FAMILIAR ENEMY (EPISODE 10) Written by Glorie Adepoju
Her eyes intensed, she leaned closer and her voice dropped a notch.
“Ade is from a wealthy family. As the first child, I realized his birth-right as an heir is out of this world. In that their family, the birth-right of the first child is mind blowing, regardless of the gender. I’m not even talking about inheritance.”
“The birth-right is given a few years after the child is born. Ade is the first child from his father’s mistress, but he got the birth-right as the first born over the first child of his father’s wife, regardless. Ade became entitled to the birth-right few years after his birth, so his mother who is the mistress could benefit massively from her son’s birth-right, till he became old enough to manage it on his own.
“That exactly is what I’m trying to avoid, a mistress taking what should be mine. I know Ade and I may have children of our own someday, but someday might be too late. I need to have a card, a backup card. My life would change drastically forever if my child gets that birth-right.”
“But Uncle Ade might find out.” I said in a whisper, the mere possibility was scary.
“He would never find out ” She said with such authority and finality that seemed to silence any other questions I might have.
Aunty BB perfectly planned the whole issue such that Uncle Ade didn’t even suspect a thing. The expected date of delivery of Juliet was fast approaching, I noticed Aunty BB and Juliet were having minor disagreements.
Aunty BB never disclosed the details of their disagreements. One night, Aunty BB was drunk to stupor which was not unusual, only this time she kept talking as I struggled to get her out of her clothes and into her nightie.
Instead of the usual off-keys songs, and incoherent words she would utter, she was speaking sensibly to a certain extent, I paid attention.
“Juliet, you are a stupid girl, stupid girl. Greedy girl.” She said facing me
“You idiot you said I’m cheating you; you are telling me you didn’t know my husband was that rich. Imagine you saying that I can do better.” she hissed loudly, she tried to hit me, but I dodged it. I was confused until I figured out that she was mistaking me for Juliet.
“The money I agreed to pay you, where will you ever get such in…in your…entire lifetime! Nonsense! Even the deposit sef, all your life savings can never come close to that amount, never and now you want more! You are stylishly threatening me because you know I’m desperate. What nonsense!!! What nonsense!!” she began hitting me.
“You haven’t even had the baby, and see what you are doing, what will you do when you have the child, blackmail me? I will deal with you before you grow wings!” she said angrily, I tried to calm her down.
After throwing up severally, she finally calmed down enough to sleep, leaving me to clean the mess as usual.
…to be continued…
pEn&pApEr
GLORIEADEPOJU
