ASHANTE : THE HOSTAGE

CHAPTER 001

I remember everything. I was not drunk last night nor did I attempt to drink alcohol--well not
really. I did have a bottle of ice Tropez then that was it. Its only 5% alcohol that I consumed. I
didn’t even finish the bottle and the question still remains. How did I end up in this room, that is
neat more than my room? I know I am not kidnapped. Oh yes I am abducted but for what and by
who I don’t know. I have got all these questions and there's no one to answer them.

Oh snap! I have been abducted for real and I am going to be trafficked. I am going to become
one of those girls that I usually judge that they were walking at night and hence they were
trafficked. I am going to be a victim of Human Trafficking. Something that I never follow but I
know that I am going to be made a slave. Am I crying? Yes I am. I just want to scream this
moment . I get off the bed and rush to the door and try to open it until a voice says, "It is off no
use trying to open that door," it is a lady.

I close my eyes and say a silent prayer, how come I didn’t even notice that I am sharing a bed
with a stranger, in the midst of my silent prayer , I pray and hope that it is Afreyea, my younger
sister but no it cant be her. I turn to look at the lady and she looks like one who is from the
streets.

"Who are you? What are you doing here? Why am I here?" I ask her.

"I don’t know which one to answer first but I will tell you that it is off no use trying to open that
door unless you just want to get yourself dead,"

"Why would someone who doesn’t even know me kill me? For what reasons? I don’t know
about you but I am getting out of here," I say. She covers herself with the blankets after saying:

"Ok, undertaker,"

I now realize that she just called me undertaker. I want to charge at her but I know that I was
never a good one with fighting. And she would hit the fuck out of me, small or what I don’t
know how to defend my self. I finally give up from trying to open the door and sit down on the
tiles and silently cry, praying that my mother is not worried wherever she is and that Afreyea is
okay wherever she is. I am going to jelly and custard now, atleast I wore my new year's
clothes but that doesn’t calm me down.

"BATHING STATION ROOM 191," A man says over the public address system.

" It's time to bath," The lady says and I slowly get up and follow her to the shower. I don’t want
to be here . I miss my sister, my mother. I miss them.
"They will tell you what you are here to do," she says when we step out of the bath, we dress up
to what we found in the room. A man fetches us from the room and leads us to the hall where we
are eating our breakfast. It is a lot of us here. Well not really a lot but we are a lot to me.

"Aint you eating? You will need to eat for your first test," she says . What first test, I am not
going to write a test. I never even did well at school. I got a bachelor and only one distinction
which is for History and my APS sits at 30 points.

"Start eating ," she commands and. A light skinned lady stands infront of our table.

"Is the new girl giving us trouble already?" she asks and sits down.

"'Look you need to eat because what I want you to do for me is something that you cannot mess
us," she says

"I am not going to eat, I want to go home, I want my mother,"

"Fiesty, I don’t have time for this, Rio, come and feed this bitch over here?" she says to the guard
, that runs to our table and grabs me by my arm.

I am Ashante and this was the day I was put on a test to find my soulmate…

THE UNSTOPABLE
CHAPTER 002

As per instruction whatever his name is, Rio--He dragged me to the room. I was screaming all
the way to the room but he didn’t seem to care. He opened the door and pushed me to the bed. I
looked at him with my eyes almost getting teary, my hair messed up. "I don’t want to be here," I
said in a whisper but he didn’t seem to care. His job was to bring me here and then what? Rape
me? My thought is brushed off when someone opens the door and let's themselves in. it is the
lady. I now believe she is the boss of this whole thing. The way she commands everyone.

"What do you want from me?" I ask

She grabs a chair across the room and comes and sits next to me. Her eyes gawking at me like
she is reading me or something. "I want you to work for me, for a certain period," she says after a
long moment of silent with a cigarette lit after the reading she gave me.

"I don’t want any job, I have a job and it pays me good money," I lie, not the entire part but the
part that the job pays me good money is the truth. I am self-employed.

When dad died and we had no one to take care of the family, I had to step in as the older sister
since Mom is not doing so good. She can't walk. She has one leg, she suffered that cause on her
way back from the hotel that she caught dad cheating on her, she was so furious and didn’t want
to hear anything that has to come from his mouth. Dad followed her out but he got into an
accident since he was trying to call her to tell her to stop at driving that speed, she was driving on
180km and had the intention to end her life but instead God saved her in a wonderous way, and
for that I thank him every day for saving her and giving her one leg to now walk on. She is on
wheel chair and cant currently do anything in that situation. She was unhappy and
wanted marriage to be over, she had suffered a lot.

Dad have other kids outside from his first wife who inherited everything-Yes dad had two
wives. He was cheating on both of them with a lady in her 30s. We not rich, we are in a low class
to middle class status. Now peaking in terms of me being self-employed. A classmate from high
school also had an influence in all on me being self-employed. She dated old people in high
school and after matric she had not done well, seeing that she made money and her men didn’t
rob her off anything, I got attracted to that life style and she then introduced me to that life--I am
not dating him because I have no choice but because of wanting more and not being satisfied in
life and I also love him. I make a lot of money and mom doesn’t know about all this, so far I
have only dated one man, who is currently my boyfriend. He is not old and he is not a sugar
daddy I am 24 years of age and he is 34. the difference there is ten years who is a police officer,
I was abducted while I was with him, he had to answer a call and then boomerang I wake up
here.

"You call what you do a job?" she chuckles

"Those people could drop you and leave you to die in hunger and they won't leave you with
anything other than HIVirus." I hate to hear that and is still refuse to come to terms with it. I
won't get sick nor contract diseases.

"As I have said, I don’t want your job I have my own job and I love it please let me go,"

"Oh Rio, did you catch that?" Rio nods

"I wasn’t asking you, even if you were to say no to all of this you would still do it, whether you
like it or not" she says once more hands the bud to Rio.

"You will have to come to terms with that, because you are not going everywhere," she says after
standing up then leaves the room.

"You have to go to your room," Rio tells me, this doesn’t suit him. It is now that I notice
how handsome he is. I snap out of it and walk out of the room following Rio. Oh he is so fine.

When I walked inside the room that I use with the street girl, I find her doing her manicure while
chewing the bubblegum in a bitchy manner. I sit on the bed that we share.

"Amara," she says with her hand reached out to me.

