The Moment I Met You (Chapter 352)

By Nightengale Ben-Onyeukwu    

 Jessica walked over to her car and a police officer sneaked to meet her. The police officer walked to the side of the car, then looked into towards the driver’s seat. On the pure black leather seat, sat Jessica whose face was filled with anger, she was probably thinking of what to do to Chioma and her family to make them disappear from Abuja, that way she would have Michael.     

‘Madam Jessica…’                                                                                     

Jessica winded the car window down, and she didn’t even look at the police officer, furiously she said, ‘You couldn’t even do your job, how dare you show your face to me.’                                                                   

  ‘Please, don’t be mad.’                                                                                      

‘Do you know who all of you offended! You offended Jessica Nnaji. I can ask my father to wipe out your ancestor’s last 20 generations,’Jessica coldly said. ‘If you don’t have good news, you should consider me your enemy, Miranda.’                                                                       

Miranda handed Jessica her mobile phone. ‘ I recorded it…For the video, only  Louisa slapping you and Chioma speaking rudely  at you could be seen, while your scene of slapping Chioma is one thing outsiders will never know.’     

‘Release the video,’Jessica said while starting her car. ‘I have been waiting for this moment…now my fans would go on another attack…’ She smirked. ‘Everything is going according to my plan.’                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

After returning home, Chioma headed for the kitchen to continue with cooking dinner. Lifting up her sleeves, she lit the stove, and placed the already half-cooked pot of beans on it. Then, Andrew walked into the kitchen, he offered, ‘Let me help.’                                       

‘Big brother, how could I trouble you? Besides, you had a tough day today.’                                                                                                               

‘How about this, you rest for the day and allow me to finish cooking dinner.’Andrew led Chioma out of the kitchen.                                                        

By the time Louisa finished taking her bath, the food was almost ready to be served. However, as soon as she left the bedroom, the first thing she did was to look for Andrew. She wanted to know what could have been the root cause of him losing his job. Wearing an apron and standing in the kitchen barefooted, Louisa found Andrew concentrated on cooking. Louisa was surprised as she stared at him quietly; then, she glanced at Chioma who was sitting in the living room, flipping through the pages of the newspaper on the centre table. Louisa walked straight over to Andrew and hugged her son from behind, as though to give him strength.                                                

‘Mum, Chioma did the main cooking. I just had to put some finishing touches to the beans.’                                                                                      

Louisa reached over and turned off the stove. Lifting his chin, she could feel the tears in his eyes. She knew that he was trying to hide the tears from streaming down. ‘You don’t need to worry about losing a job. Sometimes, that is what we need…’                                                                  

Andrew put down the spoon in his hand and turned around to hug Louisa, he whispered, ‘Mum, I understand your point but we need the money. You were asked not to sell again in the market, and I was fired…how can we survive all of this? Chioma will be worn out if she does the work alone,’ he paused. ‘You were accused of stealing wallet…mum, I know I shouldn’t worry but I can’t help but worry.’                     

  Louisa wiped off the tears on his face. ‘As long as we are together, we will weather this,’she spoke with assurance.                                      

‘Akamu…I need to boil water for the akamu,’Andrew said reaching for the matches; he lighted up the stove, placing a kettle full of water on it. Louisa smiled and reached his hand out to pat Andrew’s head as she smiled sweetly at him. ‘Mum, I am not a child,’Andrew chuckled.               

                  

‘We need to be happy despite what we are facing…’                         

  ‘I agree mum,’Chioma giggled, walking towards the kitchen. ‘Why not we prepare more dishes together, that way it would make this moment perfect, and we will forget all our worries.’                             

  ‘Foodie, foodie,’Andrew teased Chioma and they laughed.                             

Happily, the three of them prepared more dishes for dinner. Without wasting so much time, the dining table was soon filled with satisfying meals, and they sat down to eat.                                                                   

‘Tomorrow, I’ll buy you some herbal supplements, and also bring you to the clinic…’                                                                                                  

  No, Chioma, I am totally fine,’Louisa said. ‘I don’t need you to worry over my playing James Bond in the market today. I will only take pain relief.’                  

                    

Andrew chuckled. ‘Mum, you are funny sometimes.’                                            

Louisa shrugged. ‘Son, I know that very soon you will find a very good job that you will be proud of.’                                                            

‘I never doubted my brother. We’re family and we love each other.’Chioma placed some food in Andrew’s plate. Their eyes met, both looking at each other proudly.

