WHOSE FAULT?

Chapter 4: she will be the death of him.

Marvin right away made his intentions clear to his younger brother without dilly dallying. He was tall, chocolate skinned man with big eyes with well built body.  " Go ahead if it can't wait." Edwards leaned in the couch saying with his stern voice allowing his brother  say whatever he wanted.

" Recently the children complained about the mistreatment of their stepmother but it seems like you totally don't look into this issue."

Marvin said with an angry gaze towards his younger brother who seemed like the whole issue was non of his business.

" So you're trying to say that my own children are being filial to you a mere uncle who's a lame duck in the entire family." Edwards fired back rubbing salt in the already bleeding wound of Marvin who clutched his fists tightly. If it wasn't for the sake of the children,he wouldn't have bothered to have a talk with his foolish brother who could nolonger differentiate between right and wrong when it came to Anna.
" Ohh and another thing,I decide who I marry since am capable of taking care of them."  Edwards placed his tea cup on the table with a mocking smile to his elder brother. Everyone knew him as a man of few words but when he spoke,he could hit the most painful words to the other party like how right now he was doing to his elder brother.

" I see that you're well taken care of but take this as my last reminder, our burial ceremony is full of young men in their prime who had a lot of ambitions and dreams but all their deaths were caused by the women they married who turned their lives upside down. If you don't want to end miserably like them,you should divorce Anna and live happily with your children."

Marvin warned his brother and grabbed his jacket to embark on his journey back home but before he stepped out of the door,he heard a crispy voice of Anna saying " brother in-law!, it has taken ages ever since we last saw each other. Please don't be in a hurry to leave, food is ready and it won't look good when you leave our house on an empty stomach."
A

nna's sharp eyes gazed at Marvin to detect any single emotion in them but failed miserably when he rejected her so called kindness when deep down in his heart knew that this woman was like a poisonous snake ready to pounce on its prey.

He never allowed people to serve him food,he could never trust anyone with his life. These kind of women depended on witchcraft to make their husbands concede with their plans and wishes. His job was done and now everything was in the hands of Edwards to make a decision or to suffer in the hands of the evil woman.

He believed this woman was up to no good when she disguised herself on Havana's visitation day at school taking food which contained smashed broken bottles and if it wasn't the askari who checked the food at the gate, Havana would have been dead by now. If his brother he's not careful,she will be the death of him.

Joseph who had spent a month without being home came back with two shopping bags full of groceries. " h- hello!,is anyone home, don't worry God will help us."  He was drunk to the extreme, hiccupped and staggering in his movements. Tina and her little sister got excited having seen the shopping bags.

Christie who was inside the house didn't bother to welcome him but stayed rooted to where she was seated. Ever since Joseph told her to never kneel down before him,she remembered it at heart. In old days,she used to welcome back kneeling down as to express respect towards him like how she was raised since she's from Buganda.

Back at Mr Edward's mansion,Anna acted like a caring mother to the stepchildren asking what they wanted to have for dinner. When Edwards saw this,he felt like he's brother was bluffing nonsense earlier on and calmed down.  Mark resembled his father's character the most and felt goosebumps on his skin when their stepmother behaved like a good mom when she's actually onto something.

After dinner, Emma signaled them to have a meeting before they went to bed.  Mark noticed the signal in the corner of his eyes but Irene was slow to act. Mark felt flustered and tapped on her hands under the table to not get noticed .
Emma used the excuse of reading books with his siblings so that they could talk freely without that woman spying on what they were doing.

" I suggest we talk to mom so that dad rents a house for us and escape this prison." Emma said breaking the silence. Irene was hesitant to leave but Mark warned her to not be foolish because of the luxurious mansion that only brought trouble caused by the evil woman.

Alex recently got a job in a saloon as a barber ever since he was mocked by Melissa for being a  stringy man, from then he vowed with determination to work hard so that no one ever looks down on him. Though he's situation wasn't all that good,he however pitied the man who married Melissa,she was a mean bitch with her face having all different colors like purple,red all from bleaching yet she was just fine on her natural color.

Suddenly, a man with a bald head, bulging stomach entered while saying " Alex!, how are you dude? ,the last time I was here this saloon used to be crowded with beautiful girls!!! "

" What happened?, don't tell me that the business is collapsing!"

The lady who was styling a customer got angry and fired back at the man bitterly saying
" Actually it seems like even the girls went into hiding when they heard your loud voice and vibrating stomach. By the way you look like an idle who has nothing to do the whole day ."

"  So you came to see if the business is booming or not .Apart from betting on football and betting on women who would take you out for a date , what do you do because really no wonder no one can employ you since you might occupy the entire space."
This was the last straw that hit the camel's back and the man ran  away due to shame.

Lydia stretched her hands and felt the cold  empty side besides her. It meant that her husband went off to work before dawn. waking up ,she did her daily morning routine and went to call up Melissa so that they go to the market. She found Melissa washing utensils who posed in her actions once she saw her friend.

" Good morrow! ,I hope your night was good hmm." But Melissa realized that her friend was in deep thoughts. Tapping on her shoulder, Lydia came back to earth but with a worried look. Melissa put the utensils inside the house and brought two stools and asked the burning question that was on the tip of her tongue.

" You don't look good, it's as though you're under the weather today."  Lydia sighed and requested for a glass of cold water before narrating what's wrong with her. " Melissa! , I feel like I will be the one to ruin this marriage ."

" What do you mean?,did you do something that might put your marriage in jeopardy."  Melissa asked with worry etched in her voice.

" No!!, it's not that but everytime my husband brings up the issue of having a child,I feel like my heart might jump out of my chest making me to feel guilty about what I did few years back when we had just got married."

Melissa almost slipped off from the stool with shock visible in her eyes. The most shocking of all is that she doesn't believe that Lydia a kind and humble woman could ever do something opposite her character.

" Last time,I visited gynaecologist who informed me that I would never be pregnant a gain for the rest of my life."  Lydia broke the silence with a nother boom of news to Melissa who stood up and looked at the clear blue sky.

" Don't tell me that you've been aborting pregnancies when you found out the results." When Lydia nodded her head in agreement, Melissa almost collapsed, Lydia was the least person on earth who could do such a cruel thing to an innocent soul. Maybe she has all along been living with someone she didn't know at all,her view of people was turned outside down.

Lydia's face turned pale from knowing that Melissa knew about her secret yet she had never told anyone ,she did everything in secrecy so how did she get to find out.
" T-tell ....me Melissa!, how did you get to know about it." Lydia grabbed Melissa's hands squeezing them tightly.

Melissa frowned from the pain and broke away saying "stop it Lydia,so now you've reached the extent of hurting me because I know your little secret,do you really think you can do anything in this neighborhood and no one gets to find out,if so then sorry."
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