I look at her before taking her hand and say," Ashante," yes my name is Ashante, I was given
by my mother, according to her she struggled having kids so when she got me she named me
Ashante meaning 'THANK YOU'
"I am your roommate for the duration of your stay," she says

"Thanks for the welcome,"

She giggles, "It wasn’t warm yesterday,"

"How long have you been here?" I ask, I want to know what she means by the name, I'm leaving
next week right?

"I have been here since I finished my school, I have 4 years here,"

"OK-K" that is the only thing I manage to say.

"This is my home now, I have gotten used to this place. You won't be here for long, it just
depends on what you are here to do. Im here for many things, keeping the girls in line and
mentoring them to be ready for their job,"

"What is the job?" I ask out of curiosity, I just don’t want to be enslaved and make money for
someone else using my body.

"different types of jobs, maybe you have yours that is special,"

Special? I don’t ask any more further questions. Im here for a special job.

"It's either you do the job or do the job forced, you won't leave this place without completing the
job that they brought you here for and for that you won't be let go so easily, your life will be on
watch in case you disclose any of the business that is done here or rather describe the building or
the colour of the paints in these walls. You render yourself liable to the death of your loved
ones." she said and I nodded, this was getting scarier.

___
CHAPTER 003

After a week, I had to realize that I had no choice but to accept the situation here. I had now
gotten used to the early morning workout ,take a bath then have breakfast. I don’t know why
they had to make us do those exercises because I bet I look perfectly fine, I don’t need their
exercises but whatever I say they wouldn’t listen to me, I just have to be submissive especially
my guard Rio who doesn’t speak much with his mouth but eyes.

"Do you have any idea why we are being summoned just after leaving the place?" I ask

"No, maybe we didn’t exercise enough," she says

I gasp. I'm not used to all of this, I swear 15 squats and already I am dead from the exercises.
"You should know," I murmur and she just chuckles. We arrive at the hall and we take our sits.
It is this huge room that fits the whole Ablekuma community. Ok maybe I am exaggerating but it
is big.

"Today, we officially welcome our new member Imani." The lady who is called the boss says. I
don’t even know her name. People start cheering and clapping. I also do the same but we don’t
see the new member waving her hand or coming before us.

"Im talking to you," the lady says again, this time her eyes focused at me. Oh is she talking about
me? But my name is not Imani, I am Ashante. I let that pass and stand before these people who
are now my new family for the duration of my stay. The welcome is so warm and one can feel it.
We are a family here but I miss my real family but as I have said I don’t have any other choice
than to accept the situation. I am sure my boyfriend is worried sick about me. Im sure he has left
only one message then that was it, he is always busy trying to catch criminals. He only checks on
me twice in a week then the rest of the week he is busy with his work and dictates my life on
whether I should go and party or not. Hence I got also go bored and found comfort in an older
man's arms. He was never there--but that day, that Friday, I should have listened to him when he
told me not to go out but I needed money that time for my sister's farewell and I had to meet with
the old man, little did I know that maybe he received a calling of what will happened and I chose
to ignore whatever he told me that day. As much as I am trying by all means to feel at home here
but this will never be home I still want to go home.

"do you know how to do a make-over?" she asks?

"I don’t know how to do anything besides dating an old man for money," I say emotionally.
"if I had listened to him I wouldn’t be here," I wipe my tears before they escape my eyes.

"Oh Imani," she says and I look at her the shake my head no. I don’t want that name right now, I
am Ashante, they just want me to live my name behind and what that name has done for me. She
pulls me to the room and she briefly hugs me. She is also crying by the time I am done. We both
needed this, I understand her situation is more hard than mine yet I don’t know what is wrong
with her.

"What were you saying bout make over?" I ask wearing a wide smile on my face. It is forced of
getting used with being here.

"Sit down," she commands and wipes her tears as she collects a bag from the closet and does
take the eyebrow pencil, conceal and the sponge and does her thing on my face.

"You may turn the chair now," she says after a whole 30 minutes being seated at the chair. I look
at myself in the mirror and I gasp. This is me? I look amazing, I never tried make-up. I do love it
but I just don’t know how to apply it on my face.

"And, do you like it?"

"No, I love it," I smile at her and before I could hug her the door opens and Rio walks in. I swear
my knees just went weak on the spot.

"Mrs Tafadzwa wants to see you," he says with his deep husky voice.

"Who? Me?" I ask and who the hell is that? But I don’t ask. Amara winks at me as I follow Rio
outside of the room. Doesn’t he notice me. I am beautiful he should atleast complement me. This
is me Ash- no Imani. Walking in silent and even inside the lift silent we finally arrive to the nice
building. It is so beautiful inside here. It is so huge. I have never been outside but I could tell that
this building is huge. So far I know four rooms in this building; My room with Amara, meeting
hall, Dining hall and this office or whatever it is. She is smoking seated with her legs crossed on
top of the table. She is always smoking. I would tell her the dangers of smoking but I don’t know
biology, I failed with a lower grade.

"Who did that to you?" she asks

"A-, uhm I did it myself,"

"Don’t lie, I know Amara did that," she says then looks at Rio who just nods then walks out of
the room. After a few minutes later he walks back in followed by a man in a suit. Holy Jesus,
who the hell is this? So fine. He has Rio resemblance. No he is not Rio's brother. He is wearing
all black just like my Ri-, no just like Rio the guard.

"where are the rest?" The lady asks the man that just waked in.

"They are on their way," He says and then shifts his attention to me, right the rest walk in. It's
two of them. Oh Jesus take me now. Please send me be back Ablekuma. I swear I will come to
Accra and wait for them on the road so they could notice me.

"And is this the lady?" They ask looking at me. Rio is now seated with them all and I am
standing. He is the one with a bigger size of the body he should be telling me to sit down. I don’t
know these fine men who just walked in here but they are by blood.

"She is, just a little bit of a headache," The lady says and I almost gasp at that sentence. I do obey
her orders and don’t give her a tough time. Today I even clapped hands for whatever she said
earlier on and she thinks of me as a headache?

"But she will be fine as time goes by," that voice says, Rio's voice. I am tempted to ask why am I
here but I know better than to do that, I am just waiting for Rio to say something again that will
make me go crazy.

"Right, Imani , it is time you know the real reason why you are here," The lady says.

"Wait is that her name or?" the other guy who is wearing an unbuttoned black coat asks.

"It is our her name," she replies.

"I want to leave, can we get this done and over with?" It is the other one who walked second with
the one with an unbuttoned shirt.

They all look at him. He seems to be trouble or unbothered to be having this conversation.

"Well," that voice again ,"Ash-, I mean Imani you are here to help us get our brother back," The
Rio says. Yes he is the Rio. But I didn’t catch what he just said, his brother? No their brother ?
Are they brothers, the lady is the sister.