   Of course, family was everything. Whenever there were storms which seemed undefeatable, love from the family kept them going.                                                                                                                                                           

                   

It started to shower lightly when Jessica returned home, she went to her room, grabbed everything she could and threw it on the floor, breaking them into piece. When she thought of Chioma belonging to Michael, her heart could not accept it. Also, Louisa had the gut to humiliate her by slapping her at the police station. Though, it wasn’t worst than Michael leaving her for Chioma, Jessica still felt very angry at the thought of it.

                  

Rebecca threw open the door to find a shocking scene in front of her. Rebecca spotted Jessica standing with a flower vase in her hands, wanting to smash it. Immediately, Rebecca ran over and embraced Jessica in a hug.                                                                                                         

Rebecca was looking graceful in her belted navy blue Carolina Herrera, and paired it with nude pumps. She pulled her hair back in a bun. Rebecca was a tall, slim, beautiful woman.

             

‘Honey, don’t be upset because of that lowly girl. I had left the women convention I have in Imo State just to come and see you.’                           

‘Mum, destiny seems to be toying with me, giving me hope then so heartlessly wrenching it away. Is my life going to be like this forever?’                                                                                                                                            

‘No, honey. Everything will be fine. You still have Nathan…’                  

 ‘I only accepted Nathan to boost my plans, not to marry him for real.’                                                                                                                                                          

Rebecca was silent, and then said after a moment, ‘If you want I could tell your father to blacklist Chioma and her family from Abuja so that they won’t have any chance of survival… we would push them to the brink of hopelessness.’                                                                                 

  ‘Michael would always save them.’                                                                 

‘But you still have plenty of chances to win him back. I have already paid the landlord of their house to oust them out.’ Rebecca continuously patted Jessica on the shoulder, ‘Honey, let me try this first, then you release the video. Don’t release it yet…’                                        

‘Even if they are blacklisted from Abuja, I’m still not convinced.’ Jessica raised her head with tears in her eyes. ‘She has stolen Michael’s heart. Now, I have to make-do with Nathan…If I release the video, I will create a commotion among those that love her. I am sure that my fans will want to tear down Chioma, and will also throw insults at her. If I am going to lose Michael, I am never going to allow Chioma win. Does Chioma think it is easy to steal my man? I will make her become Abuja number one shameful and stupid woman. I am going to hire a professional hacker to make an edited video of Felix and Chioma…I am certain that he would be able capture the footage of those two together. I will be very glad to see the high number of shares on Facebook, the comments will be very thrilling.The video will surely get good reviews,’ she laughed, wiping her tears. ‘Chioma will be hated by everyone.’

              

  ‘But nothing happened between those two. How will you be able to do that?’                                                                                                                            

‘There are good computer scientists that will do a perfect editing. The video will be very short, but the editing and background music will be like those in romance series, just like a trailer for one of those teenage dramas.’                                                                                              

  Rebecca looked at Jessica, and then said, ‘You might get someone that’s quite famous on the internet to do this, but if Michael were to see the video, he will figure out that it was you that was behind it.’                                                                                                                                               

Jessica chuckled. ‘Mum, I could imagine how Michael will explode upon seeing the video.’                                                                                         

Rebecca sighed and said gently, ‘I really want to fight Michael for you but I don’t want you to get too much involved.’ She was worried about her daughter.                                                                                                          

Jessica shrugged. ‘What will Michael do once the video is shared around quickly? He will definitely explode his anger on Chioma and I will act innocent.’ Fresh tears filled up her eyes.                                                              

‘No, he will definitely force the creator of the video to delete the post…’                 

Rebecca was certain of this.                                                                                     

‘How can Michael do that since many commercial accounts and websites will help me spread it around? Mum, I tell you that it will be impossible for Michael to delete them all. The number of shares will be in millions…’                                                                                                                                 

  ‘Michael’s a computer whiz. He will make sure that the video was gone from the entire web…Michael’s capable to delete the video off the whole web, and there would be no websites hosting it.’                                      

  ‘The websites in Nigeria might succeed in taken it down, but international sites…?’    

              

‘If you know Michael too well, you should know that he’s capable of destroying any evidence from its source. So, forget about hiring anyone to create any video and do forget about posting the video of Chioma slapping you…maybe not now. Just let me fight this battle for you…I promise to make Michael have no choice than to come to you.’ She gave Jessica a reassuring smile, and then embraced her. She felt tears streaming down Jessica’s face. ‘Michael’s yours alone,’ Rebecca said soothing to Jessica as she stroked     her hair dotingly.                  

