Shout out to 6ukunmi for being the reason I forced myself to start cooking this up😂❤️

And shout out to all my readers too, for forcing me to start writing this too! Y'all are the best! Oh and btw, if you haven't checked out 6ukunmi, make sure to get on to it as soon as possible oo! If you're a lover of poems, I believe you'll adore his work!😌❤️

This asides, I wanted to say something else. I don't like the subtle mockery of Dabi's illness that I see in my comments section sometimes. I have been meaning to address it. Dabi does have a mental illness for anyone who doesn't know it yet (even if I don't understand how someone reading this book wouldn't) so, laughing about it or being unnecessary mean about it is uncalled for. I understand that Dabi can be annoying, even if we can't love her any less, but in the real world, no one with any sort of mental illness, even down to depression, is not exactly sunshine and rainbows to live with. So, please, let's be cautious about the way we speak of Dabi. Thanks and God bless!😌❤️

That being said......... Let me just tag Iyanuoluwa-Temi. And Donaldprince. You guys will understand why when you read this chapter!😂♥️

~DABI~

I think may have underestimated the extent to which Marc may have been upset with me.

Okay, I will rephrase that. I don't think. I strongly believe, beyond all reasonable and unreasonable doubts, that I underestimated it.

Like, really bad.

On a normal day, Marcus Acha was always the first one to hit me up.

He did that all the time. He seldom ever missed out on the opportunity to be the first one to send me a message.

And sure, due to the complications that had come with the days that had passed by, counting from the day of the Bonfire party till date, he had not been messaging as frequently as he used to, but at least, he tried with a good morning text and a good night text all the time.

Even if never really letting me know what was going on on his side.

But at least, he put in some effort. And that meant a lot to me.

It had been hours since Chika and I had gotten back from school, and why my big head expected to see a text from him, even after the fight we had in school today, I don't even understand.

I mean... Marc was just like that.

Texting and checking up on me even when things were rough.

But, not today. After what had happened in School, he had not texted me the whole entire day.

Not a word.

Not even a letter.

Awful was an understatement to how that mad me feel. On God, I felt absolutely terrible. So, so terrible.

Of course, I wasn't stalking him at all, but I noticed that he was online around 5:24pm.

He went offline about five minutes after and even though disappointed, I was happy when he came back online by 5:47pm. Like, on the dot.

And I swear, I was not keeping tabs on him or anything, but around 6:15pm, 6:17pm, 6:29pm, 6:34pm, 6:38pm, 6:43pm, 6:45pm, and sometime around 6:51pm too, I saw that his online status had blinked online for about one second.

Marc was coming online and he was not even talking to me.

But would you kill a girl for dreaming at least? As much as it hurt, I knew that he was not the one that was meant to be reaching out after what happened today? So, why exactly did I, Dabeluchi Orji, feel it was better to sit here and stare at Marcus Acha's Whatsapp status blink online and offline from time to time, instead of actually manning up and sending a message?

It'd be nice if you could answer because I didn't have a good reason, either.

"So, Dabz. Are you going to tell me what this is about?"

I zapped out of my reverie the moment that Chika walked into the room and abruptly, all my attention went to her, my eyes focused on the light skinned girl as she waltzed herself into the room and made her way to the short desk drawer just by the bed, her bed that I sat on.

I knew she was going for the boxing gloves on top of the drawers.

"So?" She glanced at me over her shoulders as I delayed a response and of course, I was right, because she grabbed the gloves and in one second, they were worn on her hands.

"He isn't talking to me." I told her the plainest way that I possibly could.

Chika was moving towards the punching bags, but stopped on hearing me say that and turned to me with a small frown on her face.

"Wow, b. Was it that serious?" She asked.

Honestly.....

"I don't even know, for real," I told her.

"You don't know," She repeated my words to me as though they would somehow have a different meaning.

I only nodded. "Yes."

Chika stared at me like she was not buying my shit.

It made me break character.

"Okay, fine, it was that serious," I admitted, "It was pretty serious, Chi."

She sighed. It was a soft sigh, very soft and subtle, something in between tiredness and patience, but I heard it.

"Look, Dabz," She said to me.

I did as she told me. Looked.

