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(Episode 7) The Bonny Island Massacre

Yvonne opened her eyes a wink, sunlight leaked at the flowery chiffon curtains, and she could tell it was past dawn. She shot her eyes open when she remembered it was her birthday. Her mother was standing by her bedside and smiling lovingly at her.
Yvonne: “Mother, when did you come back?” she asked, bewildered.
Annabel: “Happy birthday daughter. I wanted to be the first to wish you a happy birthday, so I took the last flight last night. You were asleep when I arrived” her mother said and gave her a box.
Yvonne: “This year will be the best, do you know I cannot remember the last time you gave me a gift with your hand. I am so glad you are here” she said and flung herself at her mother.
Annabel held her daughter tightly, as the tears fell like dominos down her cheeks. Her tears wet Yvonne’s hair, and she pushed her mother away softly.
Yvonne: “Mom, are you crying?” she asked, peering into her mother’s face.
Annabel: “They are tears of joy my daughter” she replied and pulled her to herself again.
“ I deserve this love she gives me, I deserve it” Annabel thought within.
Yvonne: “You won’t believe it, but I have not bought my dress” she said excitedly.
Annabel: “If you want to wear vintage, then I got the perfect choice. A dress that cost millions, only I and Princess Kate has it. We are about the same body size, so it should fit perfectly”
Yvonne: “Mother, are you alright?” she asked, feeling for her mother’s temperature. “You never allowed me touch your clothes before. Remember that Gucci bag I wanted to borrow, but you vehemently refused. What happened to you?” she asked, sarcastically, but at the same time serious. Her mother, for the first time in a long while, was paying attention to her.
Annabel: “I found out what is more important to me, and it is you, Yvonne” she said and pulled her daughter into a hug.
Yvonne was glad that her birthday fell on a weekend, so she had time to pamper her body. She spent the entire day at the spa, with her mother and Mira. She was happy because this was the first real time she was spending with her mother. Other times, they were just posing for the camera. However, she still felt sad because Femi had not called. She kept checking her phone a million times, but there was no call from him.
“Is his heart that hard? I must have really struck a chord” she pondered.
For Femi, weekends were the time he hung out with his friend, Mathias. Mathias was older than him, he was already in his fifties. But he related with Femi like they were age mates. He acted like a father when he needed to, it was like he replaced Femi’s father, who was not even his biological father. But this weekend, he had a lot on his mind; the investigator he had put in charge of looking for his biological parents was not turning up with anything good. The man who he called father until his mother died, had refused to help him look for his biological parents. He always told Femi that there was no need because, they gave him up.
Femi had even made the investigator tail his father; perhaps he would lead them to whoever gave Femi to them as a baby, but that did not turn up any result. They had even investigated his father’s close friends, but they were not closer to finding his biological parents. The only option left to him was going public, and announcing to the whole world that he was looking for his real parents. But his foster father had forbidden him to go public, as it would cause him embarrassment.
Another thing bothering him was Yvonne. He had seen the advertisement she ran on all the major television stations. He was touched by it, but he was unwilling to trust her again. He was also wondering if they were compatible enough to get married. They were good partners in business because he let her lead most times. He did this because she was good at it, it was a talent, no one could stage a campaign better than Yvonne, it was the reason they had climbed to the top within two short years, although Yvonne thought it was their fame that brought publicity to the company, but Femi knew otherwise.
However, was he ready to give her the driver space in their relationship? He definitely was not ready to allow her lead, while he followed. He had told her to stand down and let Daisy do whatever she wanted, but she went ahead and pulled strings because she could. He didn’t know if he could go past that. But nevertheless, he missed her; her voice, her laughter and the way she liked draping herself on him. He picked up his phone to call her, but restrained himself from doing that.
As always, the birthday of Yvonne Ngegwu was another party of the year which had celebrities lobbying for the invite. The week preceding her birthday, publicists had met with people close to her to get an invite to the birthday party. If you are not in the party, you probably don’t matter much in the elite circles. This year, Yvonne had no control over who came to her party, as the invites were not even in her hands, but in the hands of the planners. So she was not to know that the woman who had declared war on her, Daisy of Daisy Advertizing, had gotten an invite.
