Nicole tossed about in her bed, unable to sleep as her slumber was being haunted by terrible nightmares.
Suddenly her eyes shot open and she was instantly jerked awake. Her heart beat was racing to its summit. Nicole sat up and placed a hand on her chest, trying to calm down her erratic heart.
“God. Why am I feeling so scared?”Nicole asked no one in particular.
Her worried thoughts then drifted to Raphael and her breathing got hitched.
He wasn’t back home yet. Her eyes roved around her room, scanning every corner.
“Raphael?”She called out as she stood up from the bed in hopes of meeting him in the bathroom or closet.
The only response she got was an empty closet.
“Raphael where are you?”Nicole cried out to herself, slumping on the cold floor of the closet.
This wasn’t the way she imagined her married life to turn out.
She hardly saw her husband because he was always too busy with work.
They hardly spent time with each other again as Raphael had other important issues to attend to.
She didn’t like the turn of events. She just wished Raphael could quit his mafia.
* * * * * * * *
Nicole walked out of the her bedroom with gloomy thoughts. The warm shower she just had did nothing in soothing the torrentious waves that had become her nerves.
Her hands scraped against walls of the hallway as she walked towards one of the staircases that stood at the centre of the living room.
“Raphael?”She called out hoping he was just around the corners of his imperial mansion.
Her worried voice echoed back as replies as she ponderously walked towards the stairs.
“Thoma, Emilio, Lorenzo, Marco, Luca?” Nicole called out, her footsteps quickening in pace.
“Goddamit! Where are all the men in this house?!” Nicole scoffed in vexation, approaching the staircase.
Her hands held on to the gold railing with her eyes scanning the living room.
It was bustling with activities as usual. Workers were scattered around cleaning. She noticed a few were heading upstairs and in their hands held various cleaning equipment.
But no sign of Raphael.
“Sofia good morning… oh.. are you?”Nicole’s voice trailed off once she alighted from the stairs, observing Sofia clutching on to a pink petite handbag and cook book.
“Goodmorning Nicole. You look worried. What’s up?”Sofia asked.
Nicole exhaled and dragged the words slowly from her mouth. “Did Raphael come home this morning?”
Sofia shook her head and a pained stare got plastered on Nicole’s already worried features. “I haven’t even seen Emilio. No sign of Thomas, Luca, Marco and Lorenzo. Atleast before they stopped by regularly”
Sofia gently rubbed Nicole’s shoulder, trying to calm the melanin lady. “They are all busy with work Nicole. Raphael will be back I promise”
“I hope so”Nicole muttered underneath her breath. Her eyes then trailed to the cook book that was hauled against Sofia’s chest.
“Are you also going out?”Nicole queried, her eyes darting to Sofia’s face.
“Mmhm”sofia hummed in reply.
“I am going for my pastry practice. Please don’t get too stressed up ok”
Nicole adopted a faint smile on her lips. “Where is Aurora?”
Sofia jutted with her chin towards the kitchen. “She and some chefs are preparing breakfast”
Sofia quickly gave Nicole a brief hug, her hands rubbing Nicole tensed back. “I’ll have to go now. I’m running late. Take care Nicole”
She immedately scurried out of the living room leaving Nicole stunned.
“Seems everybody is so busy”Nicole murmured to herself. She stood on the spot for some seconds, her mind racing to where Raphael could have spent the night yesterday.
With sunken shoulders, Nicole turned to head back upstairs when a feminine voice whipped across the living room.
“Nicole good morning” Leila’s voice rang through the walls of the living room.
Nicole turned back to meet a smiling Leila walking towards her.
Her heart skipped a beat and emotions rushed to her veins.
“Leila you are here. Is Raph….”
Nicole wasn’t allowed to complete her statement as Leila’s voice abruptly cut her short. “No Raphael didn’t come with me”
Sadness and anxiety spread across Nicole’s tensed up features.
“Leila I feel worried”
It took every nerve of self restraint in Leila not to hiss at Nicole.
