Ex Gratia (#1 EX TRILOGY)

Chapter 26

Adriana squealed and rushed to the reception to meet Pomaa breaking the glasses with her bag, swinging it around wildly. She looked overly excited and her hair was dishevelled. Akoma pretended having no idea of what was going on and was screaming too, trying to evade Pomaa. Adriana dropped to her knees and clutched her chest, wailing at the top of her voice and shouting the name of Jesus repeatedly. Pomaa charged at Adriana, and she cried out and ducked the swing, and quickly dashed for the doors to exit. Pomaa chucked the telephone after her and it broke the glass door. Adriana turned to take one last look at her shop falling apart before taking out her phone to call the police while walking out of view.

Pomaa stopped to catch her breath. "Am I doing well?" she asked and laughed.

Akoma grinned sheepishly. "Keep going."

"OK!" Pomaa shouted and picked up a metal clothes hanger that had fallen from one of the glass cases and started smashing the portraits. Akoma quickly walked back into Adriana's workspace and picked up the wedding gown. Pomaa was actually singing and smashing in the background.

"I have the gown. What next?" Akoma asked hurriedly.

Ender was silent for a moment, and Akoma repeated the question. Finally, she replied, "Burn it - together with her sketchbook or whatever they call it". Akoma found it lying close by and flipped through it to find the design for the gown in it. She searched around the shelves and found a lighter lying by a pack of cigarettes, and she picked the lighter, set the book on fire and inched the flame towards the hem of the gown. The gown was going to be a very beautiful one, and Akoma felt sad about it.

"Why am I doing this?" Akoma asked herself.

Ender chuckled. "I find your morality hypocritical. You bribe an employee to tear someone's shop down and you think burning a gown is more sinful? Oh puh-lease."

Akoma sighed and held the flame onto the dress, and slowly, the near perfect work of art started as smoulder, and then got engulfed in flames. Pomaa stumbled into the workspace and stopped in her tracks, and her excitement was slowly replaced with shock and remorse. "What have you done?" she croaked.

"What have you done?" Akoma repeated the question back to her and grabbed her arm. "Let's get out of here. If she is calling the police, then we are in trouble." They both stepped out of the shop onto the street to find Adriana lying unconscious on the ground outside not far from the shop. Some people were drawing closer to find out what had happened.

"Leave that place now," Ender said in a worried voice.

Akoma pulled Pomaa along, flagged down a taxi and got into it. Someone called to them and rushed to the taxi, but Akoma did not want to appear like the culprit, so she buried Pomaa's head in her laps and looked out through the window to speak to the gentleman.

"Weren't you in the shop?" he asked.

"I was," Akoma faked terror and said quickly. "They attacked us and took the money. My sister was injured. I have to take her to the hospital now or else she will go blind. She was hit in the eyes. We have to go." She tapped the driver on the shoulder and he sped off.

Akoma kept Pomaa's head down throughout the ride to the airport. The driver wanted to ask about the hospital, but Akoma paid him some extra cash to silence him before they got off the taxi. Pomaa looked devastated. Akoma hugged her and whispered into her ear, "I am sorry things had to turn out this way on our first meeting. I didn't mean to freak you out. Adriana deserved it because she was molesting you. Be free. Take one hundred more, travel out of the country, go to school and don't come back. I like you." She kissed her on the cheek and pushed her to go. As Akoma hurried with her bag to check in, she glanced backwards to see Pomaa clutching her phone in her hands and gaping at the screen, probably overwhelmed by the mobile SMS alert. She looked up, but Akoma had turned a corner fast enough to deprive her of a final glance.

At the departure lounge, she asked Ender, "How do you get your money?"

"Ex Gratia steals," she answered briefly.

Akoma nodded slowly. "I see. What happened to Adriana?"

"That's none of your business."

"It is, because I work for you."

Ender sighed. "She is not dead. She will be fine. I was not there. That's all you need to know."

"How many of you are there?"

"Not many, but we know how to do what we do."

Akoma was more disturbed on her way back than when she arrived, and she silently assessed how far she had gone to prove to Ender that she could also be savage and heartless. If that was the form Ex Gratia's brainwashing took, then perhaps the syndicate was intentionally breeding killers. What purpose did destroying a fashion designer's lifetime investment and someone's wedding gown serve? She felt involving Pomaa was totally silly too. If things got messy and she was apprehended, Akoma would be hunted for.

*******

She arrived in Kumasi and went to her hotel room quietly. Ender asked her to change her SIM card and get rid of the old, so she flushed the old one down the toilet, and she did the same for her work line too since she was not doing wedding planning anymore. However, she made sure all the contacts were backed up. Ender did her magic by hacking into the database of her bank to make those changes for her in order to still receive mobile SMS alerts of transactions, and when it was through, she received her pay for the first part of her second assignment which was more clueless than the first major one. She thought of Gracefield and tried her line again, and this time it went through. Gracefield was happy to know it was Akoma.

"How are you, Gracefield?" Akoma asked.

"I am OK," Gracefield replied. "I am so sorry for missing your wedding and all. Hmm. I just returned from Belgium. The wedding is on the 6th of next month." She sounded excited about it.

Akoma blinked. "That's in two weeks. Eish. That's good. Finally, huh?"

"Yeah. Mm. How's your hubby? How's marriage? I still feel bad for not being there. My illness - "

"It's OK. You did not want your own friends to come and see you. That is bad. It's not really my problem anymore because I just felt you knew your own demons you were facing and - well - everyone's got theirs."

"Which is why you should have checked on me."

"Which is why we should have stayed connected. You disappeared. Aba and Louisa have been worried about you too. You need to call them and tell them about it."

"Hmm. OK. But please don't miss this, OK? Please? Hmmm. I beg you. You know - I was not communicating because - because I felt bad for the delays in my wedding, and I had announced mine before yours and mine was still waterlogged and blah blah - you know - girl stuff? I just could not face you and the others. I had made too much hype to suffer delays. I felt - awful. I am sorry. It's just - hmm. Akoma, I am sorry."

Akoma bit her lip. "I will be there for my friend. Don't worry."

"Thanks."

"How is Richmond? Your 'Rich'." Akoma paused to listen intently.

"Rich is fine. He is very fine. I am meeting him soon. We got back three days ago."

"OK." Akoma paused and thought for a moment, and then she remembered the photos from Rich's phone. "When was the last time you made contact with 'Rich Bae'? You know he's my - ". Just then, the phone buzzed and she took it off her ear to see the phone shutting down because of low battery.