The Moment I Met You (Chapter 416)

 By Nightengale Ben-Onyeukwu

After Chioma got home, she was just about to join her mother in the kitchen when her phone suddenly rang. Once she picked up the phone and saw that it was from Jessica Nnaji, she knew what she wanted to say.                                                                                                               

 Chioma picked up the phone, and before Jessica could say anything, Chioma said, ‘I’m sorry, I won’t agree to your terms. I won’t leave Nigeria. Please I wish your family do not bother me again. I gave up Michael for you; I wish you win him over.’                                                 

‘Chioma, you’ve become a blabbermouth.’ On the other side of the phone, Jessica’s voice sounded furious. ‘Chioma, I’m going to rip your mouth apart!’

 ‘Yes, if I don’t stand up for myself, you will continue to bully me…Michael is now yours. I promise that I won’t give you the chance to rip my mouth apart.’                                                                                        

‘I don’t think you really understand the tragedy that is before you yet, do you?’                                                                                                         

‘You can punish me to death if you want, but I Chioma Chima will never accept to be pushed around anymore. Before, I was too easy to convince, that’s why I was stepped all over by a jerk and a tramp. But now, I won’t let your threats pull my spirit down…Try all you can, Michael will never be yours.’ After Chioma finished speaking, she hurriedly hung up without giving Jessica another chance to speak.     

Chioma sighed deeply, wanting to cry but didn’t. She wasn’t going to allow anyone push her to the corner. Then, she went to the kitchen and began chopping the vegetables for her mother as she told her her encounter today.

  ‘No matter what threat it may be, I will advice you never to sacrifice your love anymore, because that’s your life. Besides, your brother and I will always be here for you. If we stand together as a family, we will surely defeat evil.’                                                                                  

Chioma smiled at her mother.                                                                          

Just as Chioma set the food on the dining table, her phone began to ring. It was a call from one of the small companies she applied.                                     

‘Is this Miss Chioma Chima?’                                                                            

‘Yes, speaking.’                                                                                         

‘This is Adekunle enterprise. You have to resume work as from tomorrow.’        

‘Really, Sir?’ Chioma was excited with the good news.                                      

‘Yes…don’t forget to come over.’                                                                  

‘Okay, I’ll be there tomorrow,’ Chioma blissfully said and hung up. Then, she turned to Louisa and said, ‘Mum, I’ve got a job now.’ She excitedly went over to Louisa and hugged her.                                                          

‘Bless you my child.’ Louisa was happy for her daughter.                  

Andrew had just returned from work and he went over to the sink to wash his face. When he heard that Chioma had gotten a job, he turned to her and said, ‘Congratulations, little sis.’ Andrew joined them for dinner.     

Chioma replied with a smile, ‘Soon we are going to build a house of our own   , buy a new smart car…’                                                                             

‘With just your little salary? My sister thinks big even with an unseen salary,’ Andrew teased her.                                                                         

Chioma stuck out her tongue playfully. ‘I doubt if you would get any job, since you have no qualifications,’ Chioma playfully teased Andrew.                

 ‘Oh no, my beautiful sister have to work in some nasty little place, when she could have done much better for herself.’                                   

Louisa chuckled, knowing that her children were just joking with each other.                                                                                                               

‘Silly bro, I will like you to go into business.’                                            

‘Work in an office?’ Andrew wrinkled his nose. ‘I’d rather do something with cars. Or perhaps go to Africa to collect creatures for zoo.’                                                

 Both Louisa and Chioma laughed.                                                           

‘We’re already in Africa, what is keeping you from going into the forest in search of bush animals?’ Chioma couldn’t stop laughing.                           ‘Mum, would be scared.’ Andrew lowered his head and ate his fish.

 ‘Who says I will be scared?’ Louisa laughed.       

After a while he lifted his head and said to Chioma, ‘I will go with you tomorrow. I want to make sure you got the job and not just some random caller.’     

  Chioma was very pleased with the happy atmosphere that she forgot her worries. Tomorrow, she was going to start another work, she would do her best to make her family proud, and to make sure they had enough to eat.  

 

             

‘Things had run smoothly for Jessica in the past, in the end, Michael won’t even look at her. No matter what she wore, she won’t win Michael’s heart,’ Sola and some of her neighbours talked as they sat outside for the night fresh air. ‘She is too beautiful and her beauty would always fall in the eyes of everyone who saw her, but to Michael she looks so ugly like the witches from the old religion.’                              

‘The spotlight often changes,’ Segun said. ‘If I had known the main reason Chioma moved to Lagos, I would have stopped her. She sacrificed her happiness for our sake.’                                                                   

‘Michael is like a king who has full grasp of how to use his power. How could he have not already considered paying Jessica her dues?’                                                                                                                                      

‘Maybe, he is still gathering evidence to strike Jessica.’                        

‘Stop talking about that foolish girl…Chioma called to inform me that she has gotten a job.’                                                                                           

‘Should we take their furniture to the pawn shop? Thankfully, the Njemanzes have pawn shop…’                                                                             

  ‘I think that’s the only pawn shop in Nigeria… anyway, we won’t pawn anything. We’ll keep the furniture…when they return from Abuja, they might still want them. Let’s save them the stress of going to the pawn shop to redeem it when they return.’                                                                   

‘I have returned the cheque to Patricia, I told her that we didn’t need anything from her,’ Sola said.                                                                       

‘Yes, we don’t need anything from her.’