Keeping Secrets (The Essien Trilogy, #1)

by Kiru Taye

  Well, she wasn’t going to get the opportunity to do that again to him. As soon as the baby came, they would get a divorce. He’d make sure she never came anywhere near him or his child. He’d do whatever it took to make that happen.

  Whatever the cost to him.

  Felix sat on the settee, drifting in and out of sleep. When the early light of dawn started filtering through the drawn curtains, he went into the bathroom to shower and dress. He came out, took one last look at Ebony, and went downstairs.

  Ebony woke with a start. She looked across at the settee and rubbed her eyes. She’d dreamt that Felix slept there last night. Why would he do that? Memories of yesterday came flooding back into her mind. She groaned and sank back into bed.

  Yesterday must rank as one of the worst days of her life. First had been the dreaded phone call, then had been coming home to the vision of Felix in Helen’s arms and her humiliation on Felix’s desk. Afterwards, the horror of finding Felix sprawled injured by the pool house, then his angry and disgusted outburst, and his final stunning revelation. All in all, that she was still in one piece came as a surprise to her.

  She wondered how she’d ended up in her bed when the last thing she remembered was lying out on the street after she’d fallen over. Someone must have followed her. Kola, of course. She recalled seeing his face looming over her last night. He would have brought her home.

  A knock came on the door and she pulled the sheets higher up her chest, though she wore her nightie. How did she get that on?

  “Come in.”

  Bisi walked in.

  “Aunty, oga said I should help you get dressed,” the petite woman said when she came in.

  “Bisi, how can your boss tell you anything when he is not here?” She smiled at the woman cheerily.

  “Aunty, he is here. He is in his office.” Bisi nodded, pointing downwards.

  Panicked, Ebony sat up and slid out of bed, coming round to the housekeeper. “Tell me the truth. Is Felix home? When? How come?”

  “Yes. He is home. He came back last night after you were—after you came home, ma.” She shifted her eyes downwards and Ebony realised she must be alluding to her being carried in last night by Kola.

  “How did I get into my nightdress? Did you change me?”

  “Yes, oga Kola brought you in here and told me to get you changed. I did. I hope you don’t mind, aunty.”

  “It’s okay. Thank you, Bisi.” She turned around but the woman still stood there, unsure of what to do. “Don’t worry, I will get dressed myself. You can go.”

  “But oga Felix said—”

  “Don’t worry about Felix. If he asks, tell him I sent you out.” When Bisi still looked worried, she waved her off. “Go on. I’ll be fine.”

  Bisi left her to it and Ebony went into the shower. When she stepped out of the bathroom, Felix stood in the bedroom, looking furious.

  “Woman, can you not obey a simple instruction? I sent Bisi to help you. Why didn’t you let her?” he growled at her.

  “Because I’m not an invalid, damn it,” she replied flippantly, standing her ground.

  “You would choose to endanger the life of a child, just to prove a point?”

  “I haven’t put anybody in danger. All I did was take a shower, which I can do quite safely without cracking my skull open, unlike some people I know.” She took a jibe at him. What the hell, he deserved it for his attitude.

  “Don’t push me. You were found last night sprawled on the street in the middle of the night. What were you thinking, walking around like that? You were endangering yourself and the child.”

  “And what do you care? As far as you’re concerned, I am a liar and a cheat, an adul—” She couldn’t bring herself to finish the word. “You don’t even think the child is yours. So what do you care? It’s my body and I’ll do with it as I please.” Her body shook with rage.

  He grabbed her arm tightly and held her still.

  “You listen to me. If you think I’ll let you harm that child, you’ve got another think coming. If I have to lock you up in here until he or she is born, I will. Don’t dare me.”

  He let her go and she staggered backward. Without looking back, he walked out of the room, leaving her shaking, half-covered in her towel.

