After the storm (51 page)

She just
looked at him. He looked sleek as always in his well-cut suit. Her
eyes roved over his face. The strong cleft in his jaw, the
well-defined cheekbones, the thick brows and lashes. Her incredibly
handsome husband. She had forgiven him. Why could she not overcome
her fears?

"Baby,
what's wrong?" he asked, coming around to where she was standing
and taking her hand in his. "Please tell me."

She
looked into his eyes and felt tears stinging her eyes. "Akeem, I
don't think this is really going to work." She looked away. "Maybe
we're just not meant to be together."

"Says
who?" he asked, his brows furrowing together in a frown. "We're
already together. We're married, remember? Tell me who has upset
you. Is it my mum? Any member of my family? Me?"

She
shook her head slowly at his questions.

"Then
what is it?" he asked.

"I'm not
upset. I just feel like it is best if we leave things as they
are."

A nerve
clenched in his jaw "That's not going to happen. We're married and
will stay married, whatever it takes."

"Akeem,
I don't think…"

"Look at
me, Yemi," He cut in as he drew her into his arms. His gaze was
intense as he stared into her eyes. "I love you, and you love me.
We belong to each other, and that's how it will always
be."

"But
Akeem…"

He
silenced her with a kiss. She tried to stay stiff and unresponsive
to him but didn't know when her arms crept around him of their own
volition. It always felt so right being with him, and she couldn't
hold back.

He
lifted his head a while later, his eyes smouldering with passion.
"Forget about us ever being apart again. It's not going to
happen."

He left
a little while later so that she could get back to work. They had
just cuddled on the sofa and talked. She still didn't open up to
him about her fears. She felt reassured of his love when he was
around, but she put her head in her hands after he left.

"What am
I going to do, Lord? Please help me."

She
didn't get a response and she went back to her work feeling
confused and uneasy.

∞∞∞

The
lesson from her daily devotional the next morning had "Trust in the
Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding"
as the memory verse. She read it over and over to herself, hoping
that it was not just a coincidence but a specific message for her
in her situation.

"To
trust in God is to believe in Him with all your heart and to have
confidence in His word." She said to Kufre and Aleena as she tried
to explain the lesson to them during their morning devotion
session.

Aleena
screwed her face thoughtfully for a moment. "Like the way I trust
Daddy? Mummy, is God like Daddy?" she asked.

Yemi
smiled. "Much bigger than your dad, Alee. God can do all
things."

"Then
I'll trust in Him," Aleena said happily, as if that settled
it.

She
wished she could have faith like the little girl. Life would be so
much easier.

Akeem
gave her no space to withdraw from him. He would come to her office
anytime she didn't pick up his calls or come over to her house in
the evening.

"When
can I send the movers to help you pack?" he asked her one evening
as they all sat down watching TV in her house. "I need my mistress
home with me."

"We've
not signed the contract papers, remember?"

"I've
signed it on your heart. Didn't you feel it?" he asked softly,
pulling her close to him. Aleena looked towards them and giggled
before looking back at the TV. Yemi made a mental note to talk with
Akeem later; they cuddled too much in front of Aleena. But for now,
she was too distracted with the delicious things he was doing to
her with his kisses.

"You've
signed on mine too. At Bluewater, remember?" he asked
her.

She
couldn't answer and just allowed herself to get lost in his
eyes.

He
stayed overnight in her house for the first time that evening. She
woke up briefly during the night and looked at him sleeping beside
her, his face relaxed and boyishly handsome. She smiled to herself
before closing her eyes again. She had become his mistress
indeed.

Deji
called her the day after Akeem saw him in her office, but she
gently told him that she was trying to work things out with Akeem.
He understood—or so she hoped.

Chapter
27

"What's
wrong, Akeem?" Yemi asked, trying to keep the panic from her voice.
"Why're you sounding this way?"

"I'll
explain when you get here."

Yemi
drew in a shaky breath. "Akeem, you're freaking me out! What's
going on?" A thought came to her mind, and she froze. "It's Aleena,
isn't it? Something's wrong with Aleena!"

His
silence confirmed her worst fears. Her heart stopped momentarily
and then started doing sick flips.

"What's
wrong with my daughter?" she asked, trying not to shout. "Akeem,
what's wrong with Aleena?"

His breath was raspy in her ears.
Calm and controlled Akeem? That was a sign that something was
terribly wrong.

"Gunmen
tried to kidnap Chloe. She and Aleena were walking out of the
school gates together. Chloe's bodyguards resisted, and the
kidnappers opened fire. Aleena was hit in the process."

The words couldn't register and bounced around her. Her hands
went clammy, and she transferred the phone from her right hand to
the left and back again. "What do you mean by
hit
?"

"She was
shot."

Yemi swayed as the room started swimming around her. Akeem's
words reverberated in her head.
Aleena had
been shot. Shot. Shot…

"Yemi,
are you there?" Akeem's voice came to her over the
phone.

"Is
she…?" She couldn't finish the question. Her breath was coming in
short bursts.

"She's
alive but unconscious. I'm at the hospital. The driver should
almost be at your place now."

He kept
her on the phone until the driver arrived. Yemi felt like she was
in a bad dream. She was shaking so much that she could not control
it. She called Sesan on the way to the hospital and asked him to
pray.

"Dear
Jesus, please save my child," she kept saying over and over
again.

She
didn't even know Chloe had bodyguards. That meant her parents knew
her safety was threatened, and yet Charlotte had not thought to
warn her. They had allowed her own daughter's life to be
endangered. Tears flowed down her face. The thought that Aleena
might already be dead flashed through her mind. She panicked and
called Akeem.

