Veronica returned to her apartment in Enugu and when she opened the door she sank on the seat. Her phone rang and when she picked it she found out that it was Emeka from the office. He had used a different number to reach her because he knew if he had used his known line to reach her she would not pick it. When she noticed it was him she felt disconnecting the call would be childish on her own side.
"Hello Emeka" she said causally.
"When will you stop calling me Emeka. Don't you hear me when I call you?" Emeka complained.
"Please whatever you have to tell me go ahead and tell me" she said while getting angrier.
"My voice makes you angry. Well, I just wanted to know how you are faring seeing that you have been scarce in the office ever since you got promoted. Remember; if you have any problems be rest assured that im here for you, here to listen to you. You can always confide in me, me and Sarah, we care" When he said this he then added bye and cut the call. It was obvious he was afraid of having Veronica cut the call on him. One thing he did not know was that Veronica wasn't going to do that for she for the first time felt pity for Emeka, for standing his ground all these while he had been making advances at her and she had been resisting him rudely. She sighed and stared intermittently at the phone before she flung it aside and stood up, walked into the kitchen to prepare dinner. When she walked into the kitchen she was shocked to see someone in the dark. She had to switch on the light very fast and saw that it was her boss Charles. He was actually inside her kitchen and hell she could not begin to imagine how he got in there. She gasped but could not say a word.
"He is pestering you; poor Emeka. Did you know he has a wife?" Said Charles and this came as a shock to Veronica but this shock refuses to cover the major shock; that a woman returns to her house which she properly locked before leaving and finds that someone is already inside and not just inside but inside the kitchen of her house.
"Sir" Veronica spoke but didn't know what else to say.
"He loves you" Charles said and put in his mouth some carrot he brought out of the fridge and began to munch it. Veronica could hear the sound of the munching.
"Emeka?" Veronica asked and he nodded without looking at her. "I don't know but he is not the problem Sir"
"So what's the problem?" he asked.
"You; how did you enter here?" she asked.
"I enter anywhere I choose to enter. I came to spend the night with you" he said this casually as though it wasn't heavy in the ear of anyone that hears it.
"Sir?" Veronica was surprised.
"Yes, you heard me; I will be spending the night with you. Prepare your meal" he left the kitchen and it was at that point that it downed on Veronica that it would be better if she accepted his offer to join his family as they called their organization. If she did not she knew a time would come he would go for her life for she had seen some things an outsider shouldn't see and have heard things an outsider shouldn't hear.
When she was done with the meal she served it in the dinning room. She could hear from the dinning room the voices emanating from the television in the sitting room. She sighed and walked into the sitting room. Standing before him she said, "The food is ready Sir" he looked at her and without a word stood up, walked to the dinning and sat down. While he sat he brought out his phone, scrolled until he located a video and then handing it over to her he started eating. She watched the video on the phone and saw it was the CCTV recordings of her while she was adjusting Charles on his bed in his house the other time she was at his place because he insisted. She sighed and said, "You are full of surprises and it's just too much for me to bear so many at a time. What do you want from me?"
"What you were doing there; a typical woman taking care of a man she cares about" said Charles.
"You are getting me wrong boss" she was saying.
"No, I am not. You said you have someone you love in the village; your childhood lover, someone you grew up with and you love him so much. I envy him even though I do not know him. Veronica, I love you, I so much love you. Each passing day draws me closer that reality and then I find myself awake at nights just thinking about you. I don't know what to say to make you see that I'm not being careless with my words" Veronica kept watching him as he said those words.
"I'm sorry" she said.
"Sorry about what?" he asked.
"About whatever you are feeling inside which people aren't seeing. I know there is much you have to say but there is no one to trust enough to share those things with. I don't know if there is anything I can do to make you feel better but love, I don't know if I love you the way you confess you love me but I care about you and I know you were not always like this; I mean you were not always a killer" she said and he smiled and shook his head.
"What's funny?" she had to ask.
