Beauty at the square Episode 21 Roughly two weeks later, Nwakamma received a package by post. He was riddled with shock as he unwrapped the package. He saw pictures of Ada with a muscular, good-looking young man. In one of the shots, the man in question was holding a chair for Ada to be seated. In other shots, Ada was seated across the table from the same guy in a restaurant and they appeared to be cozily chatting away. A short note in the package read; Mr Lover boy, The enclosed pictures show me with your woman. If you really love her that much, then contact me at the email address below so I can furnish you with even more explicit pictures of myself and her. I need not tell you what I was doing with and to her. The explicit pictures I have yet to send to you will tell you everything. Stop fooling yourself; Ada is no angel! Badboy4real@yahoo You can call me Dennis. Nwakamma’s head began to spin. The stack of pictures dropped on the floor as his body hit the bed. He lay in silence for over an hour; unable to decide what to do. His family must not hear of this. At least not yet. He ran to a nearby shop, bought some calling cards and called Ada. “Adaugo, I have something in front of me here that I have no way of understanding. I need your help to figure out wetin dey happen.” “Kamma what could that be?” “Please be honest with me, are you seeing someone?” “Noooo! How can you be asking me this sort of question? You Know I have always been faithful to you.” “Well, it is hard for me to know when in front of me are pictures of you and another guy in a restaurant. The sender indicates at the back of each picture that they were taken at Golden Gate Restaurant.” Ada was quiet. She felt right away that Nelson had someone take pictures of them while she was there with him. “You are quiet Ada. Does that suggest there is truth behind these pictures?” “Nwakamma, please let me explain.” “Explain what? Why on earth would you be on a date with someone else when you are engaged to me? After the battle we both have undergone to get my parents to accept my decision? I am in shock Ada.” “You are jumping to conclusions Kamma, I did not go on a date with anyone.” “A while ago you said you wanted to explain now you are denying the entire scenario? Did someone manufacture these pictures?” Nwakamma would not let her get a word in. He was raging with anger and confusion. Nwakamma hung up abruptly and switched off his phone. He left his phone by the bed and headed into the streets. He walked to Regents Park, and went straight to the famous rose garden. He loved the smell of fresh roses. He sniffed the flowers amid a teeming crowd enjoying the flamboyance of the park. When he became tired of the roses, he headed for the pond nearby and watched geese as they acrobatically soaked themselves in the cool waters of the artificial lake. The serenity of the scenic park offered him much needed peace and solace, albeit momentary. Ada rang him severally only to reach his voicemail. She left a series of messages begging him to call back. “The pictures are not true my love, please call me back!” “I did not go on a date Kamma, the guy in the picture has got to be Nelson. I only met up with him to put him in his place.” “My love, please call me back, I can’t bear the pain of such uncertainty. I have got to talk to you now.” The anger she felt for Nelson was like a raging inferno. She called Nelson. “I am surprised you are calling me. I thought you’d never want to talk to me again Ada. How are you today….” “You monster! How could you do a thing like that?” “What have I done to you now Ada?” “You are asking me? You have no idea what atrocious act you have perpetrated?” Nelson was stunned. Dazed was an apt description of the bewilderment he felt. “Ada please let me know what you are talking about. I have done nothing since the day you told me off.” “Was it not you that sent pictures of you and I at the restaurant to my fiancé?” “I did not realize you were engaged. Anyways, I did not send a thing to anybody. I am confused by this allegation. Yes, I have done some stupid things before, but I had begun to fancy you of late. I would not do such a thing Ada.” “Oh yes! You would not do a thing like that, and that comes from someone who was willing to date a girl with the sole intention of smashing her heart eventually.” “I am sorry for ever being a party to such a malicious plot, but I did not take pictures of us let alone send them to your fiancé. I don’t even know him. How could I have contacted him?” “Who did then? I can’t believe you. You know all about it.” She began to sob. “This looks like Nnamdi’s handiwork Ada. I had told him I was not sure I wanted to go through with the plan. In fact, I had hinted to him that I was beginning to like you and he took exception to that. He may have planted someone at Golden Gate to take those pictures. He has a bunch of friends in London. I am sure he knows someone who knows your man. That way, he may have gotten his address from them. I need you to believe me. You have to talk to your man to find out when the pictures were sent. Do they bear Nigerian stamps or UK stamps? He can show you the pictures on Skype, so you get an idea from which angle of the restaurant the pictures were taken. It has got to be Nnamdi.” “Swear to God you did not take and send those pictures to him,” Ada insisted. “I swear to God Ada. If I did a thing like that, may I not live to see next week.” “I am mad at you nonetheless Nelson. I just can’t trust you. Bye for now.” “I am sorry Ada but I knew nothing about this, and if there is any way I can help, please let me know. I will talk to Nnamdi to see what he has to say.” “You better do!” Ada replied harshly. Nwakamma left his phone off for the rest of the day. The next morning, he deleted all of the voice messages without listening to them. Ada had sent her several emails, but he would not even open them. He tried to focus at work. He could not tell anyone yet that Ada might have seen