Mari
I woke up in the middle of the night and I didn’t see any sign that Will was back. I walked around the room to see if he had come and maybe took off his old clothes or dropped his keys or shoes but the room was exactly as it was when I entered. Even the door that I didn’t close fully was still like that. I nevertheless decided to check the other rooms, maybe he came but didn’t want to disturb me. I checked all his extra rooms and I didn’t see anything. I then went downstairs and there was no sign of him.
I became really worried. I hurried back to the room, took my phone and dialed his line but he didn’t pick up. I began to breathe really fast. I tried to calm myself but my insecurities came whooping me off my feet.
What if he had an accident somewhere?
What if he’s in a hospital because he had an asthma attack?
I know he hardly gets attacks but when he does it’s terrible.
Did he forget his inhaler?
I ran up to the cabinet he kept his inhalers and the spares were there. I wasn’t sure if he had one with him.
“oh goodness” I had muttered more than ten times
I slumped over on the bed and cuddled up with a pillow. I felt my heart beat right about it and I kept exhaling deeply to free myself.
Fortunately, I fell asleep and woke up by 5am. I felt a headache and my throat was dry so I decided to go get some warm water to gulp down.
I gently climbed down the stairs while holding my head. I switched on the lights and walked into the kitchen. After gulping down two glasses of water, I headed back.
Right there on one of the chairs in the living room was a weak looking Will
“Will?” I asked rhetorically. I then walked hurriedly to him. He was sleeping and he smelt of wine. Too much of it.
His mouth was open as he snored quietly and the smell emitted was quite strong
“he’s been drinking? This much?” I asked myself. Will loves wine but he never drinks more than two glasses per time and he never let’s himself get drunk. Why was he then in a state of total drunkenness?
“Willie? Come on wake up” I said and hit his back. He groaned and opened his eyes half way
“what is it? Get away from me!” he yelled though it was not loud. He used his right hand and pushed me. I fell down on my butt
“Wilbur! Goodness!” I exclaimed
His half opened eyes fell back into sleep but I touched his face for him to open them. He opened his eyes and looked at my face but he kept blinking like he wasn’t seeing me clearly
“I want to sleep” he muttered
“okay, I’ll take you upstairs. You can’t sleep here, it’s not comfortable” I said and I lifted him to sit up. His eyes were closing and opening
I helped him to stand to his feet and wrapped my arms around his waist. I then made sure he was standing well before I placed one of his arm over my neck and held it. I then pulled him along till we reached the stairs
“we’re at the staircase now. You have to just climb it carefully” I said and I’m sure he heard me cause he did so. We finished climbing and I opened the door to his room then we walked in
“you need a shower Wilbur” I said with hard breaths.
“I need sleep, not a job” he replied and I crunched up my face. I dislike drunk people. The stupidity is too much and they reminded me of my auntie who would do anything to me when she’s drunk and forget all about it the next day. She would enter my room at night and throw stuff at me, heavy stuff. But if she sees the wound or bruises the next morning, she would ask me how I sustained them and even yell at me for being careless. Speaking about auntie Denny, I haven’t seen her for months now
“and who’s talking about a job? I said a shower” I said and he laughed loudly
Ridiculous
I pushed him and he fell on the bed. I sighed and watched him close his eyes immediately. In less than five minutes he was snoring
“unbelievable” I muttered and stared at him
His body temperature was quite high so I decided to wipe him with cold water. I brought a bowl filled with cold water and face towels from the bathroom.
I then began to undress him. I removed his shoes and socks first. Then his wristwatch and hand bands. I also took off his shirt and trousers but left his shorts on.
I then began to rub the wet towel over his body to help cool him and prevent a fever when he wakes up. I even placed a small bag of ice on his forehead to prevent headache. By the time I was done it was minutes after 6am.
I still felt sleepy so I laid beside him and slept off.
When I woke up again it was about 9:30am. I was surprised I slept that much. I had a class by 11am so I quickly showered and went downstairs for breakfast since Will was still asleep. After breakfast, I came back up and met him awake. It was minutes after 10 o’clock then.
