Lunch was always going to be eaten almost in silence due to the sudden arrival of Itohan. No one expected her that afternoon as she had not been seen or heard from in almost four months. The last time Itohan tried to have a conversation with her mother it had resulted in a heated argument and that had led her to storm out of the house promising never to come back.
But she should have known that such threats never moved her mother and everyone knew she would be coming back in no time. But Lisa never expected it to take as long as four months but finally, Itohan Ehiaghe was home. Occasionally, Lisa’s eyes met Itohan’s and she could see the hate in the eyes of the only daughter of Dr Mrs Beatrice Ehiaghe and that made Lisa very uncomfortable.
Lisa stared down at her 8 year son who was sat next to her munching on his favorite meal, Jollof rice and Fish with a glass of water beside him. He had become a very fast eater and he could clear a plate faster than any of them on the table. This was in sharp contrast from the Daniel she used to know who barely touched his food and had gotten as thin as a lizard when he was much younger. He had added a lot of flesh as an 8 year old and had grown to be a very handsome young boy. Everything about him was perfect. His eyes which were almost like his fathers were very beautiful, he had perfect set of teeth and his light skin glittered under the sunlight. He was also very intelligent as he always came out top of his class. Monalisa Agbaje had the perfect son but the deep scar on his forehead still gave her Goosebumps. That scar was a cruel reminder to Lisa of what happened about more than six years back and she wondered why fate was so cruel.
Lisa quickly realized that staring at Itohan’s hateful eyes were a lot better than staring at her son’s scar so she took her eyes back to the 32 year old Itohan who was sat opposite her on the table digging into her own plate of rice.
“How’s your leg?” Lisa tried to break the silence which had gone on for too long. Dr Ehiaghe’s eyes turned to her daughter who was seated by her left hand side. Lisa could still see that the sight of Itohan really disgusted her mother and she began to wonder how a mother could hate her own child so much. Lisa tried to imagine if it was even possible for her to hate Daniel that much and concluded that she could never. No matter what he did, he was still her son and she would forever love him. Daniel was all she had, her life, the only reason she was still sane and happy.
“Are you asking because you care about me?” Itohan asked back, “or you just want to make small talk. Because even I can cut the tension on this table with a…”
“Must you be so hateful?” Dr Ehiaghe came to Lisa’s rescue. “She asked a polite question and that demands a polite answer”.
There was another brief silence as Itohan stared at her mother with a hint of smile on her face. Dr Ehiaghe continued with her food like she didn’t know Itohan was staring while Daniel dug into his fish innocently. Lisa immediately began to regret why she had asked that question and started to think of something else to say.
“My accident was 12 months ago”, Itohan finally replied. “My leg is fine”.
“I spent over a million naira on that leg”, Dr Ehiaghe reminded them. “That could have been prevented if you had been more careful with that bike of yours”.
“Yes mom”, Itohan smiled mockingly. “Continue to remind me of how my insolent lifestyle costs you a lot of money”.
“But it does”, Dr Ehiaghe argued.
Itohan dropped her fork on her half-finished plate of rice and Lisa feared the worst. A simple question from her was resulting to another argument between mother and daughter. “For you it’s always about money. You don’t even care about what makes your only daughter happy”. Itohan missed.
“How does riding a bike like a drunk boy and risking your life make you happy?” Dr Ehiaghe snapped. “And you kid yourself if you think you are my only daughter.” Dr Ehiaghe pointed at Lisa who was sat at her right hand side. “Lisa has been more of a daughter to me in ten years than you have been in the 32 years of your existence”.
A cold chill ran through Lisa’s body as that was exactly what she was trying to prevent. For ten years she had known Dr Beatrice Ehiaghe, and she had gotten to understand the former senator perfectly. At first, Lisa thought she was one of those religious bigots because of how seriously she took her church and her pastor. Dr Beatrice was known to contribute huge sums to her church and her pastor but would not give a dime to any of her children. This was strange to Lisa at first, but she had gotten to understand how the lady worked. Dr Beatrice was a lover of hard work and she wanted her children to achieve everything on their own and not rely on her business. Her first child Ehimen, was able to achieve this as he ended up a computer engineer finishing from the University of Texas, but these were standards set too high for the second child Itohan. Itohan was the definition of spoilt and lazy and this was not the only thing that irritated Dr Beatrice. Itohan also grew up learning to act and dress like a boy. She travelled to Russia for her university education and came back a drop out. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when she revealed she had no feelings for men and that she believed she was a lesbian. This was of course against the Christian belief of her mother and she could not take that. Even with Ehimen’s intervention, Dr Beatrice treated Itohan like an outcast.
That was Dr Beatrice. Anything that went against her Christian faith was thrown in the trash and that applied to all. Including her own daughter. This was why Dr Beatrice’s love for Lisa was a very strange one, because Lisa didn’t even believe in her Christian Faith.
“Can I go to the swing Grandma?” To Lisa’s joy, her son broke the silence.