"I don't know what happened, but what I'll tell you is that you shouldn't fret about it," Chika said to me, "Fights are inevitable in relationships. It'll all be fine eventually. He will come around-"

"How do you know?" I cut her off.

Curiosity. It was out of curiosity.

"What if he ignores me forever?" I asked her.

"I don't know what you did, Dabeluchi, but I don't believe it's bad enough to get to that extent," She answered me calmly.

I wasn't convinced.

"Well, Dabz, have you tried reaching out in any way?"

Chika asked me and I blinked at her for a moment, busted, before giving my genuine answer.

"No."

"Calling?"

"No."

"Texting?"

"No."

She scratched her head and sighed of something that sounded like subtle frustration.

I felt the need to ask if I was stressing her.

"Am I?" I went ahead to ask, "Am I stressing you?"

Chika took a seat quietly on one of the throw stools and raised her head to look at me.

"You know maybe things would get better faster if you actually made an effort, Dabeluchi." She said to me.

Well....

"Have you thought about that?" She narrowed her eyes at me as she asked me intently.

"Well, yes," I admitted.

"Maybe then get onto it," She said to me, "You told me it was your fault, right? Dabeluchi, you can't expect him to be the one to make things right when you fucked up. Do you grab?"

"Yes." I answered.

"Good you understand," She quipped with a smile on her face.

And suddenly, up she was on her feet, moving towards the punching bags again and leaving me to wallow in all my many after thoughts.

"Would you tell me what happened?" She asked me as she threw the first punch, an awful one, into her punching bag.

A resounding BOOM went straight into my heart, unlocking my panic and anxiety, and nearly sent me into a brutal convulsion.

"I got angry and lashed out more than I should have," I gave a summary.

Punch!

"Does this have anything to do with Kelechi?" She asked me.

Punch! Punch!

"It has everything to do with her.-"

Punch!

"-The girl hates my guts, Chi."

Punch! Punch! Punch!

"Oh yeah? What makes you think so?" She asked me, throwing a combo into the bag and another terrible one when it swung back aggressively at her, and I winced.

I winced. I actually winced in pain. Which pain? Exactly.

I couldn't bring myself to understand how Chika did that. She threw such brutal punches into that thing, punches that could take a person's life on the spot if it dared hit them, and she was so chill. Her voice sounded stable as she talked, so normal, like she was not even putting much effort into that. Like it was taking nothing off her.

The twins would run a marathon and be panting like they were on the verge of death. Chika Chioma was punching those bags with the force of five men and she was not breaking a sweat.

What kind of girl was this?

"Dabz?" She called me again.

Punch! Punch! Punch!

"Yes?" I answered.

PUNCH!

"You didn't answer," She said, her voice steady and not shaking in the slightest with tiredness or any hint of it. "I asked why you would think that Kelechi Uwa hates you, Dabz."

"I just know it, Chi," I told her, "I know she not only hates me, but she's only planning things against me too."

She actually stopped punching and turned around to face me again.

"Why Kelechi?" She asked.

It almost looked to me like Chika was finding it ridiculous that the girl could do anything to harm someone else.

Like Kelechi Uwa was some angel.

That's what Chika's reaction looked like to me and I couldn't even hide the tiniest bit of my irritation.

"Why not Kelechi?" I asked back.

Defensively.

I sounded like I was attacking Chika now and I hated that.

"No, I mean, why her? We barely even have a connection to the babe? Why her?" She elaborated.

She had said this before. Chika had hinted that Kelechi was in no way connected to us, indirectly insinuating that my ill feelings towards her had no solid base.

But, no. Chika was not there every time that Kelechi had her arm clung around my boyfriend everywhere.

She was not there when Kelechi gave me those subtly snide remarks, tiny evil smirks, and manipulative responses.

She was not there when Kelechi mentioned my family too.

I could not start to break it down to Chika how Kelechi Uwa was out to get me and I could feel that with ever fibre of my bone. I could feel her doing something so horrible behind the covers, something that would be to my own detriment. Something that would wreck me beyond repair.

I couldn't explain that to anyone and make it make sense.

That was what hurt the most about it all. The fact that no matter how much I tried to explain how much that Kelechi was a threat to me, I only ended up sounding crazy. Or Delusional. Or both. It hurt. It hurt so much that it made me want to cry out of sheer frustration.

However, I tried. I tried to explain it to Chika. 

But, all I ended up doing was breaking before her.

Abruptly.

So abruptly that it alarmed her into halting with the punches on the bag. 

All her attention turned towards me.

"Dabz, what's wrong?" She asked me and I could hear all the concern in her voice.

It only made my eyes leak even more. That was it. My eyes were leaking. I tried to stop it, but it just poured and poured, even if I kept my face straight and plain, eyes dead on at Chika.

But, at the same time, crying profusely.

I didn't want to. I really did not want to. But it seemed like my body was desperate for a way to get all these frustration and sadness and guilt and every negative feeling I have felt today off me.

So, on its own, my eyes started to pour out all its liquid.

"Dabeluchi," Chika was extremely concerned and immediately, she was quick to join me on the bed, giving an earful to me as I broke completely into a sob I could not control.

I couldn't even pin down the specific reason I was crying. Truth be told, there was just so much to cry about. So fucking much. 

"Chika, I'm afraid," I said to her, my voice coming out in choked whispers, "I am so afraid."

"What are you afraid of?" She asked me.

"Losing touch of reality completely," I told her the truth. It felt like a thousand needles were thrown into my heart with the force of a grenade as I made that confession, "Losing him."

"You won't lose him after one fight," She said to me.

"But I could lose him because of her," I argued still, "I could lose Marc because of Kelechi."

Chika looked like she was about to convince me otherwise and I knew it was because she did not understand why I was certain about this.

"That girl is not only out for my relationship with Marc, she is out for me personally too," I told Chika.

"Dabe—"

I dropped my face into my hands, weak and defeated. Exhausted.

"Please, Chika," My shaky voice muffled into my hands and I felt my tears, hot and acidic, burning, "Please, believe me at least."

This was getting increasingly frustrating.

The desperate urge to assure everyone of Kelechi's intentions. Marc. Chika. Kelechi herself. Damn it, even myself. 

I knew what I knew and with everyone giving off opinions that debunk mine on the matter, it started to make me feel like I was the one misinterpreting things. But could it be? Was it possible for one to have this strong gut feeling about something and still be wrong?

Could one deep instincts really be wrong?

Could I feel this strongly about Kelechi's intentions and still be wrong?

"I believe you, Dabz," She said to me, "I believe that what you feel is what you really feel."

"I am just terrified, Chi," I looked to her light brown pretty eyes, "I am scared that there is something lurking out there for me. Like Kelechi is up to something that will harm me badly and I can't pin what it is down. And no one seems to think the same about her. I mean, isn't that what she would want?" 

She was playing her cards so well. Doing it in such a way that made it look like I was the psycho each time I complained about it.

Everyone would think I was the Psycho.

And Kelechi Uwa was an innocent angel.

Right?

"Did you lash out on Marc because of Kelechi?" Chika asked me.

I said the truth. "Yes."

"You said things, hm?" She asked again.

"A bunch." I answered, "I didn't mean any of them. I was just angry about Kelechi and expressed myself in the worst way possible. The nigga came to School for me in his fucking PJs and I told him to geddifok and go after who he really came for; Kelechi."

Thinking of it was even giving me a headache all over.

"He's done a lot for me," I told Chika, "I may have made it look like I didn't see much in all of that today, but that is not even close to the truth, Chi. He is the most selfless person I know, and I know he does care about me. He wouldn't have done so much for me if he didn't. I know he cares and I love him so much for that."

"Then, why are you sitting here telling me all these when you can text that to him?" She asked me.

I really don't know.....

"Look, Dabz," Chika said to me, smiled wistfully, "Couples fight all the time. Call him. Or text. Whatever you need do. If he cares as much as you say he does, I think he will come around."

"Okay." I quietly said.

"And about the Kelechi thing?" She added, "You say you see her as a threat to your relationship, and I can understand that. What I would advice is not to let your fears make you drive people you love away from you. That fear can get the worst of anyone, Dabz."

Like it did already?

"And don't overthink this more than necessary; All couples fight once in a while, b," She said to me, and with a warm rub on my back, she stood up from the bed and I watched her, knowing before hand where she was headed for again.

"So, do you and Aaron fight too?"

Chika nearly tripped over her punching bags in laughter.

No shit.  She was practically dying.

I watched her. I only watched her as she laughed, following her every movement as she threw her head back, held hands to the sides of her body, and screamed in laughter.

Quietly, I wondered what I said that was so funny.

"Don't kill me, abeg," She was waving me off in laughter as she positioned her boxing bags.

"Okay." I responded to that with hardly any emotion.

I really couldn't bring myself to understand why she was laughing so much.

"What about the Sisters though?" I asked her.

"What about them?" Chika was casual with her response.

"Will they come around too?" I asked again.

"Certainly," She answered.

I stared at her as she resumed her hard punching as I threw her more questions.

"How are you so sure the Sisters will come around, Chi?"

"I just am."

"You said I would get to see to this evening."

"And you will."

"When?"

Chika got distracted again by me for the umpteenth time since she decided to practice her boxing, and turned around with a chuckle.

"Breathe, Dabeluchi," She said to me, her eyes hinted amusement and a little bit of patience too, "One at a time, okay? Tell your boyfriend you're sorry first. We will deal with the Sisters after Dinner. Have my word for it."

I sighed, giving in. "Okay."

Heeding to Chika, I whipped out my phone in search of inspiration.

The iphone that he had gotten me not long ago, during the time that I had stayed in his family house.

Recalling all of that was a feat for me. Remembering how he had kept me in his house, without his father's permission, and made sure that I was the most comfortable. I was practically living there, eating there, sleeping there, and he never for once made me feel like I was a burden.

He took care of me.

Every single chance he got.

Even when my presence in that house caused a rift in his family, he still took care of me. Always, he did.

Marcus Acha knew how to love.

He knew how to give love too.

And, that, I wanted to learn so badly.

I also wanted to know how to show just how much I loved and cared about him. I wanted to know how to not let my insecurities cloud things, and make me put them over everything I felt for him.

Like, concern. Concern for how he had been through out these days. I knew it was not easy, and I wanted to know if he was okay, but with everything that had gone down that day, the only thing on my mind was Kelechi. Kelechi. Kelechi. Kelechi.

Like Love. I felt so much affection toward him, so much that it hurt, and the best way my body could execute that in my moment was frustration and fear was to hurt him back.

Fear made my body do so many things that my spirit fought against.

But, I did love him. I love Marcus Acha. Why then was it so hard to show that to him?

I looked around the room for inspiration of what to start typing, and all that stared right back at me was the dozens of pictures around Chika's room of Female Boxers and Women Activists on the white walls.

Like Chika had adviced, I decided to go right ahead and pour out my heart.

I looked to Marc's Whatsapp DMs and was more than glad when I saw that online status shining at the top left bar. Relief could not cut it. Not even close. At least, he was online.

A massive dilemma quickly struck me.

Do I voice call? Or just text?

"Text." I quickly decided, frowning upon the latter idea.

Honestly, I wondered why I even considered such. Calls absolutely terrified me to the core.

With fingers that shook softly against the screen of my phone, I started to type what I could safely say was a whole bunch of nonsense.

Clyde❤️

Hey, if you haven't blocked my number forever, it's me; big head Aurora.

Or well, like you say, Runaway Aurora.

<<Sent 7:22pm

"Awful way to start," I frowned at the message and with a speed that would have shocked everyone, I erased.

I deleted the message.

He was online, so the message had delivered fully, but luckily for me, they had not ticked that blue checkmark that would have hinted to me that he had read the message, before I deleted it.

So, I tried a second time.

Clyde❤️

You said you can't live without me, but you're ignoring me now and you are not dead.

Please stop ignoring me. I'm sorry. I love you.

<<Sent 7:23pm

Nah. It looked somehow in my eyes. So, again.....

I deleted it.

Marc was still online. I was almost curious as to why, but dismissing that, I tried a third time.

This time, with something different.

Clyde❤️

Should I send you nudes?

<<Sent 7:24pm

I deleted that one with a speed faster than light could travel.

Scratching my head in frustration, I tried yet again. For the fourth time.

Clyde ❤️

I am holding my breath until you reply me.
Love, Aurora.

