Lies From Pretty Lips

PARALYZED

PARALYZED

A nine-letter word

Clue: one of nature's gifts.

ARINOLA

After my conversation with my dad, I sat helplessly on my bed thinking about the conversation. Conversation? The man had threatened to kill me, that was hardly a conversation. I was still shaking to my toes when my mum came upstairs to talk to me.

As I stared at her standing by the doorway, I began to wonder if she knew the kind of man she's married to. She knew what he was capable of but I wondered if she knew the extent of his madness. Was he ever violent with her, was she aware of his doings, most importantly, did she support him? Who am I kidding? She supports and enables him.

Does that mean she knows he killed his father, my grandfather, is she aware that he just threatened to kill me, is she unaware or is she in on it too?

"Akinwale is having dinner with us tonight honey, what are you going to wear and what do you think we should cook?" she finally spoke after watching me watch her for some seconds.

I gaped at her "You mean he's coming to propose" I spat.

She glared at me "How did you know?" she asked.

I take it that she doesn't know that her husband just came in here to threaten me or maybe she knows and she's pretending. I don't know who is worse between the two of them.

"Your husband, he came in here to threaten me," I said hatefully, I'll never call him my father again, he wasn't my father, he was a monster. A murderer might I add.

"What did he say?" she asked barely concerned.

"He said he'll kill me if I don't accept Wale's proposal?" I responded fuming.

That didn't prompt a reaction from her, she merely looked around as if couldn't care less.

Did she even hear what I said, why did she look so unbothered? "And why wouldn't you accept Wale's proposal, by the way, why are you packing?"

I didn't answer her, I just looked at my half-packed bag. She was also looking at the bag confused, after a while, she laughed.

"Wait, don't tell me you're planning to run away. Wait, you want to run away, with your lover, you seriously want to leave with Osaze?" she laughed harder.

I swallowed the huge bile in my throat as she laughed at me.

"You should count yourself lucky because If you had done that, your father would have hunted you down and killed you. Thank God you now know what he can do. Useless girl, you want to run away and ruin all our hard work, something is wrong with your head, foolish child" she came closer to me and hissed loudly.

"You better go downstairs and cook dinner for your boyfriend. When Wale comes here, you'll be on your best behavior, the loving girlfriend who is clueless about the proposal. Because if you mess things up tonight, I'll start planning your funeral because if your father doesn't kill you, I'll kill you myself " She equally threatened.

"How can you say that to me, do you even care about me? All you two care about is Wale and Wale's money. What about me, what about what I want mum?!" I asked bitterly.

The tears I'd been holding back fell from my eyes.

"Shut up please, who are you shedding these crocodile tears for? You're the one who will be married to one of the richest men in the country and you're crying like a baby. I will slap you now and you will shed real tears. What kind of ingrate did I give birth to? A child who doesn't care about her parents. If you cared about us, you will do everything to help us and make us happy" She said furiously.

I looked at her hatefully, mothers didn't behave this way. She's not my mother she's just the owner of the body that carried me and my dad is just the sperm donor. If they were my parents, they would want me to be happy. To think I did all these for them, I only accepted Wale because I wanted to make them happy and now they have turned against me. What a mess!

Now they didn't care about my happiness, they only cared about money and connections. It was only about them, what about me? I just want to be happy for Christ's sake!

As I pondered over my predicament, it occurred to me that there was only one person that could make me happy after all, Osaze was the only person that could make me happy.

If I marry Osaze, I'll be happy. He hurts me but I know he is never in the right frame of mind when he does that. He's just angry and jealous at the moment but we could work through that.

I have to talk to him, he has to help me.

He is the only one who understands and loves me. He's dark and twisted but I know he loves me in his own dark and twisted way. He cared for me more than anyone else in the world.

I had thought Akinwale would be my ray of sunshine but so far he has brought me more pain than happiness, Osaze was the one for me. My only hope.

When Akinwale showed up at the house later in the evening, dinner was ready and my parents were dressed and waiting for me to join them at the dining table.

I stood in the bathroom feeling the urge to throw up, bent over the bathroom sink, clutched my tummy, and heaved, but I couldn't throw up. Tears ran down my face, I was utterly miserable.

My eyes were red and my face was puffy, I knew I would have to hide under the guise of makeup in order not to rouse Wale's suspicion.

My mum had suggested that I dress casually since I was going to pretend that I didn't know about his proposal.

I left the bathroom with my tears-stained face and puffy eyes. I grabbed a few items on my dressing table and quickly tried to conceal my face with lots of products. I had to look like the happy, ever-beautiful and loving girlfriend mum had instructed me to be.

After making my face better than its previous state, I pulled out a crop top from my wardrobe and paired it with my faded blue dungarees. The dress code was casual after all.

I didn't bother to style my hair, if not for the state of my face I wouldn't have applied makeup. I would have preferred to be barefaced but my face had been a mess. With one last look in the mirror, I left the room.

My legs were shaky as I went downstairs, this is it.

It's going to happen, Wale would propose, I'll accept then we'll get married, knowing Wale he'd want us to get married quickly. I would have no choice in the matter, my parents had decided and so be it.

The stairs began to disappear gradually, the ground beneath me disappeared too. Suddenly I felt like I was floating, my knees gave out and I fell.

As I fell, I felt my body tumbling down, my eyes were open but I couldn't see anything, darkness clouded my vision.

Serenity, that's what I felt before my eyes closed.

'It's okay Arin, you're safe now' A voice I knew so well, a voice I loathed.

I've heard those words before, they've comforted me once and now they'll bring my salvation.