EPISODE 3
Husband? It was too much to bear and I couldn't think straight.
"Can I give you his contact number so you can speak to him directly?" The woman asked.
I felt I might be jumping to the wrong conclusion and decided to ascertain what was actually happening.
"Please send it. I'm one of his business partners and I wouldn't want to award the contract to someone else."
"Please be patient ma." The woman responded quickly. "I'll send his number to you immediately I drop this call."
"That'll be better because I need to attend to something else."
I needed to confirm if the contact number she would send is the same as that of my darling Richard.
"What is the name of your company?" She enquired. "I want to inform him so he can get in touch with you in case you're too busy to call."
"Betrayal Group of Companies" I blurted out without thinking.
"Betrayal?" She queried. Did you say Betrayal, ma?"
"Beth Royal" I quickly composed myself. "I said 'Beth Royal Group of Companies'."
"Okay... sorry ma." I'll send the number now.
"Alright, thank you." I quickly ended the call before saying anything else that could disrupt my plans.
Husband? Could Richard be married? I just wanted to confirm if he was cheating on me but my recent discovery was appalling. Just then the woman's message popped in. The contact number she sent was exactly that of Richard. I was stupefied. However, I needed to take one final step before confronting him.
Facebook was what showed me what he was hiding from me. Richard had refused to add me to his Facebook friend-list with the excuse that he does not usually login and that we call each other most times. I was able to access his Facebook profile one day while we were together in a restaurant. He had left his phone unlocked when he went to ease himself and I took the opportunity to quickly login to his Facebook account via his smartphone.
I checked his personal profile and was shocked to see 'married' on his relationship status. To make matters worse,, he had uploaded a picture on his timeline earlier that day and tagged a particular lady. It was a picture of himself with a woman and two kids that looked so much like him. I checked the lady's profile and saw similar uploads.This prompted me to check his photo gallery and I was shocked that there was virtually no evidence of my existence, I was like the tooth fairy. There were several pictures of his wife and kids in different snapshots.
I was enraged and left the restaurant to avoid causing a scene. It was after I left I remembered that I didn't remember to exit the Facebook application I opened on his phone before taking my leave. Richard started avoiding me from that day and I knew he must have realized that his game was up when he returned to meet an empty table.
After about two weeks of breaking up with him, I felt it was inconceivable that he would visit my dad unless he had another trick up his treacherous sleeve. The memories of his deception brought back feelings I had tried so hard to erase. I had made a vain threat by telling him at the bar that I would revenge. However, if he showed the slightest sign of hurting my dad, I would go to any length to make his pathetic life a living hell.
As I drove into my father's compound, I waved to the gateman and parked. I struggled to fight back the flood of tears that threatened to slip down my eyes, hurriedly reapplied my make-up and waited a moment to regain my composure to avoid getting dad worried.
I could sense that dad was in a good mood as his favourite song 'E Dide E Mujo' a 1995 hit-track by King Sunny Ade was booming through the high-tech stereo speakers. Just before stepping out of the car, a message notification popped up on my smartphone screen. It was from John, my assistant, and it simply reads, "Boss, we have a serious issue".
To be continued in the next episode...