The Lives We Lived

46: False Peace

Kemi rushed into the small office space, dashing towards the woman at the desk, with her mouth open.

"Kemi?" It was Osa's voice that brought her back to the present.

"Where is she? What happened?"

She turned from the receptionist to her husband on the metal chair backing the textured grey wall of  Jonathan and Osimen Legal Associate. He was still well dressed for the office but his briefcase sat on the floor besside his outstretched leg.

"Calm down. It's not as bad as you think."

"As I think? What do you want me to think? My friend was attacked. Osa, what would've happened if you were not there?" She joined him on the chair, putting her hands on his shoulder.

He detangled her hands from his body and set them genlty on her lap. She thought she saw a frown, the beginning of a look of discomfort but it was gone before she could register it.

"I was there. Nothing happened."

"Where is she?" Kemi shifted towards him.

"In there." He pointed at the door beside the receptionist table.

She walked to the door and as her hand reached for the steel handle, the receptionist came to her with a frown. "Ma please, the Barrister is having a private session."

Kemi's hand dropped to her side and she turned to Osa. The briefcase was on the part of the chiar she had been and now, he sat at the edge close to the armrest by the receptionist's desk. She sat on the other side.

"Osa, tell me exactly what happened."

Her husband narrated quickly and with lesser emotion and details, the exact same thing Zainab had said, ending with, "I don't think anything really happened to the car."

"Don't assume."

"I'm not assuming. I'll get a mechanic to check it though."

"How about Zainab? How is she?" Kemi leaned towards Osa.

Now she could swear that she saw him lean away a little.

"She's fine."

Kemi looked around the office again. It was a very small space for a prestigous lawyer like Jay. Jonathan was her husband's friend. He'd been friends with Osa long before she even knew Osa existed. Even though he now had some high profile clients, he still refused to move out of this very small space. At one point, he and Osa had lived here during the night and he would convert it to a office during the day but Jay specialized in business law, not civil cases, so she could not understand why Osa had brought Zainab here.

"She would be safer in the house. What is Jay supposed to do for her?"

"Kemi, her husband is a monster. If he could set those men waiting for her, there is no reason to believe that he can't find our house. Reasonably speaking, if he knows of your friendship, our house would be the first place he'd look."

"He doesn't know where we live. And what exactly is Jay supposed to do? File a police report against her husband and his thugs? They could easily deny having anything to do with the man."

Osa stared at her with a sharp look. "I was thinking more a seperation. Along with a count of domestic abuse and a restraining order."

Kemi laughed, "Restraining order? Here in Nigeria? Those thugs will get to her faster than the police will."

"So, what do you suggest."

"That she makes peace with her husband—"

"No."