"He had gone to the states to do a research and conduct some investigation. But on the day that
he was to return he never made it at home. We tried to locate him and we found him and we
found the people holding him captive, we had strategize how we get our brother back then we
avenge ourselves, and in finding our brother we need you to help us find him. You are the
candidate," he explains, how am I the candidate? But I don’t ask. From what he has told me now,
I can imagine that these people are dangerous people, both him and his family and the people
who held their brother captive.

"we just wanted to fill you in, we will give you your task for that particular day and you are not
expected to fail that task. You are to pass it," The one to walk in first says. Now it is also getting
scarier than before. These men are making it sound real like I am writing a test for university
admission.

"you may leave,"Rio says.

"AND OH, that face looks good on you , you should wear it for your first task," the lady
compliments. I had hoped that Rio would also nod too but he didn’t even look at my face when
she just said that instead he lit his cigar. Im hurt.
CHAPTER 004

I love being the center of attention and I love having compliments being thrown at me . I am
beautiful but today I want to be more beautiful for whatever I am going to do. It is my first and
right now I don’t care about anything other than being beautiful for people to notice me. Yes I
love attention but I want my examiners to all complement me today. Tell me how beautiful I am
today hence I asked Amara to do my make up and hair. She knows her thing.

"You look happy rather than nervous," she says

"I don’t know how to look, I just want to look beautiful Amara and just pray that I don’t fail
whatever it is that they are sending me to do," I say

"Do not worry about anything, it wont be hard thing like squats obviously,"

I laugh.

"can I ask you something?" I ask

"Sure,"

"Are they siblings?"

"Who?" she asks

"The lady and the men that I met with the other day,"

"oh you talking about the unstoppable?"

"That is their name?" I ask wearing a confused face.

" That is what they call themselves, how many were they?"

"five including Rio and the Lady,"

"Yes they are siblings, I just don’t know where is the other one, when I got here he had
something to do then he disappeared after a few weeks of me being here, he is very welcoming
and soft unlike the rest of them," she says

"Oh,"

"The lady, Anaeshu, she is the one who is brutal, she has always been like this from a young age,
her intention to bring her brothers together and for the to get along,"

"They don’t get along? But why?"

"They don’t share the same mother, the one that disappeared is their father's son, I don’t know
much about their history other than that,"

"But are they dangerous?" I want to know, this question was out of curiosity, I want to escape
out of here, maybe today.

"I don’t know how dangerous but they are not one to be messed with, their family is messed up,"

"But Who is second most dangerous?"

"There's no second one, I have only witnessed the brutality of Anusha and the brutality of Omari,
Rio I haven't seen him doing anything that is terrifying or maybe he does it in secret and there's
this one who is stubborn, he is always hungry and ready to kill for his sister and They all are.
Then the one who loves wearing coats just like Rio, who looks like Rio, is al-" she stops when
the door opens and it is one of the guards bringing in my dress, then walks out. Amara is the one
that checks the dress for me, I love it. It is short and I love short things. The stiletto 7 inch heel is
what got me screaming. I own a stiletto for the day.
Amara helps me into the dress and helps me with my shoes then styles my frontal weave that is
10"( inches). She screams when she is done with me and tells me to stand and turn around. My
dress is black with a slit from my V-line on my waist down to my thigh. I look myself in the
mirror and I am just as beautiful as I was born. Amara check her watch that beeps and tells me
that they are waiting for me. I don’t know what I am going to do but I hope I am not going sit in
a meeting because I don’t know anything about that other than voting in a board meeting, that is
the part that interests me. I walk out of the room and find a guard waiting for me outside who
walks me to where they are. The big room but it has been rearranged. They are there, the one
who is stubborn who seemed not interested in being here the other day is eating and drinking
whiskey at the same time, Anusha is smoking as always along with the one who looks like Rio.
Where is he anyways?

"You look beautiful, Amara did what I asked her to do, I knew she wouldn’t disappoint,"

"Thanks,"

"You are going to be driven to this hotel, and meet with this man," she shows me a picture of the
man that I am to meet.
"There are guards, so make sure not to trip on anything and don’t get scared because you will
also be having you secret guards, no one will see them, not even you, you don’t know them ,
they are not the ones that work here, you have to do everything in your power that will get the
dick of that man to get up,"

I open my eyes wide at that statement, what does she mean about that?

"You are going to be a prostitute for the day, "

"no," I refuse

"what do you mean no? you don’t have a choice here, remember what I told you when you
arrived here, I don’t care if you want to do it or you don’t want but at the end you are going to
do or you lose a life for my brother's life," she says

"Relax, you don’t have to fuck with him, all you have to do is to get us his cellphone and leave
nothing suspicious, you get us his password to his cellphone then you leave the rest to us, if you
want to fuck him then that would be a bonus for yourself," she at her brother Omari the one
whom I heard aa terrifying story about him hands me earrings to wear.

The door opens and a man walk in. "She is all yours for the day," Anusha says. She is really
brutally and only cares about uniting her siblings but this is no way to do it and she is so
disrespectful, her brothers don’t even reprimand her attitude. I take my purse then walk out of the
room to the car. The drive there is silent. I love talking, I talk a lot but right now I am not in any
mood to talk. I just want to scream and cry but I know that will ruin my make sabotaging the
whole plan and I get to die, I don’t want that. I still want to see my sister graduate out of college.
After the long silent drive we are parked at this big five start hotel. It is the Accra Marriott Hotel
one of the most expensive hotel. In Accra. I get out of the car after fixing myself and the man
accompanies me inside the hotel where I am meeting this big fish of a person. We arrive at the
room no 104, a man opens the door for me and welcomes me and then looks at me.

"Special delivery for anyone feeling lonely today at the game, I am betting," The man I came
with says . The man who opened the door chuckles and lets us in. The big fish holds my waist as
I walk in, running his hands on my ass. The one I came with just looks at me, giving me a
warning look that I should act accordingly, it is like he read my mind because I wanted to yank
his hand off me and kick his nuts but I just smile instead, after that warning look. We walk into
some room. They didn’t tell me that this is a casino night, there's a Casino game taking place
here. I do know how it is played though. The man I came with is already seated and betting his
money on the game, together with the big fish who sits down and let's me sit on his lap.

Why do I call him the big fish because he is not big, ok maybe not like Rio, his abs are nicely
toned. He puts a cigar on his mouth and I take a lighter then lit it for him. He leans closer and
kiss my cheek while he plays the game. On the other hand the one I came with is getting drunk
instead of staying sober so that he can drive us back to the building, actually he should get drunk
so that I can escape this place.

