‘I saved you from the police, I buried your secret in my garden and you dare question my authority in this house, how dare you Rose’?
Helen poured out her anger at her daughter’s irritable behavior. Who was she to give her orders?
‘Mum, why do you always have to bring that matter up? why can’t you ever let it go? Why do you make me feel like I can’t correct you when you’re wrong simply because you helped me that day. Remember I didn’t ask you to cover it up, I was scared and broken, cutting her into pieces and burying her in the garden was your idea, you had a choice to call the police but you dragged I and father into it’ Rose screamed angrily at her mother.
‘How dare you? You little ingrate, should I had reported to the police, you wouldn’t have had the guts to stand before me, because you would’ve been dead in jail, your father’s reputation would’ve been tarnished, I helped everyone, I cleansed us all and you’re so ungrateful’ Helen scowled.
‘Cleansed us? You’re the one who needs cleansing’ Rose scoffed and turned to walk away but Helen dragged her and offered her a slap which sent her reeling on the floor.
‘Excuse me? I’m the one who needs cleansing? When you murdered Grace in cold blood for a reason I’d never know’ Helen chuckled.
‘I know your secret mum, I saw it in the garden, you think you’re a saint? Wait till dad gets well and I tell him about you and your lover, I would tell him how you sneak him into the house and Fork him, just wait on me’ Rose staggered.
‘How could you’? Helen smirked.
How could her own daughter whom she saved speak to her that way?
‘So it’s the truth afterall’? Rose arched a brow.
‘I only slept with Nelson because your father lost interest in me and had no time for me, he buried himself in church work, why should you judge me, you’re no better’ Helen exhaled.
Things were falling out of place, if only she knew she would’ve reported Grace’s murder to the police, now the daughter she spared was now challenging her authority.
‘You slept with Nelson’? Rose was shocked, so her mother was having an affair with Nelson, no wonder she was reluctant to report him to the police, that did it for her, she would work straight into a police station and report Nelson’s elopement.
‘Just get out of my room, I buried your secret in the garden and I regret every bit of it’ Helen dismissed her.
‘Whatever’ Rose hissed and walked away.
‘God, I’m dead’ Helen sank into her bed, truly, there was no peace for the wicked, if only she knew, she wouldn’t have spared Rose, now everything would fall back on her.
She hadn’t closed her eyes for a five minutes just to take a short nap, when her phone beeped and she checked it, it was a message, one whose words left her terrified and she wished the earth could crack open and swallow her up.
‘I KNOW WHAT YOU DID, IT MAKES ME SICK, I AM GOING TO TELL. A SECRET IS BURIED IN THE GARDEN’.
‘Lord save me’ she cried and buried her face in the pillow, Oliver had shown her the text before, someone was after her, she could feel it strongly.
***
He had tried a number of businesses but none worked out well than that of blackmailing people and getting them to pay heavily for it.
He had blackmailed lots of Nigerian politicians, most of them made the mistake of being mean to their domestic staff, and that was the easiest means to get to them.
‘Why didn’t you take pictures, how could you be so stupid? Now we have no evidence, she could easily deny it and claim nothing happened’ Kachi Romeo yelled angrily at one of his agents.
He not only owned a blog, he had numerous connections with different secret cults as well as assassin groups, so anytime a big fish ordered for the death of someone, he knew, except for very top officials. Helen was not close to the top, she played into his hands very easily.
‘Take a picture after shooting him? she was right there and if I tried that she would’ve killed me too and buried me in her sweet little garden’ Oliver scoffed.
Working with Kachi Romeo was good business, most times they both connived and blackmailed those that had hired him to kill.
‘Bury you? You were the one with the gun’ Kachi poured himself a drink.
‘So what? There are many ways to kill a man, trust me, Helen Ita is a very dangerous woman. Nelson was foolish to have S£x with her even after you’d revealed to him the woman that had sent men after his life’ Oliver replied.
‘Well Delilah killed Samson, how much more a smaller fool like Nelson?’ Kachi scoffed.
‘You call him a fool, but what about you who is in love with Rose, a woman that fu-Cks her own dad, who does that’? Oliver grimaced.
‘In love? I used to love her once, but now, I see her as a means to a very rich end,this would be our biggest job, a family with secrets, each would pay to keep their abnormalities from the world’ Kachi laughed heartily.
‘What about Helen’s son? Mark, he seems to be clean, you have not said a thing about him’ Oliver asked.
He’d worked together on the Ita family case with Kachi for a long time.
‘Mark is no angel, in fact, he is the reason Grace really opened up to me, we’ll talk about some other time, now I need all the information to find Grace, I need to know she is okay, she helped me very much’ Kachi sighed, Grace had really suffered, she had gone through hell in that cursed house, he was glad she had opened up to him.
