Solitude – Episode 42
SOLITUDE
_42_
‘Chanda?’ I ask tears betraying me
‘The years might be reduced, I have gone through this case a number of times and I know it will be worse if I wait for him to bring me to book.’
‘Chanda we can work this out.’
‘Nella rebuilding that firm took a lot of money and resources, I won’t allow you to bring it down just to save my ass.’
‘If that is what it will take to watch you be with your child then so be it.’
She shakes her head
‘This baby is yours.’
‘What?’
‘I have already decided in my heart that I don’t want my child to know me as a criminal, as a woman who wanted to take down another no matter the cost all because of pride and foolishness. Nella I might be repentant but I don’t think I have enough love in me to love a child.’
I look down, wanting to remove my hand from her grip but she holds it even firmer.
‘I want you to be the mother to my child.’ She says and I watch her breakdown as she says it
‘No Chanda, I know this is hard for you but what our mother did will not continue with us. Look at how we turned out, bitter and mad and angry women. Learning about our birth parents later in life didn’t make it any better.’
I pause to allow more tears to fall, she can’t even face me because she is also in tears.
‘Your boy might not be as lucky as us, forgiving you after years of lies. We will not subject him to that kind of life, yes I will raise him as my child but I will never hide the truth from him. He will know you as his biological mother, we will visit you every week and there will be nothing that you will miss about his life. I will record everything, Chanda I will put everything on camera just for you to be a part of it all. His Christening, baptism, first day at school, sports day. Everything Chanda, this boy will know that you are his mother and I will never hide that from him.’ I say
‘Nella.’
‘We are going to do this better, it will be hard. It won’t be perfect, but we will do it together and that is all that will ever matter.’ I say smiling through my tears
‘God bless your soul.’
‘God bless your soul elder sister.’ I say and we both leave our chairs to embrace
‘He kicked.’ I say excitedly when I feel a movement on my tummy from hers
She gets my hand and places it on her belly
‘He kicked again.’ I say with excitement tears falling
‘God.’ Chanda says in tears looking up
‘This is our baby Chanda, Bentley is our son.’ I say and I see her smile
‘What
haven’t I done to anger him?’ She says still looking up
‘He is a loving father.’
‘Thank you for everything.’ She says
‘You are welcome.’ I say
I clear the table and wait for her to take a bath.
When she is done she joins me.
‘I want you to do my make up.’ She says
‘What?’
‘Well for what it’s worth I love how you do your thing but I couldn’t tell you because you were going to become big headed.’ She says rolling her eyes
‘And for what it’s worth, I have always wanted to work on your face.’ I say grabbing her hand
I haven’t used my powder room in a while so I lead her there.
‘You have a powder room?’
‘Yes.’ I say proudly as we enter
She looks around at the photos hanging on the wall, most of them are of the big clients I have worked on and a few are those of Chileshe.
‘You always did a good job on her.’ She says touching one photo
‘She had beautiful features on her face but she was hell to work with.’ I say looking back
‘And yet you managed.’
‘Look at all the difficult clients you work with Chanda, it’s about the passion for the job.’ I say
‘You are right, it doesn’t even feel like a job when passion is involved.’
‘Are we still working on your face or we are going to talk?’ I ask
She laughs and comes to sit down.
She wants me to work my magic and I go for a nude look, she is always going for bright make up and it makes her look too much. So after 30 minutes we are done and I ask her to look at herself in the mirror and she loves it.
‘Now I have some clothes in the car that I would love to wear.’ She says going outside
‘What is the occasion?’ I ask
‘Just help me.’ She says
We go to the bedroom and she puts on the dress she had in the car, it’s a floral maternity dress just above the knees. On her feet she wears pink heels that match some of the colors on the dress. When done I help fix her hair into a curly wave.
‘How do I look?’ She asks
‘Like a boss.’ I say proudly
‘Now lets get some photos.’ She says
‘I want to make it to the wall of fame.’ She adds and I can’t help but laugh
We take some photos using her phone and she shares them with me on WhatsApp then uploads the best on her instagram and captions it; ‘like a boss.’
‘They are here.’ She says when a car drives in
‘Who?’
‘The cops.’
‘Chanda.’
‘Nella we talked about this, don’t start the crying game because you will ruin my make up.’
‘You asked me to do your makeup.’
‘You know the press will be at the police station right?’ ‘Yes.’
‘I need Facebook to be littered with good photos.’ She responds with a wink ‘You are crazy.’
‘I know.’ She says with a beautiful smile
‘Let me go and boss the prison people around, this beauty needs to be comfortable you know.’ She says opening the door
‘Ms. Chanda?’ The lady officer asks
‘That’s me.’ She says
She turns to face me then hugs me
‘I will forever hold you in my heart Nella.’ ‘I don’t know how but I will get you out.’
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‘Let’s think about getting this baby out first.’ She says stretching her hands to the officer so she can be cuffed
‘Take care of yourself.’
‘Get a man Nella and get laid.’ She says and I can’t help but laugh