“Of course”, Dr Beatrice Ehiaghe replied.
“I will take him there Mother”. Lisa quickly said. An excuse to get out of the dining table.
Dr Beatrice began to giggle. “You protect this boy too much”, she said. “You never let him out of your sight. Is that why you wouldn’t let him come here and spend some time with his grandmother?”
“He is all I have mother”, Lisa smiled as she got up from her chair holding her son’s hand with her right hand.
“I know”, Dr Beatrice smiled. “I will join you people outside soon”.
Lisa walked out as fast as her legs could carry her gripping firmly to her son’s tiny hand. She didn’t want to witness another battle between mother and daughter. She had witnessed the one that happened four months back and it was the worst yet. Lisa didn’t care much for Itohan, but such family dispute was not good for her and her son. That was one of the numerous reasons she didn’t want Daniel spending the holidays with his grandmother, she didn’t want him growing up in an environment like that.
The swing was at a playground that Dr Beatrice had made especially for Daniel. It was a small garden before he was born and Dr Beatrice had gotten the whole Garden cleared out and reconstructed for a playground the very next day after Daniel was born. She was of the opinion that he would always come around her enormous mansion and spend the holidays and he needed a place to play. But the fact was that Daniel had only spent the night a few times in his grandmother’s house and it was never away from Lisa as she was always present. Experience had made Lisa grow so attached that she even wished she went to school with him just to be able to keep an eye on him.
The playground had a swing, a roller coaster which Lisa never allowed Daniel get on and a little field where he played football. Daniel wasn’t a big fan of football so he just used the swing every time he was there. There were also metal chairs that one could sit and watch from and that was where Lisa always sat, keeping her eyes on her baby boy. As he played on the swing happily, her eyes caught the scar on his forehead once more and her heart skipped a beat. She wondered why she always felt sadder about the scar when they were in Dr Beatrice’s house. She tried to fight it, but her mind flashed back to that unfortunate night she had tried all her life to forget. The night the only man she had ever loved, Ehimen Ehiaghe died.
“I studied the documents you gave me”, Lisa didn’t hear Dr Beatrice approaching as she was lost in thought.
“What did you say Mother?” Lisa asked as Dr Beatrice took a seat beside her daughter in-law. Mother! That was what Dr Beatrice had told Lisa to always call her. And it was remarkable how things had changed between the two of them.
“I studied the documents you gave me on Mr Lucky Odefe”, she said. “The evidences are remarkable”.
Lisa was silent.
“When did you suspect he was stealing from me?” Dr Beatrice enquired.
Lisa smiled. “I had always known”, she replied still with the smile on her face. “I just needed concrete evidence which I got last week”.
Dr Beatrice frowned. She was not a lady to cross and Mr Lucky had just stepped on her tail. There were two things she took very seriously, her money and her church. “And to think he is a deacon in the church”, she spat as she looked at Lisa deep in the eyes. “You know what this means?” She forced a smile.
‘’No mother”, Lisa lied.
“It means you are going up” Dr Beatrice smiled as she placed her right hand on Lisa’s left shoulder. “Mr Lucky will get a surprise on Monday and that means you are next in line to take over my building company”.
Lisa knew that was coming, but her heart still beat hard as those words came out of Dr Beatrice’s lips. She couldn’t believe how far she had come from the girlfriend of Ehimen everyone in the family loved to hate simply because of her beliefs to the lady who was taking over the family business
. “I will not disappoint you Mother”, she promised.
“I know you won’t”, Dr Beatrice shrugged. “You have never disappointed me before even though in those early days, I loved to find faults in you”, she recalled. “I loved you the first time Ehimen brought you home…”
“Until you discovered I didn’t share your belief in God”, Lisa smiled.
“Exactly”, Dr Beatrice smiled back. “But God taught me not to hate the sinner, but hate the sin”. She said as she placed her daughter in-law’s palm in her hands. “And I am still praying that God shows you the light”.
Love the sinner and not the sin. Then why didn’t Dr Beatrice love her own daughter? Lisa could see the hypocrisy but she dared not point it out to her mother in-law who could be as cruel as she was kind. Lisa could only wonder what fate awaited Mr Lucky and she knew at that point the same fate would await her if she ever dared to cross her mother in-law. She knew the love Dr Beatrice had for Daniel wouldn’t even stop that. If she could punish someone as close as Mr Lucky or even excommunicate her own daughter Itohan, then she wouldn’t even think twice if Lisa ever got on her bad side.
“I need to get water for Daniel”, Lisa pleaded as she got up from the chair. But that wasn’t entirely true as she just needed to go to a private place where she could punch the air in victory. She had just been made the president of Clay World, the biggest building company in Nigeria. She wanted to scream but that would be saved till she was back in her house. But for now, punching the air was what she wanted to do. “Can I get you some water?” She asked Dr Beatrice.
“I am fine my dear”, the former senator replied. “It’s a shock you are willing to let Daniel out of your site”.