‘Nothing much, the pastor is still in the hospital bed, and I think Grace has returned, I saw her last night serving the Ita’s’ Oliver replied. He was sure of it, the girl that served dinner was Grace, he’d seen her many times when she met in secret with Romeo.
‘Are you sure about this? Then why didn’t she contact me? Why are her numbers not going through, this would be the greatest news ever’ Kachi dialed her numbers but they weren’t reachable.
‘I swear it, maybe I could go back to the house, and instruct her to meet you’ Olive suggested.
‘No, that would be dangerous, stay away from the Itas, now, we have to get evidence that the pastor is sleeping with his own daughter, we already have a voice note of Grace telling me how Mark raped her a lot of times, after which I convinced her to fix this a tiny video camera in the house to catch Helen and Nelson in action, which she did, now all what remains is our biggest fish, Pastor Ita and Rose’ Kachi clapped his hands excitedly.
‘You’re very smart, but I think we should take on just one person, too much of everything is bad’ Oliver advised, he wasn’t too comfortable with Romeo’s idea.
‘No, one person wouldn’t make me as rich as I want, so we take them all down’ Romeo replied not too pleased with Oliver countering him.
‘I still don’t support it, I say we take the pastor down, he was what to lose most, he has a ministry,we have to think very clearly’ Oliver insisted.
‘Since when did you start giving me advice on how to run my business’? Romeo snapped angrily at him.
‘Well, mind the way you speak to me, we’re still in this business’ Oliver warned.
‘Partners’? Romeo scoffed, he knew how just to deal with Oliver, with the snap of his fingers, the fool would obey him.
‘Of course, I do your dirty work’ Oliver replied.
‘Well that’s because you’re dirty, you’re a pig and I am the clean one, next time you challenge me, I shall leak your secrets and trust me, the Nigerian police would treat you just find and all the clients you blackmailed’ Romeo hissed loudly and walked out of the room.
Romeo’s words stilled Oliver and scared him too, he suddenly discovered he was a slave to Romeo like everyone else whom he blackmailed.
‘No way, I wouldn’t be your pawn’ Oliver rose to his feet, he needed to get out of Romeo’s clip, and he knew just how to get out.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
I had prepared breakfast for everyone and now I was preparing myself to go see the pastor at the hospital. I had already made something hot for him to drink, I hoped he was okay.
I decided to go through Grace’s things once more, I had never met her in person but I felt I had known her my entire life.
I fetched her album and stared at her pictures again especially the one she stood with Romeo, they looked so great together, I was sure Mark started raping her when she fell in love with someone else.
‘Bastard’ I cast the album aside and wept on my bed.
I cried for about fifteen minutes, my eyes were all foggy and swollen, I stopped the minute I heard a strange sound. You know when your battery is about to be exhausted and it makes a sound, exactly what I heard, but I was quite sure it wasn’t from my phone.
I rose up immediately, what if Grace had left her phone behind, I heard the sound again, it came from the cupboard where I’d found the photo album and the note, how come I’d never seen or heard it?
As I pulled out the last drawer, a huge rat climbed out and I screamed for my dear life.
‘Jeez, that wasn’t funny’ I laughed for the first time that day.
‘Here you are darling…’ I wondered what it was, it wasn’t a phone, I realized it was a mini sized video camera.
‘What’s this’? I pressed a button and waited for the device to show me something, but it didn’t, so I tossed it aside.
I slipped on my shoes ready to move when I heard sounds that resembled m0ans from a woman in pain, this time, pain wasn’t the case, what I saw was going to haunt me for eternity.
My phone rang and I picked it up hurriedly.
‘Hello’ my voice was shaky from what I’d just seen, how could that happen?
‘Ajunwa? Have you forgotten me so fast? This is your friend Joy’?
‘Joy, I’m sorry, I’m just not feeling too well’ I lied, how could I have forgotten Joy, my best friend whose uncle I worked for.
‘I’m sorry sweetheart, guess what’? she sounded excited.
‘Wow you sound happy, what’s that’? I asked.
‘I know my uncle just had an accident, the news is everywhere so I am at the hospital with him, later I’d be at the house and we would gist throughout the night’ she replied.
‘Wow, I’m coming there soon’ I replied and dropped the phone in my bag.
Joy was in town, I wondered if I could let her in on what I had encountered in the house.
I turned the video camera off and hid it safely, I had watched enough. Pastor Ita was making love with his daughter Rose, truly, this was a house of secrets.
Cookies and similar technologies are used on our sites to personalise content and ads. You can find further details and change your personal settings below. By clicking OK, or by clicking any content on our sites, you agree to the use of these cookies and similar technologies.
GDPR
When you visit any of our websites, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and manage your preferences. Please note, that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.