<<Sent 7:25pm

I am not mad, in Jesus name.

I deleted that message quietly.

I tried for one more time and hoped it would be the last time.

Clyde❤️

I do love you, contrary to what I seem to give off a lot of times, and I appreciate all that we have. All that you are to me. And what we have. Sorry about today. I hope we can say goodnight to each other tonight at least.🥺❤️

I stared at that message and it seemed to be the most to make sense amongst all.

Marc's online status was still showing that he was online. Since the moment that I had been texting and deleting, I noticed that he had not gone offline for even a moment.

Almost made me wonder what was going on, at his end. I mean, he should have been aware that I was texting and deleting. If he knew, why was he not responding?

With a sigh, I analyzed that message thoroughly for the count of three. Or maybe three thousand.

Then, I hit send.

And watched it deliver into Marc's DMs.

"Dabz, it's 7:30pm," Chika alerted me as she took off her gloves from her hands and grabbed the water bottle on her drawer to drink from it.

I raised my head up from my phone to Chika and tilted my head to the side to ask in confusion.

"What happens 7:30pm?"

She took in the last gulp of water and answered me promptly, "Dinner."

Oh.

I had been here a few days in Chika's place and one thing that shocked me about them was how effectively they kept to time schedules.

For literally everything.

Before standing up to leave the room, just as Chika rushed into her bathroom for a shower, I looked to my phone to see if Marc had replied me.

Of course, my phone would have buzzed if he did. It didn't. But it hurt less to hope.

I was both relieved and sad when I saw that my message was still on delivered.

That meant he had not opened it yet...

But, um, he was online.

Ouch.

I was so close to deleting it. So, so close. My fingers had already highlighted the message and I was about to hit those three dots and click on 'delete for everyone'.

However.

In three....

Two....

One....

Blue Checkmark!

My message ticked 'read' right before my eyes. Right that moment, Marcus had opened my message and read it.

Panicking for some reason I wasn't sure of, I switched off my phone with the speed of light. Immediately. I completely shut down my phone.

And without turning back, I made my way out of the bedroom and to the dinner table downstairs.

Chika's family house was one of a kind in my opinion. It was a lot bigger than it looked from the outside, but quite easy for anyone to be able to know their way around it. Or maybe I had grown accustomed to it because a lot of times, if we weren't doing homework or dressing up for a school party in Soma's place, Chika was our second option.

Just like her bedroom, the theme of black and white prevailed in the entire place. Not only was the household participate about schedules and time tables, they were also particular about their colour theme. I'd like to say they had a thing for Mother Nature too, because the made sure to create a stunning scenery off it and it couldn't be missed out on.

Honestly, I could not possibly count the number of bouquet of flowers and plant vases I had seen scattered here and there in the house: in the Living Room, Dining, Kitchen, and even some of the guest rooms. The setting of the house made sense to me eventually as I started to understand why they preferred to pick a setting that was secluded and segregated from the rest of the city, hidden and decorated with trees and high grasses that they trimmed.

It was nice. The house was nice. So was its scenery. However, Chika's baby brother told me some days ago, a story that scared the life out of me.  Something about how they kill, in his words, "slimy slithering cobras and human swallowing pythons" in their backyard every rainy season.

God knows if that little boy was playing with me or not.

But that shit story absolutely horrified me. Not gonna cap.

Chika's house from it's outro🤸

The Dining room was neat and prepared and just as I got to the brink of the stairs, I saw that the two married couple were already there and seated, before any of the kids could have even gotten down.

If there were people who kept to this schedule thing hook, line, and sinker, it was the both of them.

Aunty TemTem and Uncle Donald.

They were Chika's guardians.

As long as I could remember it, those two happily married couple had been a mother and father figure to Chika.

Just as much as they were warm and receptive towards Chika and her siblings, they treated me and the other Sisters like we were their children as well.

As a matter of fact, with the last few days that I had been here, they had not even showed the slightest forms of discomfort. Granted, this was not the first time me or any of the Sisters had decided to sleep over in Chika's place for a number of days. Those two, alongside Mama Acha, had to the nicest adults I ever knew.