Daisy looked at the invite in her hand; she had not struggled for this invite because she wanted to be at the party of the year with other advertising bodies, who were there to show solidarity to one of their own. She was there because she had plans for the little bitch who had dared to fight back. Daisy had been in the industry for ten (10) years and she was not going to allow a newbie, who thought the world was at her feet to come close to grabbing the advertising industry from her. Before, she had not made any serious moves against Yvonne because of Prince Ngegwu, but now she didn’t care anymore.
Daisy: “You won’t see me coming, Yvonne Ngegwu” she said, tracing the lines of the gold embossed invite. She picked up a phone and called her personal assistant.
Assistant: ‘Ma’am you called” she said as she entered the big living room where Daisy lounged and did office work from.
Daisy: “Book a flight to Port-Harcourt by four pm” she said curtly and hung up. Then she dialed a number, when it rang, she spoke;
Daisy: ‘Are you ready, do a good job, I don’t accept failure” she said briefly and hung up. After the calls, she paced up and down her sitting room, with a vile smile on her lips. In her heart, she pitied Yvonne, for what she had planned for her.
“Sorry little girl, I am a veteran in this industry, and I didn’t get to this position just by being hardworking” she thought within her, and suddenly, she broke into a hysterical laughter.
That evening, the grounds of the Ngegwu mansion in Bonny Island thrived with the members of the elite circle. They were dressed gaily, and expensively. The least worth of attire was still in millions. Even Mira had got a loan, which she was going to pay for with her honey pot, from one of her sugar daddies to purchase a Victoria Becham gown, and a pair of Jimmy Choos. Mira, who was standing by the entrance of the decorated garden where the party was set, saw Femi enter. Her eyes widened as she had not expected that he would come.
“ Does it mean, he has forgiven her?”
she wondered as she smiled at him. A smile he did not return. She walked towards him and embraced him, despite his cold demeanor. He put his hand slightly around her and told her she looked good, but he was sure Yvonne would look best. Mira pushed him away and glared at him.
Femi: “Does Yvonne know you hate her this much?” he asked, stunning Mira.
Mira: “How can you say a thing like that, I don’t hate Yvonne” she exclaimed, but Femi didn’t pay her mind, and walked away. She whirled round in around in annoyance, and stared into the face of Daisy. Daisy looked intimidating in the Smokey eye makeup she had on. Her little frame did not deceive anyone, she exuded hostility and power. Her tall height belittled anyone, even when she was not trying to.
Mira: “Hello, ma’am” she stuttered.
Daisy: “You are the one who did the social media smear campaign, aren’t it?” she asked, not in any way expecting an answer from Mira. She looked Mira from her head to her toes and walked away, without another word.
Mira: “This old bitch has got something up her sleeve. Abeg I no follow oh” she said to herself.
Yvonne after taking her time, and making sure that most of the guests were present, decided to join her party. She had worn the vintage dress her mother gave her. It was styled in a Victorian way, with a touch of modernity in the peek-a-boo lace bodice. The stones hand sewn into the gown made it heavy. She was just out of her room, with her squishy clutch in hand, when she saw a masked man coming up the stairs towards her.
Her heart jumped into her mouth, as her instinct told her that the man coming towards her didn’t mean well for her.
Question: What has Daisy planned for Yvonne, and what is the intention of the Masked man?
See Episode 8 Below (You don’t wanna miss this!)

(Episode 6) The Bonny Island Massacre

Yvonne thought that given a day, Femi would get over his anger and things would be cool again. But she didn’t know how much Femi was affected by her lies. His parents had lied to him all his life, that he was their biological child. But before his mother died, she had written a note to him, telling him he was adopted. He had confronted his father and he had confessed. They had waited for years without any children and had decided to adopt a son. His relationship with his father had never remained the same, he distrusted everything he told him. Having Yvonne lie to him had taken him right back to the past.