                  

                  

Meanwhile, Michael lay on his bed, thinking of how to buy insurance for Chioma’s whole body. He was planning on purchasing insurance for Chioma based on different body parts. Michael was protective of Chioma, and wouldn’t want anyone to bully her. It was obvious that he truly cared for her.

                   

It wasn’t unusual for celebrities to insure parts of their body, however, they did it mostly to draw attention, Michael was sure Chioma wouldn’t agree to this. She wasn’t famous, so she would refuse him from buying the insurance. But then, he was a man that wouldn’t take no for an answer. He wasn’t doing this to create attention; he wanted to do this because he wanted to strongly protect his woman. That meant that, no matter what happens to Chioma, she would be covered by insurance. If she was wounded, no matter if the injury was caused by human or by nature, the insurance company would still compensate for it.                                                                                                         

  To Michael, Chioma was the most precious thing in the world, so he would do anything to protect her. In the entire world, Chioma was the first person that made him do things without asking anything in return.                                                                                                            

                   

The following day, when Louisa woke up, Chioma had already prepared breakfast of eggs, warm milk, fried plantain and fried yam.                                                                                                                                            

‘Mum, are you feeling better now?’Chioma asked as soon as Louisa came to the dining.                                                                                                     

   ‘I am absolutely fine,’Louisa smiled.                                                                        

  ‘Looks like you would do well in action movies,’Chioma teased her mother.                                                                                                      

‘Thanks for saying that. Next time, I will go to Hollywood, and make sure to praise myself so they would accept my role as market James bond.’ Louisa sat down by the table. She picked up the glass of warm milk and began drinking it slowly.                                                                          

  ‘I didn’t actually thought of that,’Chioma chuckled.                                      

‘I don’t need to go to work any more, I have been fired. Starting today, I will become a stay-at-home-brother,’Andrew sat down and said.                                                                                                                                          

Chioma didn’t want to say more regarding that topic, so she only nodded. She felt that very soon Andrew will find a good job. Maybe, she should ask Michael to hire her brother? But then, she shook the idea off, for she didn’t want anyone to think that she was using Michael for her own selfish gain.       She would try her best to look around; maybe she would find a job for him.                                                           

‘We’ll go out for lunch.’                                                                                     

‘To where?’ Andrew asked.                                                                               

‘Chioma said Daniel wants to take us out for lunch.’                                     

‘What about me?’ Louisa joked.                                                             

‘You can go over to Beatrice’s house and stay with her. Having you around will make our circle boring,’Chioma laughed.                                  

‘What about your work? Wouldn’t Emeka fire you…?’                            

‘No, it’s just lunch. Besides, the lunch will only last for thirty minutes…’Chioma paused, then said after eating the yam in her mouth, 

‘Audrey is coming as well.’                                                                                  ‘What? Audrey isn’t part of our circle. She will know that I lost my job. You know how much I hate to be pitied…’                                            

‘Audrey isn’t a bad girl. She is nice and beautiful. She has a good heart,’Louisa said with a smile. ‘Andrew, there is nothing wrong for Audrey to know. Don’t hinder yourself from receiving help…’                        

‘Are you suggesting that I tell her? I don’t have a problem with her knowing about it. She might have heard it, but I don’t like receiving help like that.’                                                                                                    

  ‘How would you like to receive help?’Louisa knew that Andrew had more to say.                                                                                              

‘Merit…if I get a job, I want it to be because I merited it and not because of my connections.’                                                                                        

‘But, sometimes we need people to help us climb to our destiny, that doesn’t really mean we are stepping on them or taken advantage of their kindness,’Louisa explained.

                 

Chioma thought that it would be weird for the five of them to eat together, but since it was Daniel that was taking them out, she didn’t say more.  Besides, Audrey was a nice person.                                                    

Daniel made reservations at Wazobia, a restaurant that was known for traditional cuisines.                                                                                              

  The restaurant was adorned with traditional decorations and mainly served Akpu, traditional soups, amala, pepper soup, palm wine, and nkwobi. Their most famous dish was nkwobi. Nkwobi happens to be Nigerian delicacy usually ordered and enjoyed in exclusive restaurants. It was a simply cooked cow foot mixed in spicy palm oil paste, and it was best served with palm wine. Sometimes, people eat the spicy dish with soft drinks or beer; it all depended on the eater’s preference. The delicacy could also be prepared with different kinds of meat and very popular in the eastern part of Nigeria. The choice of meat can vary but the methods of cooking remain the same. But mostly, people love preparing it with cow foot. The sliced onions and utazi are set aside on a plate while some people choose to use these two for decoration purposes.

