Red Lace

Chapter 5

OLAYEMI IBRAHIM 

"How many?" Isabelle asks as we get inside the car, I keep quiet. "HOW MANY, Yemi?" She asks raising her tone, I'll never get used to my wife raising her voice at me. Even after all these years, I still see her as that sweet little submissive I met 19 years ago.
"2, three if we count this one too," I say
She lets out a breath, "Two girls? Olayemi, my son has killed two girls and you didn't think to tell me?" She asks dramatically, I roll my eyes. When Isabelle walked out on me and our marriage she gave up all access to the things that happen in the mansions. Yes, she shows her face for initiation gatherings but it still doesn't give her the right to know the things that happen in there.
"When you walked out on our marriage, you lost all privilege of knowing the workings of the mansions," I say with a shrug.
"Workings-" she says with a chuckle, it's not a genuine one but an angry sarcastic chuckle, she lets out a breath probably trying to calm herself down, "My son has killed two girls and you have the nerve to tell me that its a working of the mansion, are you hearing yourself? It's my son Olayemi! He is not the working of a mansion but my fxcking son!" She says angrily, her tone tells me that I should have thought my answer through first. What did she expect? That I would share such? I knew she would react this way.
"I knew you would react like this if I had told you. I did this for you and our son, he begged me not to tell you," I say and she laughs hysterically, she keeps clenching her hands balling them into fists and releasing them. Isabelle is not a violent person so this reaction is foreign to me.
"My son killed two girls at sixteen Olayemi and you saying you kept this from me for me? Are you hearing yourself? Does this make sense to you?"
"I walked him through it, he's fine. He's coping." I say parking the car, I'm about to unlock the door when she grabs my arm. I turn to look at her waiting for her to go off.
"Whatever you were doing with him here, it's done. It's over!" She says and I laugh at her pulling my arm away from her grip.
"NO! Focus on the girls and let me focus on our son!" I say
"He blacks out! He needs therapy!" Isabelle argues and I laugh at her.
"You want to know what he really needs? He needs both of his parents back together. Our son is suffering from your irrational decisions! What did you think would happen huh? That you would walk out on our marriage and our bond without consequences? It doesn't work like that Isabelle. The ancestors are angry!"
"What do you mean this is my fault? Olayemi I was not going to stay with you after killing my father and my mother, all for what? Because you can? Fxck your ancestors, if they have a problem with me then tell them to deal with me head-on and leave my son out of it," she spits out angrily, I look at her and she rips the door open walking out. What has happened to my wife since she left me? Isabelle would have jumped at the opportunity to get back with me to save our son but now she's willing to sacrifice herself to save him, anything to stay away from me. I had hoped this would work.

NTANDOYENKOSI TSHAWE MNGUNI
I know my sister, she loves shopping but she would never switch her phone off. Not with the family, we come from. There's no way! She knows how paranoid our parents get. Just as we are standing like that my phone rings and it's our father, the one person none of us can lie to because somehow he always finds out. I put the phone on speaker.
"Daddy," I answer.
"Hey princess, how are you?" He asks and I look at Yethu who shrugs his shoulders.
"I'm good daddy, how are you? What's up?" I ask him and he chuckles.
"Is everything okay princess?" He asks and I frown.
"Yes daddy, why?" I ask him because why is this old man jumping to conclusions?
He lets out a laugh first, "Because my angel, when you are keeping something from me you are very quick to brush me off, and your voice goes a little higher than normal. Where is Nichume, why is her phone on voicemail?" so that's how he knows? Interesting. Now I need to learn how to lie better because what the hell is this?
I stammer and Yethu grabs my phone from my hands because he knows I suck at lying, "Hey dad. Yethu here, Chume went out with her friend to buy Kota's and their network is crappy." Yethu explains and I let out a sigh of relief. Thank God for him because I was going to blab and tell him everything.
"I'm in Joburg, I wanted to see you guys before I fly back home." Yethu and I look at each other.
"You're coming to school?" I ask him.
"Yes, in fact, I'm pulling up to your gate now. What time is Chume coming back?" Dad asks and Yethu shrugs, he sold this lie so he might as well answer him.
"She should be on her way back with Sisonke," I say.
"Alright. I just parked the car now, see you in a bit guys. Bye" Dad says and he cuts the call on us. FxCK!!! Where the hell are Nichume and Sisonke? I try their cells again and nothing still.
"Nothing?" Yethu asks and I nod.
"I can't shake this feeling that something happened, Nichume would never switch her phone off without saying something. If something happened to her then I'll never forgive myself,"

