Once in Love
Episode Eight
As soon as Mr. William leaves the house, Anna picks up her phone to call Kemi.
The call rings and ends, then she tries calling again. “Kemi, please pick up, my marriage is in trouble,” she says, already shaking. Kemi picks up the call from the other end, “hello, hello,” still shivering.
“Oh my God, network issues even at this point?” Anna laments.
“Are you hearing me?” She asks, and Kemi responds, “I can hear you now. Why is your voice shaking? What is wrong?” She could sense it in her voice.
“My friend, the wōrst has happened. I am finished.
Isabel is nowhere to be found. I came back to pick her up from school and could not find her. The teacher says someone came and picked her.”
She doesn’t finish talking, and Kemi interrupts, “That school needs to be suėd. I’m suspecting Joan took your daughter. You need to find her immediately.
Don’t worry; wait, I’m coming over to the house right now,” Kemi says.
As soon as the call ends, Anna falls to the ground crying. She doesn’t want to imagine anything happening to her only child.
She was mocked and accusėd of being barrėn, and God decided to bless her with a child after her husband’s mother had planned someone for him, and at the same time was nowhere to be found.
Shortly, Kemi arrives at the house with a confused expression.
The gateman recognizes her and opens the gate as she knocks. As she enters, she sees Anna sitting on the floor lāmenting her fate. “My friend, don’t act like all hope is lost.
I’m sure Isabel will come back to you. Please get up from the ground,” Kemi consoles Anna, who cries even more, thinking about the fact that it was getting dark and her daughter was still not found.
Even if it was a kidnāpper, they would have just called for a ransom but she hasn’t received any calls.
“What will I say to my husband? How will I even face him? My friend, you don’t understand; she is the only thing I have in this world.
How will I even sūrvive this? Anna gets up and attempts to run outside the gate with the wrapper she tied almost falling off, and Kemi holds her back.
“My friend, I’m telling you to calm down. You will find Anna. I told you to be careful of Joan.
I’m convinced she has a hand in this. Maybe she came to find out things about you so she will use it to her advantage. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed.
If you don’t find Isabel, tomorrow we report it to the police, and they will take it up from there.”
Kemi’s words send chills to Anna’s heart.
Even when she cries in silence, she knows she will find her daughter. Maybe someone she knows took the child home, or is the teacher playing pranks on her for always coming late to pick up Isabel from school.
As soon as Mr. William honks at the gate, Kemi gets up to go. “My friend, stop doing this thing.
My husband doesn’t bitė. I know how much you respect my marriage, but you should stay to have dinner with us, please.”
Anna insists, but Kemi politely declines, “I always come to see you, not your husband, and especially today that all is not well, I will just go.
Please update me about everything; I would like to know every detail, please,” Kemi says as she gets up to go.
She really respects Mr. William and does not like it whenever he comes back to see her. She gets scāred that anything might go wrong, more reason she just leaves.
She meets Mr. William at the gate and just waves at him. Mr. William isn’t in the mood to talk to anyone, he reluctantly waves back so that it will not look like he is ignōring her.”
“Of course, she might have heard that my daughter is missing and should not be expecting me to be smiling right now,” he thinks as he drives into the compound, making Anna’s heart rate increase.
As soon as he storms out of the car, he walks toward her.
“Have you finally found my daughter?” he asks, his face almost unrecognizable due to the way he frowns at her. She has never experienced that part of her throughout the time they have been married.
The way he comes at her makes her so silent that she cannot say anything to him.
Could it be that she doesn’t know what to say to him at that point?”I hope I’m taking to a human being right,” he says, and she still cannot find the right words to use, making it seem like she is ignoring him.
Mr. William’s angėr grows more as he lifts his hands and gives her a slāp for the first time in their marriage. She holds her face, reflecting on how everyday has changed in a day.
Then it dawns on her that he slāpped her, and as she opens her eyes, tears drip from them.
“Go inside and look for a way you will provide my daughter for me because I will need to see her first thing tomorrow morning. Wherever you kept her, I don’t just care, just provide her, else I will make sure I send you back to your parents.
You should know she has been the only thing keeping this marriage,” Mr. William says as he moves an inch from her, regretting the fact that he slāpped her.
Then he walks into the sitting room and sits down to think about everything that just happened, while Anna just stands there in shock, asking herself, “Did my husband just slāp me?
How did we get to this point?”Tears already flowing from her eyes.
Thessycute Ekene