"Nothing. It's just I don't know if there is anything I should do to make you understand I have so much to share with you. You have potentials and Anita believes so" he said.
"Anita" she said as if she remembered her name.
"Yes, I know you may hate her now because she played with your intelligence but that's how we recruit members into our family. We first show them the lie and when they get used to being lied to we show them the truth" said Charles.
"What are you now saying? How am I sure you aren't lying to me about how and what you feel for me?" said Veronica before she added, "And shouldn't the organization be truthful to those they want close to them if they tend to create trust with them?"
"It's complicated but I'm not a mad man and I know too much" he said and Veronica didn't think that answered her question.
"Emeka is married?" she asked.
"Yes, but he is to present himself as someone that is not. He is married to Sarah" said Charles. This shocked Veronica to the brim. She got up and said, "All these while I have been living with a set of people are liars and deceivers. Tell me, how on Earth will I be able to trust you?"
"Because I'm now revealing the lies we have told you. If I didn't love you there are things you will never get to know no matter how long you stay with us. What gives power is knowledge and if you want to remain the most powerful you have got to be judicious with information and knowledge. We don't share the knowledge that will be used against us. I'm sorry that all these have come to you as a shock" He begged. She stared at him for a while and said, "It's strange for me now; looking at you saying these things, I don't know if you are laughing at me on your inside or you are sincere. But even if you are sincere what happens to the one I love; the one in the village, he began this journey with me and I am to betray him just like that?"
"Veronica" he called as his expression changed, "I know you know that you have heard so much from me and probably from the others who because of my closeness with you have shared information and revealed some things concerning the organization. There are people that I work with, people you don't know and some of them you may never get to know until you grow old and die. This is a family that is started long ago and there trust and loyalty in the circle. These men that you do not know, these men that are going to be against you after you must have declined my love advanced towards you are going to come at you with everything in them. When that time comes there may be little I will do to protect you" When he said this she chuckled angrily and said, "You are indirectly threatening my life. You are a liar and there is no need believing what you are saying to me now. How am I sure you are not the one to come after me when I say no to you?" she said.
"This far I have come with you, revealing these things to you should be enough evidence that I have decided and not just now to come clean with you. Don't continue to doubt me or my plans for us, for you" said Charles.
"I don't like this" she left him there and headed into her room where she sobbed. Moment later Charles worked in and with his jacket in his hand said, "I'm sorry that you have to be caught up in a situation like this. Maybe if I wasn't in this condition of mine I would have wanted things differently but as it stands there is little or nothing I can do about this. I want you to know too that I have your interest at heart and there is nothing that will make that change. I will leave you to rest. Expecting you in the office tomorrow" He turned to go and heard her say, "Just go and never come back" He did not respond to her but walked out.
******
Ken walked into his apartment and saw that his mother had come visiting. He remembered he left one of his spare keys with her the last time she visited. She embraced him and said, "I know you built me a mansion but being alone in there is boring my son. You are my only son and you are finding it hard to keep me where you live?"
"Mother..." Ken wanted to speak but the woman was speaking again.
"No, my son, I will stay with my son for a few days and take care of him. See how you have emaciated and yet you refuse to marry so you will eat good food. You keep going to one restaurant to another, eating those worms you call delicacy. I will stay over for a few days to look after you and then I will go" Ken didn't want this and he tried to stop her but the woman was being insistent as she already carried her bags and walked out from him, headed to one of the visitors room and there she kept her bags. Ken sank on his seat and wondered why the mother would pay him a visit at a time when the family of Charles was in a tussle with another family from across the state. He did not want this development and he was sure going to ensure he made her leave.
******
"I have found a wife for you in the village. You need to come home and see her and if she is pleasing in your eyes you can then talk about bringing her in to be your wife. Don't you want to marry and give me grandchildren?" The mother spoke to Ken and Ken shook his head and spoke, "You need to know mother that I'm a busy man, a very busy man and that is why I'm bothered that you have chosen to come and spend some days here"