Daisy buried her face into the laptop, eagerly searching for the answers she wanted. She looked at the screen again and it rang bells in her head. Why was she finding it difficult to comprehend the information? And to think that she hurried to Ivan’s place, prepared a sumptuous dish for him only to end up not understanding a thing.
“Ivan? I don’t understand a single thing here. It’s jargon.”
“It’s still in the code format.”
Ivan took it upon himself to find out everything about Lily and the murder case. He could have simply instructed his men to do it but he wanted to keep the matter a big secret so he did it himself.
“Can you tell me what is in it?”
“I’m eating.”
“Ivan! Why are you like this? You know I’m very curious about this and you are playing with me and taking this whole thing for granted.”
“Do you want me to choke on my food?”
“Ivan? I…” Daisy stopped speaking as tears welled up in her eyes. This made Ivan’s heart to soften.
“I’m sorry. I was only teasing you and I’m sorry I did so at the wrong time. You know I won’t want to hurt you intentionally. I just wanted you to be calm and steady enough to take in the news I’m about to pass to you.”
“Just tell me already. I don’t need any more stability,” she yelled.
“Alright. Please, take it easy. Come and sit with me let’s eat first.”
After much plea, Daisy gave in and sat with him for lunch. When they were done, Ivan thanked her for the meal.
“I’m sorry, okay? I’m available now. Let’s get started.”
“I found out a lot. First, there used to be this man, Anderson Robert Taylor. He was dating Lily for so long and everyone thought they were going to get married. But everything went wrong in a twinkle of an eye and things turned sour between them. This same man was the person she murdered. Again, he was murdered in Italy. I’m guessing your mum trailed him to Italy for reasons best known to her. Easton has a hand in stopping the news from going out. He had them take down the news from the internet and he made sure no word of the trial nor the judgement was published online. Aunty Lily spent twenty years in jail instead of the life sentence given to her. It was grandfather Easton’s doing. This is just the basic and primary facts. To be honest, only Aunty Lily and maybe grandfather too can give us the full details.”
“So, my guess was right. She truly murdered someone. I’ll go to her now and make her tell me everything. From this man, to my father, and to why she abandoned me.”
Before Ivan could say a word, she stormed out of the house.
Lily was still seated in the sitting room by the time Daisy returned. Katty met Daisy outside the house. Daisy didn’t spare her a glance, she had more important things but that didn’t go down well with Katty. She stood in her way and tried to cause trouble but Daisy shoved her aside and went right into the house without looking back. Katty stood up from where she had fallen as a result of the rough push. She had no injuries and sadly, no evidence to be dramatic.
“That slimy bastard dared to push me. I’ll make her pay. But what’s with her tight face? Well, what ever be the reason, she should never push me. We aren’t equals!” she mummured as she cleaned her body.
Daisy entered the sitting room and sat beside Lily.
“Good evening, mum.”
The weight could be felt on the mum as if she pumped all her emotions into that one word.
“Evening dear. How are you?”
Lily was happy to hear her daughter call her ‘mum’ regardless of the tone.
“I’m here to find out some things. I want to know why you left me all by myself for so many years. You promised to come back for me mum but you never did.”
“I’m sorry my love. I know I haven’t been a good mother, I’m aware that I didn’t live up to my promise and I’m sincerely sorry about that. I only travelled in search of greener pastures. I wanted to come and pick you as soon as things got better but life happened. I tried hard to make a name for myself and I only returned when I succeeded. I’m sorry you are already all grown when I returned.”
Daisy was fuming within. Why was her mother lying? Did she think she was dumb? She opened her bag and took out her phone.
“Look at this photo and tell me all I need to know. You can’t tell me you went in search of greener pastures when you spent all those years in jail!”
Lily took the phone with trembling hands. She found it hard to believe that her daughter knew something.
“How did you get this?”
“Just answer me. I need to know everything. You can’t keep lying to me. For twenty whole years, you abandoned me and went to jail for murder. For goodness sake, murder. Who did you kill? Who’s this Anderson and why did you murder him? Tell me all I need to know. Tell me who my father is and how I can find him. I want to know my roots. All my life, I’ve been called an illegitimate child. It was only my social status that prevented my peers from saying it to my face.”
“Illegitimate child? Oh my gosh. I’m sorry you…”
“Don’t be sorry. Just tell me who my father is. Tell me who you murdered too.”
Lily took a deep breath and said nothing for the next ten minutes.
“Here, have your phone.”
“I’m sorry for all you have to go through. I’m also sorry you had to find out this way. But I did everything I did for you.”
“Everything? What is it that you did for me?” Daisy asked.
“That man, Anderson Robert, whom I murdered is your father.”