The Bonny Island Massacre - S01 E06

Story 11 months ago

The Bonny Island Massacre - S01 E06

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 6

Yvonne thought that given a day, Femi would get over his anger and things would be cool again. But she didn’t know how much Femi was affected by her lies. His parents had lied to him all his life, that he was their biological child. But before his mother died, she had written a note to him, telling him he was adopted. He had confronted his father and he had confessed. They had waited for years without any children and had decided to adopt a son. His relationship with his father had never remained the same, he distrusted everything he told him. Having Yvonne lie to him had taken him right back to the past.

Yvonne called him severally, but he was not picking his calls. At the office, he talked with her strictly about business, and if she tried to bring up their issues, he would walk away.

Yvonne: “Really Femi, you would just throw away what we have because of a little white lie?” she confronted him in his office.

Femi: “If you cared about what we had, you wouldn’t lie to me” he replied curtly, and went back to burying himself in the files on his table. Yvonne left his office, at a loss for words. She was confused; she couldn’t believe that something she had thought was harmless was going to tear them apart. She thought of her birthday, which was in two days. It was going to be the worst birthday for her, with her parents and Femi absent. Yvonne was not to know that, truly her birthday would be the most dramatic she has had, and would change the course of her life forever. But it would not be because of the absence of her parents and her lover.

Yvonne: “I am not going to let this happen to us” she said and picked up the intercom to call her personal assistant. The young man, who obviously had a crush on her, walked in gingerly and ready to please.

Yvonne: “Please I need the both of us to work on something. Create an apology to a lover, with Femi’s name”

Assistant: “You mean sir Olaitan?” he asked.

Yvonne: “Who else would I mean?” she retorted impatiently.

Assistant: “I get you”

Yvonne: “Make the theme, ‘gaining back trust’. Make sure it is catching and convincing because it will air in all the major television stations. I need to send it to the appropriate places in an hour, so get to work”

The assistant hurried out of her office with excitement. This was the first real advertising task he was doing for the company. He had applied as an administrative staff even though his passion had been advertising. Now he had a chance to convince Yvonne that, he could be with the creative team.

Meanwhile, Mira was devising means to creep into Femi’s heart. She made sure she went to his office with one suggestion or the other, and then she would look at him with doe eyes like she was sad about the situation between him and Yvonne.

Femi: “Mira, why are you lingering like you have something to say?” he asked impatiently.

Mira: “I am sorry about you and Yvonne, but isn’t this a sign that you two are not meant to be?” she said sitting across him.

Femi: “Keep your concerns to yourself” he replied curtly, without sparing her a look.

Mira: “Femi, what is going on? Why do I feel like you hate me now?” she asked.

Femi: “Why would I hate you?” he asked, raising his head up to fix her a hard gaze.

Mira: “Femi, it is me oh. We used to be close oh” she said, on the brink of tears.

Femi: “Now, don’t go crying because that trick won’t work. I know you are nowhere near innocent, I know what you do when no one is looking” he said and watched her eyes widen in surprise.

Mira’s heart leapt in fear, did Femi already know about her debauchery? She wondered. But she put up a defense, perhaps he didn’t know, and only suspected.

Mira: “I don’t understand what you are trying to say to me” she said feigning anger.

Femi: “What is the word to use for a woman who sells her body?” he asked sarcastically. He didn’t wait for her to deny again, he went ahead and told her about the night he saw her on the thighs of a man old enough to be her father, he had been stunned. He had followed them as they left the club through a staircase in the bar that led to the private suites. He went a step further and hired a private investigator who in no time found out what Mira did when the sun had gone home.

Mira: “Oh I see, is that the reason you substituted Yvonne for me?” she retorted angrily. Femi laughed a mocking laughter.

Femi: “I liked Yvonne the first time I set my eyes on her; I have never had romantic feelings towards you. You have always been like a sister”

Mira: “I don’t want to be your sister!” she screamed hysterically, as the tears began to flow.

Femi: “I don’t know what is up with you right now, but you better leave my office”

Mira: “I am not going to leave, Femi. I have loved you for years, carried these feelings in my heart, waiting for you to realize how much I love you. But what did you do? You went and proposed marriage to Yvonne. Is it because I am from a poor home?” she said walking over to his chair.