  Things were worse than she thought. Strange, but even below his angry outburst, she could still see love masked behind it. She could still see the man she loved. Her marriage might be worth saving; it had to be. What was the alternative? She didn’t even want to think about it. If she were going to save her marriage, she would need all the help she could get. And she knew just where to get it.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Felix sat in the living room when his father walked in. A brown manila envelope lay on the glass centre table. He knew the content but ignored it.

  Being so wired all day, he hadn’t been able to concentrate on anything for long. He’d abandoned trying to work to mindlessly flick channels on the wall-mounted flat screen TV, instead. Since their heated exchange this morning, he hadn’t seen much of Ebony, either. He’d purposely kept to his office earlier. When he’d heard her go out, he’d gone up to their informal living room area and stayed there for the rest of the afternoon. He heard her come back in about an hour ago and Kola had reported that she’d been to his parents’ home.

  So it didn’t come as much of a surprise to see his father standing in his sitting room now. The surprise was that his father had come himself instead of summoning him to the Essien family home. Not that in his current mood, he would have gone, anyway. Probably why his father came here in person. The old man knew his children well.

  “Hello, Dad. This is a surprise,” Felix said casually, standing up from the sofa.

  “Is it?” His old man apparently saw straight through him by the way he stared at his son. “I need to talk to you.”

  His father walked to the armchair and sat down. Felix ignored his words and carried on as if he didn’t know why the other man wanted to talk. He walked over to the bar area.

  “Can I get you a drink?” he asked.

  “Not now.” His father waved him off. “Come and sit down. I’m not staying long.”

  He came back and sat on the sofa. “Dad, I know what you’re going to say—”

  “No, you don’t know. First, I've got something to show you.”

  Chief produced a brown envelope similar to the one on the table. Felix's heart stopped. His father pulled out glossy photographs.

  Anguish ripped through Felix's chest as he recognised the images. He closed his eyes and tipped his head onto his hands.

  “When did you get them?” he asked.

  “A courier delivered them this morning with a note,” his father replied. “I presume you got the same because I see the same type of envelope on your table.”

  Felix lifted his head and stared blankly at the brown parcel. Even with the images covered, they loomed vivid and in Technicolor on his mind. Disgust and rage roiled through him. He jumped to his feet and paced the floor.

  “Yes, I got them this morning too.”

  “Has your wife seen them?”

  “No. I can't let her see them.”

  As much as he was angry with Ebony at the moment, when he found out someone was deliberately trying to hurt his wife, it brought out his protective instincts.

  “Does that mean you're going to give in to the blackmail?”

  “No way. Kola is already working on a plan. Hell will freeze over first before I resign my position at APB because of blackmail.”

  “You have less than a week to sort it out before the board meeting,” his father said. “I suspect Petersen has a hand in this but we need proof before we can confront him.”

  “I will bring you the proof, Dad.” If whoever was behind this wanted to play dirty, they'd soon learn the Essiens could beat them at it.

  “Good. This brings me to the next point. Are these pictures real?”

  Felix exhaled. “Yes. I was there when it happened
. I walked in on the two of them but they didn’t see me. However, I hadn’t realised the snake was videoing the whole thing. I would have punched the lights out of him.” He still wanted to do so.

  “According to the note, they were having an affair while you were in hospital.”

  “Kola vehemently refutes that claim. He insists Ebony never had the opportunity to meet up with Dr. Savage outside the hospital.” He pointed towards the manila file. “Those photos were taken at her mother’s house before we got married.” He desperately wanted to believe his wife hadn’t cheated on him afterwards.

  “Then I want to talk to you about your mother and me,” his father said.

  “What?” Felix hadn’t been expecting that and wasn’t sure he wanted to hear it, either. “Why now?”

  “Because I don’t want you to make the mistakes I did. I don’t want you to lose your chance at being happy.”

  This was a first for him. He had a good relationship with his father. They were not best of friends, but he had a healthy respect for the old man and the way he had kept the family—his sons—together despite troubles that hit them. He knew his father cared about him and his brothers even if the man didn’t say it.

