MY MARRIED GIRLFRIEND
CHAPTER 7
I turned to run away, but an AK 47 pointed to my gut and one of the armed men’s calm threats that he would air condition my stomach, quickly changed my mind. I walked slowly into my living room.
“What do you want in my house, Sir?” I asked Mr. Adewale, Larisa’s husband. “And how did you get in?”
“My boys are experts in lock picking. As for why I am in your house, I am here to send you to hell.”
“And why would you want to send me to hell?” I asked, shivering, feigning ignorance.
“You have been sleeping with my wife, young man. You even got my wife pregnant, and you had the guts, the temerity, the effrontery to still come to my house and act as if all was ok.” He said in rage.
It was too late now to deny anything. He knew everything. Steve had killed me.
“I am sorry, Sir. When I met your wife, I didn’t know she was married. She didn’t tell me she was married. It wasn’t my fault. If I had known she was married, I would never have had anything to do with her.”
“And after you found out she was married, did anything change? You continued sleeping with her right under my nose, you bastard.”
“Please, forgive me, Sir. If you let me go, you will never see me again. I will never come to your house again; in fact, I will leave town. Please, spare me, Sir.” I begged, desperately.
“It’s too late for that now. You are going to die. So, you better start confessing your sins. Take him away boys.”
He ordered his boys to tie me up. I fought back desperately, and I was rough handled. After a few minutes of struggling, they succeeded to subdue me and tied my hands behind my back. As they walked me out of the building, my neighbours stood in awe, with their mouths hung half open. They couldn’t understand why I was being taken away like that. But they suspected that it had something to do with my recent big boy life.
I was taken to a warehouse owned by Mr. Adewale, at the outskirts of the city. My feet were bound so that I would not be able to escape. I assessed the situation and realized that there were little hopes of escaping. Sooner than later, I would be going to meet my maker. I thought of my family and came to the realization that I would never see them again. I thought of Larisa and our unborn baby. I felt sad that I wouldn’t be around when my child was born. I hated Steve for doing this to me because of his greed.
I had spent about five hours in the warehouse. I had been given neither food nor water. I was being watched every minute by an armed guard. Mr. Adewale and the other guy had gone out. Before they left, they instructed the armed guard to shoot me if I attempted to escape. I almost laughed in spite of the situation when they gave that instruction. How was I going to escape? I had been bound hand and feet. My only escape now was death and I prayed that it came quick and swift. I dreaded being tortured before being killed.
It was about midnight now when Mr. Adewale walked in with the other guy and, you wouldn’t believe this, Steve. I struggled to free myself when I saw Steve. I wanted to strangle him at that very moment but of course, all my attempts were futile. They got a seat for Mr. Adewale while Steve and the other guy took positions on either side of him.
“Steve, you are a bastard.” I told him. “So, because your plans to swindle Larisa and I didn’t work, you went and set us up, right?”
“You have the answer to that. You are a smart person. However, your smartness ends today. I now work for Mr. Adewale and he has promised to make life easy for me.” Steve replied, mockingly.
“I thought you were my friend, Steve. We have been friends from childhood. Why would you betray me like this?”
“My friendship only extends to the length of a coin. What do I gain from you? What have I gained from you. You have been living a good life while I have been suffering.” Steve’s words were poison.
“Now, listen to me.” That was Mr. Adewale talking now. I have a small story to tell you before you die. You have been enjoying my wife in my absence and even in my presence. I got married to Larisa many yeas ago. I liked her immediately I saw her and when I approached her, she turned me down because she was in love with one low life like you. However, I used my money and convinced her parents, and she was pressured into marrying me. In quick succession, she gave me two girls; a disappointment to me because I had wanted a male child instead. For some reason which I couldn’t tell, she was no longer able to take in.
“I had to do something. I couldn’t take a second wife because it would complicate my life, and affect my status in the society. So, I decided to travel abroad to raise another family. Larisa doesn’t know anything about this. Unfortunately for me, the white lady I engaged abroad ended up just like Larisa. She also gave me two children: all females. I had been worried all this while. I was afraid that my legacy would be lost. I was afraid that I was never going to be able to have a male child. I was afraid that the Adewale name and lineage would die with me, since I am an only child.