"You in or out?" the other guy in the room asks the big fish.

The big fish looks at me and asks, "what do you say?"

I take a look at his cards and they are just a lose, but I know what to do, I look inside my purse
that I was given by the unstoppable and take out the cards. I was hoping to find me some gloss
but I got cards . I perk his cheek and push the Roulette coin to the table and make a bit, then say,
"We are in"

The guy just chuckles and shakes his head and places his cards on top of the table and says,"It’s
a house,"

I look at the big fish and place the cards on top of the table and say,"It is a full house,"

"What?" The guy looks at the cards and I chuckle. The big fish kisses me.

"The party is over gentlemen," he says and they all stoop up and walked out including the one I
came with.

"Wanna play?" I ask the big fish and he just smiles.

"Yes I do," wait for me here. I nod as I get up from him, he leaves his cellphone behind and I
look at it. After a few minutes he returns with a strap and I smile.

"A picture please?" I beg and he smiles.

"as you wish," he unlocks the cellphone and hands it out to me. I didn’t see the pin correctly so I
switch the cellphone of and tell him to unlock it for me again and he does, I have three numbers
of six numbers.

"I think I will keep you to myself forever," he says pulling me close to him.

"How I would appreciate that," I say to him and hold his chest

"Turn around for me please," he begs and I do that. He brushes my ass and I wiggle it for him.

"Damn girl, you from the Cantonment?" He asks and I nod for him. I am from Ablekuma, I cant
afford to stay in the Cantonment. It is the richest place in Ghana surrounding Accra. Ablekuma is
poor. He takes off his t-shirt. It is not intention to be wet for this man so I keep it in me. He is
nice, oh Rio. No he is not Rio. Why am I even thinking about him?

"Am I playing alright now daddy?" I say in a moan that was forced out. The one that you
practice

"I love it when you call me daddy. "He responds.

,"Oh look at it, it is locked again,"

"202112," he says and I smile as I enter the pin. 202112, I got it.

"I don’t think I can do this?" I say to him and stop what I was doing. I was only here for the pin
nothing more.

"what?" he asks and looks at me with a frown.

"I don’t know what has gotten into me, I am not this person," I say to him

"Well, you don’t have to be that person , you can be mine only, only mine," he says and forces
his lips on my lips. I push hm pack and he chuckles.

"You just pushed me?" he asks

"Im sorry but you don’t understand," I say and he charges at me and grabs my body and pins on
the table. He tries uplifting my dress and pushes my panties aside. I try fighting him off but I just
can't. I am too weak for fighting this big fish. He lowers his trousers and tries to put his thing
inside me. I grab the whiskey bottle and hit him in his head and he pulls back holding his eyes.
Shit, I hit his eye. He is bleeding. I hit him again and he groans. I take his phone and capture his
apple iPhone ID while he searches for whatever he is looking for . I rush out of the room
searching for the man I came with. I take off my shoes when I am outside the building and start
running. I stop by the road and try to hitch hike a taxi but none seem to be coming. I see a car
standing in front of me and I run away. the person is following me, it is a man.
He is wearing black, I just need to get to the station and report this whole thing and then go back
home. I am stuck I don’t know which way to go. "Do not move," a voice says in a lower tone. Is
it him? I turn to look at him and it is Rio, with a gun in his hand.

I attempt to run away but he fires a shot that cause me to scream countless times. I notice a fluid
running down my legs. I just peed on myself. He comes to me and picks me up put me across his
shoulder. He is tall. I hit him with my fists. " I just want to go home please, I will give you the
pin,"

"And I need to find my brother please," he says, he doesn’t get this does he?

CHAPTER 005

"It is so clear that we cannot trust this girl of yours, She tried to run away today. What about next
time?" the young one said as I stood by the door listening to their conversation.

"But I got there on time, didn’t I?" Rio said defending me.

"What if you did not get 'there on time' then what?" he asked again.

"Its over Edward, get over it. The girl is here so what if she tried to escape? She won't do it
again," Anusha says, is she also defending me?

"Well, it would be better if you keep your word of not her doing it again, cause honestly if she
does leave I am no longer getting involved in all this, you will find your brother on your own,
you four," Edward said and the walked out. Giving me a deadly look as he walks away. I think
he has siblings issues. I open the door slowly and let my self in. I am scared. From what I heard
from Amara these people don’t play around. I am scared of all of them here in the room , the
four of them but mostly im scared of Anusha. She is heartless, I believe that now. Neither of
them is saying anything. I raise my eyes and look at Anusha who passes a cigar to Omari.

"Do you want to say something Imani?" Anusha asks. Does she ever say something without a
cigar in her hand. I doubt, I think that is her take every day.

"I brought this," I say and hand them the pin and the cellphone. A cellphone rings and it's Rio's
twin call.

"But the plan was not to take his cellphone," Omari says

"And the plan was not to almost send him to hell," Rio's twin says

"What? What are you talking about Jack," Anusha asks , so his name is Jack, I expected
something like Orio to rhythm with Rio not some ugly cowboy name Jack.
"How about you tell us what happened Imani?" Jack says. I don’t like him now. I don’t like him
ever, I only like him because he looked like Rio. I thought everything about him will be off Rio
because they look alike or they look the same or Together?

"Ash-" Rio says but doesn’t complete my name.

"What?" I ask

"Jack asked you a question young lady, I am tolerating you because you are the best candidate to
bring my brother back but if you going to bring that stinky Ablekuma attitude believe me when I
say this; it won't end well, it’s either one of us loses a family member, but at the end it won't be
me," Anusha says and I swallow so hard. Is she a transformer?

"He forced his self on me, the guy that you guys said I must take with me and vowed that he will
protect me, he left me. So basically I almost became the victim of rape. You know he was so
close. He had pin pointed me with a gun, talking all nasty, forcing me to go live and record a
tape with him," I lie, not really but it did happen but not to that point. I have to protect myself
here. I wipe my tears. I am not crying because of what happened a few hours back but I am
crying because I ruined the chance of me escaping to my family. If I had made it safe them my
boyfriend would have protected me since he is a police officer.

"And as you say it was either he loses his life or your brother's life, I'm the hero here," I say
defending myself more and I here a chuckle. It is Rio and Omari. This is not funny, they cannot
laugh at this situation, it was a matter of life and death situation.