ADEYEMI PRINCE IBRAHIM
The door swings open and mom walks in, I look at Okoye who looks just as shocked to see mom. Dad walks in right after her, she walks over to me and I stand up meeting her halfway. She throws a slap on my cheek and then she pulls me into her arms in a warm embrace. This is strange, mom has NEVER used violence on any of us, this is new to me. Why did dad bring her here?
She breaks the hug and turns to look at Okoye, "Okoye leave us!" she commands, Okoye looks at dad who nods at him. "I want the truth," I look at dad, "Don't you dare look at him, look at me!" She says and then she walks over to the table and stands in front of it leaning back on it with her legs crossed waiting for me to explain myself.
"Isabelle, I have it under control. My brother is landing tonight with a solution," Dad says with hopes to calm her down but mom remains unmoved, waiting for me to speak. Dad nods.
"When I turned ten years old dad had me trained. I'm a dominant sadist mom, I enjoy torturing women. Last year I had my first blackout on my birthday, I had a slave in the dungeon and I was whipping her with a rose whip when I blacked out and beat her with it and a braided whip half to death. She was declared to have sustained internal injuries and also lost a lot of blood from the rose whip. I didn't know what I was doing until it was over, by the time I regained consciousness she was dead," I explain, I don't risk looking at her because I know how disappointed she is in me right now, how much she probably hates dad for getting me into this after she's begged and pleaded with him multiple times not to get me into this life. "I called uncle Adiche and he took care of it but he told dad about it. It happened again towards the end of last year. I don't know what triggers me mom and I know you are disappointed and ashamed to call me your son," I say with hopes she believes me and understands that I have no control over this. I also don't know why I lose control. I know that this time around when I blacked out I was thinking of Chume but I can't tell them that, they won't understand and if dad found out he'd probably lock me in a room with her and have me torture her.
"You are done with the mansion!" Mom says.
"No! You know what needs to be done Isabelle," Dad says.
"I will not get back with you Olayemi! You said Olamide has a solution, let's hope it works, or else I am taking my children and we are all moving back to the UK!" Mom says, wait, dad told mom that I was sick because their marriage ended? What an opportunist. Uncle Olamide thinks this is happening because I was never initiated in time and he told dad this from the very first incident but because mom was so against it dad respected her.
"Over my dead body. If you take Adeyemi away from here this will only get worse, what happens when he does this to someone that's not from the mansions and he ends up in prison or even worse, in the hands of our enemies then what? You can go back to the UK if you like but you are not taking my children anywhere!"

ADAEGO IYAZINKOSI IBRAHIM
I walk out of my father's office more confused than when this day started, maybe I should go to the mansion if I want to learn anything about who my family is or who I am for that matter. As I am walking up the stairs to change I meet Lola walking down.
"And then where are you rushing to?" She asks, I'm not sure if I should tell her. Lola is hot-headed, she will start digging in places she shouldn't... or maybe I should tell her so that she can help me uncover the truth. She clicks her fingers in front of my face reminding me of her presence.
"Nothing, I just have to rush somewhere. Aren't, you supposed to be in school?" I ask her and she shakes her head no.
"They let us go early because the teachers were going to have a meeting and yada-yada. Now, where are you going? Where are mom and dad?" She persists, this is the one thing that makes us fight, and she never lets things go.
"I'm going to town to meet my friend," I say with hopes that she buys what I'm selling.
"Do I look stupid to you? What are you up to? I'm coming with you!" She says and she also turns to go upstairs with me, I raise my hands up in surrender and follow behind her. I change my shoes and wear leggings before we head out.
"What are we going to say to the guards? You can't drive." She reminds me, I try to think for a second and come up with nothing. "See? You need me. Come let's go." She says and then she leads the way.
"Milowo, we need you to drive us to our parents," Lola says to the guard at the door, he looks at her and then at me.
"Your parents never mentioned anything about driving you to them," He says.
"Dad literally just called, do you need me to call him to confirm?" I say waving my phone in his face but not enough for him to see properly. I'm literally using yesterday's phone call here.
"I don't think my father will appreciate being disturbed when he is with mom," Lola says and Milowo lets out a sigh and steps aside for us to go out. He opens the car doors for us and starts driving. We drive into what looks like a forest, we normally see this road on our way home but I never imagined there was anything beyond the forest, dad always said the road led to nowhere. As we are driving a big beautiful mansion comes into view, Lola and I look at each other confused. He drives into the driveway of this overly protected mansion. He parks in front of the patio and gets out to open the doors for us, I get out first and then Lola follows.
"Thank you," We say in unison and then we make our way up the stairs and onto the patio, two guards stand outside.
"Princesses," One of the guards greets, he looks uncertain of whether or not to let us in.
"Hello, our father is expecting us. We are supposed to start our training as mistresses," I report hoping I sound and look convincing. My sister tries to mask her shock with confidence and for anyone that doesn't know her as well as I do, it's easy to believe that she's in on this. The minute we walk into the mansion there's this dark heavy aura lingering in the air. Lola grabs my hand, I'm assuming she feels it too.
"So you know your way princesses?" the guard asks.
"yes," Lola says quickly before I get the chance to respond. This place is bigger than our home. How have we never been here before? What is this place?
We stand in the middle of the beautiful foyer with its vintage design. Whoever designed this room knew exactly what they were doing! There's a set of stairs in front of us, there's a closed white double door on our left, and a passage on our right. We look at each other and go to our left. I look at my sister who nods that I should open the door. I do just that and twist the handle, and the door swings open. I take a step inside the hall when this huge muscled man stands before me blocking my view. I can hear a woman speaking but I cannot see past his view.
"Who are you and what do you want?" The man before me asks, his voice is bold but rough, if I was not used to my father and now little brother I'd probably be shaking in my shoes. I look up at him putting on a brave face.
"My name is Adaego Ibrahim and this is my sister Adelola Ibrahim. We are here to begin our mistress training!"

To be continued