Cracked Sources – B02E13


“Mother!” Andrew called out from the couch; his greeting
sound weak, but still held contempt within. His voice was weak, yet clear, as
Mother could tell. She was glad he was home, though she wouldn’t let her
emotions show; she was a bit worried and wanted him to find a way out of their
custody. Her weaknesses were a default she had perfected hiding, no one was
worthy to know what bugged her – that ideology had kept her going for a very
long time now and she welcomed it. She stared intently at his son, her boy;
rarely did she allow herself indulge in her own emotions, they always brought
out the worst in her, they always let her guard down, just as they were doing now.
She walked towards him and placed her hand on his bare belly, “Have you had
something to eat?” she asked feigning little concern. He said “No!”
He asked to be let to go to bed; he remembered clearly the last time Mother
acted all concerned and worried it didn’t end well for him.
“Dimeji is threatening to destroy us,” Her words caught him on
the flight of stairs, he froze on his steps. He slightly turned to the left,
towards her, his face visible enough to her eyes even though the stairs
chandelier was switched off. He said to her, “We’ll destroy him first,
like we do all our enemies.” His reply pleased her very much.
***
Andrew walked through the firm in self-absorbed quiet, he still felt
sleepy: Lately he had always slept with one eye opened, he wasn’t even sure if
it was because of the increased crime rate, or because of his Housemate. He was
stuck in the same house with a woman his brain told him wanted him dead, and
had always given him a thousand easy to ki*ll; it’s been hard and exhausting
trying not to. He kept moving till he realized he was now at the paralegal
quarters; his thoughts drifted towards Anna and how he used to come smoke her
out in the name of official duty before the overhaul transferred her directly
under him. He missed those days as much as he missed his self-absorbed quiet.
He wanted to continue on his way, but his curiosity got the beter of him – he
wanted to know why everyone gathered. As he walked towards the center of their
gathering, loud chants of “CONGRATULATIONS” filled the room.
 A large banner that bore the
words ‘CONGRATULATIONS’ stood overhead Anna and Mark’s position, they were
smiling and loving up.
Andrew wondered if Mark had just proposed to Anna. His heart squeezed
and his face immediately clawed with mild jealousy. He tried to get a better
view from the back, and saw the big baby picture frame by Anna’s side; he
immediately realised the gathering was an announcement for Anna’s pregnancy.
Joy inadvertently creeped into his heart; the thought of Anna not ending up
with the father of her unborn child guiltily but unsurprisingly pleased him.
“Hey!” He called out to Anna. He was bold enough to offer
his own congratulations. All eyes were on him. He collected a glass from
Patricia who was sharing, and raised a toast to the unborn child’s long life.
Anna looked at him with a piercing gaze. He alone knew why.
***
Andrew barged into Mother’s office. He wanted her to call off the hit
on Dimeji, “No more killings,” he announced. Mother at first was glad
he didn’t barge in that way to demand to assume the duties of CEO, she would
have been forced to discipline him again for been unnecessarily rude,
especially when she thought they were progressing in their evolving
relationship. “Are you alright?” She wanted to know; yet she didn’t care;
something was off with him; he was the same person who suggested yesterday that
she take Dimeji down like they were known for; what change within the last
eighteen hours? She wanted to know.
Andrew didn’t have the urge to explain, but he had to. The surge of
electricity he felt in his body caused him to take a seat. His body shook
gently at the surge of realization: All life had value, that was something he
just realized, being in the same room with Mark and Anna.
All Mother could say was her boy had become a love-sick puppy. She
felt like hitting sense into his head. “You’ve been friend zoned,” she
maintained; worst, he hadn’t even realized it: He was still in love with Anna.
He didn’t dispute it. To him, he never fell out of love with her.
Mother agreed to think about it. “I’ll do what’s best for
us,” she said; the decision wasnt for Andrew alone, it concerned them
both.
***
Andrew went to Agnes. When she saw him earlier in the day, she was
