LIGHT FROM THE DESERT✓

||CHAPTER 7||

||ZAWADI||

I was ready to look for another job. Even if it meant working in the city council toilets. No matter how long it took. No matter how much money I earned. I was not going to give in to the manipulations of Evans. My fear for men and self-proclaimed dignity couldn't let me. But that was before the game-changer arrived. My psychotic father. I thought I had played my cards well and he was never going to find me. Looks like the devil found a loophole that led him to his ultimate target. He threatened to murder my mom and sister if I didn't do his bidding. Knowing his sadistic nature, I knew he wasn't bluffing. So I submitted into doing his bidding. Submission, seemingly, seems to be the only simple option I have.

I thought he was going to push me into going back home and complete what he started but he didn't. So I gave him an option. I will be paying him twenty thousand shillings after every two weeks. He immediately agreed to the deal. Although, he did ask where I was going to get all that money. I lied it was from my salary. The greedy man believed it, or so I am hoping. The after every two weeks installment is a stall to buy me time to figure out a way to banish him from our lives forever. But at the moment, I'll submit to his will like his little puppet. I have no problem with that as long as my sister and mom get to live. For them, I'll sacrifice my life. They're all I've got and I can't lose them. I just can't.

I am walking back to Evan's office. I hate the man for making my initially going well life harder. Men are just--nkt. At this point, I don't even know who men are if not some heartless species in existence. Anyway, good for him, he will be getting what he wanted. He should thank my father for the motivation. Without a doubt I know that he will be thrilled. It's his lucky day after all. He will be free to do whatever he wants with me. However, he will have to pay me. He is my plan A. If it doesn't work, then I guess I'll have to look for a plan B. And that will require some advice from my new found friend, Sheila.

She knows men inside out. It's not like she is a commercial sex worker or something, she just knows how to read people so well. She does sometimes go out for one nightstands though. She tells me that they earn her lots of money. That too, fast. She also warns me that one does it at their own risks. You always have to be careful with whomever you go out with. The world has turned into a cruel place. And you never know who is good or bad. You just take your chances. And if this is the easiest road, I will have to muster courage and walk through it. It no longer matters the type of hell awaiting for me on the other end.

Reaching his office, I knock on his door. I wait for a while before his familiar authoritative baritone calls me in. I slowly open the door and carefully walk in. Just to make sure that I don't trip from nervousness or something. He looks up at me with an amused if not victorious look. I saw that coming. I hate him. I pray that after today, we never have to cross paths again. If we have to, then they have to be meters apart.

"Oh, surprise, surprise," he drawls. "I knew you would come back. Have a seat, Zawadi."

I take a seat. He is very official today. It looks like he was not on his normal routine. It must have been something more that required standard. He is eyeing me closely. As if he is trying to gauge the real reason as to why I decided to come back.

"What happened to, 'No! I just can't'?" he asks mockingly.

Self-pity threatens to send tears flowing down my cheeks. It is not time to wallow in it. It's time to pull up my big girl pants.

"I was a little shocked and was not thinking right," I lie. His lips quirk.

I have practised this lie over and over. I did not want to risk him seeing through the words that it is a lie. Though not an entire lie. I was shocked when he asked me for a night with him. And scared too. It was not what I expected to happen during the meeting. Though previously, it did cross my mind.