Chapter Eight

"Have I ever told you I love you?" Elorm asked me teasingly, her bottom lip pulled into her mouth in a seductive disposition.

I wish.

"No, not really," I replied. She was just joking, but her words had sent my heart into overdrive. Ignoring her seductive persuasion, I lifted my bishop off the chess board and knocked her most important chess piece down. "Checkmate."

"You're such a bitch, I hate you," she whined like the sour loser she was.

I smiled inwardly, then looked up to where Nathan and Edinam were talking. I was surprised no one was yelling yet, and they were even standing close. Grateful, I was so grateful that Justus wasn't there to see that.

"Michael called," she said out of the blue.

"What does he want?" I replied, remembering the boyfriend she'd seemed so in love with back in the day. Their relationship was very toxic. They kept breaking up and getting back together, emotionally hurting each other in the process. Apparently, he'd helped his father smuggle gold out of the country and when she'd found out, she'd decided that she was better off without him.

"I really don't know, but he'll be here in a few minutes."

"Doesn't he have a wife and a child?"

"He did at the time we parted but I don't know if he still has a wife," she responded, looking angry and yet forlorn, somehow.

"You still love him?"

"Thank God, no, but I just don't want him back in my life. We had some good times together, but apart from that, it was all bad."

"Then—" I didn't even get to finish. The doorbell rang.

"Must be him."

"I'll get!" Tsey yelled in his deep voice, running. He'd appeared from inside and headed for the door.

Elorm's brothers were newly adults now. Those skinny, short boys had now grown into tall, masculine men who were just as handsome as she was beautiful. The good looks seemed to run in the family, though they'd escaped her paedophile father.

They'd completed senior high school and Tsey had been enrolled in Ashesi University, but Atsu stopped schooling and began a swimming company. It was big and he was earning enough to have bought his mother a new car and a new house, mainly because Elorm had completely ignored her.

The first person I saw was a little girl. She had Diamond's skin complexion; very light, almost white. Her hair was type three too, something which was uncommon among the people here. She was a complete replica of her mother. The only difference was the body and the nose, which she'd probably inherited from her father. She ran to the sofa and plopped down on it, reaching for the remote on the coffee table.

It was sweet how children were carefree like that.

Next were three children. There were two boys and a girl. They didn't look like anyone I knew from Elorm's past. They joined the little girl on the sofa, although one of the boys was a little bit shy.

The adults came through next. It was Diamond first, and she looked as glorious as ever. She was definitely lying about being fully black. Her milk—light skin and wavy type two hair were just very uncommon among black continental Africans.

There were two other people that I didn't know. A woman with bright red dreadlocks, light skin and a truly amazing figure and a brown skinned man with dreads too, just that the sides of his hair were shaved. Last, and most hesitant, was Michael, still as good looking as ever. He and Elorm together were a very attractive couple, both of them being a chocolatey kind of dark skinned that glowed. I loved her dark skin. She made it look so good that I suddenly found myself appreciating everyone with a similar complexion.

They were not who Tsey was expecting, so he backed off slowly and raced back up the stairs.

"Jake, Linda!" Elorm shrieked, rushing forward for a hug.

I laughed, watching her from behind. She was wearing one of those wiggly pants and she was, in fact, wiggling. Her behind, to be exact.

She hugged the man with dreads, then the woman next. Diamond and Michael were ignored, since she didn't have a very good past with them.

"Are those your kids?" she cooed, turning to the three kids I'd seen earlier.

"Yes. Jakeling, Lindaling and Jakda," the Jake man said.

Elorm gave him a blank look to show that she was not amused. "Very funny."

Linda laughed. "To be honest, those were the names we decided on till the last minute. They're actually called Yooku, Nhyiraba and Ayeyi."

"Children raising children. Nice," Elorm laughed. "Come in, sit down!" she said enthusiastically, rushing into the kitchen and coming out with two bottles of water.

I laughed at her pettiness.

She handed the bottles to Jake and Linda, still ignoring the other couple standing awkwardly at the door. "How have you guys been!" she exclaimed, rather than asked.

"I... I'll be outside," Michael said, taking his wife's hand, ready to leave.

"Michael wait," Linda said, looking at Elorm reproachfully, "sit down, you too Diamond."

Elorm frowned but she didn't object. I wondered what exactly they did to her. They sat down, but they looked so uncomfortable that I believed they'd rather be outside.

"You made it, and you made it big. Just look at the sheer size of this place!" Jake said, twisting to look around. His kids — I suppose — were playing with Selorm and Michael's daughter.

"By prostituting all over the internet," Diamond muttered, though it was loud enough that we all heard her.

"Baby," Michael whispered in a chiding tone. "You said you wouldn't start any trouble."

"Ah, so you've finally gotten over me? Thought I wouldn't live to see the day," Elorm replied maliciously, her eyes fixed on Diamond.

Michael and Elorm had been obsessed with each other for a long time, but Elorm saw through the illusion quicker and snapped out of it. It seemed that Michael had finally done same.

"He was over you a long time ago. I told you, remember? You two were never right for each other and all you did was hurt him."

"Now there's no need to dig up old—" Jake tried, but he was interrupted by Elorm.

"I hurt him? Did he tell you that he proposed marriage to me just because his father, the chief of our village, didn't like me and he knew that marrying me would help him forsake his responsibility as the next chief? Did he also mention that that same chief had me kidnapped and forced into prostitution so that I wouldn't marry his son?" she turned to Michael. "Did you tell her that that father of yours tried to rape me and did succeed in breaking multiple of my bones that left me invalid for a long time? How am I the one who hurt you?"

