Madera001:
well that depends on who is asking

Madera001:
THE ENEMY WITHIN - EXPOSED
EPISODE 8


Sometimes all it takes for an able bodied man like me to faint is just a bad news delivered with a few spoken words. I realized this when I had to calm my nerves and bring my breath back to normal. I was on the brink of unconsciousness. My limbs had gone numb and my heart was pounding fast and heavy, everywhere had gone dark and bright all within seconds. It took the help of a chair before I could bring myself back to the reality on ground – Jide and Mr. Patrick has just been indicted in a fraud not me!


While I was battling with my thought, the officers had already put handcuffs on the two suspects. Jide was proving to be a real nuisance, screaming at the top of his voice ‘no! What is this, what is this? I didn’t do anything! Oh oh, I swear to god, you will hear from my lawyers, this is just the beginning!’ I couldn’t bear to look him in the face. I was busy thanking God for my own safety. But Jide wasn’t done ranting ‘Ben! I know this is your hand work. You will pay for this; you will surely pay for this!’


The officers bundled the suspects out of the office with Abigail and my father in-law on their heels. Just as my father in-law was about leaving, he turned back and looked at me ‘Ben you are in charge for now, I won’t be back for a couple of days’. Then he left.
The other staffs were looking at me for answers that I don’t have. Their attention was on me. I looked up to them and said ‘alright everyone let’s get back to work, the meeting is over’. As they were making their way out, so was my father in-law’s secretary making her way in with a curious look on her face which suggested to me that whatever this is, it has been kept a top secret all the while the ‘investigation’ was going on, otherwise, his secretary would have known. I gave her a stern look and she went back just the way she came.


I sat in my father in-law’s office for what must have at least 30minutes, reminiscing on the events of the past one month. There must be something I’m missing. If I’m not missing anything, how do I explain all this? I was accused of impregnating my sister in-law yet here I am at their family firm as the man in charge. My wife wouldn’t let me come home, she can’t even stand my sight yet again here I am, being favored by her own father, even trusted enough to handle his biggest firm. ‘What am I missing?’ I thought to myself. Abigail lied and I guess my father in-law is in on the lie as well, so why won’t they just tell my wife so that all will be well in my marriage once again. I am dying to be in the arms of my wife again, to take Isabel for a swing at the back yard of our house, and to hold Caleb our son in my arms and look at his pretty innocent eyes; damn! I am dying to be home again!
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It’s been a week now, yet no sign of Jide and Mr. Patrick in the office and neither did my father in-law show up too. Except for occasional calls from him inquiring about issues both past and present and asking about the general welfare of the firm, nothing else was being heard from my father in-law.


Reports reaching us from ‘Bush Radio FM’ suggests that the fraud was related to unremitted collection (transaction carried out and duly paid for but not remitted into the company’s account) spanning across a period of 13 months. That was all I heard and this was from the secretary’s conversation with one of the cleaners. So the authenticity of the story is not that strong.
I resumed work late on a Wednesday afternoon because I had to attend a seminar organized for NUPENG members. My secretary had called me earlier about a letter from a lawyer’s chamber which I asked her to sign and collect on my behalf.


I was just settling in my chair when I noticed a brown envelope on my table addressed to me. I picked it up and opened it. It was a divorce paper accompanied with a restraining order from my wife’s lawyer! She wants a divorce and she doesn’t want me anywhere near her or the kids!!


‘No!!!’ I screamed, clutching my chest which by now seems to be hurting pretty bad. Then I started soliloquizing (more or less like crying) ‘this cannot be. This is a nightmare and it has to stop now!’ This entire prank on me and my family has to stop now. Someone must say the truth’. There and then I decided it was time to pay my father in-law a visit. He has to tell me what he knows………………………………………………….