Yvonne called him severally, but he was not picking his calls. At the office, he talked with her strictly about business, and if she tried to bring up their issues, he would walk away.
Yvonne: “Really Femi, you would just throw away what we have because of a little white lie?” she confronted him in his office.
Femi: “If you cared about what we had, you wouldn’t lie to me” he replied curtly, and went back to burying himself in the files on his table. Yvonne left his office, at a loss for words. She was confused; she couldn’t believe that something she had thought was harmless was going to tear them apart. She thought of her birthday, which was in two days. It was going to be the worst birthday for her, with her parents and Femi absent. Yvonne was not to know that, truly her birthday would be the most dramatic she has had, and would change the course of her life forever. But it would not be because of the absence of her parents and her lover.
Yvonne: “I am not going to let this happen to us” she said and picked up the intercom to call her personal assistant. The young man, who obviously had a crush on her, walked in gingerly and ready to please.
Yvonne: “Please I need the both of us to work on something. Create an apology to a lover, with Femi’s name”
Assistant: “You mean sir Olaitan?” he asked.
Yvonne: “Who else would I mean?” she retorted impatiently.
Assistant: “I get you”
Yvonne: “Make the theme, ‘gaining back trust’. Make sure it is catching and convincing because it will air in all the major television stations. I need to send it to the appropriate places in an hour, so get to work”
The assistant hurried out of her office with excitement. This was the first real advertising task he was doing for the company. He had applied as an administrative staff even though his passion had been advertising. Now he had a chance to convince Yvonne that, he could be with the creative team.
Meanwhile, Mira was devising means to creep into Femi’s heart. She made sure she went to his office with one suggestion or the other, and then she would look at him with doe eyes like she was sad about the situation between him and Yvonne.
Femi: “Mira, why are you lingering like you have something to say?” he asked impatiently.
Mira: “I am sorry about you and Yvonne, but isn’t this a sign that you two are not meant to be?” she said sitting across him.
Femi: “Keep your concerns to yourself” he replied curtly, without sparing her a look.
Mira: “Femi, what is going on? Why do I feel like you hate me now?” she asked.
Femi: “Why would I hate you?” he asked, raising his head up to fix her a hard gaze.
Mira: “Femi, it is me oh. We used to be close oh” she said, on the brink of tears.
Femi: “Now, don’t go crying because that trick won’t work. I know you are nowhere near innocent, I know what you do when no one is looking” he said and watched her eyes widen in surprise.
Mira’s heart leapt in fear, did Femi already know about her debauchery? She wondered. But she put up a defense, perhaps he didn’t know, and only suspected.
Mira: “I don’t understand what you are trying to say to me” she said feigning anger.
Femi: “What is the word to use for a woman who sells her body?” he asked sarcastically. He didn’t wait for her to deny again, he went ahead and told her about the night he saw her on the thighs of a man old enough to be her father, he had been stunned. He had followed them as they left the club through a staircase in the bar that led to the private suites. He went a step further and hired a private investigator who in no time found out what Mira did when the sun had gone home.
Mira: “Oh I see, is that the reason you substituted Yvonne for me?” she retorted angrily. Femi laughed a mocking laughter.
Femi: “I liked Yvonne the first time I set my eyes on her; I have never had romantic feelings towards you. You have always been like a sister”
Mira: “I don’t want to be your sister!” she screamed hysterically, as the tears began to flow.
Femi: “I don’t know what is up with you right now, but you better leave my office”
Mira: “I am not going to leave, Femi. I have loved you for years, carried these feelings in my heart, waiting for you to realize how much I love you. But what did you do? You went and proposed marriage to Yvonne. Is it because I am from a poor home?” she said walking over to his chair.
Femi: “Don’t give me that crap, were you loving me when you were fucking those old stinking men?” he interjected, pushing her away.
Mira: “You will beg for my love, I swear it!” she said and rushed out of the office covering her face with her hands.
