Consequences

Chapter 53

 I sipped my wine slowly while trying to think of one good reason why I still had to be with Ola. But I couldn't come up with any. Thinking about  what my mother had told me, I realized there may come a time when I would be told to leave the house.

I shrugged.

No way! My parents can't do that to me. They can't, I told myself. But it was a possibility.

Could this one reason alone be enough to hold onto him? I asked myself. I gulped as the thought of it, got me a little worried. But to add to my worries was what the man told me next.

"You've done the biggest part of the job." He said, "now it's time to claim back what belongs to you." I was bewildered. What belonged to me? I shook my head in disagreement. Ola was never mine even though I loved him. And it's probably something I will regret for the rest of my life.

"I need to start a new life." I told the stranger, "with a new man." The stranger shook his head.
"Get back what belongs to you."
"But he was never mine in the first place. He was already someone else's when I met him."
"That's what you think."
"What?" I asked almost spilling my drink.
"You're referring to Miss K, right?"
"Well at the hospital he mentioned the name Karen.  That must be the same person."
"Karen Otaji. That's her name. But it was only a one-time affair."

I laughed as it reminded me of Chuks the hotel manager's one-time affair with his hotel receptionist.
"So everyone is having a one-time affair. I guess I have a lot of catching up to do."
"You can laugh all you want." He said.
"Maybe I should also start having one-time affairs too."
"But you know you're not that kind of person."
"I should, seeing it wasn't hard for him to have an affair which probably...," I paused. It hadn't crossed my mind that perhaps, Karen or Miss K, could possibly be the mother of his son. I closed my eyes and bent my head.

"Don't tell me she's the mother of his son?"
"He denies it."
"It's his son. He can't deny it." I said with absolute certainty. "The resemblance is too striking." I concluded.

"But he's doing his best to provide for the young boy." said the stranger.

"Then the family should get the boy to sign those papers and not me." The man shook his head.

"True but you are the one legally married to him. So that's their problem."

"Why is it a problem for them?" I asked.
"Because if  anything happens to your husband, you will have full control over the business being the heir's wife."

"It doesn't make sense. His father is there."

"The business was started by his father, who in the family was the least considered to rise to success. He wasn't that brilliant in school, and so his brothers started questioning him on how he made it. And he had started making a lot of money."

"So are you saying because he wasn't brilliant in school everyone thought he would become a failure?"

"What would you have thought? But he became successful, while his half brother and three sisters were not  like that. So they put so much pressure on him to part with his money. After so much resistance, he decided the best thing to do was to help each of them start a company."

"Five companies under the name Segun Industries." I added. The man nodded.

"Segun Industries was the controlling company while the other five companies were divisions."

"But if that's the case, then all these years Ola wasn't working there like he told me?" I asked.

"He was, that's why you have Tolan Consultancy. It administers Segun industries." The man smiled at me when he said that.