Michael didn't even look at her. I could tell that he didn't even want to be there.

"Why are you blaming him for what his father did? Also, it's so easy accusing a man you murdered when he's not here to defend himself, isn't it? Why did you forget to add that you cheated too?"

"This is why I didn't want to come here. Look, I want nothing to do with that woman," Michael pointed at Elorm. "Lord knows she's already wasted enough of my lifetime thinking I was in love with her. If you two want to stay here, then fine, but my family and I are leaving. Come Steph," he motioned for his daughter to come and she obediently did. He and Diamond shuffled out quickly, clearly not wanting to be there a second longer.

I knew Elorm. She'd developed a lot since I'd known her, but she didn't like that Michael was happy. She probably wanted Michael to still be in love with her, and suffer when he saw her with Kofi. The sight of his little family made her angry.

My legs moved, taking me to Michael's family on the ground floor. They had gone to his car. He still had money, if the car was anything to go by. I knocked on the window.

All three of them were startled, and Michael lifted his head to look at me. He recognised me immediately. He'd secured the ticket to the auction to save Elorm from being forced to sleep with her buyer during the time she was being forced into prostitution through me. We'd been a little closer than he was with the other prostitutes.

After assuring his wife that I was okay and he'd be safe, he came out. "What do you want?" he asked.

"Is that any way to speak to an old friend?"

His annoyed expression slowly faded, and he smiled and hugged me. "I'm sorry," he said. "That woman makes me angry."

It was funny how after everything went down, those who loved Elorm ended up hating her, and those who hated her ended up loving her. Such is life.

"How have you been?" I asked.

"Life has been so good to me after her. I came out of prison and found that I'd been in love with my wife since I'd lain eyes on her. My beautiful daughter is the sweetest ball of sunshine ever, and even though I'd been incarcerated for a crime I had no hand in, I'd managed to secure a good job to provide for my family and me. It's been good," he smiled easily, the boyish smile causing my heart to flutter.

I'd once crushed on him too. I was just stupid like that, jumping from one unrequited love to another.

"That's good to hear. You deserve to be happy, whether she thinks so or not," I said sincerely. I'd seen things from Michael's shoes too. He wasn't as guilty as Elorm was making him seem. He did a lot for her, and he suffered dearly too.

"Yeah, I know. You do too. How have you been holding up?" he asked, grabbing hold of my shoulder. He'd known what happened, just that he'd found out too late to console me. He'd consoled me when he found out about my past. He was just kind like that.

"I'm fine," I sighed slowly, hoping that my plan wouldn't backfire. "I need a favour."

"Anything, sweet."

I liked that pet name he often used on me. 'Sweet'. It somehow made me feel less like the bitter, vengeful person I was. "I need dirt on Elorm."

"What?"

"Something that can put her behind bars."

"I'm sorry, but why would you want that? I thought you two were friends."

I'd never been brave enough to open up about my feelings for her to him, mainly because he loved her at the time. I wondered how he'd feel if I told him now.

"We are, but I need this."

He paused for a moment, taking in a deep breath. He leaned against his car and folded his arms. "I loved that girl. She made me pay for a crime I was born into. What was I supposed to do? Turn my father in? Yes, I knew about the business, but I never actively engaged in any gold smuggling, yet she made me spend almost five years behind bars. She too deserves to pay for her crimes, crimes she actually committed. I don't have concrete evidence that she killed my father since her boyfriend got rid of his body without even letting me say goodbye—" his voice broke off, and before I knew what was happening, his wife came out and hugged him before he burst into tears.

"I told you coming here was a bad idea," she said, caressing his hair.

He hugged her tightly to himself. He really loved her. It showed in the way he held her and even the way he looked at her. I was glad that he'd finally found someone who was good for him.

"Jake and Linda persuaded me to come along. I should've listened to you," he confessed.

It took a while, but he calmed down enough to continue talking to me. Diamond kissed him passionately and went back into the car to cradle her daughter.

Michael turned back to me, embarrassed, his eyes slightly puffy. "I have evidence that she bribed a judge to have her father arrested, but I don't know if I want that to get out, since it would result in the release of that paedophile."

I didn't want that either, but I wasn't really going to turn her in. "Anything else?"

"I can't exactly prove it, but with how much she's hated, we could bring out the story of how she killed my father. People are going to believe it, and it will ruin her. This is more serious than causing Kofi's suicide attempt. Those brands won't want to work with her anymore and her follower count will drop."

It sounded so vicious. From the little I knew about Michael's father, he was a horrible person and he did deserve to die.

"I don't want to ruin her or anything, but it hurts that because of her, I missed out on my daughter growing up. Diamond's parents were arrested too, and she and my daughter had to fend for themselves, all because of something my father did, not me. It wasn't fair."

If he was trying to convince me to put her behind bars, it wasn't working.

"You don't have to do anything with this information, I'm just giving it to you. I'll send the details and the evidence to you as soon as I get home. Stay safe, sweet," he said, leaning in for another hug.

I hugged him back, but I was worried. Elorm had made enemies. Too many enemies.

* * *

michael, michael. do you think his hate for elorm is justified? or he deserved to go to prison (p.s. he never really did any smuggling. his crime was watching it happen, but elorm's testimony made it seem like he did. still, he had a light sentence)

vote or whatever, see if i care. 🌟