someone else behind his back. The thought alone pierced his heart, leaving a deep, hollow chasm at the core of his soul. As always, Uchenna was supportive to Ada. He tried to call Nwakamma only to reach his voicemail. It had been three days since the incident. Ada had never gone for more than a day without talking to him, and vice versa. Her anxiety mounted with each passing day. “I think I am going to fly to London if I don’t hear from him by the end of the week,” she said to Uchenna. “The pain is eating me up.” “You may have to do that Adyy,” he said. “Hopefully, when you see him in person, he will listen to your side of the story.” The next day, Nelson finally called back. “I am sorry Ada; I wanted to take my time to dig up as much information as I could. I am very sure that Nnamdi did this.” “I can’t put this past him, but I can’t be sure you too are not a part of the entire diabolical plot.” “Well, I deserve your distrust at this point, but I can only tell you for a fact that Nnamdi had someone take pictures of us at the restaurant, and through some friends of his in London, he got your fiancé’s address to mail the pictures to him. I can guarantee that the pictures were mailed from Nigeria.” “Nnamdi will burn in hell. If you are a part of this plot, you too will burn in hell.” Nwakamma continued to battle with his burgeoning confusion over the pictures. He would return from work, pull them out of the envelope yet again and peer at them for hours on end. He wanted to see if Ada seemed happy in the pictures. The shot where Nelson had pulled a seat so Ada could be seated was the worst of the lot. Looking at that particular shot was like staring straight into burning fire from close range. He considered sending an message to the email address enclosed with the pictures, but decided against it. Each day seemed like eternity for both of them. Ada continued to ring him without answer. She began to wonder if he was okay. She called Vincent to say hello, and in her discussion with him, Vincent mentioned he had seen Nwakamma two days back. That lifted a fraction of the burden off her shoulders. After a week, Ada had reached her breaking point. She booked a flight to London for Friday night. Thankfully, her visa was still active. She lied to her parents she just wanted to pay Nwakamma a surprise visit. Biola, Efe and Simbi had no idea what was going on. She was determined to keep it from them, at least until the matter was sorted out. Uchenna and Simbi saw her of to the airport on Friday. Six hours later, she landed at Heathrow, and boarded the Piccadilly line into London. She switched trains at King’s Cross St. Pancras, taking the Circle line to Great Portland Street. It was close to 2:00AM in the morning but the streets were still teeming with activity on a Saturday eve. She knocked on the door repeatedly before Nwakamma answered. He walked to the door and asked “who is that?” “Kamma please open the door, it is me,” Ada replied. He was shell-shocked. Her voice seemed to melt his anger away. He wanted to know if she was okay. He hurriedly opened the door and grabbed her. “How could you do this to me Kamma? It has been terribly distressing not hearing from your for nearly two weeks. Even if I committed the worst of atrocities, would you not hear me out first?” “Ada, it is hard to know what to think when you find yourself in such a situation. I have been tormented by those pictures. I love you so much that looking at them is like putting a knife through my throat.” “But you have to trust me. You have to listen to me first.” “Are you hungry?” He asked. “No, I want us to get to the root of this matter first. I am flying back on Sunday, so bring out the pictures let’s try to figure out what is going on.” Nwakamma took her small luggage to the bedroom, and returned to the living room with the pictures. “This is Nelson honey. I have had nothing whatsoever to do with this guy.” She went on to narrate what transpired between her and Nelson at the restaurant. “From what Nelson said, Nnamdi orchestrated this.” “What did you do to that guy Ada, to make him hate you this much?” “I can’t think of anything honey.” “Did you date him at all and leave him broken-hearted?” “No! He wanted me by all means as I told you, and when I repeatedly refused him, he vowed to torment my future relationships wherever we cross paths. I will never cheat on you Kamma. Never!” “I am sorry for going very mad at you. I should trust you…” “You are my heart Nwakamma. I can’t breathe without you. Living without you would be like walking the fringes of life; existing, but not truly living. I will never let you down sweetheart.” “That is the reason this hurt so much. It was as though I was watching my own life drift from my body and disappear into oblivion.” Before he saw Ada off to the airport on Sunday, he took Nnamdi’s full name from her. “I’d like to find out how Nnamdi got my address. You can’t be sure what someone like this will do next,” he said. Relieved, Ada decided it was time to be extremely careful. She promised herself to watch what she did and said and who to spend time with in the months leading to their traditional wedding ceremony. On returning to Lagos, she told her father about Nnamdi. “You should have told me about this all this while Adaugo.” “I did not think it would get this serious.” “Do you know where he lives in Lagos?” “No, but I can find out.” “How do you intend to do that?” “I can get it from Nelson.” “Hmmm! We are not sure how honest that one is from what you have told me. You be careful how you go about that. No, don’t ask him. He might tell the Nnamdi of a boy. Do you still have Nelson’s business card that you said he gave you months ago?” “Yes, I do.” “Okay, give it to me. I will take it from here.” “Thanks daddy.” “You are welcome my daughter. Now, go get some rest.” ***The story continues…***
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 19:50:27 +0000
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