"Oh, you think we will wait for you kids do come and join us? Stay there." Aunty TemTem playfully sassed me as threw a meat ball into her mouth and munched on it, feigning disinterest.

I laughed softly because I could hint the subtle hint in her voice that noted to me that she was simply messing with me.

My steps doubled with a slight hop in them as I tried to get to the table faster, while Aunty TemTem was complaining to her husband about the children of our generation and their 'guy lifestyle'.

I only shook my head. As much as I knew Aunty TemTem, she was like that. She teased a lot. She played a lot too. She was sweet in many ways, but also fiery when need be. A total vibe, really.

And, well, obviously, she seemed to have some unsettled beef with the children of our generation too.

Her husband, however, was more calm. Slow to anger. A powerful listener too. As she ranted on and on, he only sat there, cutting his chicken with a fork and knife as he listened with nodded in agreement to her every word, without objecting.

I had always known him to be very calm. Chika's handsome, calm uncle.

"Good evening," I greeted as I joined them on the table, and at one look at the pretty arrangements of spaghetti and meatballs in plates, as well as the sweet aroma that filled the air, I blessed my meal in advance.

The table looked beautiful. Food all over with pretty vases of flowers to give a look of life.

"Good evening, Daberelechi," She said to me as her husband just smiled cordially.

"Dabeluchi," I politely corrected her pronunciation of my name.

"Dabunchiri," She nodded dismissively as she helped me pass a few drinks to my side.

One thing I had to get used to was the fact that Aunty TemTem would never get the pronunciation of my name correctly. I couldn't blame her. Unlike her husband who was an Igbo man, she was a certified Yoruba woman.

"Oh, and Dabrinchulu," She called my attention to her again, and I tried not to laugh at how badly she messed up that name.

I couldn't even get mad. The woman was adorable. Too adorable for her age which I didn't know. With big, almond shaped pretty eyes, pouty lips and slightly chubby cheeks, she harnessed a beauty to reckon with.

"Where is Chika? Stella? And those little troublesome boys?" She asked me.

None of them were on the table.

"I am not sure about Stella and the boys," I answered her, "But, Chika was entering the bathroom as I was coming here. I think she was about to have her night bath as soon as it was time for dinner."

Aunty TemTem nearly choked on fish bone.

"Sweetheart, calm down," He gently patted her back and helped her with a glass of water which she gulped down like a fish. I chuckled. Couldn't help it.  I chuckled at the both of them.

"Oh my God, Aunty TemTem, can you be a little less melodramatic?"

I looked to the stairs to see Chika, gaze lost in her phone, tapping away as she sashayed her way down from the stairs and towards us.

"You better put away that phone before you come to this table sha. "O ò ya wèrè." She didn't miss an opportunity to sass Chika who threw her head back laughing rather hysterically.

I had no idea what she had said, but it sounded very funny too.

"I love you guys," Chika threw a hug to Aunty TemTem and Uncle Donald from behind, just before settling down on the table.

I had only noticed when she had pulled out her phone again, to type away, that I noticed she was still wearing the same white top she had on when she was boxing earlier.

That didn't make sense to me, because....

"You were supposed to have your bath?" I reminded Chika of what she told me.

Right before I left the bedroom.

"Changed my mind," She said easily without hesitation, "I figured Aunty TemTem would murder me in cold blood if I didn't rush down for dinner soon enough."

"You know your Aunty Iyanuoluwa Temilade," Uncle Donald came in, "The Queen of Vawulence."

Aunty TemTem murmured something in Yoruba that sounded aggressive and Chika laughed again. So did I. Uncle Donald wasn't even capping when he crowned his wife the Queen of Violence.

So far I knew, Chika found a happy family with these people. It was beyond wholesome. She was so lucky.

"This one you're pressing phone like this today. It's unlike you o, Chika. I hope everything is alright," Aunty TemTem glanced at Chika who didn't seem to want to leave her phone that evening.

"No, no, I was just talking to Soma and the Twins—" She mentioned to her Aunty and my ears piqued so hard.

It was almost painful.

"—Dabi wants to see them tonight, so I am making arrangements for them to come over right now." Chika told her.

She said that so casually, but somehow, my blood pressure was rising with her every word.

Chika was talking to the Sisters?

