CHAPTER NINETEEN
Adamma sat down behind the steering wheel of her car and slipped out her phone from her bag. She looked at the screen and saw that she had twenty missed calls; seven were from her dance instructor; three were from Isabella who was also one of the backup dancers she intended to use in her upcoming video; five were from her twin babies, and the other five were from Amanda. She smiled and returned the call to her best friend.
‘Adamma, where have you been?’ the woman demanded even before the phone had the chance to ring. ‘I have been calling you and you chose not to answer. Please do not tell me that you went to see your husband like you’d said you would. Please, Ada!’
Adamma sighed. ‘I already did, my dear. He’s signed the papers and one set is with me. I left the other set for him to do what he wished with them.’
Amanda let out a moan. ‘You’ve just ruined the entire thing. What if he takes them to the lawyer?’
Adamma laughed with a confidence that set her lips curling in a smile of amusement. ‘He won’t. He still has them, and he’s going to keep them. So will I.’
‘Are you sure you want to do this? I remember when you’d wanted to marry him I’d asked you whether you wanted to do it and you’d laughed it off like a fool and then gone on ahead to marry him. You wept for him, Ada, because of all that had happened to you_’
‘But now I’m leaving him because he’s not worth the worries,’ Adamma cut in. ‘Relax, dear; I know what I’m doing.’
‘You don’t know what you’re doing. You left him_ how long ago was that? Nine months ago? One year ago? Or is it two years ago? _and yet you still have feelings for him like some love-struck teenager. The feelings between the two of you is too strong, nothing can come between you two, not even your individual foolishness and stupidity. I’ve seen the way you two act around each other, and please do not tell me that you’re doing it in order to keep up the public good will because it won’t work with me, ok? Those feelings are real.’
‘The sex is real, and that’s right about it,’ Adamma said coldly, her left fist hitting against the dashboard in her anger. ‘Do not tell me what’s real and what’s not real in my life. It is my life, not yours, so butt off. Was that all you wanted to talk to me about?’ Angry now, she stepped out of the car and then shoved her Prada glasses up into her face to shield her eyes from the glare of the sun.
Amanda sighed. ‘I wanted to tell you that you are making a huge mistake if you think you’re in your right senses with regard to this issue. You are dead wrong.’
‘I wish I was, but I’m not. I have my plans, and believe me when I tell you that I have my plans. Trust me on this, darling; I will triumph over him. You can bet your life on that.’ And then she disconnected the call and called the number she’d given to the twins to use whenever they wanted to reach her for anything they deemed important enough to disturb her without waiting for her to return home at the end of the day before they told her whatever the problem was. Helen picked up on the third ring, and it was obvious she had her brother with her there.
‘Mum, we have to talk to you about you and daddy,’ the girl said in her clear, nasal voice which sounded much like the voice of an adult than the voice of a pre-puberty girl who was still waiting for her time to arise so she could shine. But Helen was an extremely intelligent girl, very inflective, with the resourceful nature of an adult who was always on a mission. ‘Your charade with him has gone on for more than long enough. We know you still meet him, so what’s the plan?’
‘I’m working on it, my love,’ Adamma assured the girl, though she knew that her voice lacked any conviction; her daughter could see through any deception faster than a dog can smell a bone. And she really was working on their irresponsible father; they just had to give her more time to let everything fall into place. ‘I was just coming from his office right now, and I think the man is breaking down.’
‘Really, is that so?’ Helen demanded, and she sounded almost gleeful about that piece of information. She then burst out laughing. ‘Get us what we want from you, mum_ we want no disappointments. But it seems as if you can’t handle the affair well, so I thought it better to take over from you. I called daddy.’
‘You what?’ Adamma exclaimed, her brows furrowed in shock. ‘Tell me what you did!’
‘I did nothing much, dear mother. I just had a little conversation with him to see how he was doing and whether he was missing our absence at home. He said that he was.’
