K.C Philips

Chapter Seventeen

16 Years Later-The Present Day

6:34 PM.

Yes.

Just perfect.

By this time tomorrow, your happiness would have been condemned to distant memory. Yes, I've been gone for three months.

Three whole months.

Now, I'm back. K.C Philips.

Your life will never be the same again.

K.C's forgotten adversary had just gotten a step closer in destroying him for good. Meanwhile, halfway across the city, Jessica stood in K.C's living room, flipping through pictures of K.C's late father. K.C sat on a couch not far from her. The atmosphere was gloomy.

"When was this?" Jessica asked, holding out a photo to K.C. K.C stood up to take a look. He smiled weakly.

"About 50 years ago, during his university days in Nsukka. He was conscripted into the Biafran army not long after the picture was taken. I still don't know how he managed to survive the Civil War."

"He was a brave man." Jessica said. At that moment, K.C turned his face away. "Brave indeed. He was brave enough to endure the horrors of war for thirty months. He wasn't even brave enough to be a good father to me."

Jessica let out a sigh and moved towards K.C, touching his shoulder. "You're being too hard on your dad. At least respect his memory. Sooner or later you'd be forced to let go and forgive him." She paused, before continuing, "Your dad didn't hate you. I see no reason for you to hate him." K.C said nothing. Instead, he went to his dining table, obtained a miniature device from a brown envelope and returned to Jessica. He held out the device to her.

"I really don't know what this is or why it was considered significant enough for me to possess. It was my dad's parting gift to me, sort of."

Jessica gleamed with surprise at the device.

"A flash drive? Come on, K.C you should have checked it out...."

Jessica let her voice trail off. K.C turned away from her direction and walked briskly in a circle. "You just don't get it," He started. "Watching him die was stressful.....strenuous enough, but to watch some recording from an earlier point in time? I don't think I'm ready for that now." K.C slowed down at the last few words. He looked stressed, broken from the weight of the past few days.

Jessica approached him slowly. She ran her left palm over K.C's right cheek. Soon, her other hand joined. She fixed her eyes firmly on K.C's.

"I'm sorry for being hard on you, I really am. You should rest first. And shave. Speaking of rest, you don't seem to have had a good night's rest in a while." Jessica smiled after that. Her eyes still didn't leave K.C's. K.C was captivated.

How did I ever hurt you in the first place?

Jessica had already broken loose when K.C blurted "We could try that tonight, don't you think?" Jessica stopped, looked back, smiled at K.C and kept moving towards the bathroom. K.C didn't move. He was soaked in guilt.

You're just too good for me.

***************************************

In no time, K.C and Jessica were seated at the dining table, digging into the work of K.C's culinary hands.

"I never, for once, thought you capable of cooking, let alone being a good one." Jessica started, her mouth half-filled with morsels of food.

"You're not the first person to tell me such. My big sister did when she came to Nigeria, three months ago." K.C shifted a bit, then he continued, "How's your dad's firm going?"

"It's going great, really. Just so you know, I got hooked up with this great multi-national company in Abuja. The CEO, he's in his early thirties, and he's got eyes for me. He approached me a couple of times, but I kept saying no to him."

K.C was fully riveted in the discussion now. "Why didn't you go ahead with him?"

Jessica smiled and stared at K.C. "What you did to me wasn't nice at all. I tried hard, so hard to get over you. But I couldn't. And I couldn't imagine myself in someone else's arms. If the affair went through and you found out, you would have committed suicide."

"Sure I would have." K.C said as he smiled shyly.

Jessica added quickly, "His name is Nasiru Dagogo, CEO of Briggs Multinational."

K.C's head went blank with sudden rememberance.

Nasiru Dagogo? That was the guy Fisayo told me about three months ago.

Jessica continued, "So funny how Fisayo left Nasiru for you and Nasiru went after me. She told you about him, didn't she?"

K.C hesitated. "Yeah." He was beginning to feel uncomfortable.

"It's okay, water under the bridge, isn't it? Come on, we need to shave off those beards of yours." Jessica said as she stood up. K.C stood up and went after her. He called out to her.

"Jessica?"

She turned back to him, her eyes asking the question of "What?"

"My brother took back the company after the burial. I'm back to being the COO. In other words, we could spend more time together." K.C said, ending his words with a smile.

"We'll see about that. Restroom. Now." Jessica said, motioning ahead as she continued moving towards the restroom.