Clap once, clap twice. That is Anusha clapping slowly at my scene," Yey yipeee You were the
hero of the day, yey you saved the day , but you also tried to escape," She says. Why didn’t he do
law instead of kidnapping young girls.

"I was not trying to escape," I lie though my teeth

"Oh, then what were you trying to do?" she further interrogates

"I wanted to hitch hike a taxi here, I was trying to run away from the guards, I was scared that
someone was going after me and would call the police or his men were following me and then
keep me hostage until their boss makes it," I lie again

She looks at Rio who raised his hands in surrender and in chuckles. If only this was not a serious
situation everyone would be laughing their asses out.

"I guess Rio got it all wrong and carried you here,"

"He just wanted to carry me up, I never asked him, I was relieved when he got there, even when I
got here It felt like home because I knew that now I am safe," I say and Jack and Omari laugh
then head out of the room to contain their laughter. I do not know what is funny here.
"You did a good job today regardless of your sick tactics, I warn you that you should never ever
again try to pull that stunt ever again, I don’t know how many people must tell you that we have
ears and eyes everywhere. And oh the mess that you created, Omari and Jack will handle it. Rio
let us move to the next move shall we?" she says excusing my presence. I walk out of the room
and sigh. That went well. As I walk down the corridor Jack and Omari crack into laughter. They
are dumb and are fools and stupid.

"BACK TO YOUR STATIONS," says the guard who is conducting our gym session today. I let
out a heavy sigh and grab my water bottle and towel.

"Not you Imani, you still have work to do," one of the guards says. And what work is she
referring to? She is not going to be my sponsor for the gym is she? I mean all she knows is
moving around nothing more.

"We are running the yard," she says and my eyes zoom out. She must be mistaken no, not me. I
am not fat to want to lose weight and my weight is perfect for whatever job it is that I have to do
here.

"What do you mean?" I ask

"We are going for a jog, this is to train you that even next time when you try to escape Rio, well
a man like him and the team, then you will be successful," oh I see, this has got Anusha and her
brothers written all over it. I thought we were fine.

"Now let's get into it," she says and starts jogging. I sigh and look up . She jogs back to me and
threatens me of what will happened if I don’t do as instructed. She jogs and this time I follow
her. We have ran that 100 meters and I am tired. She is ahead of me. I don’t want to do this, I am
not used to all of this. As I fetch my 200 meters then my 300meters, my knees become weak
and I throw myself on the ground, a figure is watching at a distant. I close my eyes and open
them when water is being sprinkled on my face. The guard helps me up and I look at the man
figure. It is Rio. Why is he doing all this?

"We need to go again," the lady says

"I can't I am sorry, let there be another punishment, not this. I have respiratory problems," I say, I
am not lying on this one. I was never part of any sports in school because of me having
respiratory problems.

"well we are getting rid of those problems now, it is your fears not problems if you allow your
fears to get the better of you then you won't be able to escape next time, come one," she pulls me
up after her speech. She starts the job once again and I follow behind her . Before I know it I am
down again. I can't hear her voices properly. She is so far away but bolding my hand. There is
more air in the tympanic membrane than in the ossicle in my middle ear. The air is not equalized.
*

"is she going to be fine doc?" Anusha asks. I had just woken up. From what I heard, I had a mild
concussion from falling with the back of my head and lost my breath for a mere second. My
breathing rate had decreased above normal limits .

"' she will be okay ,"

"When do you think she will be okay, a day or two? I need her to do an important task," here I
thought she cared but she only cares about her brother. I just hope he is crippled wherever he is .

"Anusha relax, she will be okay, just give her a little bit of rest, a day only then you can get her
back to work, well I mean to something that stresses her," she says then walks away. Rio walks
in.

"Please leave, I really don’t want to see you right now,"

"Well I didn’t know she had respiratory problems," He says ignoring what she just said.

"You never checked her file to begin with Rio,"

"But I was following your advice, she lied about me and you said I must punish her ," he defends
himself.

"I never said make her run the whole field, this is not the Battalion Rio, we don’t make people
run like ad chickens,"

"well…"

"the least you could do is apologize, we need her as in like soon," Anusha says. Atleast he is
going to apologize.

"I am sorry Little sister," what? I thought he is supposed to apologize to me not her. She is not
the one in sick bed. This family is so deranged. I scream out of nowhere and they both look at
me.

CHAPTER 006

A week passed I had been given the rest that I needed. Anusha had to postpone and put the plan
on hold, that was Edward's idea. Even though he acts all stubborn but I like him now. I have
been accommodated with my own room now. No longer sharing with Amara. I knew I wouldn’t
share with her for that long, her job was to make me understand the importance of being here and
she did. I receive my breakfast, lunch and supper In my room, take a walk for that 20 minutes
then back in my luxurious room.
I think I am going to be given another week to rest cause I am not ready to go bac to work again,
and from I heard it is the real part of the plan that we are moving to, hence I was given this one
week break. I just hope that I don’t have to kidnap anybody at least if they can just say I just
have to party and burn people with iron, that would be better.

"follow me," the guard says, it is the one that made me jog and made me faint. I am not angry at
her, infact I am grateful for what she did. I wouldn’t have gotten the rest that I was awarded if it
wasn’t for her and Rio. She is leading the way to the last floor of the building. I don’t know why
she take the stairs, we could have just taken the lift. After what felt like a lifetime, she opens the
door and I get in. it is all of them today.

"I believe you have rested enough and now it is time to get back to business," Anusha says, the
day I get my hands on her, please take a video. I don’t know how to fight but for her I will. Just
to rearrange her pretty little face.

"let us get straight into business, love, we don’t have time to play your stupid little game, our
brother could be dying by now and the games that you playing they must wait have to wait. Now
if you pull that stunt again that you pulled before, I swear I wouldn’t hesitate putting a bullet in
your head many times. I have been gentle with you for too long so that you adjust to the way
things are done around here, so do not ever try to escape my sight, I may not be your guard
anymore but I trust Vero that she will do a good job and if you disrespect her in any way, she
will report to me and you won't like what I will do to your family because for the life of my
family it is the life of your family," Rio said then walked out.

I just felt shivers running down my spine from just what he said. He scared me, I guess he is not
the man that I thought he was. Indeed he is scary and serious. I swear those 30 % feelings just
went outside the window and I have to search for them when I get out of this room.

"Okay, that was after his girlfriend lied to him," Edward says and then laughs. He is so fuckin
damn dumb. Omari looked at him.

"I mean his ex-girlfriend," he said again.