  But his father’s relationship with his mother had never been discussed openly. So this came as a huge surprise.

  “Look, Dad. You don’t have to do this.” He scrubbed his face with resignation.

  “I have to.” His father shifted in his seat and continued. “Our marriage was arranged by our parents, who wanted to consolidate their business arrangement by joining the families. At the time, I was young, carefree, and resented the loss of my freedom in marriage. I didn’t care that your mother found herself in the same predicament. I was dating someone else before we married and carried on seeing the other woman even after the wedding. Once you were born, your mother and I got closer, but there was still the other woman. I guess I didn’t want to get rid of her. I wanted to eat my cake and have it. Then she got pregnant and everything changed.” His father let out a sad sigh.

  “Your mother found out about the affair and pregnancy. She wasn’t happy but told me to bring the woman into the house. The child was mine and should grow up as a brother or sister to you. I told her it wasn’t a good idea. This upset her very much. She started withdrawing and fell into a depression. Nothing I could do about it. That’s when she decided we should have another child, that maybe if she did, I would be happier with her. I told her I was already happy with her. I had come to realise she meant so much to me. She said if I cared that much, I would give her another child. We tried and eventually, she became pregnant. But there were complications and she died on the operating table.”

  His father paused, his eyes clouding over with sadness. Felix just stared at him, his body numb of any emotions. He already knew some of what his father told him.

  “The point I’m trying to make is that I didn’t realise how much your mother meant to me until it was too late. Despite the way I callously hurt her, she forgave me and my affair and was willing to welcome another woman and child into her home without malice. I wish I could go back and change things but I can’t. What I did was bring up you and your brothers together the way your mother wanted. I am glad now seeing the way you, Mark, and Tony have turned out. It is your mother’s legacy.”

  His father leaned forward, staring straight at him. “You were able to forgive me despite what I did to you and your mother. I know whatever the problems in your marriage, no matter how it started, you can still forgive each other and fix it. Don’t wake up one day and realise you’ve lost the most important person to you.”

  “Dad—” Felix said brusquely as he sat up in his chair.

  His father stayed him with a wave. “I’ve finished what I came to say. Now for the other thing. I brought a DVD for you. Tony converted a lot of the old camcorder recordings into DVD a few years ago. This one, you have to watch. It will help you put things into perspective.”

  His father handed him a flat case and stood up. Felix looked at the DVD uncertainly.

  “I’ll see myself out,” his father said and walked out.

  Felix stared at the case in his hand. What the hell. He might as well find out what it contained. So he walked over to the DVD player and slid it in, then turned on the TV. The flat screen flickered and the picture started showing.

  The camera zoomed closer to the image of a little boy no older than three or four years old. Felix recognised himself when he’s been that young and smiled wanly.

  “Felix, guess who we’ve come to see today?” the adult behind the camera said. His father’s voice.

  “The baby,” little Felix replied as he moved closer to the camera.

  The lens panned across a living room to a baby basket and zoomed in closer. Inside the cot slept the cutest little baby girl he’d ever seen, all dressed in pink.

  “Well done, Felix. Come and say hello to the baby.” This time, the camera panned back to little Felix who was being led by his mother to the cot. He reached into the cot and touched the baby’s face so gently. His hand moved down and took her little fist in his and held it.

  “Aahh, that’s so lovely,” the adults in the room cooed.

  “Felix, do you know her name?” another adult out of camera shot asked but he didn’t know which one.

  Little Felix shook his head as he still held onto the baby.

  “Her name is Ebony,” the adult enunciated.

  “Ebony.” Little Felix said the word tentatively.

  “Yes, Ebony.”

  The camera moved again as another little boy about the same age as little Felix came into the room.

  “Felix, why don’t you go outside and play football with Chidi?” his father, behind the camera, asked.

  “Daddy, I want to stay with Ebony.”

  “But Ebony needs to feed. You can come back later and carry her. Would you like that?”

  “Yes,” little Felix replied, and let go of the baby’s hand. Then he ran out with Chidi.