filled with joy and ran from the distance to hug him, having missed him. He
wanted someone familiar and comfortable to talk to now.
Two men dressed formally but not like Lawyers walked up to them, they
wanted to see the CEO of the firm – “whoever it may be now,” as one of then
joked. Agnes didn’t find the joke funny even though Andrew laughed. The young
man apologized to her; they were from the forensics department of the police
and were here to officially report Ms. Ramon’s death, who up till the point of
her death was a staff of Lewis Chambers.
“O my God!” Agnes exclaimed when she found out how Ramon
died – Of rare poison. Andrew was numb; he felt shaken within but couldn’t show
it. Agnes had already begun to cry.
“I can’t stay here anymore,” her words supported her tears. What
would her children do if she died? What would Marcus, the guy who had begun to
make her feel alive again, do if she was suddenly caught up in the thick web of
power-tussle and incessant deaths in the firm? What if the demon killing staffs
of their firm located her as well? All these questions she threw towards Andrew
while buried in his shoulder, heavily crying. He tried to carry her into his
office, he didn’t want anyone to see her this way, but she wouldn’t budge. He
went on his knees to assure her on his life that nothing would happen to her,
she meant the world to him, and he wouldn’t let anyone or anything hurt her.
***
Mark sat opposite his father, he still hadn’t touched his branded ‘The
Bar’ drink, even after fifteen minutes of being served. He obeyed out of
courtesy, as Anna urged him to honour his father’s call to show up for a drink
at The Bar. He knew his father wanted to gauge his anger and know how to start
making amends for his many sins. He called Akin’s attention to his dubiousness
and excellence at manipulating people, “This is the reason why I won’t let you
anywhere near my child,” Mark threatened.
Family still meant the world to Akin, and hearing Mark threaten to cut
ties with him, to prevent his grandchild from ever knowing him didn’t please
him. “Who would it please?” He asked himself. He loved Mark more than
life itself, and that was the reason he was trying to mend fences now rather
than later, it was the reason for all he’d been doing since; to get his
inheritance back from Andrew and his LovePeddler-thief of a mother. He wondered
why Mark couldn’t just see that.
Mark maintained he didn’t want any part of the inheritance, all he
ever wanted was his father, and his father left him to rot away for weeks in
the prison cell. As far as he was concerned he was done with everything that
had to do with Akin and the firm.
***
“Bring your sight back here,” Patrick tried to win Huey’s
concentration, he had been staring at Akin and Mark seated tables away from
them at The Bar. He and Huey were there to catch up on old times, and Huey
dwelling on his past enemy wouldn’t do them any good in moving on.
Huey still maintained as he’d always claimed that he was done with all
things Akin, and had left the fight for God to avenge his mother’s death as it
pleased his wisdom. To prove it, again, he volunteered to change seat positions
with Patrick, that way Patrick would be the one facing Akin. Patrick agreed.
Soon they were engrossed in their own discussion and matters that they forgot
Akin was seated away from them.
“I miss this bar,” Huey exclaimed at a point: The newly
commissioned daytime band made the sunny drinking experience more fun that it
was.
“I can’t remember the last time I came here.”
“Me either.”
Both men cheered to the pleasuring sound emanating from The Bar’s
band. It wasn’t everyday two lawyers from different firms sat over a bottle of
whiskey at everyone’s favourite bar to talk.
 Huey broke momentary silence.
Patrick had called him earlier today, he sounded tensed and in dire need of him
over the phone; so he had to travel the distance to heed his call; yet since
they arrived here he appeared calm and hadn’t said a word concerning the matter
of urgency.
“I needed to talk to someone outside the firm,” Patrick finally
cleared the air. He filled Huey in on all that had been happening of late, and
claimed to be having hard times continuing with all that had been happening at
the firm.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button
error: Content is protected !!
Close

Turn Off Data Saver

To enjoy the full functions of our website, kindly turn off your data saver or switch to mobile browsers like Chrome or Firefox. Reload this page after turning off data saver