SHADOWS OF THE PAST PART 2

It was shortly after my seventeenth birthday that my father died. The same age my mum gave birth to me as I heard. She had died from complications of child birth thus I grew up without a mother; only her picture. All memories of her were in imaginations. Dad had died without a warning either. I wasn’t prepared for what he left with me alone. Without a brother nor a sister than the one that showed up four years later and tests showed she was lying I was all alone in this world. I left the mansion in Lagos and moved to this particular suite in Abuja. So for the past 10 years I’ve been living in this boring apartment and for days sometimes all I’ll see is this view we are seeing together on this balcony and attendants that clean up the room or serve me food and drinks. The world was becoming too boring until I met Robert. 

Robert was that elegant guy that was supposed to usher me into full teenagehood. He brought life back to me and exposed me to the realities of life. Robert was not only a liar; he was a lie. Everything he said and did wasn’t just true. I tried to believe him a couple of times but it wouldn’t just be possible. He told me all the fables in the world and kept so close to me just to know one truth which I’m about to tell you also. When my father died he left me a whole lot of money and properties. It is all being managed by a law and accounting firm. I don’t really work. They quarterly pay me the profits from the trades. I seldom bank the money. I just change it to foreign currency and keep it in the safe you see inside this room. The safe is secured by Freidan securities. Whenever I’m not in the room it releases a voltage of 1040v to its surroundings, its lock is a fourteen digit code and it has three layers of galvanized seals. When Robert knew about the money he sneaked into my room one faithful evening when I wasn’t there and tried to steal from the money. I didn’t know how it happened but he fell off this same balcony and died.  

News men were all around to report the news of the death of Robert from my room but I paid them off with a hundred million naira. I stayed off all affairs of men close to four years and then the next available friend who later became a sex partner and boyfriend came. Eric was perfect in all things. His death is still a mystery till today. Before he died he was planning to steal from me also. But I really don’t know why these men want to steal what was going to be theirs if eventually we get married. Eric was a psychologist working for a football club in England. He just came back to Nigeria to see his hailing father when we met at the airport. His athletic look and posture couldn’t allow me take my eyes away from him. His perfume was strong enough for me to notice and sincerely before we came down from that plane I gave him a first kiss. 

The first night Eric slept in my hotel room was heavenly. He came prepared with all the tools necessary. He worked me out into exhaustion that when I woke up the next morning I told him the code to the safe. He walked in and out of my life the way he wanted. He wasn’t going back to the UK again, all in the name of love. He had nothing to hide and jokingly he made feel getting married wouldn’t be a bad deal. For the first time in my life I loved someone else apart from my father. 

The relationship lasted six months and it was time for Friedan securities to change the password. They had called that they would come a later date but would just change the password from their office first which they did. That same night I had a dinner with some investors at the restaurant. I begged Eric to come with me but he declined. He stayed back in the room and it was during the meeting that I heard he fell off the balcony while trying to steal the money. This time around he had opened the first seal and the company had disconnected the voltage. Thus what happened to him ……….a mystery.

Later on I discovered he was the one who arranged the meeting with the investors. He needed them to distract me so that he can do his own damage but my father in heaven is not sleeping. 

When she was true with the stories I became perturbed. I didn’t know if she was saying the truth or she was just working on my intelligence. These stories are too smooth to be true. How come I never knew anything about her? Apart from the affluence of this particular day there was nothing else about this story to believe. I took a sip from my drink and told her there is something common about the two of us and thus my own story began…………