“Why?”She asked with a farcade smile.
“Raphael is making me worried. What do you guys do exactly in your mafia?” Nicole asked in hushed tone.
“Important stuff Nicole” Leila chuckled.
“Raphael didn’t come home last night. I’m worried as to where he must have spent the night”
“You don’t need to be worried Nicole” Leila responded with a hand placed on one of Nicole’s shoulder.
“Raphael has tons of buildings scattered around Italy. He can sleep wherever he wants”
Nicole stared at Leila and sighed before turning to head up stairs.
She could hear Leila’s matching footsteps behind her.
“You seem stressed Nicole”Leila lowly said with a smirk as Nicole walked ahead of her.
“Ofcourse I am”Nicole replied.
“I mean this mafia. I don’t like it”
Leila rolled her eyes and put on a soft smile before coming to walk side by side with Nicole.
“That is who your husband is. This is what he does. You have to come to terms with it. It’s really not easy for Raphael. Going off to work, attending multiple functions, dealing with various shipments all round the coast of Italy and beyond, running his casinos, hotels and strip clubs and meeting high class politicians”
Nicole felt a clog in her lungs and she gulped hard trying to swallow it.
She never knew Raphael ran casinos and hotels.
“I mean you should give him a break you know. But if I were in your shoes too I’ll literally be worried. Well not just about his safety also about the marriage” Leila mischievously uttered knowing it will trigger Nicole.
Nicole instantly shot her a persistent stare as they walked through the hallways. “What do you mean Leila?”
“Come on Nicole. Raphael meets various high class individuals which includes ladies. Well i don’t blame you though. You haven’t seen 2% of the women that works in your husband casinos, strip clubs and hotels”Leila scoffed.
Nicole halted and gripped Leila by the arm causing her to flinch. “I don’t understand you? Does he meet with them? What are you trying to insinuate Leila?”
Nicole already could feel her pulse racing at 140 beat per minute as a silence like wild fire erupted between her and Leila.
Leila yanked her arm away from Nicole’s grip and came to stand in front of her. “I am not insinuating anything. I am just giving you a tip of the iceberg. Raphael surprised everybody by settling down with a woman. He isn’t known as a one woman man. Don’t be surprised that he actually goes to meet one of his should I say mistresses after a long day of work just to cool off”
Nicole gasped on hearing Leila’s vile words. “Why are you saying this? You know fully well I’m married to him. Why will you tell me all these?”
Leila rubbed her temples and exhaled. “Ofcourse I know you are married to him. I just want you to make sure no other woman in his mafia is challenging your spot with your man. Men aren’t loyal Nicole”
Leila walked away, a wry smile forming on her face leaving a distraught Nicole to her disheartening thoughts.
Nicole suddenly found it hard to breathe. She became claustrophobic with the walls of the hallway seeming to be closing in on her.
She gasped repeatedly for some time and massaged her throat.
“Raphael wouldn’t use work as an excuse to meet other women. He loves me. He wouldn’t. No he wouldn’t do that”
Nicole repeatedly said those words to herself with tears pooling in her eyes as she walked towards her bedroom.
Nicole slumped on the soft sheets of her bed, her eyes facing the ceiling trying to shake of Leila’s words ringing in her ear.
She knew Raphael would never cheat on her so why was Leila giving her all those shitty talks about her husband.
Did Nicole love Raphael truly with every cell in her? Yes she did. Raphael always thought of himself as a man of darkness but she saw him as the light of her world.
She didn’t want to let what Leila said get into her head.
“That was Raphael’s past. He was loose with women but he loves me now” Nicole thought to herself.
She couldn’t imagine a life without her dear husband by her side.
Fears of what would happen to Raphael in the long run in the course of trying to control his dangerous mafia sank into her cells and Nicole felt her heart beating erratic once more.
Her eyes trailed to the huge closet door that stood out in their room.
She stood up from the bed and walked towards it.
