by Kiru Taye
A message notification flashed.
From Jonah.
Check your email.
Her smile disappeared.
Should she delete the message and ignore him? She didn’t want anything to do with the man.
She typed a response back.
Stop contacting me. It’s over between us.
Another message pinged back.
Check your email.
Dread made her stomach roll. What was in the email? She hurried to her bedroom, keeping as quiet as possible so as not to wake Kamali as she retrieved her laptop from one of the drawers in the wardrobe. She hadn’t taken it with her to Katsina.
She carried it back to the living room and placed it on the dining table. Her mouth soured as she logged in, opened her email browser and checked her inbox. Sure enough, a new email from Jonah waited.
She opened it and read the content.
Here’s something to remind you that you can never be rid of me. I’ll pay you a visit as soon as I return from SA.
She clicked on the attachment.
A video played. Sounds of moans and groans filled the air.
She rushed to lower the volume.
As more images showed, nausea rushed up to her throat. She ran into the bathroom and threw up.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kamali stretched his arms in a languid motion, reaching for the woman beside him in bed. He wanted to savour the post-coital heaven and perhaps repeat the love-making a few more times tonight before he had to think about the full consequences of the decision he had taken.
How could he explain his current state of mind or his actions?
How could he explain this band that gripped his chest or the feeling of possessiveness that engulfed him?
Why else did he have a sudden need to stay in bed and dream about a future with Ebun?
Except that he’d fallen in love. Inexplicably, he’d opened himself up and made himself vulnerable again for the first time in over five years. Since Toyin.
His eyes twitched behind the lids, a sign of his rising unease.
Ebun was nothing like his late wife.
Toyin hadn’t loved him. She’d loved what he represented—wealth and status. She had been bratty, calculating and selfish. She had always chosen the best option for herself, regardless of the consequence for anyone else.
Her behaviour had turned him into a suspicious and aggrieved man.
Ebun had humility and innocence, both things he couldn’t associate with his ex.
Ebun loved him. She was willing to sacrifice herself in order to make him happy. By telling him to marry Laila, she’d offered him and his family something unexpected.
Loyalty and love.
She just needed someone dependable in her life, someone to show her that not every man was like her father.
He would be that man.
A thudding sound made him lift his eyelids.
Light filtered into the shadowed room from the hallway through the part-open door. Beside him lay an empty bed.
“Ebun?” He swung his feet over the side of the bed, picked up his discarded boxer-briefs and pulled them on.
He strode out, the cool tiles under his bare feet contrasting with the warm air of the corridor. There was an air-conditioning unit in the bedroom and in the living room but none in the passage.
He could see the dining table and an open, working laptop on it. A video flickered but had no sound. Bodies on a bed. Two men and a woman. Another man recording the scene on a camera?
His stomach dropped. What the hell?
“Ebun,” he called out as he strode towards the laptop.
The door just behind him slammed against the wall.
He jerked back. Ebun barrelled out of the bathroom and past him.
“No. Don’t look. Please don’t look.” She slammed the laptop shut and bent over the table. Her body trembled.
“Ebun, what is it?” He stood beside her and placed his palm on her back.
She jerked away, eyes bulging and she clutched the laptop to her chest. Sweat beads shimmered on her forehead and her breath came out in rasping exhales.
Shocked by her reaction, his hand hung in the air. “What is going on?”
“Please tell me you didn’t watch it. Please, God.” She shook her head and backed off again, bumping into one of the chairs.
“What don’t you want me to watch? Was that porn?” Kamali frowned.
“Oh, God.” She whimpered and closed her eyes.
Her behaviour was odd, erratic. This wasn’t the same woman who had been plaint and fragrant in his arms as they’d made love earlier.
She appeared terrified. It couldn’t be because of him. He hadn’t done anything but ask her what the problem was. It had to be because of the content of her laptop, the video especially.
He had to know what was going on.
“Ebun, look at me,” he said, keeping his tone gentle so as not to spook her.
Her eyes popped open and she gave a wild, unblinking stare. She stood in a tense, rigid posture, as if she would bolt.
“If this is about you watching porn,” he continued.
She turned her head away.
“No, look at me,” he said in a stern voice.
She turned back and faced him.
“I’m not angry at you for watching porn,” he said.
She whimpered.
“I’ll admit it’s shocking to find it on your laptop. But if you’re a voyeur, then there’s no need to be ashamed.”
“No.” She sounded close to tears.
“No?” He tilted his head.
“I wasn’t watching porn. I...”
“Okay. Did you click on a suspicious link by mistake?” He was technically savvy enough to be aware of computer malware. She might have downloaded the video in error.
“No.” Still clutching the laptop to her chest, she rocked back and forth.
“Then how?” he insisted. He couldn’t let her keep secrets from him.
“Jonah sent it.” She bent over and let out a long wail.
His body went cold. “Isn’t Jonah your ex? He sends you pornographic material? Give me that laptop.”