“Then, I got into the country and after a while, my wife told me she was pregnant again. I was so overjoyed and prayed that this time around it should be a boy. We went for a scan and I was overjoyed when it was confirmed that she was carrying two children: two boys. I was already making plans to receive my two boys into this world when Steve here broke the disconcerting news to me that you were the father of the twins. That put me in a very terrible mood. I felt injured, backstabbed and betrayed.
“Then a thought came to me. I started thinking that why can’t I turn an unfavourable situation to my advantage? Why can’t I adopt the twins since no one knows they aren’t mine and send their father to his grave for sleeping with my wife? I contacted Steve and he helped me locate you. You know the rest. Now, this is the plan. You will die and when Larisa puts to bed, no one will know that I am not the father of the twins. I will give Steve enough money to disappear, and Larisa and I will live happily ever after.”
“You are a wicked man, Mr. Adewale. You and Steve are two of a kind. However, I don’t care what happens to me. But be rest assured that you will never be the father of my kids. Even if you kill me, I will rise from the dead and take my children from you.” I threatened, desperately.
Mr. Adewale laughed loud and long at this. He laughed because he knew my utterances were just the rantings of a frustrated man. He knew I was desperate and hopeless, and I knew I was going to die very soon. Ho ordered his men to shoot me in the head. As one of the guys raised his gun and was about to shoot, Larisa popped in from nowhere.
“Stop!!!!” She shouted. “Please, don’t shoot him.”
Everyone was surprised to see Larisa. They hadn’t expected her to come. I was also very surprised but grateful. I now had a little hope of somehow being saved.
“How did you get here, Larisa? How did you find us?” Mr. Adewale was enraged.
“I tracked you down, honey. You have been keeping late nights these past couple of days. I thought you were cheating so; I had a tracker installed in your car. That was how I was able to track you down to this warehouse.”
“Ohhh!!! That’s it? Anyway, you came just in time to say a final goodbye to your boyfriend. We were just about to make him an ancestor before you interrupted.”
At that point, Larisa discovered Steve was also in the building. She was angry and grabbed Steve’s T Shirt. I had never seen her so angry.
“You idiot” She shouted, angrily. “I know you are the one behind all these. Just because I refused to be blackmailed. Just because I refused to give you the hundred million you asked for, you went ahead to betray your own friend. Is Val not your friend, Steve? You are very wicked and selfish. You are a devil.”
“Will you stop that, Larisa.” Her husband shouted. “Steve here is a nice guy. He is the one who helped me track down this idiot, and you are here, in my presence, supporting your boyfriend? Do you disrespect me this much?”
“You have no moral authority to say that to me, husband. Yes, you don’t because I know that you also have a family overseas. Oh! You think I wouldn’t find out? Well, I did, thanks to your good friend here, Steve. He revealed everything to me when he tried to blackmail you and failed.” Larisa spoke.
Mr. Adewale couldn’t believe what he had just heard. It now occurred to him that Steve was the one blackmailing him. He now realized that Steve was not the angel he had thought he was. He turned to Steve who tried to escape. But it was too late for him. One of the armed men pulled his gun and shot him in the back as he ran away. He fell on his face with a loud thud. The shooter walked up to where he lay and put three more bullets in his back. He twitched and then began the once in a last time business of dying. He had paid the ultimate price for his greed.
That was when I realized that Steve had already gone ahead with his plan of blackmailing Mr. Adewale too. He was playing a double game. If I had known this, I would have revealed it even before Larisa came. However, would anyone had even believed me? Anyway, he had gotten himself a just reward, for the foulest deed in the history of friendship.
Mr. Adewale asked one of the guys to drag Larisa to her car and drove her back to the house. I wept as I saw Larisa being taken away. I knew it was the last time I was going to see her because I would be dead any minute now.
“Larisa!!!” I cried. “Please, save me. Larisa, please, for the sake of our children.”
She looked at me sadly and shook her head. There were tears in her eyes, sad tears.
“Take care of our children, Larisa. Tell them I loved them.”
I was put in Mr. Adewale’s car and driven to an obscure part of the city that was close to a native village. When we got onto a bridge above a dark and deep river, I was pulled out of the car, my hands and feet untied and made to stand by the railings of the bridge. Mr. Adewale took the gun from the other guy and walked up to me. He wanted to do it himself.
“Goodbye, Mr. Babalola. You won’t be missed.” He spoke.
He shot me twice in the chest and as I fell down, dying, he pushed me into the river.
TO BE CONTINUED…
