IZIGORA

Chapter 13

'Hello Izigora,' Dr Kobi greeted with his signature smile.

Izigora had to make the effort to shut her mouth. Oh dear. This is really awkward, she thought. She had taken it for granted that this was Dr Ime's apartment. But from Dr Kobi's dressing, he wasn't merely visiting. He looked more at home.

She recalled now the call Dr Ime had gone out to make while they were at her house earlier. He must have called Kobi to tell him of her decision to leave Kainye and Kobi must have suggested that he bring her here if she had nowhere else to go.

God bless his heart.

'I take it you thought this was Ime's apartment,' Dr Kobi rightly surmised with a smile on his handsome face.

Izigora nodded still at loss for words.

'Well, welcome to my humble home.'

'How did you know I was going to agree to stay here?' she finally asked him when she could speak.

'I didn't know,' he replied, stepping into the room. 'But I was hoping the need for the offer would arise. And it did.'

'Thanks so much for accommodating me for the time being,' she said, hobbling to the bed and sitting on it, dropping the crutches on the side. 'I hope your sister wouldn't mind my being in her bedroom.'

Another assumption on her part! Well it couldn't be his girlfriend. A live-in girlfriend would be in his bedroom. From the gossip at the hospital, she knew he was also single. And even if he wasn't, he wouldn't be old enough to have a daughter as old as the owner of those shoes in the room.

'It's actually my daughter, Chinny's bedroom. And she doesn't mind you being here.'

'Oh.'

She looked back at the shoes in the rack. Kobi couldn't be older than mid-thirties, or had she gotten the age wrong? Those shoes couldn't belong to an eight or nine-year-old girl unless she was a giant.

'And you don't have to worry about my wife having problems with me because of you,' he continued. 'She doesn't exist.'

'Oh,' she said again.

She was beginning to sound like a broken record. She looked at the shoe rack once more and Kobi smiled.

'Chinny's almost sixteen. I had her in my late teens and she has the Beluchi genes running in her veins.'

How she stopped her eyes from widening, Izigora couldn't explain. But she was relieved though. She didn't know much about Dr Kobi except for the fact that he was a dedicated doctor. So now she knew two things: he had a daughter in her teens and he was a single father living in a decent apartment the entire size of which couldn't be more than the size of the sitting room and a guest room in her home.

Having spent seven years living in a mansion with more rooms than was needed or could be occupied outside large family occasions, she surprisingly didn't find it the least bit uncomfortable being here. If anything, it felt more like home.

'I'm happy to see you've settled down,' Kobi told her, leaning against a wall. 'I wasn't sure exactly what toiletries you would require but I'm hoping that growing up with three younger sisters means I was able to make the right choice.'

Izigora nodded. 'Thanks so much.'

'You're welcome. I bought a few other things. They are in the living room.'

Izigora sighed. 'You've done so much already for me. I don't know how to repay you.'

'The only way you can repay me is to take back control of your life, Izigora.'