Her head whipped back and her eyes bulged. “No. Please don’t watch it. You’ll hate me.”
He ignored her pleas. He wouldn’t let another woman mess him about. He stretched out his hand. “Give it to me.”
Slowly she released the item and placed it in his palm. He took it to the table and opened it. The screen lock was on.
“Type in your password,” he ordered.
Her hands trembled as they moved over the keyboard and she took three attempts before the screen showed her email browser.
One email was open and he read the message from [email protected].
Here’s something to remind you that you can never be rid of me.
The bastard had threatened her.
The muscles on Kamali’s neck tensed and he reached for the mouse to click on the email attachment.
Ebun’s clammy palm covered his bare arm.
He raised his head and looked at her. “I have to see what that bastard sent you.”
“I know.” She sounded a little choked but calm. “I just wanted you to know that I have no memories of that. I don’t know how that happened?”
Tears streaked down her face as she pointed to the laptop without looking at it.
His skin prickled. “What are you saying?”
Even as he asked the question he knew the answer. His stomach rolled and his heartbeat slowed.
She just shook her head and walked away towards the hallway.
He should go to her. Soothe her distress. Tell her that whatever was in the video, he would sort out the problem. Tell her that he would continue to love her, no matter what.
But he couldn’t say those things. He had to see what was in the video for himself. He wouldn’t be the last to know. Not this time. He wouldn’t be played again.
He clicked on the
mouse and the video played.
Thankfully, the sound was muted. The shot was wide at first showing all three participants—two white men and one black woman—on a bed. The woman lay flat on the bed while a man’s dick was in her mouth and the other man’s cock was in her pussy. They were both fucking her in tandem. He could make out the men’s faces but not the woman’s at first until the camera man moved closer focusing on the woman’s face and closed eyes.
Kamali’s chest tightened. He had difficulty breathing. And bile rose in his throat.
He recognised the dark, caramel skin, those crescent-shaped midnight lashes and the Nubian nose.
The same lips that were being stretched by another man’s cock on screen had taken his cock in only last night. He’d kissed that mouth just a few hours ago.
“Buroubannan!” he swore out loud.
She fucked three men? He swore again, paced to the other end of the living room and slammed in palm against the wall. Pain bloomed but he hardly noticed it.
No pain could exceed the one in his heart.
Not again. Not another woman who couldn’t be satisfied with one man.
First, Toyin. Now, Ebun?
What was it with these women? He knew how to pick them.
He gripped his head, growled and paced to and fro a few more times.
What was Ebun thinking? How could she have allowed that to happen?
He swivelled to go and find her and make her explain her actions.
She’d claimed she had no knowledge of the video. Had she been drunk or high on drugs at the time?
That would’ve given the bastard boyfriend the opportunity to record it on his camera without her knowledge.
The asshole had invaded her privacy. The damned video could end up online and on a porn site.
This was the woman he’d introduced to his family as his fiancée.
He swore out loud again and hurried to where he’d discarded his jacket over the sofa and pulled out his phone.
When he found the contact he needed, the pressed the button to dial the number. It rang three times before it was answered.
“Good evening, Mr. Danladi,” the man on the other end greeted.
“Evening, Ethan,” Kamali replied. “I have a problem and it’s of a sensitive nature.”
Ethan Eze was a security specialist who worked as a consultant for Danladi Cement. He had dealt effectively with all the security threats that the company had encountered. There was no one else Kamali trusted to handle this situation.
“Give me two minutes and I’ll phone you back,” the man replied.
“Okay.” Kamali ended the call and headed to the bedroom for his clothes.
His mind was focused on one thing at the moment. Cut off any threat the video and its maker could pose to his family and business.
Problem-solving was one of the skills that made him excel in business. The single-minded focus had driven him to the top.
Once he tackled the threat Jonah posed, then he would deal with Ebun and the implications of her actions on their relationship.
Ebun sat on the bed, hunched over. She looked wretched and distraught. Something crumpled in this chest at her plight.
But the damage that video would cause to the people he cared about remained top on his mind and he couldn’t get distracted by her distress. He would handle her later.
“I’m going to need the contact details for your ex,” he said, keeping his tone clear.
After the death of his wife, he had learned to deal with stress by compartmentalising problems. This meant that he sometimes came across as detached and without emotions.
But as a man with many responsibilities on his shoulders, he didn’t have the time or luxury of breaking down.
“Sorry, what?” her tone was distracted. She lifted her head and looked at him with a blank expression. There were no tears on her face.
Her vacant stare and sagged shoulders announced her state of withdrawal.
He needed to keep her present, at least until he’d gotten the details he required. “I need Jonah’s full name, address and phone number.”
“You do?” She glanced around in confusion and got off the bed. “Okay.”
She walked out of the room, her movement stilted.
Puffing out a sigh, he scrubbed a hand over his face. Then he dressed quickly, shoving his limbs back into his trousers and shirt. He was buttoning up the shirt when the phone rang.