Twisting the door knob softly, she pushed open the door and headed towards the one place that possessed the most important information of her husband mafia.
The secret safe.
It took time before she could figure out where it was hidden into the wall.
She finally found it and inputed the password, unlocking the safe and bringing out the flash drive.
Her eyes scrutinised the little flash drive that held tons of information and secrets concerning her husband’s job.
He did tell her that if it got into the wrong hands, there would be trouble.
An ominous feeling of dread suddenly gripped her, spreading through her body and taking over her senses with Raphael’s words ringing in her mind.
“I don’t know why but I just feel scared”
Nicole bit her bottom lip, her curious eyes observing the drive in betwen her fingers. Her thoughts ran wild as she thought of ways to make the contents in the drive more secure.
Anybody who had their hands on it could easily have access to its content without any hassle.
An idea suddenly clicked on to her.
Her eyes glittered and a smile worked its way to her lips.
“Raphael you will be so proud of me when I tell you what I’m about to do”
Nicole held on to the flash drive and dashed out of the closet, a wide grin already plastered on her face.
She went towards their bedstand lamp and spotted her USB drive. She grabbed it and tucked it into her pocket before walking out of her bedroom.
She approached the library and spotted Leila in it, her eyes on what seemed like spiral binded documents .
Nicole cleared her throat and Leila looked up at her.
“The bitch is back”
“Nicole I never thought you would follow me here”Leila announced with a forced smile.
“I didn’t follow you here”Nicole revealed, stepping inside the library.
“I just…”
“What the hell! What are you doing with that flash drive?”Leila shot at Nicole, interrupting her the moment her gaze locked with the drive in Nicole’s hand.
Nicole was startled by Leila’s sudden aggressiveness but comported her features. “I want to help my husband that’s why I’m with it”
Leila furrowed her brows, watching Nicole move towards the computer section of the library.
“Help him how? Do you even know how important this flash drive is?”Leila scornfully spat, disbelief raging within her at Nicole’s response.
Nicole sat down in front of one of the computers and turned on the electronic device, Leila briskly coming towards her.
“I know how important this flash drive is Leila”
“So what do you want to do with it? You aren’t even suppose to see it’s contents”
Nicole gave no response but took out the flash drive in her pocket.
“What the hell are you doing!?”Leila yelled in fury, stopping Nicole from plugging in the two USB drives into the computer.
Nicole faced her. “I’m going to the copy the information in Raphael’s drive and paste it in mine. I am then going to download a security code into the original flash drive, encrypt the code making it impossible for anybody to view it twice…”Nicole stopped herself from talking when she noticed the astounded look on Leila’s face.
“And the original information stays in your flash drive. Thereby making it a backup flash drive in case of any emergency. That’s incredible Nicole”Leila praised sounding delighted.
Nicole smiled. “Exactly. So if at any point the original flash drive gets into the wrong hands, they will only be able to view it once not twice. And we will have a backup flashdrive”
Leila stared dumbfounded at Nicole.
“I must admit you are pretty smart Nicole”
“Where did you learn this Nicole?”Leila asked as she watched Nicole copy the files in the window explorer.
“I worked in a tech company back in Nigeria. I studied all these back in university” Nicole responded.
What followed was absolute silence as Leila stared in awe of Nicole’s technological skills being put to use.
“Finally it’s done!”Nicole announced.
She stood up and unplugged the two USB drives from the computer.
Leila stared at her.
“Nicole you know if you loose the spare drive that’s not coded, Raphael would be very angry”
“I do. It won’t be misplaced don’tworry. I’ll store it somewhere safe”
Nicole attempted to walk out but Leila called her back. “Why did you do this though? I know you want to protect your husband but why?”
“I just have this forbidden feeling. I just feel something isn’t right especially with Raphael’s constant disappearance”Nicole slowly replied.
Leila watched her go and her head tilted to the side.
“I have no idea what you are feeling Nicole but you are right to feel that way. Things will definitely turn extremely sour for you once I lay my hands on that spare flash drive”