Anusha shifted her attention towards me," ok, now Imani, I believe that Rio made himself clear
and I believe that you will no longer pull that stunt again,"

"Please follow him Omari,"

"I think I should follow him, "Edward says and they all looked at him.

"I mean we all know that he is going to make it rain with that man who tried to force himself on
Imani," he said again. He thinks this is all a joke.

"No, Omari and Jack will follow him, if you go there you will just make matters worse, we need
information from that man and all you going to do is to kill him before we get something from
him, so I want you hear with Vero and keep an eye on Imani as she gets ready," Anusha says
"You know I could just go even if you didn’t approve right?"-Edward

"Edward, I mean what I am saying please, I need you here," -Anusha

"Fine little sister," -he finally gives in and Jack walks out following Rio.

She sighs," Imani, you are expected to leave this building, we found you a new job. It is not hard
but you can only make it hard yourself,"

Why is she so serious like this is an mission impossible task," am I going partying?" I ask out of
curiosity, but my questions send Omari, Edward and Vero to laughter. I don’t know why
they tend to make fun in everything I say.

"No, you are not going partying , can you take this thing seriously, I am honestly tired of
threatening you lady,"

"Then don’t threaten me, just tell me what I have to do without you and your brothers
threatening my family, it is no like I have any other choice but to stay here," I say

"Imani let us be serious can we?"-Omari asks and I nod

"You are expected to work the job description you are given, that is easy I know, but you going
to be staying there as you work until everything is smoothly going according to plan, the next
step you will find the guy who matches this description," he hands me a photo and I look at it.

"when you find him, you make ways of trying to get access to him even if it is a minute or two ,
you tell him that we are coming to get him out of where he is. You continue getting information
for us on the way in and out of that building, you just need to be careful, I know that this is easy
and my siblings just want to complicate everything." -Omari

"And what if I get caught while doing all of this?" I ask

"You will be taken with Vero as your guard, You just need to play along with everything that she
does, you can trust her, she is the best guard for you. We couldn’t send Rio with you because
they know him and they would recognize him but we vow that Vero is going to protect you and
make sure that no harm comes your way. I trust her. "

I nod at that, he is so calm, I don’t know why his pit bull siblings are like this.

"Ok, well you will be escorted to change and then taken to your destination," Anusha says

"And oh, just don’t mess this up, " she says finally and then excuses me . I walk out following
Vero.
"They trust you, just don’t mess this up," Vero says as we walk inside her space. I don’t say
anything .

"we are both acting so we going to work together here, I am going to be your supervisor and
your sponsor, I will be training you there and if they assign you to anyone just follow their
orders. I will always be there to protect you, I have been friends with Rio since after high school,
so if you are worried that you are going with me instead of him and think I am not fit enough to
protect you, but I am way more better a fighter and a shooter than him, I trained him so you got
to relax,"

"It is not that I don’t trust you, they just put so much trust in me and there's no room for
disappointment but I am full of disappointment," I say

"You just need to tell yourself that you will do this and you can do this,"

"And the man that I handled?" I ask

She chuckles, she never ever laughs," Rio and his brothers are taking care of him, he is our way
out of this problem, they are grateful for what you did I know they just never told you but they
are, their plan would be put on hold just for them to keep this guy off their books but you , you
made things simpler for them,"

"let us get ready before she walks in here," she says and I chuckle. She is referring to Anusha

"Would you or would she beat the hell out of you?"

"I would, she is just thoughtless when it comes to situations like killing someone who is a threat,
she is just quick,"

I nod,"And they are willing to protect her?"

"Yes, she just wants to bring her family back together,”

CHAPTER 007

We are here, in this huge building worth millions and millions to construct and not to forget the
plan for the construction of the building which costed millions also. This is on the outskirts of the
city.

"Are you ready?" Vero asks

"I am, not that I have any other choice, they trust me right? And my family also trusts me." I say
and she nods.

"let's go," she says and she takes the lead, I follow behind her with my uniform of waitresses. We
are scanned of devices and they find none.
"Ms. Chunwa," one of the guards says and Vero looks at him.

"Hey, where can I find Mr. and Mrs. Grez?" she asks

"You are right on time, he has been waiting for you," the guard says.

"He? Where is Mrs. Grez?"

"She went home for family matters,"

Vero nods and the guards takes us to the Mr. Grez's office.

"Mrs. Chunwa is here," the guard says and then let us in excusing himself.

"The great Grez," Vero says, I didn’t know she could act.

"Nuru, please call me Azizi," Grez says

"Formalities, I brought someone with me," Vero says

"I see, she looks to be more advanced," Mr grez says

"She definitely is, Imani how about you turn around in slow motion and show us what you got
with you," Vero says and I do as instructed.

"Mhmm, she has it with her, I like her she is more advanced,"

"She has been with me, just didn’t know who to send her off to?" Vero says

"I would like for hat person to be me," Grez says

"Imani please excuse us, the guard will show you your way around here," Vero says and I do as
instructed. I just have to follow her orders right? Listen to everything that she instructs me right?
just to make things easier. I find a guard outside the door .

"You must be the new member Imani?" he asks

"yes,"

"I will show you to your rest place then have someone show you around," he says and I nod.

"What will you be doing here?" he asks

"I haven't been told but for serving our patients," I say
"I hope you know how things are done here right?"

I was told everything that I am supposed to do on my way here. But I don’t say that," Yes,"

"Good, this is your place of rest," he says then lets me be at my peace.

I sit and look around the room that I am going to be occupying. It is not that bad. All I know is
that I must meet with a certain man by the name of Daniel. I don’t know why he is here but I am
to take part in plan of his siblings wanting to save him. I don’t know where to start but I have to
listen to Vero's orders or else I will do things in my own way just because I want this over and
done with. I hope Vero makes this quicker.

An hour has passed and Vero is not yet out of that office with that Grez man. I wonder what they
are discussing. I hope they didn’t get what we are here to do or else I know I am out of here in a
body bag. This building is surrounded by guards, lots of guards. The security is tight. My door
knob turns and I stand up. It is her. I walk to her and hug her.

"Thank God," I say. She is not hugging me back, I pull out of the hug.

"I was worried that maybe he found out about his man, that I am the reason behind it."

"relax, I am taking the position of that man, I need to take a bath," she says

"But you bath when you came here,"

"Yeah, I got here and sat with a man," she says

"eeew,"

"Let me take a bath then I will come and explain what you need to do okay?" I nod as she walks
away. I guess we are in. I get the knock on my door and it is lady.

