"Dining in hades" Chapter 42

NB: Chapter 1-41 is on Instagram. They are really short chapters.
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Chapter 42
Written by @majeedsalako

Jessica's phone beeped, it was a text , she read it and tensed visibly, "My husband is around" she said,

but when I made to leave she asked me to stay "He can see us" she said "it would be odd if you just took off like that." so I stayed until he came to us. Her husband was Chief Jacobs and the hostile recognition on his face was not hidden. He knew me and I felt fairly certain that he knew what I did, what my relationship was with Janet and therefore he would have an idea of what my relationship with his wife could be. She introduced us saying something about me owning the boutique where she shopped and how she was surprised to meet me here. He did not believe her and his eyes said as much. He said hello, while ignoring my outstretched hand. His eyes said it all, he knew who I was, knew my relationship with Janet and had already come to the conclusion that I had the same relationship with his wife. He was not a political God father for nothing, he was intelligent, knew when to make inferences and what inferences to make, he also knew which conclusions to come to when necessary. He would not ask me any questions and probably wouldn’t ask his wife either but this had to be the end. These people had thugs and assassins at their disposal. I wasn’t planning to die anytime soon, I also couldn’t afford to look any less handsome due to a brutal beating either. I would cut this off.

I nodded slightly and walked off. I was still at the venue, socializing with some other guests when the

text came in. He couldn’t even wait till later, something must have transpired between chief Jacob and Jessica immediately after I left them.

“Do you know who I am?
You are getting burnt
I am running you out of this town.

Two of my women?”

He had my number already, I didn’t have to ponder on it, I knew who it was. Was I scared? Not really. All I had to do was stop seeing Jessica, well Janet too, his temper would be doused soon and the only thing that would probably incense it again was seeing me with either woman. Jessica I could understand but Janet? Why would anyone take a mistress so seriously?

. . . . . . .

I hate my phone ringtone in the mornings, particularly when it wakes. And it woke me that morning, I squinted at the screen, it was dad; strange, he hardly ever called these days.

“See me in my office; NOW” he sounded upset. Well he was always upset with me whenever we speak these days but his tone this time was different. I was not really bothered, I took my time in the shower, making sure afterwards that I was properly groomed and that I was impeccably dressed, the need to impress dad has risen since I moved out of home. I got to the “Office” about two hours after I got the call. It really couldn’t be called an office; it was more of an elaborate study set apart from the main building that was his home. He kept an eye and a tight rein on his companies from here. This is where he would have completely kept control over my life if I had joined the fim. His secretary; a new one, he changed them every so often “He’s going to get rid of you once he’s bored with you.” I thought as I gave my name, it had been a while since I came here.

“I know who you are sir, he’s expecting you” she smiled brightly as she got up and walked me to the door.

“You are screwing Jacob’s wife Faruk, are you out of your mind?” No greetings, no preamble, nothing, he didn’t even wait for the secretary to shut the door behind herself.

My mouth dropped open, how could dad have found out? I wondered.

“I asked you a question Faruk. Please tell me it’s untrue.”

Under any other circumstances, I would have been tempted to point out that his question was about my soundness of mind and not about Chief Jacob’s wife being “screwed” by me , but these were not any other circumstances, this appeared larger than I had envisaged. For my dad to have heard about this in less than 12 hours, something was definitely brewing.

“It’s not dad.” I mumbled.

“It’s not what? Not true or not untrue?”

“It’s not true dad, why do you always…”

“Just shut it!” he snapped “Listen to me and for your own good, take my advice this time. Jacob is not someone you want to cross, he is a mad man.”

“Dad…”

He held up his hand as he continued “About ten years back, he took me on, I bided for a contract and almost out-bided him. In fact I did outbid him and he came to me, he didn’t beg, didn’t cajole, or even try to reason with me. He told me to pull out my bid or he would make this city too hot for me to bear.” He paused for breath “I called his bluff; I didn’t pull out, not only was the contract cancelled, it was cancelled after I had spent a considerable sum setting up its execution, I never got paid a dime, the three government parastatals we did auditing jobs for dropped our firm that year, a number of private organizations also dropped us.” He sat forward his stare intensifying as he did so, “It was a rough year, I had to move mountains to pacify him, I spoke to people, friends and foes alike, he was going to stop at nothing. I have avoided him since then, Jacob is a mad man Faruk. I cannot afford another run in with him. You do not have anything worthy of bringing down and by now I am sure he knows you are my son. I am washing my hands completely off you, I have worked too long and too hard for this…”

“Dad?” I was angry.

“Yes?” He snapped.

“This has nothing to do with you, I will handle it don’t worry.”

“You are even more of a fool than I realized, first of all you have nothing worthy of him bringing down, and when he realizes this he’ll come after me, after all you are my son and his thinking would be that everything I own will someday come to you.

“Dad” I began to speak again.

“Shut it and listen!”

I spun around and walked out. Who the hell did he think he was “…his thinking would be that everything I own will someday come to you…” Who the hell did dad think he was, what made him think my life plan was getting everything he owned someday. Having come so far in so little time without his help and having brought my bank balance to its present state, I was not going to stand and be insulted like a little boy who needed help wiping his butt. I walked away with my head held high, imagining the look of shock on dad’s face as he stared at my retreating back. I would talk to one or two people and get this sorted I was confident about that.

My phone rang, it was mum. I sighed, why did he have to involve her in this?

“Hello mum.”…