After the storm (28 page)

"Every
business venture is fine so long as it fulfills its objectives and
yields profit, but I think I have my hands full enough with KH at
the moment."

"I can
imagine. I wonder how you do it. Just the trauma of my mum's death
was enough to nearly cost me all that I have worked
for."

Akeem
glanced at his wristwatch and tried to contain his impatience as
she went on to tell him about the efforts she was putting into
rebuilding her business. She had lost some of her clients to her
competitors but was working on getting them back through offers and
deals. He glanced at her friend, who had picked up a newspaper and
was leafing through it. He wondered if Coral had deliberately
brought a friend to prevent him from being abrupt with
her.

"That's
past now. You've got to look forward and forge ahead," he said to
Coral.

"I know.
Thanks so much for the money you gave me. That was a real lifeline.
There's no other way I could even be trying to rebuild my business
without it."

"You've
already thanked me through the voice mails you left." He
deliberately glanced at his wristwatch again, hoping that Coral
would catch the signal he was giving her. He had just a few more
minutes for her, and then if she didn't take the hint, he was not
going to let the presence of her friend prevent him from telling
her he needed to get back to work.

∞∞∞

Yemi
walked out of the elevator and headed towards Akeem's office.
"Hello, Linda," she greeted Akeem's personal assistant as she
entered the reception area. She smiled as her eyes swept over
Linda's pretty, blush-coloured, chiffon blouse. Her hair and makeup
was nicely done, as usual. "How're you doing?

Linda
was looking slightly bemused. "I'm fine, thank you," she finally
managed to say. "It's been a long time."

"Is my
husband in the office?" Yemi asked, moving towards the door leading
to Akeem's office.

"Eh…no.
I mean, yes," Linda stuttered, standing up from her seat. "He's got
some visitors."

Yemi
looked at her, slightly surprised. Linda was normally composed, but
she did not seem to have it all together that day. "Okay. I'll just
peep in and show my face, and I know he will come and see me out
here."

She
entered Akeem's office and saw two women there. Akeem looked
slightly startled to see her. Something about his reaction made her
take a closer look at the woman sitting across from him. There was
something familiar about her. The woman was also looking at Yemi,
and then Yemi remembered. It was the woman she had seen in the
restaurant with Akeem.

She
walked farther into the office and made her way over to the window.
She stood there looking out at the busy city streets below. She
took a deep breath to calm the anger she felt building up rapidly
within her. "Tell them to leave," she said to Akeem without turning
round.

A couple
of minutes later, she heard the sounds of heels going towards the
door, and then the office door opened and closed. She turned around
then and looked at Akeem. The pain she felt was indescribable. "So
you're still seeing her."

"No, I'm
not seeing her. I've not seen her since that night at the
restaurant. She just dropped by this afternoon
unexpectedly."

"I don't
believe you, and even if that were true, you could have refused to
see her." Yemi was struggling to keep calm. "By agreeing to see
her, you disrespected me, our marriage, and the memory of our son!
You're simply telling me that all I went through meant nothing to
you!"

Akeem
ran his fingers through his hair. "I had no idea she was coming
here. She feels she owes me because I gave her some money to
resuscitate her business, but I have made it clear to her that she
does not."

"Of
course," Yemi said scornfully. "You've settled her with some cash.
Tell me, is that a pattern with you? Sleep with them and then pay
them off?"

"Why
won't you believe me? Can't we move past..."

"Move
past what?" Yemi cut in angrily. "You and your mistress killed my
son, and then I come by your office and see you having a cozy
conversation with her, and you're telling me to move past
what?"

"I was
not having a cozy chat with anyone!" Akeem said tightly. She could
see him also struggling to remain calm, and it infuriated her all
the more. So he had now added acting skills on top of his cheating
ways. What a poor judge of character she had been.

She
stared at him. "You are despicable. You know that?"

"I see
it in your eyes whenever you look at me." He left his desk and came
closer to where she was standing. His lips curved in a bitter smile
as he stared at her. "You've never really forgiven me for the loss
of the baby, have you?"

"But at
least I've been proven right, haven't I?" Yemi countered.
"Forgiving you would have been a waste of time!"

His eyes
bored into hers. "But I thought forgiveness was supposed to be a
Christian virtue?" he asked. "You go on and on at me for not
believing in God, but what example have you shown me?"

"Stop
fishing for excuses for your infidelity," Yemi snapped. "Even
non-Christians can be faithful. It just depends on how disciplined
one is." She sized him up scornfully with her eyes and then looked
away in disgust. "A quality you obviously lack." She brought out
the forms from Aleena's school from her bag and dropped them on his
desk. "I brought this for you to sign. It needs to be sent to
Aleena's school before the end of the day."

With
that, she walked to the door and left the office.

∞∞∞

Yemi
drove aimlessly through the streets with tears flowing freely down
her face. The emotional pain she was feeling was so bad that it
seemed almost physical. She kept driving around and did not realize
when she drove round a roundabout three times.

She
finally headed home. Akeem was already at home when she got there.
He lay on his back in bed, still fully clothed. He started to get
up when she came in, but she ignored him, walked into the second
room, and locked the door.

Tears
stung her eyes as she watched her daughter sleeping later that
evening. She found herself quietly whispering apologies to her for
failing her and for the hurt she was facing as a consequence of her
parents' troubled marriage.

Yemi
walked slowly back to her room afterwards. She had made up her mind
what she was going to do. It was time for her to cut her losses and
move on. She could never trust Akeem again. All she felt for him
was anger and contempt, and that would never change. She knew that
her parents and friends would be aghast at her decision, but this
was about her and what was best for her daughter. It was time to
end the charade of staying married.