"Imani?" she asks

"Yeah,"

"This is your pajama for tonight, " she says and hands me my outfit for the night. " You will be
assigned your room assigned, I mean the one you will be attending,"

I nod and she walks away.

CHAPTER 008

The alarm rang, working all of us. I did my hygiene process and wore my uniform. There's
nothing that doesn’t suit me. Everything best suits me. I am the most beautiful girl in the world.
There was a knock on the door and I stood up to go get, hoping it was Vero but it is the girl that
brought me my clothes last night.

"How did you sleep?" she asks

"Fine, thanks for the welcome,"I say

"You are welcome,Zuri," she introduces

"Well, Ash-, Imani," I say, shit I almost tripped.

"Well since you are ready, let me show you where you are working at today," she says as we
walk out of my bedroom.

"You are working day shift for now, if you know things around here properly then you will move
to night but I doubt that will happened,"

"No problem with me, what will I be doing today?" I ask

"Not much," she says

"Okay," I respond calmly. There's a commosion on the corridor. Zuri rushes there, I follow her to
where the noise is coming from.

"What is happening?" she asks looking at the lady who is standing by the door.

"He wants to commit suicide," the lady says

"Move, move everyone move from here," Zuri says and people start moving from the scene.
She turns to look at me ,"You too," I nod and walk away.

We are seated for breakfast, we are not as many as workers but there are many guards here.
Atleast we are not treated as prisoners, if It was up to me, I would stay here and never return to
Accra, where we are treated like dogs, but I have got no choice but to be here right. I am going to
hate this man for the rest of my life together with his family. Daniel. I thought Daniel was a
warrior from the bible aint he the one who bit the Giant with the stone? Oh no he is the one who
walked on fire and said he will never bow down to idols.

"Imani right?" a lady asks, the one who was standing at the door by the corridor.

"Yes, you are?"

"Linda," she says

"You not from here, I could tell by you accent," I say

"Well, I am now, was hoping you could use a friend?"

"no, I will pass," I say

" ok well I offered you friendship and you declined it,"

"wait, earlier, that man, is he suicidal?"

"what are you asking me? You are not supposed to ask me about that man, nobody should. If
Zuri finds out that the new girl is asking questions about matters that do not concern her, you
will be in trouble, me too,"

"I am sorry, I didn’t mean any harm, I was just curious, I have watched people commit suicide
on my watch and that is still traumatic to me," I lie

"You do not have to worry, that man wont commit suicide, he would rather have the company
kill him for not speaking,"

"Oh,"I say

"Yes, now stop asking questions, forget we ever met and talked okay, you are bad news," she
said and walk away.

I sigh and stood up to get in with my jobs . I make my way down the corridor and the room. It is
so quiet over here. There are many rooms in this corridor , I don’t know which one is the one.

"You, what are you doing here?" I turn to look at who it is, it is a lady I don’t know.

"Please don’t hurt me, I am new here and I am looking for the hall," I lie

"You are the new girl, the hall is that way," she points with her finger

"Thanks," I say

"Next time do not get lost and come here, or you are dead,"

I nod and move my body to my room.

"Imani wait," a voice says behind me and I turn.

"Yes," I say, it Is Zuri.

"I here you are asking question already in this place,"

"I was just curious, I am sorry, I meant no harm,"

"I don’t care, I think you should mind your own business from now on and stop interfering with
my business okay?" she asks and I nod.

"You are excused,"

I sigh and walk away. Along the way I meet Vero. She drags me inside my room.

"You already asking questions, lady do you want to get us killed?"

I shake my head no.

"Where are you coming from?" she asks

"I don’t know, down the corridor," I say

"What was happening down the corridor?"

I exhale, "I don’t know, just about this man wanting to commit suicide,"

"that’s all? We here to work and get Daniel not for you to snoop around," she reminds me .

I nod "Vero,"

"What?"

"I think we found him," I say

"What do you mean we found him,?" she doesn’t get this , she won't if she continues giving me
attitude.

"Daniel, I think he is the man refusing to eat, just down the corridor,"

"What?" she is confused

"Yes, I don’t know but my gut is telling me so,"

"Well we will look into it tonight," she says

"Tonight? No we can't not tonight," I say

"Do you want to get out of here and go back to your family? Cause the sooner we do this the
soon you return to your family, only if a bullet doesn’t stuck in your head," she says

"Fine tonight," I say and walk away.

CHAPTER 009
It was already late at night. I walked out of my room to the corridor. There were guards down the
corridor. Stopped and turned back to Vero's room.

"You are here?" she asks as she opened the door.

"what is happening at the corridor?"

"I cant pass, there are guards all over the place,"

"What did you expect that they would be sleeping?" she asks

"What do you mean? You are the one that said I must go down there tonight,"

"And hat just proved how dumb you are,"

I swallowed, " was this a test?"

"Call it whatever you want, cause you failed,"she says

"I am not the only one who failed, we both failed. Did you think that it was going to be easy
getting your precious Daniel?"

"Lower your voce," she commands.

"Well, there are many door that we still need to open and we don’t know which one so please
stop telling me that I failed and get where he is at, I did my part."

"oh yeah, you did?"

"yes I told you that he is at the corridor," I say

"You are so dumb, get the fuck out of my room."

In the morning, I did my morning routine and then walked out of my bedroom. The lady that
caught me snooping around in the corridor kept her eyes on me. Is she keeping tabs on me? Oh I
better hope not. I sat down on the table on my own and I saw a boots on top of the table. It was
her.

"you know I thought you were the new girl who got lost, but here you are asking questions
already?" she says

"I was just curious that's all,"

"well I do believe that you got lost but the fact that you are asking questions about matters not
related to you kinda bothers me,"

"I was with Zuri when the man wanted to commit suicide, my sister committed suicide," I lie
again. God should forgive about all these lies. Lies for a man whom I don’t even know.

"I don’t believe you," she says

"and you are disturbing me from my breakfast," I say losing my patience.

"I can decide on whether you should eat or not, it is up to me," she says

"I am sorry, I didn’t mean to say that," I say

"Mercy," she turns to look at who is calling her and it is Zuri.

"we are not done here new girl," she says before she walks away.

"You are already harassing her?" Zuri asks as she walks up to her.

"I was just asking her questions, I don’t like snitches, I don’t trust her," Mercy says.

"Neither do I, but Grez trusts Vero, not knowing I should trust her too," I look at them and they
walk away. I stood up and began my new routine. I walk to Vero's room and knock once then get
inside.

