Mended Hearts – Episode 13

Mended Hearts – Episode 13

© Jennifer Godwin

Mara, Kenny, Kosi, and Mr Johnson had all gone to the police station to visit Agness, Mara didn’t believe the things her father told her concerning the reason Agness was in a police cell, she had insisted to see her mother and ask everything herself.

“Mommy” Mara screamed rushing to hug Agness.

“My Baby, am sorry for everything” Agness said hugging her back.

“she is not your Mom Mara, she is a witch” Johnson sneered.

“I have had enough of your nonsense, is it not enough that you imprisoned her?, and now you are calling her names, you left us 8 years ago to only God knows where, you came back just imprison my Mom, the woman that has been taking care of I and my sister, and you think I should listen to anything you have to say?” Mara barked at her father.

“She is saying the truth Mara, am not your mother, am evil, I have done plenty bad things in your real mother’s life, please forgive me” she said sobbing.

“I don’t understand, what do you mean by my real mother?” Mara asked looking at Agness.

“I will explain everything to you” Johnson said calming Mara down.

26 YEARS AGO

PORT HARCOURT RIVERS STATE

“Funmilayo, am so sad, my parents are trying to separate us, I love you so much and I don’t want to leave you” he said holding her hand dearly.

“What did your parents do this time around?” funmilayo asked trying to hold back her tears, ever since Johnson introduced her to his parents, they always find fault in her.

“They don’t want me to get married to a Yoruba lady, they want someone from the east” Johnson said caressing her palm.

“so you are trying to tell me that we will not get married anymore?” she asked letting the tears fall.

“I will try to convince them my love, it might take time but please wait for me” he said reassuringly.

“I don’t know, am just scared, what if they disagree? what will become of me? I love you so much Jay, I don’t want you to leave me” she sobbed more.

“Just give me sometime, I will convince them” he said giving her a hug.

A Month Later

” you are pregnant for another person Funmi, I came to give you the good news that my parents finally agreed for us to get married, only for me to hear your conversation with your mom, why?” Johnson asked hopelessly.

“Am sorry Jay, I didn’t mean to, I couldn’t bear what your parents said, I thought you were going to listen to them and leave me, I was so heartbroken, I had to cool off at a bar and that was where I met the person that got me pregnant” she sobbed.

“You know what Funmi?, the marriage is over, take care of yourself and your baby” he stormed out of the house in anger and stumbled on Agness and her friend Margaret on the way.

“What is wrong Jay? why is your face like this?” Agness asked looking at him.

“Can I see you in private please?” Johnson asked dragging Agness to a corner.

“What is it Jay? answer me” she asked as soon as they were out of earshot.

“You told me one certain time that your friend likes me, ask her if she still likes me and would like to get married to me” he said nodding towards Margaret.

“What is wrong Jay?, what did my sister do to you?, I thought you are getting married to her?” Agness asked a bit confused.

“she cheated on me and I can’t wait to fall in love with another person before getting married, my parents are on my neck, they need a daughter in-law, I need to get married, I will work towards loving her later” he said trying hard not to remember what Funmilayo did.

“She cheated on you?, I don’t believe that, she loves you so much” she said trying to defend her sister.

“Well she did, just ask your friend if she would want to get married” he concluded.

PRESENT

“Agness will continue from where I stopped” Johnson said relaxing back on a seat.

“When Johnson told me that he wanted to marry friend, I felt jealous and angry, I loved him then even when he was my step sister’s fiance, but he was too blind to notice, when he didn’t talk of getting married to me, I felt bitter. so I vowed to separate and destroy their marriage, when they were done with the marriage rites, Margaret got pregnant and told me to come help out in the house, I was so angry, they were only seeing me as a house maid and nothing else, even in my father’s house, I was a maid to Funmilayo and her mother, so I had my plans of what to do, when Margaret’s pregnancy got to the seventh month, something happened”.

26 YEARS AGO

PORT HARCOURT RIVERS STATE

” Agness, Agnesssss” Mr Silas, Agness’ father shouted heading towards the kitchen.

“Am here Papa” Agness rolled her eyes, the man always treat her like a slave in her own father’s house, when her mother died while she was 16, her father got married to funmilayo’s mother even when she had Funmilayo Agness age mate for another man, her father still got married to her and since then she turned to a house maid.

“You this stupid girl, didn’t you hear me call you?” Mr Silas said now matching angrily towards her.

“I answered you Papa but you didn’t hear me” she said ducking in fear, her father always uses the slightest opportunity he gets to hit her with anything around.

“So you are now calling me deaf abi?” he asked nonchalantly.

“No papa, am not calling you deaf” she tried to defend herself.

“You are calling me a liar then, he said already looking for something to hit her with. Agness grabbed a knife, that was the only thing she could get, she was going to defend herself today, she wasn’t going to keep quiet anymore. her father raised a pestle to hit her, she ducked and out of anger she stabbed him with the knife, he fell down hard and died.

