Sinners and Saints II

Chapter 20

Sommadina let out another exhale and she turned from where the artificial chimney was below the huge flat screen, holding on to the almost emptied wine glass in her hands as she hurriedly walked to the other end of her bedroom where the mini bar was. She turned again to walk back to the chimney when the lady beside her let out an abrupt sigh.

"You have got to stop pacing like this."

The woman in reading glasses told her as she lowered her fashion magazine from her face just so she could have a better look at an extremely worried Sommadina.

"Walking back and forth would never solve your problems. It never has."

Sommadina came to a stop right in front of the television, drawing another deep breath. She slowly turned to the smaller woman in really expensive hollandaise wrapped across her shoulders right on top of her fluffy Ankara green dress, sitting in the really soft sofa beside her bed with her legs crossed as she reached for her own wine glass from the glass table beside her with a scarf made from the same hollandaise, neatly tied on her head.

"I just need to think Fatima. I need to think really hard about all of this."

"I don't get why you still worry yourself over a matter you're perfectly in control of." The lady took a sip from her wine and then slowly dropped the glass back on the table.

"No Fatima, I don't think I'm in control. Not anymore at least."

Sommadina finally decided to take the woman's advice and sit on the other empty sofa across hers, wringing her shaky hands the moment she dropped her glass too.

"What are you so afraid of anyway? For all we know, your assumptions might just be coincidences."

"I don't think so. Not this time." Sommadina narrowed her gaze on her friend. "Her last name is Kalu, her parents died on the exact same bridge and only her survived. Rafael told me everything."

"It still doesn't mean she's the same girl from twenty three years ago. Didn't you say that no one survived? Didn't you say you made sure?"

"What if my informant was wrong? What if there was really a survivor? What if she had survived the incident?"

"You are just worrying yourself for nothing my friend. Nothing can be said for sure until your investigator returns with some news just as he had promised. "

"But what if it's true? What if it's her? What if my greatest fear has returned? What if she knows about this and she's just using my son to take revenge for what happened? Maybe she knows what this family did to her in the past and has returned for her pound of flesh and she's using my son as bait to get to me and my husband? What if she hurts him in the process just to hurt us? What if-"

"You and your what ifs."

"I can't help it Fatima. I have a very bad feeling about this. Ever since the P.I I hired came back with the first batch of information about her, I just can't help but wonder how any of this could be a coincidence. Out of all the lawyers in this world, why did she have to choose my son? why did she refuse to leave after he helped her? Why are they engaged now? What is her plan? All these questions keep clouding my mind and it's even worse now I just found out that Rafael stupidly proposed to her."

"What you need my friend, is sleep. You're letting your paranoia get the best out of you again. I can assure you, this is just your mind playing tricks on you. That girl is not and can not be the same girl from twenty three years ago. You said so yourself, it was almost impossible for anyone to survive that kind of accident."

Sommadina clenched her fist.

"Not now, not until he comes. Not until I get word from my P.I." She checked her wrist watch and then turned back to the woman. "He's supposed to be here by now."

They heard a loud knock at the door.

Sommadina got up quickly, the frown on her face getting worse as the door opened slowly. They both watched the man in a suit walk briskly towards them with a brown envelope in his hands. It was him, it was her private investigator.

Sommadina let out a relief sigh as he walked closer to them.

"God, I almost died of a heart attack." She told him, "What took you so long?"

"I'm really sorry for the delay chairwoman." The man bowed slowly. She shook her head.

"None of that matters now, " She told him. She honestly didn't want to prolong the matter anymore. She wanted it done and over with. She wanted to know the truth. "What do you have for me?" She asked the man just as her friend sat up too, interested and eager to hear what the man had to say. The man looked at the both of them one after the other. He had to make sure they were ready for what he was about to say. He drew a deep breath.

"Okay," He said getting out a smaller envelope from the big brown one. He gave it to Sommadina. "Your hunch was right. Olivia really is the child of Adaora and Steven Kalu. The DNA results are a match." He continued just as Sommadina held her breath as she took out the paper from the envelope, glaring at the DNA results just as her friend got up too to join her, surprise evident in both their eyes.

"Apparently, the child didn't die twenty three years ago. Somehow, she managed to survive and was rescued by some fishermen after she was washed ashore. I honestly don't know how it happened but apparently, the fishermen that had found her, took her to an orphanage where she was adopted into a home right before she was kicked out again on the streets for attempting to kill someone. That was when the Silver's foundation found her."

He took out a picture from the envelope. It looked more like a family picture of a man, a woman and a little girl. He handed it to Sommadina, who slowly reached for it with shaky hands. She gulped hard, staring into the picture.

"That's the mystery girl and those are her parents. That was the only picture I was able to find of them."

Sommadina had tears in her eyes as her hands trembled with the picture. She was trying so hard to breathe but it was like the walls were closing in on her. She recognized the woman in the picture as memories of when she had walked in on her husband on her in the past began to flood her mind.

"It's her." Sommadina whispered. She slowly turned back to her friend. "She's the one. She's one of them, she's a Kalu."