That evening, Mira sat with Yvonne in the large sitting room in the Ngegwus mansion. With them were people from a top notch event planning company. They were planning Yvonne’s birthday. Mira was not in the mood to plan any event, much less the birthday of the woman who took Femi from her.
Mira: “But Yvonne, you are Christian, how do you intend to carry on a relationship with Femi, who is Muslim?” she asked suddenly.
Yvonne: “Where did that come from, are you alright? You have been distracted since you came” she asked looking at her friend with confusion on her face.
Mira: “I am fine, but have you thought of that?” she insisted.
Yvonne: “I haven’t because all I can think about is how I feel for Femi. Every other thing is secondary” she replied.
Mira: “Hmmn” she hummed and before she could say another word, they were interrupted by a really loud advertisement. It was the one Yvonne had prepared with her assistant to apologize to Femi. Yvonne smiled as they watched; she couldn’t deny that the advertisement was touching. Femi’s heart would be of stone, if he still did not forgive her.
Mira watched the happy expression on Yvonne’s face and it irritated her. She stood up and excused herself to the bathroom.
Somewhere in Lagos, Annabel Ngegwu, Yvonne’s mother sat in her hotel room thinking of her daughter. She had thought that Yvonne would bring back the lost spark in her marriage, but it had not. She and her husband had drifted farther apart. They had fallen in love when Yvonne’s father was doing his Masters’ degree program in Germany. She had loved him enough to follow him to Nigeria.
But things had begun to fall apart when she had several miscarriages. One day her husband told her that people had told him not to marry a white woman, who was not built to carry a black man’s child, but he had not listened because he was enthralled by her. With the fourth miscarriage, Annabel’s husband began to wonder if he had truly loved her, “Perhaps it was just the exotic feel of a foreigner, not love” he had said to her. He came home late, and smelling of a woman’s fragrance, but Annabel still loved him, she had come too far to go back to Romania. She had been accepted in Nigeria, she had a thriving modeling career both in Nigeria and abroad. Her husband even said that, it was her busy schedule that made her lose the pregnancies. So when fate smiled on her and she got pregnant again, she quit from her modeling career. She began to believe her husband was right when the pregnancy stayed till full term.
Annabel snapped out of her reverie because, she knew the path her mind was going, was a painful one. She scrolled through her phone and looked at the pictures of her daughter, Yvonne. She had closed her heart to loving her, since she was put in her arms. She had blamed the child for all her misfortunes, which she knew had nothing to do with Yvonne. Perhaps it was time to find how to love Yvonne. She had spent her life loving a man who stopped loving her long ago, keeping a pretend marriage, and pursuing wealth. She had so much money that it wouldn’t finish in ten generations, but still she felt empty.
Annabel: “I am sorry Yvonne; I hope I can make up for the lost years. My beautiful Yvonne, how can someone have someone like you and not appreciate it?” she soliloquized.
She picked up her phone and dialed her daughter’s number.
Annabel: “Hello my love. I am so sorry for taking wealth more important, when God gave me the best thing that could have happened to me. I love you Yvonne, but guilt have kept me from opening my heart to you” she said whisking away tears with the tip of her pink fingernail.
Yvonne: “Mom, what guilt are you talking about?” she asked
Annabel: “Uhm… guilt, uhm not really guilt. What I am trying to say is that I will not miss your birthday for anything in this world” she said and listened as Yvonne squealed.
Yvonne was just like her, even though she didn’t know how that could be possible. Yvonne had the heart of a child, she got angry, but she never kept grudge. She loved who loved her, and even if her enemy came tomorrow and apologized, she would begin to love them.
Annabel: “I am going to shower you with so much love, to make up for what I did” she said aloud as she called her personal shopper to get a birthday gift for her daughter.
Question: It seems Yvonne’s mother is hiding a secret from the family, what could it be, what lies in the past that she is afraid to touch?
See Episode 7 Below (You don’t wanna miss this!)