                      

Most of the preparation processes take place in a small mortar-an African carved hollow wood.                               

           

 The restaurant was usually packed and rarely had open tables available, because people often visited here for the traditional dishes, especially for the nkwobi and palm wine.                                                                    

The dish was very delicious and pepperish. The meat was cooked soft so it wouldn’t be hard to chew, and its aromatic scent could be smelled from miles away. Nkwobi was a dish anyone in this Wazobia restaurant would always want to order.                                                                  

Daniel had ordered a dozen dishes after they arrived. Audrey was the last to arrive in her Porsche. Just as she was to get off the car, she saw Julia.                                                                                                                  

‘Why are you here?’Audrey frowned.                                                              

‘Hey, Audrey, I am meeting Dara, Dana and Emmanuella here for lunch.’                                                                                                                      Audrey knew that Julia and her friends were popular with most of the restaurants here in Abuja, so wasn’t surprised to see her. ‘I will go ahead, I am having lunch here with my friends,’Audrey said, and headed towards the door. ‘There are so many people here.’ Her smooth forehead wrinkled as the music playing from the loudspeaker made her ears ache.

                 

Pushing the door open, she entered. Immediately, all eyes in the restaurant turned towards her. A waiter in a smart black and yellow uniform walked over to her.

   ‘You’re Audrey Njemanze?’The waiter asked with a smile.                                     

‘How did you know?’Audrey raised an eyebrow. Audrey nearly choked on his pungent perfume but she tried her best to control herself.                                                                                    

‘Because your boyfriend is also my friend,’the waiter smiled at Audrey as he said. ‘Daniel is over there.’He pointed to where Daniel and his group sat by the window. They seemed to be talking of something very important.

                  

   Daniel couldn’t take his eyes off of Audrey when he saw her.  He had known that she was the school beauty during her secondary school days. She was not like these girls whose prettiness was drawn out through make-up. Her beauty was genetic. Her eyes were lovely. She was a natural beauty, beautiful in every way. For the lunch, she chose a printed dress and black tights.                                                             

‘Have you ordered?’Audrey asked as she sat down.                             

Daniel nodded, and then said to the waiter close to them, ‘You can serve the dishes now.’                                                                               

  Firstly, nkwobi garnished with onion rings and thinly sliced utazi leaves were served to each person in small wooden mortar. Then a jug of palm wine followed, coupled with other traditional dishes.                     

At this time Julia entered inside with her friends, gorgeously dressed. Andrew was now watching and listening to Julia who had walked inside with her friends. He didn’t wait for someone to greet them by name to know who the four ladies were, the moment they walked through the door, he guessed.The two girls were so similar that anyone would know at a glance that they were twins. Dana and Dara shared the same shiny black hair, hazel eyes, thin lips, narrow noses and fair skin. Julia and Emmanuella were good-looking too. All four of them, tall and slim, and had a certain dominance that told him they saw themselves as the queens or rather princesses of this restaurant.                            

 

Even though they saw themselves as such Andrew knew they weren’t popular. To him, they were the villains or antagonists in movies.                                                                                                                                 

The restaurant was full, but then it was quite small, which was why most of the customers stayed outside to eat. Aside from Audrey who was from a rich and powerful family, everyone here came from an average or below average family, still in their low income, they felt it was good to come over here and relax for sometimes. They rich folks in love with the traditional dishes ordered for the dishes to be brought to them instead of coming here to eat. Seeing Audrey in the restaurant, everyone paled into insignificance. No one actually wanted to do anything that would blacklist them from the city. Audrey tried her best to make them understand that she was just a human being just like them. Except for the trappings of this world, everyone was the same.                                                                                                                                 

It seems that the four girls didn’t actually come here to eat but to make trouble. Andrew smiled to himself at this. He had met so many girls like these during his school days and also in drama serials. Arrogant, rude bully girls who, if you could stand up to them and give them a dose of their own medicine, would turn into frightened cat.             

  ‘Jessica is happy now,’Julia started a conversation at their table. ‘She accepted to marry Nathan.’She turned to Chioma who was behind them. ‘Chioma, aren’t you going to congratulate Jessica?’Julia held up her glass of palm wine as she said.