Adamma blinked, and she felt the tears rushing up to her eyes to cloud her vision. At that moment, there was a crash of thunder in the sky, and the sky turned from the blinding blue it had been a few moments ago to a dark grey color that threatened a downpour. She groaned as the thunder crashed down again, knowing that there was no way she could drive to the appointment she had with her facial cosmetologist who she had to work with for her skin so she could look her optimum best during the video shoot for her new solo. She hated the Lagos weather more than she hated the weather in any other part of Nigeria she’d been to; it could start raining even without a moment’s notice. And then the rain started to pour down just like she’d inwardly feared it would, and she let out a groan of annoyance.
‘Honey, I have to go now because I’m about to get caught up in the rain,’ she told her daughter hurriedly as she tried to pry the door of the car open with her hand which was now wet with the rain. ‘I love you, dear, and I’ll be home soon.’ She disconnected the call, and by then, the rain was now pouring down in torrents.
She had just pried the door open and was about to dash into the car for the relative safety of the enclosure so that she wouldn’t be soaked to the skin and stand the chances of catching a cold when she heard her name being shouted loudly over the din the pounding rain was making. It’s just a crazy fan who should be seeking for shelter, she thought, and her right leg went into the car. Then something stopped her short. There was something about that loud, yelling voice which rang like bells in her heart; it was a voice she’d know and recognize anywhere. But why was he after her?
She threw her sleek Blackberry into the passenger seat and then turned away from the car. The wind and the pelting rain was billowing around her, slapping against her skin through the thin covering of her couture, and the visibility had greatly reduced, so that she seemed to be seeing through a thick grey veil of water and the street trash that was being whipped to a frenzy by the rain.
She could see the tall, trim figure of her husband running towards her, a look of great determination on his face, his clothes plastered to his skin as he raced through the rain towards her. She straightened up fully, and she could feel the wind tearing into her hair, the rain running into the black tresses she’d fully oiled that morning; her clothes had become plastered to her skin, becoming more of a second skin than a covering for her body.
So much for my appointment today, she thought in dismay.
Their eyes met and held, and then the whole world seemed to stand still; there was no rain anymore, no wind, and no street that separated them from each other. She seemed to be seeing him through a mist, and she could vaguely see that his lips were moving, that he was saying something to her though his voice was drowned out by the roar of the wind and the rain. Her hair was so plastered into her face she was almost unable to see him clearly.
The street stood between them because she’d parked her car outside the office complex which Obinna owned, and there were a few cars sweeping through the road as they raced to their respective directions from the busy road. But still, husband and wife had each other in their sights.
That was when it happened.
WHEN ADAMMA LEFT HIS OFFICE, Obinna had settled himself into the swivel chair behind his opulent desk and stared off into space. He had the feeling that somehow something bad had happened to him, and the exit of the beautiful woman from his office heralded the beginning of some dark phase in his life. During his youth there had been a lot of women who had been there for his taking, and the fun had been endless. However, from the moment he’d met Adamma the whore, the moment those eyes of hers had locked on to his face in a wordless challenge, something had changed.
There could be no other woman for him unless he had her, and when he did, he was lost. Fate had thrown them together again after the passage of over a decade, but now, she was leaving, and something told him that it was for the last time.
He had signed the divorce papers.
Why had he signed those papers? Why hadn’t he tried to fight her more?
Should he stop her? Should he run after her and get here to stop her idiotic act of foolishness? But he sat there paralyzed, and it was the ringing of his phone that snapped him back to the present out of his state of mental lassitude. He answered the call which was from a number he didn’t have in his phone book.
‘Daddy, it’s me.’
Of course it’s you, my darling, he thought as a small wistful smile touched the corners of his lips. His lovely, intelligent daughter had called him. ‘Helen, my darling, how are you?’
‘Mummy came to see you today, didn’t she?’ she asked succinctly, without the slightest acknowledgement of the question her father had asked. ‘I miss you, daddy, and so does Ian; he asks of you all the time and wants to know when we can all become a family once again. What are you doing about it? Remember that you weren’t there for a very long time, and now you’re gone again. We want you to come home to us again.’