He answered immediately. “Ethan, is it okay to talk now?”
“Yes, sir. Tell me the problem,” the man said.
“Someone has a video that contains sensitive matter that I don’t want to get into public hands. I want the source file recovered and destroyed. There is also a laptop here that contains the file that will need to be cleaned. This requires discretion.”
Ebun returned to the bedroom and handed him a piece of paper she’d scribbled on.
“Of course, is the laptop at your current location?” Ethan asked.
“Yes. But I will take it to my house shortly. You can pick it up from there.”
“Okay. Do you know where the source file is located?”
Kamali lifted the paper. “I have an address in Victoria Island.”
He rattled out the name and address and phone number Ebun had written.
“Good,” Ethan said.
Ebun raised her hand. “Jonah is in South Africa.”
“Hold on,” Kamali said to Ethan. He muted the phone and turned to Ebun. “What did you say?”
“Jonah is in South Africa,” she repeated. “We were scheduled to go away together last week. That was before you invited me to Katsina. He must have gone anyway. He should be back tomorrow.”
“Do you know what time his flight arrives?” he asked.
“He’s on the South African Airways flight that arrives around 8pm,” she said.
Kamali un-muted the phone and relayed the message to Ethan.
“Got that. I’ll handle this and get back to you,” Ethan replied.
“Let me know if you need anything from me.”
“Will do. I’ll be in touch.”
“Thank you.”
He ended the call and swivelled to find Ebun sitting on the bed, her hands clasped on her lap.
“What’s happening?” she asked in a small voice.
He grabbed his socks and pulled them on. “I’ve got a man dealing with Jonah. I’ll let you know the outcome when it’s sorted.”
“Okay. Are you going somewhere?” she asked.
“I’m going home.” What he should’ve done when he dropped her off earlier.
Instead, he’d come up here and bared his soul to her. The good thing was that he’d discovered the video, hopefully before it caused any lasting damage.
“Okay.” She didn’t argue. She didn’t beg. She didn’t meet his gaze, her head tilted to the side at an odd angle. She appeared composed but something seemed off.
He strode to the door and turned back to her. “I don’t need to tell you not to contact Jonah. If he calls, ignore him. He should be on a flight for half of the day tomorrow anyway, so hopefully he won’t bother you.”
“Okay. Just shut the door when you leave.” She rolled back onto her side on the bed and pulled her knees up to her chin. Balled up, she appeared fragile and fragmented.
The tightness in his chest increased, his body weighted to the spot.
He wanted to go to her, wrap his arms around her and make everything all right for her. He wanted to find Jonah and make him pay for causing her this much distress.
In his mind’s eye, he saw that image on her computer on playback.
He’d known she’d had a past. Everyone had one.
Though, he subscribed to sexual intimacy being something shared between husband and wife in a marriage, he’d still fallen for temptation and slept with Ebun.
Yet, she had submitted her body to an orgy, and allowed those men to use her for their pleasure.
The woman he loved, the
one he wanted to elevate above all others had done the unthinkable. He wasn’t ready to forgive and forget.
He’d let her sleep tonight. They could talk tomorrow. He should have an update from Ethan then.
“Try and get some sleep.” He walked out of the room, his footsteps heavy.
In the living room, he called his driver to let him know he was on his way down so the man would be ready for him. He grabbed his blazer and Ebun’s laptop.
On the narrow table by the door, a set of keys caught his eye. He picked the bunch and sent a text message to Ebun’s phone so she’d know he took it. The door clicked shut behind him.
Downstairs, he instructed the head of security to post a team outside the building and to follow Ebun if she came out. He left one of his bodyguards in situ. He would be relieved once the other team arrived.
Fifteen minutes later, Kamali was in his house in Ikoyi.
Ethan was waiting, so Kamali gave him Ebun’s laptop. The man assured him they would be able to access the contents without Ebun’s password, since it was a company laptop.
After Ethan left, a servant offered Kamali food but he declined. He strode upstairs and to his bedroom where one of the servants had already deposited his luggage.
Kamali locked the door, stripped off and went into the shower. The cascade of water on his skin helped to take some of the tension away from his tight muscles.
After the shower, he carried out the ritual cleansing that would purify him in preparation for the night prayer. He dressed in a clean jalabia which was long and loose as required and a hand-embroidered hula he used only for the occasion.
He grabbed his Koran, spread his mat in the correct position. He had prayer beads hanging on the wall the indicated the direction of Mecca.
Then, he performed the Isha, submitting himself to the oneness of Allah. His faith strengthened him and helped him persevere no matter the challenges facing him.
Afterwards, he got into bed. Sleep didn’t come. For the first time in years, his bed seemed too big, too uncomfortable.
He thought about Ebun, curled up and looking alone tonight.
His skin prickled with unease. He tossed and turned. Still, no sleep. And his turmoil remained.
Chapter Twenty-Three