∞∞∞

The
dull, grey weather matched Akeem's mood the day Yemi moved out of
the house. He tried to distract himself with work in the office,
but at about 4 p.m., he was done with the pretense of working. The
earlier he got used to his new status as a single man, the better.
He had been that for a long time, anyway.

He felt
slightly refreshed after he took a shower. As he sat on the bed,
his eyes caught a jewellery case sitting on the dressing table.
Without opening it, he knew its contents. He opened the case, and
the diamond necklace and earrings he had bought for Yemi after his
affair with Coral seemed to glint mockingly at him from their cozy
interior. He stared at it for a while, closed the case, and dropped
it into a drawer.

He went
back downstairs, dismissed Bassey for the night, and sat in the
smaller sitting room. He was struggling to find a room in the house
that had the fewest memories of his wife and daughter. Well, this
certainly wasn't it, he thought to himself as he looked at the
painting of Yemi in the room. He wondered why she had left it
behind, and he smiled mirthlessly—probably to haunt him.

He
poured himself a drink and stared at the painting. She looked
stunning. A half smile played across her lips as she reclined on a
sofa. She was wearing a beautiful, off-shoulder, wine-coloured
evening dress. Her hair was twisted up and fell in soft curls
around her neck. He had bought her that dress. She sizzled whenever
she wore it. He had paid quite a bit for the painting, which was
probably why she had left it behind, but he wondered what he was
supposed to do with it now.

At about
eight o'clock, his phone rang. It was Yemi. An image flashed across
his mind of Yemi looking sad and contrite, telling him over the
phone how much she missed him and that she had realised that she
could not live without him. He smiled bitterly to himself. If there
was a place like hell, then it would probably freeze over before
Yemi made that kind of admission.

"Hi,
Akeem." Her voice sounded tense when he connected the call. "Please
hold on, Aleena wants to speak to you."

"Hello,
Daddy." Aleena's voice sounded tearful.

"Hello,
princess." He cradled his handset closer to his ear.

"I want
to come home." She sounded like she was about to start crying
anytime.

Akeem's
chest tightened. "I'll see you in a few days, princess," he said,
his voice a little raspy with emotion. He and Yemi had agreed that
Aleena would stay with him on weekends while Yemi had her on
weekdays. It had cost him a lot to settle for that, but he knew it
was the best arrangement for Aleena under the
circumstances.

"But I
want to see you now, Daddy!"

"Very
soon, sweetie, very soon." His anger against Yemi heightened.
"Let's play a game, okay. We'll pretend Daddy travelled and we are
talking on the phone. Remember the last time I went to
America?"

He spent
the next few minutes trying to coerce her into a better mood. He
even managed to get her giggling a little bit.

"Okay,
princess," he said a while later. "It's late, and I think you
should go to bed now. Remember, Daddy loves his girl looking bright
in the morning."

"I don't
like my room. The colour's not nice." Aleena was sounding tearful
again. "It's horrid!" she added for emphasis.

He knew
his girl. She exaggerated when she was trying to make a point. Yemi
had been trying to correct her, but the work was not quite done
yet.

"I want
my nice pinky colour!" she fairly wailed down the phone.

That was
easy. He could fix that. "Not to worry, sweetie, Daddy will sort
that out, okay?"

He
talked with her a little more before she reluctantly agreed to go
to bed.

He
didn't bother talking with Yemi and hung up immediately. He didn't
think Aleena's room was horrid or anything like that, but
nevertheless her room needed to be as close to the one she was used
to as possible. He was not in the mood to discuss that with Yemi
right away. He would ask his office to send the same interior
decorator who did her room in his house to replicate the same look
at Yemi's place, and she had better not argue with him over
it.

He
buried himself in work over the next few days. He purposed to keep
seeing Yemi to the barest minimum. She wanted out of his life, and
he was going to give her just that.

∞∞∞

A week
later, he was in his office when Hasan stopped by.

"Hey, A.
K., what's this I'm hearing about Yemi moving out?" Hasan asked,
barely before he had even sat down. "And you gave no hint that
things were that bad!"

Akeem
smiled wryly. He had wondered how long it would take for his
friends to find out about the breakup of his marriage. Sara was
away on holidays. He knew that Yemi had not told her yet, otherwise
Fadel would have come round too. "Things have been bad for a
while."

Hasan
inhaled slowly. "I thought you guys were working it out. Where has
she moved to?"

"Somewhere in Ikoyi."

"She's
renting?"

Akeem
could hear the surprise in Hasan's voice. He had properties all
over Lagos, but Yemi wanted to make a point by declining the offer
of a house he had made to her. "Prefers to."

Hasan
was silent for a long moment. "So what's the plan? How do you
intend to get them back?"

Akeem
smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "No plan. I've decided
to let her go."

"But…"

"There's
no two ways about it," Akeem cut in abruptly. "She's made no bones
about how she feels about me, and I've accepted it."

Hasan
looked incredulous. "Aren't you going to try at all?"

"Do you
think I've not tried?" He walked to the window, tugged at the
Venetian blinds and pulled them open. The midday sun came streaming
into the office, but it did nothing to soothe his mood.

"I'm
going to see her and try to reason with her."

"Don't
bother, Hasan. It won't make any difference."

Hasan
stayed for a while longer, still trying to convince Akeem to go
after Yemi, but he really wasn't interested anymore. Yemi was
right; it was better that they separated. Too many things stood
between them. Most of all, the baby they had lost.