Femi: “Don’t give me that crap, were you loving me when you were fucking those old stinking men?” he interjected, pushing her away.

Mira: “You will beg for my love, I swear it!” she said and rushed out of the office covering her face with her hands.

That evening, Mira sat with Yvonne in the large sitting room in the Ngegwus mansion. With them were people from a top notch event planning company. They were planning Yvonne’s birthday. Mira was not in the mood to plan any event, much less the birthday of the woman who took Femi from her.

Mira: “But Yvonne, you are Christian, how do you intend to carry on a relationship with Femi, who is Muslim?” she asked suddenly.

Yvonne: “Where did that come from, are you alright? You have been distracted since you came” she asked looking at her friend with confusion on her face.

Mira: “I am fine, but have you thought of that?” she insisted.

Yvonne: “I haven’t because all I can think about is how I feel for Femi. Every other thing is secondary” she replied.

Mira: “Hmmn” she hummed and before she could say another word, they were interrupted by a really loud advertisement. It was the one Yvonne had prepared with her assistant to apologize to Femi. Yvonne smiled as they watched; she couldn’t deny that the advertisement was touching. Femi’s heart would be of stone, if he still did not forgive her.

Mira watched the happy expression on Yvonne’s face and it irritated her. She stood up and excused herself to the bathroom.

Somewhere in Lagos, Annabel Ngegwu, Yvonne’s mother sat in her hotel room thinking of her daughter. She had thought that Yvonne would bring back the lost spark in her marriage, but it had not. She and her husband had drifted farther apart. They had fallen in love when Yvonne’s father was doing his Masters’ degree program in Germany. She had loved him enough to follow him to Nigeria.

But things had begun to fall apart when she had several miscarriages. One day her husband told her that people had told him not to marry a white woman, who was not built to carry a black man’s child, but he had not listened because he was enthralled by her. With the fourth miscarriage, Annabel’s husband began to wonder if he had truly loved her, “Perhaps it was just the exotic feel of a foreigner, not love” he had said to her. He came home late, and smelling of a woman’s fragrance, but Annabel still loved him, she had come too far to go back to Romania. She had been accepted in Nigeria, she had a thriving modeling career both in Nigeria and abroad. Her husband even said that, it was her busy schedule that made her lose the pregnancies. So when fate smiled on her and she got pregnant again, she quit from her modeling career. She began to believe her husband was right when the pregnancy stayed till full term.

Annabel snapped out of her reverie because, she knew the path her mind was going, was a painful one. She scrolled through her phone and looked at the pictures of her daughter, Yvonne. She had closed her heart to loving her, since she was put in her arms. She had blamed the child for all her misfortunes, which she knew had nothing to do with Yvonne. Perhaps it was time to find how to love Yvonne. She had spent her life loving a man who stopped loving her long ago, keeping a pretend marriage, and pursuing wealth. She had so much money that it wouldn’t finish in ten generations, but still she felt empty.

Annabel: “I am sorry Yvonne; I hope I can make up for the lost years. My beautiful Yvonne, how can someone have someone like you and not appreciate it?” she soliloquized.

She picked up her phone and dialed her daughter’s number.

Annabel: “Hello my love. I am so sorry for taking wealth more important, when God gave me the best thing that could have happened to me. I love you Yvonne, but guilt have kept me from opening my heart to you” she said whisking away tears with the tip of her pink fingernail.

Yvonne: “Mom, what guilt are you talking about?” she asked

Annabel: “Uhm… guilt, uhm not really guilt. What I am trying to say is that I will not miss your birthday for anything in this world” she said and listened as Yvonne squealed.

Yvonne was just like her, even though she didn’t know how that could be possible. Yvonne had the heart of a child, she got angry, but she never kept grudge. She loved who loved her, and even if her enemy came tomorrow and apologized, she would begin to love them.

Annabel: “I am going to shower you with so much love, to make up for what I did” she said aloud as she called her personal shopper to get a birthday gift for her daughter.