Make It Rain

TWENTY-NINE

Another Friday had come and nothing had changed, Ezekiel still didn't have anything but the assumption he had come up with. He stood again at Junmi's grave with his hands in his pockets,

"I wish I could do better than this. All I do every time is to come stand by your grave, talking to you about my speculations. Even if Seun was really guilty, how do I prove that? Only you saw what really happened. I wish you could talk back... I wish you could come back." He pulled his breath and looked up to the faintly orange colored sky. "I think it's time to leave again."

After saying a couple of prayers, he dropped the hibiscus by her grave among the ones that he brought on previous occasions, before he turned to leave. He walked past Jimmy's grave, Mrs. Akande hadn't returned there since he last saw her. Was she avoiding him?

Maybe.

Gently striding out of the cemetery and allowing the evening breeze hit him, he noticed a stature standing by his car as he got closer. It looked like it was...

"Mrs. Akande?"

Turning around with a not so brisk expression, "If I give you this and the assumptions you made turn out to be wrong, my family will be in trouble." She paused a little and looked at a piece of paper in her hand.

Allowing his eyes to slide down and look at her hand, Ezekiel instinctively observed it, "What is it?"

"It's a letter." She raised her sight to Ezekiel, "It was sent by the person who killed my son. I kept it all this while because I felt one day it might come in handy."

"And?..."

"I don't know..." Her voice shivered as she raised the letter to chest level. "If Shola's lover is truly behind the death of your girlfriend, then maybe with this you can bring him to justice. For the sake of Jimmy." Jimmy was all that mattered to her.

"Mrs..."

"Promise me!..." She yanked his hand, "That you will bring him to justice for me, and that none of this will come back to us."

"Mrs. Akande..."

"Please!... All this while I have been scared of talking about this to anyone or even reading the letter again, but after speaking with you that day, I don't know why but I felt hope. I need to be free of this pain and suffering, please." She slowly turned his hand around, placing the letter in his palm. "Please."

"Mrs. Akande, I am more than willing to help out. To be able to discover and prove Seun's guilt will bring justice for both the death of your son and Junmi." He held her hand on his and met her gaze midway, "So yes, I promise!"

A very heavy burden was passed on to Ezekiel from Mrs. Akande, a burden that when resolved, can peace into the hearts of many. Ezekiel was more than willing to accept it, so long it meant bringing Junmi's killer to justice.

***

With a strong sip of air into her lungs, and feeling it as it filled them up while cooling her inner chest, Shola stepped out of her car after parking it in the parking lot of a restaurant.

'There is no need to get emotional. I will keep it short and simple.'

After so many pleas and several texts from Samuel, Shola had finally agreed to meet up with him and talk. Obviously, Samuel was meeting up with the intention of fixing things up with her, but could that equally be said about Shola?

"Hey!" He gave off a nervous faint smile as he beat his fingers against the table.

"Hmm... you called me here, so I will get straight to the point."

"Straight to the point?!..."

"You and I? Forget it ever existed, okay?"

"What? No..."

"Yes Samuel!! Please just let it go, nothing can work between us, please!!!" She held her palms flat in front of her face, "I don't know what you were thinking but I didn't come here to fix anything. I came to ask you to leave me alone, and that's it okay?"

"You can't just end it like this, you need to hear me out." Samuel tried to grab her hand just before she pulled it away.

"No,I don't, Samuel. Goodbye, I am leaving."

Quickly jumping off the chair and following her behind, Samuel stretched his hand for her, "Do you want to end something this beautiful because of something I didn't even do? Because of a suspicion?"

She doesn't know that.

Turning around on getting to the door, "Something you didn't do?!! No no,  that's not why I am here... We are over Samuel, please deal with it and move on."

"How do I move on from you Shola? I need you."

"Allow me to help you," She folded her hands while looking at the ground, "I am getting married Samuel." Struggling to keep her trailing voice while raising her gaze at him.

"What?!"

Samuel couldn't understand. None of what she said was making any sense to him, she couldn't possibly be getting married so soon. Maybe she was just bluffing, maybe she was saying it to make him stop trying, maybe.

"How? It's..."

"Soon? Your mother was right Samuel. I always had another boyfriend."

"Lies!!!" Samuel wasn't buying any of it and his tone said it all.

Of course she was lying, but why?

"I can't do this Samuel, Bye." She turned away finally and left.

"Shola..." Samuel's weak voice trailed as he fell to his knees, watching her while she walked off.

In the past, he would smile when he watched her walking away because he knew she would always come back to him. This time was different, she was gone. He had just let one of the best things life had thrown at him slip away.

"Shola..." He said beneath his breath as he watched a tear dropping on the back of his palm.

Shola jumped into her car and slammed the door closed just before zooming out of the parking lot of the restaurant.

Making the hardest decision of her life, she just couldn't hold it in. After driving a few safe kilometres away from the restaurant, Shola parked her car by the roadside and slammed her hands onto the car horn while allowing her scream to fill the vehicle.

After a short period of silence with her head down, she sobbed a little as tears began to roll out of her eyes and she thought of what the lawyer told her.

"It was one of your father's greatest wishes Shola. He loved Seun almost as much as he loved you and he knew him too well. He often told me that you two would be great together as a couple but couldn't impose it on you."

"Is that why he put his property in Seun's name?" Not that she cared about the property.

"Not at all Shola. You see, your father was a very careful man. He knew, marriage or not, Seun would always care for you. I suspect he was just trying to kill two birds with one stone. His business continues to thrive and you would be taken good care of."

"That's not enough justification." Rubbing her tears off her face.

"Shola if I were you, I would just take marrying Seun as fulfilling one of your father's biggest wishes."

Coming out of her thoughts, Shola rubbed on her stomach while holding the report of her pregnancy test that her doctor sent to her in the morning, as tears continued to create trails on her cheeks while they rolled down.

"I am only doing this because you. Just you."

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