‘It’s up to me and your mother to settle our issues between each other and then see what we can do about it. I love you and your brother very much and I’m sure you know it already. Your mummy loves you too, but then we can’t seem to agree on what we want.’
Helen snorted in her adult way. ‘That’s bullshit and you know it,’ she said, and there was accusation in her voice. ‘You both know what you want_ you’re just too stubborn to accept it. Daddy, please, don’t let mummy get away.’
‘She’s not going away.’
‘She is; we all are going to the UK, and mummy plans for us never to come back again. You have to stop her; else you’ll never see us again. And I know that I want to continue seeing you; you’re my dad and I love you. You have to go to her and stop her! Stop her or else we’ll leave you forever and there’s nothing to be done! Stop her!’ The girl’s words ended on a choked sob. Then she clammed up and cut the connection.
Obinna sat there weighing the revelation that had been dished out to him by his little child; the daddy’s girl of the house. And he knew deep down that Helen was not lying to him; she was the truthful type, and the truth was everything to her and she would never compromise her principles in any way. For her to have said such a thing meant that it was true; her mother was stealing them away from their roots, away from him. That was why the woman had come to the office to see him: it was her own small way of saying goodbye to him.
At least she had cared that much to think to come to him to say her goodbyes. She could have just sent him an email and couriered the documents for him to sign. And he would have signed them, no questions asked.
He sat there remembering that look that had passed between them as they’d made love to each other, and he believed it that she was running away; the coward. She wanted to take their kids and flee the country because she’d bared every aspect of her life for the world to gawk at, and she had to go in order to be able to lick her wounds where no one would harass her again.
With a sickening feeling rising up from the pit of his stomach, he realized, with a shocking jolt, that he didn’t want her to go; she could not leave. She was his wife, and if she thought that a signature could destroy what they’d started going between them, then she was mistaken.
I have to stop her.
The words had screamed out at him from the pit of his consciousness, and those words galvanized him to action. He flew out of his chair and raced for the door as the intercom on the desk buzzed and the voice of his secretary was floating out from the speaker, announcing that the CEO of Animated Plastics was there to see him and should she buzz him in?
But he was racing for something else entirely, and the acquisition of more money was of no consequence to him at that particular moment other than the fact that he had something very precious to lose if he stayed back. He just hoped to God that Adamma was still in the vicinity.
He raced for the elevator and was in a pool of agony as the thing made its swift descent to the ground floor. As the doors dinged open, he raced out into the reception area and was aware of the eyes of his secretary on him as he raced out through the entrance doors. Then he stopped short when he reached the car park. What car did that woman drive?
He looked around, and then he raced for the street as the dust swirled all around him with the fury of the heavens unleashed on the earth. Just as he caught sight of her, the rain started coming down in icy sprays that would have had him rushing for shelter but for the fact that he was racing for his life.
‘Adamma!’ he yelled over the loud raucous of the rain and the wind as he broke once again into a run in order to catch up with her. She was getting into the car already, and he called her name louder and harder as his legs pumped against the concrete with the surge of adrenalin. And then he felt her stiffen and turn towards him; their eyes met and held. The wind and the rain beat at her mercilessly, her hair now a mess of disarray atop her head as she watched him.
‘Wait! We have to talk!’ Obinna called; though he was quite sure that she hadn’t heard him.
They were locked together in a battle of wills, their eyes glued together; he was unaware that he was getting into the road without looking to the right and to the left to ensure that the crazy drivers of Lagos wouldn’t knock him to the ground. Adamma’s lips curled into a smile as she straightened up, her eyes searching his face. He was racing towards her to tell her something very important, and that was when it happened.
One moment he was in the middle of the road, racing towards his wife; the next moment he heard the sound of a horn blare at him, and then he felt the excruciating pain tear through him as something made contact with his bones. Then he was flying through space; his body crashed down to the concrete hard. As if through a dream he heard the screams, and the pain was unbearable, and the last thing he saw before he was enveloped by the fog of darkness was his wife’s face as their eyes met and held once again.
Everything went black.