And making arrangements for them to come here?

I mean, I wanted that, but seeing it happen now was threatening me more than it was exciting me.

Was I ready to face the Sisters?

Was I really ready to face them right now?

But wait....

Why would I even be scared of meeting them? After all, it's not like I did anything wrong, right?

Right.

So, while Chika as still in a conversation with Aunty TemTem about Soma and the twins, I turned them off and decided it was better to keep myself busy with something else entirely.

I whipped out my phone, aware of the fact that that was a death sentence in the eyes of Aunty TemTem, and I switched it back on.

Maybe I would get back to Marc and a reply from him that I hoped for.

Desperately.

With one hand, I fed myself spaghetti and with the other, I waited for my phone to reboot.

"Chika, where are you going?" Aunty TemTem called after Chika who had suddenly sprung from her seat.

Almost scaring me with that.

"I am just going to call Stella and the boys," She answered rather hastily and even I felt there was something off with her response, but I didn't give it much thought.

All that was on my mind was whether Marc had responded to my message.

And not-so-patiently, I sat there and was waiting for my phone to come on when Chika disappeared up the stairs in a hurry.

It didn't take much time though.

My phone blinked and was flashed on immediately, and I was about to swipe in a hurry to turn on my data and go online to Whatsapp when I caught glimpse of my phone screen and a couple, a series, a compilation of messages, a barrage of them, that buzzed into my phone all at once.

It was not the dozens of messages that scarred me. Wounded me. As in, injured me like a dagger to the heart. No, it was not just the messages.

It was whom the messages were from.

"The fuck." I cursed on the table.

I heard Aunty TemTem and Uncle Donald drop their cutleries in shock of my language.

But, they were the least of my concerns right now.

I stared at the message ID and a stroke threatened my health.

It was from the person I least expected it to be from.

Not Marcus Acha.

Not Soma.

Not the Twins.

It was....

Gulp.

"Mum?"

It was her. It was my mother. She was the one who had sent me so many messages all at once, all while my phone was supposedly off.

What scared me the most about them was that none of the messages made any sense. Not a single one.

They were all a mess. Ranging from a bunch of symbols to distorted letters and Roman numerals. It was a mess. It all did not make sense. It was like some demon had taken her phone and sent me a bunch of conjoined nonsense.

That horrified me.

I stared at my phone for an awful amount of time and wondered what to do. Wondered how on earth to possibly go about this. Wondered what was going on with her. Why she would send me such a thing.

Was she okay? I mean, was she fine? A sane human being would not send messages like this to another, right?

Well, I was still debating the sense behind it all when, all of a sudden, my phone started ringing.

My eyes nearly bulged out of its sockets.

My mother was calling me.

Mummy was fucking calling me.

Reflexively, I threw my phone out of my hands, alarming both Aunty TemTem and Uncle Donald in that moment, and the two adults were shocked at my behavior.

Aunty TemTem was saying something, but my brain could not even decode it properly.

Without a word to anyone, I stood up from the table, grabbed my noisily ringing phone, and zoomed off the table, running off to a destination I was not sure of, but somewhere I felt was far enough from everyone so that I could have a discreet phonecall with my mother.

My heart had never beat this fast before. It was like there were a thousand aggressive drumming bands inside my chest, competing furiously and my chest started to hurt so much with the pounding inside it. The fear I felt was like nausea, except so bloody painful, like knifes were slicing inside of me and turning my intestines all around it. With every step I took in my race, it was like I was being quaked hard, enough to push me to the ground, but how I stayed on my feet, running, I had no idea.

Somewhere, I found myself in an empty hallway.

Where I slammed myself into the wall and took in large gulps of air to calm myself down.

I picked the call a second before I knew it was going to cut.

And prepared to hear my mother's voice.

"Mum?" I called out first, my voice shaky and weak, terrified.

Silence.

"Mum?" I called again.

More silence.

"Hello, mummy!" I said again, and I couldn't even recognize the voice that came out of me. So shrill. Shrieking.

The silence was deafening. Murderous. It could kill.

I could not hear a sound from her, but all I could hear was breathing.