I smiled at him but the expression he gave me was like a frown.
“why didn’t you knock?” he asked with that same facial expression
“oh. I thought …”
“thought what? Just knock next time okay” he said and stepped down from the bed though he still sat on it. He wasn’t looking at my direction.
I was surprised at his outburst. Is this part of the way people behave after being drunk or what?
“who took my clothes off?” he asked, this time gently.
“oh I did. I did that last night when you were—”
He cut me short again “—don’t ever change my clothes again. Please”
I gasped cause that was too harsh. Even the please he added sounded rude too.
He looked down at the floor and I heaved a deep sigh.
“what happened last night? You didn’t come home and you weren’t picking your calls either” I asked as I moved to close the windows I opened before going downstairs. The wind coming in was too much.
“I went to hang out with some friends. I forgot you were here” he replied rather coldly
“forgot I was here? Ugh! And what about the calls?“ I asked after turning to face him. He had stood up and walked to his cabinet
“my phone was left in the car. It’s still there. You should go now, I need some rest” he said
I blinked and bit my lower lip
“Will” I called
He didn’t answer but he heard me
“did something happen overnight that you’re not telling me. Definitely something happened” I said and he turned to look at me
“I said I went to hang out with some friends. What could possibly happen when I’m hanging out with —”
“—friends you say? What friends? You didn’t have any friend apart from Eduardo who stabbed you in the back. And even if you had these friends, why would you spend the whole night with them. What exactly were you doing? Drinking yourselves to stupor? Will, find a better lie to tell me please” I said and walked to where I kept my phone
He stood still for some seconds before speaking “whatever you say or believe is not my business” he said and walked into the bathroom. I huffed angrily and took my bag. I left the room and went to the kitchen
“he’s awake already. You should get ready to serve him when he comes down. I’ll be going now” I said to the chef and some maids. They replied and I walked out of the kitchen and out of the house, straight to my car and out of the compound
Will??
I came out of the bathroom and she was no longer in the room. I brought out a black vest and pulled it on. I walked to close the second window which she left open. That was when I saw her walking towards her car. She beeped it and opened it. She sat in and didn’t hesitate to drive out immediately. I definitely pissed her off
I stood, leaning against the wall beside the window with my eyes closed and my hands akimbo
“I love you Mari. But I just have to do this” I said aloud. After five minutes, I opened my eyes and heaved a weary sigh. I then wore black slippers and walked out of the room.
I was really hungry and I hurried towards the kitchen.
“good morning son” Val greeted me. We met in the hallway that leads to the kitchen
“good morning ma’am Val” I greeted with a smile
“you must have come home this morning. Your girlfriend was here all night” she said
“yeah. Uhm, I already saw her. She left already” I replied
“do you want your breakfast now? Should we set the table? It was Mari that cooked” she said
“please do” I said and she nodded and head into the kitchen while I headed out
I took a box of fruit juice from the fridge in the dinning room and popped the straw in. It was too cold to be taken in the morning but I was feeling hot inside and I knew it was as a result of what was going on within me. I was troubled.
I drained the box in five minutes
The maids began to move in with trays and I settled down to eat. Val said Mari made breakfast for me
I smiled as I opened the main dish. The aroma of hot fish stew rose to me like incense to God. I’m sure she made this because of my condition, to make me feel better just in case I woke up feeling down. If only she was here to feed me
***
I didn’t have anything to do at all so I was relaxing by my poolside. I didn’t want to take any wine again, only a jar of orange juice was beside me. When it was lunch time, I went to the dinning to eat
I remembered what happened last night and goosebumps rose all over my body
“Wilbur Sanders” Derulo had called me after I bumped into him in the hotel hallway. I wasn’t surprised anymore because wherever there’s Maxwell, there’s Derulo and there’s the worst one, Coloy. These three were my nightmares but once my best friends.
We did so many bad things together. So so many. Coloy was an ex convict and he had escaped from jail
Derulo was from a wealthy family like me and he grew up in USA but was disowned because he took too much drugs and wasted his father’s money. Maxwell, he was my tutor. The one I wanted to tell Mari about. I was the youngest among them, following Derulo who was five years older than me. Maxwell was the oldest.
The crimes we committed were all masterminded by Coloy. I paid for the weapons and held our weekly parties (though it used to be just the four of us). I didn’t go out, it was just them who would always go out and do whatever it is they felt like. Sometimes I didn’t even know what they were going to do, I just gave them the money and they brought more money. If I had known they were into shipping of drugs I wouldn’t have been with them. They were also murderers and they got caught one day after murdering a storekeeper and taking all his money and some goods.
They had told the police I was part of them. If not for the strong influence of my father the police wouldn’t have erased my record and make me pay a fine instead of life imprisonment. My friends were angry I didn’t get equal punishment and they vowed to be back for me. They had evidence that could sky rocket my case but they couldn’t lay hold on it because they were already in jail.
Since then I dreaded the day they’d be released. That’s why I was so shocked to see Maxwell that day I went to get a drink
Only Eduardo knows my secret with these three guys, I had even gotten word that while in prison, they were envious of and disliked my friendship with Eduardo. Maybe they thought otherwise which wasn’t true.
“you’re one son of a b**** you know that?” Derulo said in his usual calm but deep voice
I had sighed and looked away
“you broke our oath and also escaped from the nemesis that caught up with us. You must think you’re so brave. Haha” he said intimidatingly
“what oath? Something we made when we were drunk? Something that made no sense at all!” I yelled angrily
“but it worked out didn’t it? You couldn’t love a girl, you tried but it failed. Until you met Marigold Cruz. Do you remember the consequences of breaking the oath?”
I huffed and anger overwhelmed me. I grabbed him by the collar and looked him in the eye
“if you or anyone dare! If you dare hurt Mari, I’ll kill you! I’ll kill all of you!” I shouted and he kicked me. I fell down and he bent down beside me
“I’ll hurt her and hurt her friend Eliza. I’ll go as far as hurting anyone who’s in support of your relationship, not even leaving Winifred behind nor Dani” he said and I knew he meant it. He could do it, they all could do it.
“but you can save her and save yourself too. I think you know what to do” he said and stood up. I stood up too
“I don’t want you to hurt her. Please, she’s my life” I pleaded because I had no choice
“let her go or we make her go. You know we can do it, we’ve done it before. And don’t communicate with her. Don’t tell her why you’re leaving her too, we have informants around and if we see even friendship between you two, either you go to jail and hear she’s dead or you hear the news before you rot in hell” he said and turned to go
“wait…” I said
He turned and faced me
“why are you doing this? Who’s behind this? Who is sponsoring you?” I asked because with the force they were using to tear my life apart, it was obvious someone was behind it
“don’t you think we’re enough force ourselves? Even Coloy is enough. Either you do it fast, or we give you a sign to show you we can do the hardest thing” he said, grinned and walked away
I had truly forgotten that she was supposed to spend the night at my place as I went to a VIP bar and began to drink.
“Wilbur, you have been playing with the knife and fork for long minutes and have hardly eaten. Your food is even cold now” Val’s voice echoed in my subconscious mind. I quickly brought myself back to the present.
“huh?… Oh my food. Uhm yeah it’s cold now. Can you warm it, please” I said
“sure” she said and packed all of the dishes into one big tray. She then left. I sighed and looked at the wall
Winifred came rushing in ten minutes later, panting heavily like she just finished a race
“hey, don’t startle me like that again!” I yelled at her
“goodness! Have you heard?” she asked with her hand on her chest
“heard what?” I asked, not really caring about what she was going to say. It might even be that she got a new ambassadorial deal
Val had come back with the tray. She placed it before me and was arranging the plates
“Eduardo was murdered last night in his cell” she blurted out and my heart fell to my feet
“what!”
Damn it! Derulo, Coloy and Maxwell, is this what you meant by giving me a sign that you can do even the hardest thing?
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To Be Continued
