The Second Path

Chapter 37

Song: Ololufe by Wande Coal

Thank you Africanliterature for this awesome cover 🙌🏾

Guysss The Second Path got a tie for 3rd runner up (3rd place) in the General fiction category in the Africanliterature awards (round 2)💃🏾. A very big thank you to nanaji32 for the nomination ❤️❤️  And another big thank you to every single one of you for taking your time to read this book ❤️❤️

Chapter 37

"You either get rid of Abdul, or... I get rid of Kauna myself."

That was what General said few weeks ago. And his words were coming to past. Right now.

The doors of the pickup opened and three men came down. Two were soldiers and one was dressed in a black suit.

They closed the pickup doors and walked towards my house gate. My sense finally hit me and I quickly ran to their side.

"Sir! Sir!" I called out while coming closer to them.

They stopped walking and all of them turned to look at me. I came to stand in front of the gate door to block them and stared at them anxiously.

"How can I help you?" I asked them, even though I already knew.

The man in suit adjusted his glasses to look at me clearly and answered, "My name is Mr Sambo, I am from the social services department and we're here to pick up a missing child in this house. Her name is Kauna Audu. You know her right?"

I stared at him for a while before I shook my head so that they would just leave and I could go and hide Kauna away.

"You don't have to lie, young lady." He gave a knowing smile and held down the files in his hand, "We were already informed that such will happen. Now can you excuse us and let us get the girl, please?"

"There's no girl here!" I shouted louder, making it more obvious that I was lying. You're really horrible, Miriam.

"Soldiers," He glanced back at them and ordered, "move her to the side."

Before they could take a step closer, I brought out my hands to stop them and looked at mr Sambo pleadingly.

"Please sir, don't take her away! How much do you want? I can pay you!"

"Do you think I'm that cheap?" He scoffed and looked at me up and down, "No matter how high you pay me, it wouldn't even be worth a bag of salt."

The audacity. In my own house. I frowned at him and before I could say anything, one of the soldiers came to push me to the side so that they would enter the house.

I almost tripped when they barged into the house compound and I quickly held the gate door for balance. They marched into the compound, searching around before going into the house.

I brought out my phone and ran behind them before they could get to the house door. I dialled Kaka's number and it took three rings before she finally picked up.