LIFE IMPRISONMENT 22
WRITTEN BY: GRACE OLAYEMI
Comfort held the steering of her Mercedes G-Wagon tightly as she maneuvered her way through the Express. She could not wait to get to her house where she would hide her pitiable face and cry to her heart’s content.
She had gone to the salon where she was a regular to have her hair done. She walked into the salon and greeted the receptionist like she normally did, before asking for her specialized hairdresser. She had barely settled down when she felt many eyes looking at her with disdain. She wanted to ignore it as it was probably nothing but when she heard a remark she knew they were talking about her.
“This woman don’t even have shame. After conniving with the terrorists in this nation, she has the guts to come to the salon to make her hair.”
“Abi o, I was wondering when I would bump into her to give her a piece of my mind. But, one look at her and I can’t even waste my saliva on a shameless woman.”
“She is wearing designers and driving a porsh car with the money gotten from the blood of innocent people.”
“The way God will judge some people, ehn, they would wish they had never been created.”
She adjusted in her seat and reached for her airpod. She connected it with her phone and blocked her ear with it as she increased the volume of the music to the highest. Tears threatened to invade her eyes but she held them back and comforted herself that she was not guilty of any of the accusations being leveled against her.
She drove into her compound and hurriedly went into the house while strapping her baby to her back.
“Welcome, Dear,” Abraham greeted her as she walked in.
She was surprised to see him back in the house that early especially since he had to prepare for his trip to the headquarters of the law firm he worked for, where he would work on Danger’s case.
Comfort had cried, begged, whined, nagged and even prayed to stop her husband from taking up Danger’s face but all her efforts had yielded no result.
It had been officially announced that Barrister Abraham, the man that has the record of always winning every case he took up, was going to be Danger’s lawyer. The whole city had been thrown into chaos as people wondered why such man of a high integrity who was known for truth and justice would suddenly want to get his hands dirty on Danger’s case.
Abraham’s pastor was equally surprised and disappointed when he heard the news and he had called him to drop the case immediately. But when he said God had permitted him to take up the case, the pastor stepped down as he was not ready to kick against God.
Comfort had been harassed everywhere she went from the market to the neighbourhood and even her beloved salon had become a place of humiliation for her. Many people believed that Abraham had been working for Danger before he was caught and that was why he could publicly defend him as his lawyer.
“Why are you home so early?” She asked him and he signaled to her to look sideways. She saw her beloved first daughter, sleeping peacefully on a settee at the other end of the room.
“Why? What happened to her? Why did you bring her from school so early?” She asked, walking closer to examine her body temperature.
“Her teacher called me and said she was being bullied by other kids in the school and that was why I had to bring her home. She would be staying at home for now until the school sort out the kids that were bullying her.”
“Bullied? At what age? For what?”
“Her teacher said she saw her hiding in the toilet and when she questioned her she said some kids told her not to come out of the toilet if she does not want to become like the 50 children Danger killed.”
“What? What did the teacher do after she heard that?”
“She tried to take her back to class. But, she was shivering all over and screaming that she wanted to go home.”
“Abraham, this is bad. Why are you doing this to us? It’s okay if I’m the only one facing the humiliation. But, this young girl had to experience such a traumatic thing just because of your selfishness.”
The tears finally found its way out of Comfort’s eyes and she choked on her words with great grief.
“I can’t go to the market or walk on the street any more. Even the women at the salon all had something to say about my husband defending a notorious criminal. The women in church are all gossiping and some of them are even asking why I would join hands together with you to sin against God. They asked if I had forgotten the story of Ananias and Sapphira?”
“We are suffering for your wrong choice, Abraham. I can’t take this anymore.” She broke down completely into tears.
Abraham walked up to her and held her in his hands. He was sure he heard God about this case. He had also been experiencing a lot of castigation from people both online and offline. It had become worse to the point that strangers were calling his line to rain curses on him. He wished God would just give the case to someone else as he was not convenient with the way his family was suffering because of the case.
“Please, for our sake drop this case,” Comfort said amidst tears and for the first time since he was convinced that God wanted him to handle the case, he was ready to drop it.
“I will,” he said and meant it.
To be continued…