Lisa smiled. “He’s always safe with you mother”, she said as she walked hurriedly into the house. The entrance of Dr Beatrice’s mansion led to what they called the small sitting room which was even bigger than Lisa’s sitting room. It had red chairs and beautiful cream tiles with a chandelier hanging from the roof that looked like it could weigh a thousand pounds. It also had a flat screen TV that was even bigger than Daniel. The small sitting room was for the less important people that wanted to see Dr Beatrice. Being a former senator, she was used to getting lots of visitors and people begging for one form of help or the other. The small sitting room led to the big sitting room and that was where the people of importance waited to see her. It was four times the size of the small sitting room and one could barely hear another person talk from one end of it. It was decorated with lots of pictures and paintings of Dr Beatrice, awards she had received from different organizations, a mini statue of her which was given to her by her constituency Edo central while she still served as senator and a gigantic TV that almost covered the wall of the left hand side of the sitting room. The chairs were black leather and they matched the white tiles on the floor and white curtains on the window. The aquarium at the end of the sitting room was one of Daniel’s favourite things in the house as he would sit on the floor most of the time and watch the fishes. Dr Beatrice’s mansion was one of the biggest houses in the whole of Edo state and she prided herself on that. It was also one of the many products of her own company, Clay World Builders.
Lisa ran through the big sitting room and headed straight for the kitchen. She found two of Dr Beatrice’s many cooks in there and asked both of them to leave which they did hurriedly. The kitchen could be mistaken for one in a top restaurant and Lisa marveled any time she stepped into it. She wanted to scream in joy, but couldn’t. The house was a big one but someone might actually hear her. She walked to the big refrigerator at the end of the kitchen, opened it and grabbed a can of water.
“So my mother told me the good news”, she jumped at the sound of Itohan’s voice from behind her. Lisa had not seen or heard her sister in-law walk in. “When do we celebrate?” Itohan smiled mockingly.
“Mother told you?” Lisa asked in disbelief.
“Of course” Itohan replied as she walked in slowly. Lisa studied her new haircut, a spiked Mohawk with the front dyed red. She also had ear rings lined on both ears with her dark make up making her look really scary. She wore her manly jacket like she always did and black leather pants. Itohan had girly features, but she dressed like a man. At first, Lisa thought it was admirable, but it had gotten way too much and she could only guess her sister in-law dressed that was to annoy her mother more. “You know my mother loves to flaunt your achievement in my face”, Itohan said as she got very close to Lisa. “President of Clay World? Congratulations sister”. That was said mockingly, but Lisa decided to be polite.
“Thank you big sis”, she forced a smile.
“Mr Lucky has been a father to me”, Itohan said as she looked round the kitchen like she was looking for something. “I grew up not knowing a father but him”, she went on. “He has handled my mother’s businesses, finances and so many big projects of my mothers and all this while, he has never been accused of stealing from my mother”, she explained. “Until now” Itohan looked into Lisa’s face and gave a big smile. “So did Mr Lucky suddenly become a thief or is he just another victim of the most ambitious lady I have ever met?”
“I have evidence…”
“That means nothing!” Itohan snapped. “You can fool my mother but you can’t fool me Monalisa”. She was visibly angry now. “How you cowed my brother into loving you, I have no idea”, she confessed. “Then my mother, that is even more shocking…”
“You Christians are so predictable”, Lisa cut her short. “Always judging people on their beliefs when you are the ones who believe in fantasies”, she smiled. “Your mother is a Christian”, Lisa reminded her, “and so was your brother. But they both fell in love with an Atheist. Maybe it is because this Atheist you are looking at has a vision. Maybe it is because I am the hardest worker and most dedicated person they ever met. Maybe it is because I have the most brilliant mind in Clay World and they decided to look beyond religion and see the real person inside”.
Itohan was silent.
“Mr Lucky is a deacon in your church and yet he steals from your mother”, Lisa laughed. “You are a Christian and yet you like women and fail to forget it is a sin in your religion. But I am an atheist and I have achieved more than you can ever dream of Itohan. I have gained the love of your family and you are currently the embarrassment of the house.” She could feel the anger emanating from her sister in-law at that point and it made her jump for joy inside. “Go and make your life better Itohan and stop burying yourself in religion that will not help you. Maybe one day, you will reach the heights I have attained”.
“I will punch your face…”
“But you wouldn’t”, Lisa cut in. “It is against your religion and imagine what mother would do to you for hurting her new president and favorite daughter”.
Lisa knew she had won again as she walked out of the kitchen with a hint of smile on her face. She could feel Itohan’s stare on her back but she didn’t care. She didn’t enjoy it as she used to but she knew that putting her sister in-law in her rightful place was needed.
“Lisa”, Itohan called from a distance. “God always knows how to deal with people like you”.
“Tell your God I am waiting”, she laughed. “I have outsmarted Him so far. I will do it again”.
Note: Chapter 2 'President Lisa' will be posted on the 9th of September by 12 pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment