CHAPTER 23: I SAW HER.
Later in the evening, the whole family of Hezekiah was relaxing after they had had their dinner. The sitting room wasn’t lively nor was it stiff but one wouldn’t want to feel comfortable there.
Johnson Hezekiah was cupping his chin with his palms, his face was dull. Anyone who might have entered the sitting room at that moment would have seen that the famous Johnson was now a shadow of himself. His sunken eyes were glued onto the television that kept rambling about some business officials.
For the past months, his business had automatically gone down the grave. The business shareholders were all withdrawing themselves from the business, he tried his best to keep everything under his control so that things wouldn’t leak out but…it just went, poof.
Johnson sighed and rubbed his face in depression. His money was all going down the drain, his eyes darted toward the woman he called his wife, Jessica. She was busy watching him too.
Jessica had been trying her best to help him too but no one’s best at this moment was enough to revive the already dead things. It was at this moment that Ruby walked downstairs with her hair packed up messily, she was holding onto her teddy bear and had a lollipop in her mouth. She calmly took her seat opposite her parents, her eyes surveying what was going on before talking.
She removed the lollipop from her mouth and glanced at her father.
“Dad.” She called him in her gentle tone, Johnson raised his eyebrows as a form of him listening to her without casting a look at her.
“I saw her today.” She reported. Jessica furrowed her eyebrows as she stared at her daughter, her eyes held a lot of meanings, confusion, and warnings so she wouldn’t say anything that might trigger evil for the night.
“Who?” Jessica asked, directing her daughter’s attention to her now.
Ruby sighed and fell flat on the chair. She didn’t want to say it but then after rethinking everything, it would probably be in her favor because her dad hated Evelyn in the first place.
“Evelyn.” She finally responded.
Johnson’s ears perked up and he sat up, he glanced at his wife who also has the same reaction as him too.
“Are you sure that she was the one you saw?” Jessica asked.
“Yes, I met her earlier today in the Supermarket but it came more shocking to me when I saw her son.”
“Son? How?” Johnson asked confusingly. He wasn’t having any of the answers.
“Yes, dad. She has a son already.”
“But that’s impossible, Ruby. She can’t…maybe, it’s someone else’s child or…” Jessica shook her head in disbelief as she tried to look for a reasonable explanation for whether it was indeed true that Ruby saw Evelyn.
“Is she barren? Moreover, guessing the child’s age is quite easy. He is either three years or four so there you have it. I tried talking to her peacefully, I even wanted to call you so you could speak with her because we all know that she left this country three years ago but then she is back. I considered that as a piece of good news yet she…[sighs] she almost threw my phone and insulted my family. She said she didn’t want to see you or me or anyone from our side. Evelyn has really changed. I am surprised.” Ruby explained.
Johnson sighed and turned to his wife.
“How can Evelyn do such a thing? We are her parents…alright, I know that I am not her biological mother but I still tried my best so what else could we have done for her? Everything was for her sake. We scolded her for her sake, don’t we scold Ruby too, darling? But she decided to leave instead. Can’t she take punishments to heart lightly? And now…this. She couldn’t even come home after arriving with her son.” Jessica spoke and Ruby sat straight with a serious look.
“What if she is only trying to hide? The child might not have a father and you know Evelyn can be too forward. She must have done something foolish like she used to when she was living with us so she didn’t want to embarrass herself. The only option left for her is to hide her promiscuous son. That’s the explanation I can give.” Ruby added.
The two women looked at the man in charge who seemed to be thinking deeply for a while. This was his ticket…his time to shine, the only key to unlocking more goodies in his life was already buried in Evelyn’s hand and the only way to do that was to get her around him.
If only he could see her and convince her to come home with him just to do a few things then he would be back to business.
“Do you know where she lives?” Johnson asked after staying silent.
“No, dad. She left angrily after the conversation we had.” Ruby replied and Johnson stood up suddenly and left the room.
His standing up and scared Ruby a bit because she wasn’t expecting that at first and also she thought he was furious but then he walked past her to climb the stairs. She looked at her mother and asked, ‘what is wrong with him?’ robotic
move with her hands. Jessica only shook her head and followed her husband.
Ruby rolled her eyes and crossed her legs before changing the channel.
“Family drama.” She muttered.
Jessica walked into their bedroom quietly and saw her husband on the balcony. While walking closer to him, she noticed that he was going through a few documents with a relaxed face. She then placed her hand on his shoulder to gain his attention.
“Darling, what happened? You left so suddenly that you scared Ruby. Did she say something wrong?” She asked. Johnson closed the documents and touched Jessica’s hand that was on his shoulder.
“No, she didn’t.” He replied and faxed Jessica.
“I am just surprised and happy that Evelyn is back, Jessy. You know that my business is going down the drain, there isn’t any money left but Rosé [ Evelyn’s mum ] left some properties for Evelyn before she died. The only way to get these properties is to get her signature, if you can sign it over to me then I can assure you that nothing can stop us again.”
“Then let’s get the signature.” Jessica persuaded, holding onto her husband’s arm.
“Don’t be a fool, Jessica,” Johnson replied. He removed her arm and walked back into the room with Jessica behind him.
“We have no idea where she is. She might have even run away after meeting with Ruby today. I really need her here but will she sign them?”
“Why won’t she? She is your daughter. She owes you everything in this world for bringing her into this world. She wouldn’t want to prove herself to be a bastard, would she? Don’t think too much about it. I will try my best in finding her and I know you will do the same.”
Johnson glanced at her and nodded before walking to the wardrobe to keep the documents. Jessica watched her husband leave the room and then quickly closed the door. She checked the wardrobe and brought out the documents to go through them.
What she saw there stunned her. Her eyes turned wide and round at the realization of the ‘some properties’ that Johnson said Rosé left for her daughter.
“These aren’t ‘some properties’. It has many properties.” She mumbled to herself in a state of shock.
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Evelyn gently placed her phone beside her bed and turned off the bright light as she pats her son’s head which was resting on her lap. It was almost midnight but she couldn’t sleep even when she was trying her best to…it just wasn’t working.
Seeing Ruby today made her blood erupt. She brought back the injuries that she had been trying to put down, she was sure that by now her father must be aware that she was back and this somehow scared her for an unknown reason.
On the wall opposite her was Rosé’s picture, she was smiling brightly like a sunflower. She remembered very well when she took this picture. She had forced her mum to take the picture to make her happy. Now staring at the picture from another angle, Evelyn could see that her mum didn’t look that happy at all. It was as if she was hiding something from the world and wanted to do so behind the smile.
Evelyn didn’t realize when tears started flowing down her cheeks. She was going through a lot of mental breakdowns. For the past twenty-two years of her life, she spent it trying to please her father’s orders despite the harsh treatment. She just needed someone to love her…to hold her. She looked at her son’s face and a tear slipped from her eyes, landing on Tom’s forehead.
She wiped it off and kissed his forehead. Maybe it was because of this feeling that she was so protective of Tom and loved him more than anything. Maybe that was why she was starting to nurture the thought of having a complete family just for his sake.
“But…but I know someday [breathes in heavily] I know someday, I will make it out of here…even if it takes…even if it does take a hundred years. I will do anything just to make Tom happy and not to feel bullied or left out.” She said to herself and smiled bitterly.
TBC…