ENIOLA: Beauty For Ashes

Chapter Twenty-Five

The passing of time brought about new beginnings for some and healings for others.

A year after Kunle's death, Eniola and King, after weeks of individual prayers and establishment of strict rules to ensure they stayed pure, started a relationship.
King bought the building Eniola used to do business in, helped her revive her skin care brand and introduced her to his international contacts.
The Balogun and Ocholohi familes met for the first time to celebrate Easter and Ayo made a surprise appearance with Mellie and their newborn, baby Charles. Bukola and Akin were learning not to force expectations on their daughter's new relationship and just support her.
Kelly and Eniola became good friends, checking up on each other when they weren't busy running their empires. Her family warmed up to the idea of interacting with Eniola and once they got comfortable with her, they showered her with love though it bothered her that they were doing so as a form of apology for all she went through in Kunle's hands.

Oge, after months of withdrawing from her friendship with Eniola, reached out to her for help. She was in a dark place mentally and emotionally, having being subjected to scandal and a cruel heartbreak from a man she met online. He drained every penny she had, released lewd pictures of her to a local porn site and took off. Somehow, someone in the office stumbled on the site and showed it to Oga Felix who tried to take advantage of the situation to get her into bed with him. She refused and he fired her. She tried to take her life twice, failed and finally cried out for help.

Eniola and King fought her fight like it was theirs, using King's connections to track down the unfortunate fellow, force him to take down the video and didn't rest till he was convicted in court and sentenced to three years in prison.

Pulling Oge out of the darkness she was in took a lot of time and effort that yielded no result. Eniola took her into her home but she was never happy. She recoiled whenever Eniola tried to preach salvation to her. At some point she flared up, upset with Eniola's new lifestyle of modesty, discipline and spirituality. The fact that she no longer drank, went to clubs, listened to certain music or spoke in a certain way irked her to the bone.
Her resentment was transferred to King in greater measure. She blamed him for brainwashing and stealing her friend from her. Eniola endured all of it, trying her best to take care of her in-spite of the venom she kept spitting at her. The more she tried, the worse Oge became till she gave up.

She returned from work one day to find that Oge raided her jewelry box and carted away with a few valuable items.
She never heard from her again.

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The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; I am come that they might have life and that they
might have it more abundantly...
John 10:10 (KJV)

Eniola and King were celebrating 8 months of a beautiful relationship. They went out for lunch, stopped by a game arcade for some bowling and ended the day with a movie at the cinema. The day was well spent and made their way to the parking lot, holding hands and drawing attention with their ceaseless laughter.

"Awww, aren't you cute?"

They turned round to find themselves staring into a man's blood thirsty eyes. His clothes were worn out, to the point where they looked like they were going to tear if someone mistakenly touched them. In his left hand, there was a cigarette that was almost burnt out and his right hand was a gun, pointed at them.
King pushed Eniola behind him instinctively.

"How heroic, protecting the lady instead of yourself" said their assailant.

King recognized the voice.
"Daniel?"
"You know him?" Eniola whispered.
"You remember meeeeeee! Ah ah! I'm touched oh. I thought you forgot about me after you ruined my life. Look at you, you have a babe now. You've even added weight!"