  The camera cut to other scenes. They were pretty much the same. Little Felix holding the baby. Little Felix pushing the pram. Then it moved on to other scenes of Ebony as a toddler and playing with a slightly older Felix. There was one of them in a park. From the looks of it, it could have been Hampstead Heath. His family had a home just off the Heath and they had spent a few summers there when he was a child. There were the children, Felix, Chidi, and Ebony—he and Chidi must have been around ten years old from the images, and Ebony would have been no more than five. It must have been some kind of picnic because the adults were seated on blankets on the grass with baskets of food and drinks.

  The kids ran around playing football. At one point, Chidi tripped Ebony and she fell down. Felix ran to her, picking her up.

  “Did you hurt yourself?” he asked, holding her and she shook her head.

  “It’s okay, Mum.” He turned when the adults were about to get up. “I’ll take care of her.” Then turned back to Ebony and gave her a hug, reaffirming his words. “I’ll take care of you,” he said this time to Ebony before turning to Chidi who held the football. “Chidi, you have to play nicely with your sister. You shouldn’t be so rough. She is smaller than you.”

  “Oooh,” said Chidi, laughing at both of them. He ran of chanting. “Felix loves Ebony. Felix loves Ebony.”

  Felix paused the DVD at that point as silent tears started streaming down his face, blocking his vision. He didn’t need the chanting of little Chidi to tell him what he already knew. It screamed evident from his actions on the screen. He loved his wife. Had loved her since she was a little girl and hadn’t even known it for so long. How was that possible?

  Ebony walked into the sitting room tentatively. She knew Felix’s dad had been to see him earlier in the evening. But she hadn’t seen Felix afterwards and it had grown quite late. She hadn’t bothered going to dinner and she knew he hadn’t, either, because she’d asked the housekeeper. She was worried because it seemed he hadn’t
moved from the living room since his father left.

  The room seemed dark. The only light came from the flickering TV screen, frozen upon the picture of a young boy holding a little girl. Love and tenderness shone in the boy’s eyes. The girl seemed familiar.

  Wait a minute. That’s me. Who’s the boy, and how did that DVD get here, anyway?

  She saw Felix’s silhouette on the sofa. His head lay bent forward, held by both hands resting on his knees. She walked closer.

  “Felix?” She knelt in front of him and put her hands against his on his skull. He lifted his head. She saw tears in his eyes, tears down his face. Her heart stopped momentarily, wrenching with pain.

  “I’m sorry. Forgive me, please.”

  They both said the words simultaneously. Tears welled in her eyes and fell on her cheeks.

  He lifted her up and sat her on his knees, giving her a tight hug and placed his head on her chest. She felt the tension gradually leave his body. He rocked her slowly back and forth. Eventually, he lifted his head.

  “You hurt me, hurt me.” His words were strained, like he found it difficult saying them.

  “I realise that and I’m sorry. I don’t want to lose you.” She held onto him, her tears still streaming down her face.

  He used his hand to wipe her tears. “We’ve both hurt each other. It hurt more because I thought I’d lost you. I’m sorry for lashing out. Can I ask you a favour, though?”

  “What is it? Name it,” she replied quickly, not even thinking about the implications of her words. She just wanted her man back.

  He smiled ruefully. “Maybe you shouldn’t be too quick to reply. You may not like what I have in mind.” His black eyes pierced hers. Gone was the anguish; just uncertainty remained.

  “I trust you to want the right thing for us. Whatever you ask for will be the right thing for our relationship and our marriage. You will never do anything to hurt me or our baby. I see that now and I trust you fully.”

  He looked at her for a while as if taking in her words. “You don’t know how glad it makes me feel to hear you say that. If we are to fully trust each other, then there can be no secrets between us,” he said. “I want to know the truth about any situation no matter how bad. I know you may think you are protecting me by hiding the truth, but it hurts more to know you keep things from me than to know the things you kept from me.”