"Aleena
is alive. Are you still far off?" he asked tersely.

She
looked outside, trying to focus on landmarks, but nothing was
registering in her head. She asked the driver and then told
Akeem.

Akeem met her in the reception lobby when she arrived. He had
taken off his suit jacket and tie. His eyes were red, his face
tensed up. The only time she had seen him looking that way was when
they lost their son. Were they about to lose their daughter
too?
No, Lord
,
she prayed feverishly.
Please don't let my
child die
!

"Where
is she? Have you seen her?"

"She's
in the theatre at the moment. They're trying to stabilise her and
stop the bleeding."

She felt
faint and swayed. Akeem put his arm around her and led her to a
chair. From then onwards, everything was a blur. Her pastor called;
Sesan had told him. He assured her that he was praying. Her parents
and brothers arrived separately some time later. Akeem's mum and
Nadia came shortly after them. Mrs. Kadiri talked in hushed tones
with Akeem and then came over and just squeezed Yemi's hands. For
the first time ever, Yemi saw something akin to compassion in her
eyes.

Senator
Ola-Daniels came into the reception a few minutes later. He
expressed his shock and sympathy at what had happened and told them
the police were investigating the incident. He spoke outside with
Akeem for a few more minutes. After he left, Yemi learnt from Akeem
that Chloe had not been badly hurt. Hers was a flesh wound; the
bullet had just grazed her shoulder. Her main bodyguard, however,
was fighting for his life.

"Please
save my child, Lord. Don't let her die," Yemi began to
sob.

Everyone
looked on helplessly.

A doctor
came into the room some time later. "Mr. and Mrs. Kadiri?" he
asked. They stood up, and he took them to his office.

"I'll be
frank with you. The situation does not look good," he began. "She's
lost a lot of blood, and we need to take out the bullet, but the
position of the bullet makes it a high-risk surgery…"

Fresh
tears coursed down Yemi's face as the doctor continued. Was it
really Aleena he was talking about? Leaving the bullet in was
dangerous; taking it out was dangerous.

"We've
got one of the best doctors around," the doctor was saying. "He was
recalled back from his annual leave because of Senator
Ola-Daniels's influence. I believe he knows him personally. He is
handling your daughter's surgery."

She and
Akeem went back to the waiting room after the doctor had finished
briefing them. Sesan had arrived while they were with the doctor
and was sitting near Dotun. They told her Ayo was talking with one
of the doctors. Everyone looked tensed, their eyes filled with
compassion as they looked at her. She averted her eyes.

Was this
the story of her life? People always gathering together because of
one bad thing or the other that had happened to her. Was she always
to be at the receiving end of sympathy? The loss of her son,
breakup of her marriage, and now her daughter lying in a critical
condition? Would they also gather to mourn with her if Aleena
didn't make it through the surgery?

No,
she'd had enough. She was tired of it all. She didn't need anyone's
sympathy. Aleena must not die. Akeem attempted to take her hand in
his, but she shook it off. Her eyes stared straight ahead. Tears
kept running down her face, but she wiped them away furiously. She
didn't need anyone's sympathy. She needed God's
intervention.

∞∞∞

Akeem
got up and made his way out of the waiting room. He needed to get
out of there. He was fast losing it, and he needed time
alone.

His
precious daughter's life hung in the balance, and he couldn't do
anything about it. His money couldn't save her. He wanted to pound
at something. Release his anger, and feelings of impotence on
something. He remembered what Lois had told him about Ola-Daniels's
opponents trying to get him to step down. He had not thought they
could go as low as trying to kidnap a little girl to use her as
bait to force her dad to comply with their demands, but that was
exactly what the senator had told him.

He
didn't know how it had even skipped his mind that Aleena could be
endangered by her relationship with Chloe. They could have found a
way to minimise Aleena's contact with her, but then again, the two
girls were in the same class. It would have been hard to do that
without withdrawing Aleena from the school.

Akeem
remembered the way Yemi had shrugged his hand off. He didn't need
anyone to tell him that his marriage would be effectively over if
anything happened to Aleena. She had still been dragging her feet
over moving back to his house, giving him one flimsy excuse after
the other. This would be the last straw.

He
needed help, and fast. He needed a miracle, if there was really
anything like that. He brought out his phone and considered calling
Shona but changed his mind and called Justin, who was shocked to
hear the situation with Aleena.

"The
doctors aren't very optimistic. I need you to…to pray for
Aleena."

Justin's
voice was quiet. "I'm going to do that. I'll let Shona know as
well."

Akeem
noticed a slight tremor in his hands and clenched his fists to try
to stop it. He glanced at his wristwatch. It was still going to be
another one and a half hours. He thought of Tanya and remembered
her quiet confidence, her assurance that she had a relationship
with God. But would she not remember him deriding her faith? He
swallowed his pride. Who cared about that anyway?

"Sesan
has told me, and I'm already praying," she said to him quietly.
"We're all trusting God to pull Aleena through the
surgery."

He
muttered his thanks and went back to the waiting room. Everyone
looked up when he entered. They were like two camps sitting on
opposite sides of the room, and yet were all there because of a
child who was as much a part of one family as the other. Yemi's
parents had greeted him when they arrived but had looked on coldly
and barely acknowledged his mother's and Nadia's greetings. Ayo had
said hello to him too, but Dotun had ignored him. Neither family
knew that he and Yemi had reconciled. She had told him she didn't
want to tell her family yet. He had had no interest in telling his
either.