” Oh my god, you have killed him, you have killed Papa” Funmilayo shouted rushing into the kitchen.

“What happened here” Funke, funmilayo’s mother asked

“She stabbed him to death” funmilayo said pointing at Agness.

“It was a mistake, I didn’t mean to do it” Agness cried.

“Am taking you to the police station right away” Funke said dragging her away.

“No mama, leave her, we will make use of this opportunity” Funmilayo said grinning wickedly.

PRESENT

“I was told to move into Margaret’s house as her housemaid and stick around her until the day of her delivery, I was told to ki*ll her and her baby so that Johnson would have no other option than to go back to Funmilayo, I had my plans too, so I didn’t ki*ll the baby, but I fed Margaret with the poison, the matron at the clinic referred her to a bigger hospital, on their way to the hospital, the car she was in got exploded, we thought Margaret had died. Johnson mourned Her death and cried everyday, I knew that Johnson would want me to stay because of the baby, that was why I didn’t ki*ll her. I convinced Johnson to change environment, probably move to another state so as to relinquish the memory of his late wife. although he never loved me, he saw me as the house help and the Nanny, until one day, after six years he came home drunk and made love to me, although he had the name of his late wife on his lips, I enjoyed every bit of it, I got pregnant with your younger sister, he decided to see me as his wife, he had no one to pay my dowry to, we just went to a pastor and he blessed us, everything was moving fine until 8 years ago when he went missing, I went to his company and was told that he had not been there, so I decided to go home and never come back again, I was outside the company, waiting for a cab, when I saw Johnson drive out of the company, I told the driver to follow him up, I traced him to the hospital and I recognised it as my step-nephew’s hospital, I waited in the car for him to come out. when he drove off, I entered the hospital and went straight to the doctor’s office, I met with Paschal and asked what Johnson was doing there, that was when I knew that Margaret was still alive, I blackmailed Paschal, I had his psychiatric hospital file with me, he was treated of madness, I made him feed Margaret with drugs that would make it impossible for her to regain her memory, once she regains her memory, I will go back to been a house maid. Am so sorry Mara, am not your mother, You are Margaret’s child, the one I was asked to ki*ll 26 years ago” Agness completed looking away from everyone.

“Jesus, Jesu..sss, my head is bangi…ng so har..dd right now, my ch..est hurts, my eyes are tur..ni..ng” Mara said holding her head as she collapsed.

__

“Tunde, this is the documents to Williams’ properties, don’t ask me how I got them, all you have to do is to sign here and everything the Williams own will be yours. please for once make use of your brain and sign these documents now. once Mrs Williams comes back, they will treat us like trash, I will be treated like the mistress that I am and you will be treated like an illegitimate son, please sign it Tunde” Funmilayo said faking tears.

“Mom, how do you expect me to sign the documents without knowing how you got them? am still trying to mend the hearts that i broke and you are still telling me to cause more harm, don’t you have conscience at all?” Tunde asked not believing that his mother has not felt remorse for what she did.

“You are just a fool and a weakling, do you have sense at all?, do you want us to be treated as an option?, i know how powerful and wicked Mrs Williams can be, and once she gets back from the states we will be doomed. you are going to sign these documents and that is final.” she said throwing it on top of the table.

“No matter how wicked and powerful Mrs Williams is, she can’t take away our lives from us, she is not a murderer, am not signing any document and that is final too” he stood up to challenge his mother.

“Tunde, if you don’t sign those papers right now, I will bite my tongue and die, in fact I will stab myself to death, I can’t live the life of a mistress, I rather die.” she said not failing to do the demonstrations.

“Mother listen to me, I don’t care more or less if you ki*ll yourself, living the life of a mistress is what you brought upon yourself, if you think you can get me to sign those papers at the mention of death, you are wrong mom because the only thing I want now is for Kenny to accept me as his brother, for everyone to be happy and I will give anything to see that happen, if you know where you got these documents from just return them, am going out” he hissed and left his mom awe struck at how he talked to her.

“Tunde, nibolonlo?, nibo?, Hei, my enemies have finally succeeded, they have turned my son against me, he now walks out on me, kini?, the only backbone and support I had is gone” she ranted throwing her hands in the air. she continued shouting and hitting her hands on the floor cursing her enemies, at a point, she shot her head up as if remembering something. she picked up her phone to call someone.

“Hello Seun, nibolowa?” she asked the person at the other end, “Is Tunde meeting with you today for a drink?” she asked yet again wiping her tears away. “good, when he gets there, give him enough to drink, I want him to get home drunk, I mean dead drunk” she said smiling wickedly. “No, there is no problem at all, he has been stressing himself lately, I want him to get some rest and the only way to do that is to get him drunk” she answered. “And one more thing, please don’t tell him anything” she concluded when she was sure that the person was going to do what she told him to do. if Tunde will not sign the documents willingly, she will make him sign them forcefully, she smirked.

To be continued

 

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