I couldn't explain it. It was like she had called, just to breathe into the phone. Hard breathing. Rushed. Like she had ran a marathon from a monster, couldn't control her hard breathing, but was still trying to make a quiet call to get some attention from me. All I could hear was breathing.

"Mum, are you okay?" I asked her, fear gripping me with every second she said absolutely nothing on the phone, "Mum, what's going on? What's happening?"

"Didkskspspspspspspspspsp...."

I frowned when I heard what sounded like a whisper from her. I didn't get what she was trying to say, but at least, I had picked it up that she did say something.

"Mum? What did you say?"

I asked now with my voice frail, my body shaking, my heart, pounding.

"Mum, I didn't hear you, please repeat yourself," I was practically begging her at this point.

"Dabeluchi." She called my name and I felt goosebumps on my skin.

It felt like a whoosh of chill wind slammed into my back.

My mother sounded like a ghost of herself.

She sounded so eerie and quiet. So weird. Creepy. She sounded like a woman who had died and dug herself back up from the grave.

It creeped me the fuck out.

Scared me too. Horrified me, even.

With that disturbingly quiet tone, she asked me, "Who did you tell about your father and his mistress?"

A thousand whiplashes slammed into my back at once and I staggered, barely stood on my feet on hearing what she just asked me.

"Eh?" I said over the phone, "Who did I tell— I have never told anyone about our family problems, Mum."

Silence.

There was silence over the phone and that scared the life out of me.

What did she mean by that? I had NEVER told anyone about our problems before. Not a soul. I had been particularly about never speaking a word of it to anyone. Not Marc. Not The Sisters. Not a single freaking soul.

"Mum, I haven't told anyone anything! What are you talking about?" I had to ask her because I was growing increasingly disturbed my this.

My hands were shaking. My heart was pounding. My body was trembling, and in the state I was in,I had to hold my phone with two of my hands to stop it from dropping to the ground.

I was a total wreck.

"Dabeluchi," Mum said to me, and I swallowed hard on hearing the eerie undertone of her voice.

"Yes?" I answered.

"Find me." She said to me.

"I will." I promised her.

"Find me and your brother," She said to me, her voice in whispers so desperate, one would have thought she was confined in hell and I was the key out of there.

"I will," I said to her, "And no one knows about Dad and Delilah, I promise you."

Mum stayed silent over the phone for the longest time and that made my anxiety grow worse.

"You are wrong, Dabeluchi," She finally said to me, "Someone has been stalking our family. For years now."

One person was on my mind.

One fucking bitch.

"Who?" I asked Mum.

"I don't know," She whispered in answer, "But they have gotten all the information that they need about us."

"Why?" I asked, genuinely confused about the whole thing, "Why would someone be so interested in digging up our family problems?"

Why would she be so interested in our family like this?

"I can't answer," Mum said to me, "But be careful, Dabeluchi."

I swallowed a rock. "Why?"

"Because whoever they are has their eyes, following us every step of the way. They want something, I suppose. And the way I see it, your father may not even be the biggest threat to us after all," Mum said to me.

Gulp.

"They leaked out some information to the Internet," She told me, "The kind of discreet information that no one outside our family should be aware of."

"What do you mean, Mum?"

Mum stayed quiet a bit longer.

My patience grew thinner.

Then, finally, she gripped the bombshell.

"What I mean is that the whole of Nigeria knows about all our family problems now, Dabeluchi."

READ THE A/N OOO!!

A penny for your thoughts??
Because omoh, I'm sure your head is hot by now sha🙂💔

Let me know everything that you think o! Humour me!

Guys oo, book one will soon finish. I said lemme tell you people oo. From the next chapter, we will start a countdown 😌🍷

That asides.....

SO FOR THE REAL REASON I WANTED Y'ALL TO READ THIS A/N!!!!!

There is a writing contest called Project Pen and I am so excited for this thing like mad sha!😭🔥

If you are a writer and you think you can shine in the Wattnaija community, I think you should join the contest because the recognition and fame you and your book will get from it will not be for here oo!!! See chance to blow oo, if you like sit down there oo!! Honestly! It's really exciting and y'all should go to their page OfficialProjectPen and check them out. The registration is already on and it ends on the 23rd of June, so hurry up oo. Time waits for no man!!!

That aside, see you guys some other time!❤️❤️