't do what she wanted. I knew I had to take care of it, and I had to do it at that moment.

"Ask your husband." I told her. She squinted her eyes. "Ask him why he took Luke away from me, and gave him to Racheal!" Like he was a property. I was yelling at my mother now. God I was so angry. I never really liked her marriage with him anyway. He was one of the worsts of all of them. Of all the men she had ever married. Not like there was any better one.

"Kora, God. Luke again?" My Mum let out a weak sigh. She was really tired of having the Luke conversation.

"Luke is dating Racheal now." I had to make her understand where my anger was coming from. "He's been dating her for a year now, because your husband agreed to help get him into NAUN, and sponsor him all the way to football academy, if he did. He broke up with me because of him."

The more I talked, the more tears fell from my eyes, and with the way she furrowed her brows, I could see that she was just as surprised too.

"He knew I was dating Luke, Mum." I kept on talking. "Everyone knew how much Luke meant to me but he did it anyway probably because Racheal asked him to. He doesn't care about us, about me. He can never put me in the same bracket with Racheal. He can never see me as his daughter, so why should I?"

"Kora." I could sense the shock in my mother's eyes. She slowly turned to Peter. I could tell she was looking at him in a way that made him really uncomfortable, uncomfortable enough to make him clear his throat and then glare at me.

"Kini leleyi?" He asked finally getting up on his feet. "Are you going to come into my house," he continued, taking slow steps towards me. "Look me in the eye and disrespect me? Lie on me?"

"I'm not lying mum." I had to make sure my mum believed me. I watched her turn back to me.

"Shh." She told me. "That's enough."

"I'm really not lying." I continued "Racheal told me herself, and Luke didn't deny it either."

"That's enough, Kora!" My mum yelled at me so loudly that it echoed all around the room, and probably the house. I shook a little, looking into her eyes. I couldn't believe it. Was she actually taking his side.

"Mum." My voice broke

"Luke, Luke, Luke." She continued "Don't you ever get tired of chasing the same shadows over and over again? Don't you get tired of mentioning his name? He doesn't care about you anymore Kora, can't you see that? He has moved on."

What?

Was she serious? Didn't she hear anything I had just said?

"Mum. I just said he asked Luke to-"

"I heard what you said." She cut me off. "But he didn't force Luke to take that deal, he didn't threaten Luke either. Luke chose to do that on his own. He chose his future over you, and you have to deal with that. He's not deserving of you. You don't have to disrespect your parents because of it. You have to let him go."

I scoffed.
I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe any of it. What was this I was hearing?

"Baby," she reached for my hands. "You have a whole life waiting for you. A whole future, and Luke doesn't deserve to be in it, as a matter of fact we should be happy he's out of our lives for good. He'd have betrayed you sooner or later."

I sniffed, pulling my hand from hers.

"You're taking his side?"

"I'm not." She shook her head continuously, trying to assure me. "I just don't want you to be angry at your step father, or Racheal. Racheal is your sister, I don't want you to fight her over a boy."

Over a boy? How could she say that to me even after she knew just how much I loved Luke? How important he was to me? Everyone knew that for a fact. How could she say that to me, and not say anything to the man standing behind her?

"What's the point." I threw my hands in the air, and then watched it fall back on my thighs. "Why do I even bother to tell you anything when it's obvious you'd never take my side."

"That's not true Kora, and you know it. I've always taken your side, and that's why I've never been happy in any of my marriages. That's why they all failed."

She paused the moment she had realized all that she said. In as much as I couldn't believe my mother had just talked to me that way, I was sure she couldn't believe it either. She just stood still, and then placed a hand over her mouth like she wanted to stop herself from saying anything else. She was getting so red already.

"Wow." I raised my brows, still in disbelief. I never saw that coming.

"Kora." She pushed herself closer to me. "Kora I'm sorry. I didn't mean that-"

Of course she didn't, but I was too angry and hurt by her words to even care. I looked her in the eye.

"I'm never coming back here again." I told her, and I made sure she understood perfectly.

"Kora." She tried to touch me.

"Enjoy your precious marriage while you can, because it's still going to end like the rest of them anyway, whether I cause it or not, because you're the problem in all your marriages. Not me."

I turned to the door quickly and stormed out.

"Kora! Kora come back here, I'm not done talking to you!" She yelled. I could hear her from the stairs as I ran downstairs. "Kora please!"

I didn't care. I didn't care about any of it at all

"Madam Kora." I ignored the maid that tried to stop me as I approached the door. I ran out. I wasn't going back there. I wasn't going back to that house ever again, and I meant it.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Lady K

Lilian held on tight to her nightdress. It had been quite an outburst of emotions and it had led her into thinking if she had not handled the situation right in the first place. Watching kora leave the way she did hurt her a lot and kept her in a place she didn't ever want to be with kora.

Regrets.

She bit her finger harder, slowly turning back to the man in front of her, who still maintained the frown on his face.

God, did this man ever smile at all?

"Let her go." He said taking a step to her. "She's just having an outburst like normal kids her age do. Racheal does it a lot. In the end, she'd come back to her senses and realize she was just being too dramatic. Sho gbo?"

She let out an exhale, and then raised her head to him.

"Did you do it?" She asked, pulling her finger away from her mouth so she could give him all her undivided attention. "Did you give Luke an option to leave her?"

"Iru ibeere wo ni iyẹn? What kind of a question is that Lilian?"

She rolled her eyes like she knew he wasn't being completely honest with her, and he could just see right through her. He exhaled

"Ehn," he shrugged his shoulders. "The truth is, Racheal told me she liked the boy, and asked for my help in getting him into that school she wanted to go to." Now he was beginning to say the truth. "I met with him, and thought he was a smart kid. I offered to help him throughout his stay at the academy, and also get him signed to a club. I didn't know Racheal and him weren't dating. They told me they were."

"But you knew him." She said. "You knew Kora liked him. You knew they were friends. You knew they were in a relationship."

"How am I supposed to keep tabs on these children things? Since when was it my responsibility to know the boy your daughter dates, and when she breaks up with them? I am a busy man, and I only work with what I see."

She scoffed.

Peter exhaled and then took another step towards her. He stretched out his hands to hold her.

"Iyawo mi, we don't have to involve ourselves in this children drama. We are mature adults. Let the kids handle their own issues, while we handle ours. I'm sure it's not really that serious. They will figure it out."

"No." She stretched a hand in front of him to stop him, and he did. He didn't move again the moment he felt her warm hands on his chest. She was disgusted. "I'll sleep in the guest room tonight." She finally came to a conclusion.

"Lilian."

"Enjoy your company by yourself."

She turned, and then walked away.