Previous Engagement (Nigerian)#2

Chapter Two - Throwbacks

              A few weeks ago and I would never have put so much intensity in wining this case. I would never have zoned out in court thinking about something so stupid. I would have not been distracted by the hatred I felt for my Ex or my Client. The hatred was like a fuel that helped me charge up. I almost felt like bouncing twice and throwing a few punches into the air like boxers and wrestlers did once they entered the ring to check things off.

      " A new client will be coming in from the States tomorrow and we will be representing. Olateru will head this team, Eze, Jacobson and Fazir will join her..." My boss said from one end of the large conference room that had glass walls. It stood in the middle of the 5th floor. I work for the biggest law firm in Nigeria owned by the Adegeshin Family. The same Adegeshin Family my mom was born into.
When i had first decided to apply to the company i had decided I wasn't going to use my mom's relationship to the family to get the job, what I didn't know was that, little did they care about the name on the file. Olateru. Not that my father was not rich as well but Olateru was a very common name in Nigeria and if I really belonged to "The Olateru family" which I did belong to, I wouldn't need to walk into an office to get a job. A phone call would have done it. But since my dad didn't support my career choice he wasn't so bothered. I think he just let me read the course I wanted with hopes of me not practicing it at all. He really did want me to be a doctor as well and head an hospital department in our family owned hospital.
        They didn't even bother checking for any form of connection what's so ever to the Olateru family. Walking in already proved to them that I wasn't part of the family. I remember introducing myself during the interview and was not even given a second glance.
On my way out of the office I was interviewed that day,I saw my cousin. Timi Adegeshin walked out of the conference room with a few people walking behind him and he called out.
"Ola" he said with his stern formal voice.
I was so excited to see him. I wanted to jump on him but we had been taught self control by my maternal Grandfather in ways that made me sick whenever I think about it. As I walked over to him, I thought about the incident that had befallen the family about two years ago when his wife was shot and he had almost lost himself but she survived and so did their son. And seeing him so happy made me so happy i wanted to squirm.
Even though my fathers surname didn't open the doors as my grandfathers own did. I still had responsibilities to hold on to at family gatherings and in public. We hugged when we finally met and he whispered in my ear " you are such a big girl now" which made me laugh.
We always had our inside jokes. We had our secret hideouts as well when we were little.
We didn't hug for to long like we actually wanted to. We separated and looked at each other with zero expressions on both our faces as we stood opposite each-other. We talked about his family and the whole family.
I was tempted to ask him if he would be around for the next family dinner at grandfathers then I remembered "he is the fucking heir to the dynasty, he is the Nigerians Prince William and Grandfather never held any gatherings if he wasn't around"
I didn't even have to tell him about coming to look for a job. I think he just knows what everyone in the family was up to before they even had to tell him. An older man came to shake his hand. That was the first time I met my current boss, Mr Jeremiah Daniels. "Mr Daniels, My Cousin . Ola Olateru."
"I see good day, Miss" he had said as he stretched his hand towards me. I shaked his hand firmly.
" You met my Aunty the last time you were at the house, this is her daughter" he said firmly, as he looked from the average height man to me. He winked at me with a small smile and looked at the man again with a straight face.

"I don't think you had the Honour of meeting her"
The old man cleared his throat softly as he nodded "I didn't, my loss" he said with an awkward smile. Both of his hands behind his back as he spoke to Timi that was likely half his age.
Timi nodded at him "of course" he said as he spun around and guided me to walk with him with his hand behind my waist. If he wasn't my cousin, I probably would have hooked up with him a couple of times. He looked like a model from the middle page of a magazine. His wife is the most envied woman in the country to those who knew them.
I had gotten a call back and had been called in to work almost immediately. I was allowed on the big cases and soon after that, Timi had asked that I stood as the family representative on the board meetings.
People talked about the privileges that came with my family at work when I wasn't looking but I didn't care. I didn't choose to be born into the family. I know I might sound like a bitch but if I have it, I might as well just use it.

We both looked around the conference room filled with Partners and Lawyers and some assistants. Half of the staffs in the room were typing away on their phone. The other half were listening to every detail as they stood writing away on their notepads. The assistants always did the writing, the listening, the researching, the staying-up- all- night. I am one of the newest and youngest junior partner and I am loving it.
My assistant, Ibukun tapped on my back softly from behind me "Ola, I think you need to see this" she whispered in my ear pointing her phone at me. I turned to look her worried face.
Now everyone was looking at us.
Even though they spent most of the time during the meeting pressing at their phone the bosses still hated being interrupted by the littlest thing. They made everyone keep their phones on silent as well as keep movement and talk to a minimum and now the other staffs had taken after them including the assistants in being annoyed by the littlest thing. Most of them had this slightly irritated face on.

The partners sat around the round table in the inner circle while the junior partners and other lawyers sat around the C-shaped table on both sides of the round table behind the seat of the senior Partners. It formed a bracket around the round table. I sat on the other end of the round table, opposite Mr Richard while Ibukun sat at one end of the  C-shaped table behind me. The senior partners who didn't turn to look at us, had their heads raised up from looking at their phone.
I waved Ibukun away and adjusted myself in my seat and brushed my hands against the fine material of my black designer suit and cleared my throat. Even though Ibukun was my assistant she enjoyed special privileges unlike the other assistants. When they stood, she sat which made them envy her but she didn't care. We were very close, I might even call us friends since I vented about everything to her and we enjoyed talking.

"So sorry" I said towards my boss. Mr Jeremiah Daniel, my mentor and the strictest person I ever known other than my father. He was in his late 60's and he was still a very fine man just like every other male personnel in the room or maybe it was because the company had a policy that necessitated regular exercise and medical check- ups every month which didn't let the staffs make use of the health benefits as much as they should especially on the top level.

"Everyone would get briefed accordingly through email on any other information that needs to be passed around" Mr Daniel said "you may all leave, meeting adjourned"
Everyone except the senior partners stood up to leave. "Meeting adjourned" never took a literal meaning at the meetings that included senior partners. It was like a way of saying "get out I need to talk to the people who actually matter". Normally I would sit on the meetings being the family rep and all but the urgency in Ibukun's voice kept me thinking. Also I wasn't in the mood to listen to some more boring stuff that I might have to later report to Timi with my opinion. Mr Daniel reported to Grandfather and I reported to Timi. What they did afterwards with the information, I didn't know.

I excused myself politely. Everyone looked at me and had the " why is the privileged girl leaving now" with this fake concerned expression on their faces. They all most have been thinking "if you had just walked out, no one would be able to do anything about it".
Majority of the people sitting around the table were richer than most Nigerians but still felt the importance to kiss ass to me. Me, because I was the most accessible member of the family to them, whether I carried the name or not. They all wanted to be mentioned on the Adegeshin dining table or family cult meeting like the rumors say amongst the Islanders.
I look out the conference room and Ibukun was there, pacing and pressing some files to her chest. Her arms crossed over her chest. She stopped and looked at me with nervousness on her face as I walked towards the door of the conference room. I didn't take my eyes off her as I wished I could talk to her telepathically.
"What's wrong" I finally say when I walk out the door.

"This is" she said as she points her phone to me. I look at her confused and concerned then at the phone and then at her again.
A sudden wave of nausea hit me.
I couldn't breathe.

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