THE BLACK WIDOW

CHAPTER TWENTY - ONE

Good Morning everyone. I hope you are all good. I'm sorry I couldn't keep Mrs. Rogers away entirely. She's gonna be on our face, but let's be calming down and bear with it. There are some enemies that you can't remove immediately from your vicinity. Some will be on your face all the time, and not because you are not trying to protect yourself, but because reality is too real. But vengeance is of God, so let's keep hope and faith alive. Enjoy😊

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Hours after the meeting with Sonia, all hell broke loose at the Rogers' mansion. Mrs. Rogers slapped her husband hard on the face.

"You cheat! You are a disgrace! You are cheating on me with that gold-digging Sonia!"

Margaret looked at her mother in shock and shook her head.

"Mum! Stop it! We met her at Michael's gravesite."

"You just shut up! What do you know about that whore?"

"Mum! I am no longer a child! I have been watching Sonia like a hawk since the funeral. She has lost her sense of life. She is like a zombie, Mum. She is burying herself in work to relieve the pain. Don't you feel sorry for her at all?" Margaret was horrified.

"I said shut up! She wants to take you all away from me! She took Michael, now, you and your father too? I won't let her!"

Margaret grabbed her mother into an embrace and said to her, 

"You have no reason to doubt our love for you. Dad loves you more than you realise. You must make up with him." Margaret broke away, and left the living room for her parents.

"You have no reason to feel insecure Julianna! Haven't I loved you through thick and thin? Even when I knew it was you that caused Sonia's miscarriages? I've had enough!" Mr. Rogers left the shocked Mrs. Rogers with her thoughts.

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After lunch with Mr. Rogers and Margaret, Sonia and Caroline visited a shopping mall. They shopped for house-hold items because Sonia didn't bother about making the house looking homely. They bought groceries, ate ice-cream at KFC and had fun. By the time they got back home in the evening, they were both exhausted.

"Georgina missed a lot today. Now that she has a fiance, she's all about 'I don't have time, I've got a wedding to plan.'" Caroline blurted out.

Sonia sighed at the thought of her own wedding.

"I am so sorry. I didn't mean to be so insensitive."

"It's okay." Sonia replied coolly.

As they entered the house, they noticed a white envelope that was slid under the door. Sonia picked it up. It had a UK address.

"It's David." She said flatly.

"Open it!" Caroline urged her.

Sonia tore it open and found a sympathy card and a letter of condolences. She sat down and read it slowly.

She shook her head in disbelief. 

"He shunned me for two years, heard my husband died and decides to play sympathizer. What a hypocrite. I don't need his pity." She tore the card, the letter and the envelope and threw them in the bin in the kitchen.

Caroline just watched and prayed silently for God to reconcile their friendship.

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"Margaret! Maggie!" Mrs. Rogers called at the top of her voice. Mr. Rogers came out of their bedroom and said,

"She went to Sonia's place. She was going to tell you before she left, but you went overboard earlier."

"And what has she gone to do there?" She asked angrily.

"To stay there to be with Sonia."

"Why? Is Sonia a child?"

"Sonia needs help. She has been on anti-depressants and sleeping pills since Michael's passing. Having Margaret there will help her to know she has some support from our side of the family."

Mrs. Rogers began to cry. 

"You are right. I just can't stop thinking about my Michael."

The sweet hearted Mr. Rogers couldn't keep his anger any longer. He hugged her and assured her that things would be alright.

Meanwhile, Margaret was welcomed with open hearts and arms. At the same time she arrived, Mrs. Moses also arrived. So Caroline and Margaret shared a room, while Mrs. Moses stayed with Sonia. As they ate dinner, Sonia suddenly blurted out:

"It's my fault Michael died."

"What are you saying?" her mother reprimanded her.

"If he hadn't married me, then he would still be alive right?"

"Don't say that! He loved you so much, so much that he defied Mum to be with you. He never regretted meeting you." Margaret replied kindly.

"If only we never met, if he never loved me, then he would still be alive. I know that for sure." Sonia stood up.

"If only I knew that earlier, I would have saved him for your sake sweet Margaret." She added and left the table for the bedroom. She had cleared her plate of jollof rice and chicken.

Her mother looked at the empty plate and smiled.

"Don't worry girls, she's getting better."

Later that night, alone with her mother, Sonia explained what she meant.

"It's only now that I realized how unfortunate Michael was. Marriages made in heaven face worse challenges I guess, but Michael was more unfortunate. If I knew that marrying him would cost us so much pain, I would have ended things with him. I could have saved him!"

Her mother held her hands.

"Sonia, stop beating yourself up. Stop it! You cannot reverse what happened."

"Mum, I pray that God forgives me for not listening close enough. Now Michael has died in my place."

Her mother hugged her and urged her to stop blaming herself. In her heart, she thought about the prayer she prayed when they lost the first child:

My God, if this woman did this to Sonia, God, let her know that you are God. If she made us lose that baby, let her know she is powerless; let her know what it is like to run into the Rock of Ages.

Fear gripped her heart at the possibility of Michael's death being the result of her prayer. What does this mean then? Did Mrs. Rogers tried to kill Sonia and her son got killed instead?

Dear Lord, it can't be.

She turned to Sonia,

"You didn't conspire to kill him. You married him because you truly loved him. You are not a murderer. God will bring his killers to account. Please, get some sleep okay. I know Michael will be unhappy if he is able to see you right now."

Sonia obeyed and tried to close her eyes. She shed a few more tears before she finally drifted into a nightmarish sleep of seeing her mother-in-law setting her house on fire.

Meanwhile, her mother turned the light in the room off and left to get some time alone. She sat down in the living room and began to think deeply about what she just figured out.