"What the fuck lady?" she says

"We have a problem," I say

"deal with it, I cant do everything for you," she says

"We are partners in all of this," I say

"I have nothing to lose but as for you Imani,"

I swallow," we really have a problem,"

"what is it?" she asks

"What are their names? The commanders of this place, Mercy and Zuri, they are on to me and
soon to be on you,"

"what do you mean by that, I am Grez's guest here," she says

"They suspect that we are onto something, they don’t trust me nor you , always watching my
back, they are keeping tabs on both of us ,"

"Those bitches never quit protecting him do they?" she asks

I shrug m shoulders

"We only have two weeks max here to bring him home, " she says

"yes," I say

"you are going in,"

"What? it is not safe Vero, you know it yourself, I could get killed,"

"Worry less, I will take care of the guards tonight, you just need to know the room he is at. We
are not getting him out tonight."

"okay, what about Mercy and Zuri?"

"I said I will take care of the guards, now get out of my room, there's somewhere I need to be,"

"you are leaving me here alone?" I ask

"I am still in this building Imani,"

I nod and walk out of the room.

*
The clock has struck, I am still nervous and scared about all this. I could get killed from all this.
Vero is not even shaking. She seems to be relaxed and fine with everything. Here she is wearing
black gloves on her hand. She takes her gun and stands up.

"you ready?" she asks and I nod. There's no turning back from this. I want to go back home so I
have to do this. I take off my shoes as she had instructed me to. She is the only one wearing her
boots . We head out of the room to the corridor. She takes off her glove and places it down the
corridor and instructs us to wait for a few more minutes. The first two guards pass out . Mercy
looks at them and rushes to the.

"What is happening here?"she asks

"Go," Vero says and I walk towards her. She lifts her head and looks at me. She points out her
gun to me and before she could do anything she is down on her knees. Vero shot her with a
rubber bullet.
"Go, I will take care of this," she says and hands me the keys then starts pulling Mercy's body to
her room as I try to unlock the doors. Only one door unlocked. I push the door and walk in. the
room is dark. I turn on the lights and before I know it. I am being strangled. It is him. I try to
beat his hands but he is strong. I kick his nuts and he lets me go.

"I will kill you," he says and I take the vase in his room.

"Please don’t, I am here to rescue you please," I say

"You are no match of rescuing me," he says and charges towards me.

"Anusha, you sister and you other siblings, they sent me here to get you out of here please
believe me. I am not here to hard you." I say

"Anusha?" he asks and I nod

"How is she? Edward I am sure he is happy?"

"No he is not, he wants you back home," I say

"He never loved me and always blamed me for his mother's death," he says and sits down

"I am sorry, I am not here for long, the guards might be awake anytime soon, I need to leave but
I will be back okay?"

He nods and I start to walk away but he holds my hand. I turn to look at him and I smile.

"Please tell them that I am okay and that they should not worry, they wont do anything to me,"
he says

"No, they are going to get you out of this place," I say and he kisses my hand.

"it is impossible," he says and then lets my hand go.

I walk out of the room to Vero's room. She has tied Mercy on the chair.

"What the fuck?" I ask

"Just mind your business for once please,"

I am minding my business

CHAPTER 10

Three days have passed and people are starting to ask questions about Mercy and her
disappearance. Vero is not willing to let her go. She is not fazed about the questions. Mercy is
being drugged every day in this room. There's no talking Vero out of this. Her mind is made up.
But I don’t care as long as we have found Daniel and the siblings knows about where he is kept.
Just a few more days for all of this to be over and I get to go home.

"Atleast stop drugging her," I say as she opens the closet that she has kept her in.

"I cant do that, unless you want to get killed by these merciless people," she bsays. She has been
using that as her defense line. I nod.

"you do know that there will be a search for me right?" Mercy asks.

"I know that very well," Vero says

"And it will start here before being outside of these walls," _Mercy

"I know that too,"- Vero

"For now we just wait for the search, it is part of the plan baby, it is all connected," -Vero

Mercy chuckles, "It proves that you are a coward by keeping me here, and drugging me,"

"You still think I can't beat your ass? I can and I will, the reason I a keeping you here is because I
have no choice but to so that my plan is laid to action smoothly with no one getting hurt
Mercy,"-Vero

"I see, what is your plan exactly? Own his building?"-Mercy

Vero chuckle, "Not everything is about owning Mercy, you are just dumb, I am not interested in
this building never was,"

"I think I should leave," I say and walk out of the room.

"Imani, Grez's office," a lady says and I nod then walk to Grez's office. I hope he didn’t find out
about what happened the other night. Or rather not start asking me questions about Mercy. I am
a good liar if acting. I knock once on his office and he lets me in. He is with Zuri. I should have
known that today I am dying, I would have confessed all my sins.

"Can I trust you?" Grez asks and I nod.

"assign her as the care taker of our man," Grez says

"But that is Mercy's department," Zuri says

"Do you see her?" -Grez

She kept quiet.

"Exactly my point,"

"We cant trust this girl, we don’t know much of her, she has been here for what? Like 2 days?"

"I trust Vero meaning I trust Imani," -Grez

"but,"-Zuri

"Focus on Mercy, we need her the most so this lady here will be the care taker of our man," -
Grez

"Yes boss,"-Zuri

"You may be excused, both of you," -Grez

I walked out first followed by Zuri. She grabbed my arm and pinned me against the wall.

"Where is Mercy?"- she asks

"I don’t know,"- I lie

"Since you got here things began to go west, what are you working on?"

"I don’t know what you are talking about,"

"I will get to the bottom of this, Imani," she says then lets me go. I hold my wrist and it was
swollen. I rubbed my fingers on it then walked away.

"Imani," one of the guard calls

"come with me," he says and I follow him down the corridor.

"This is where you are assigned," he says and opens the door for me, then closes it after saying
be careful. His back is facing me. He is drawing something.

"I am not hungry as yet," he says

"I did not say you were,"

"you are back?" he says then turn to look at me

" I keep my promises," I lie, I never do.

He stands up and hugs me.

"are they with you?" he asks

"No, but soon they will be,"

He nods.

"What are you drawing?" I ask

"An elegant woman," he says

"Let me see that woman,"

"No"

"Why is that?" I ask

"Because I do not want people to take her away from me,"

"But I don’t know her why would I take her away from you?"

"Just understand please," he begs and I nod.

"You are to eat now," I sa

"I said I am not hungry,"

"Fine then I will spoon feed you then," I say and get his food.

"You going to force food down my throat?" he asks

"do I have to though? You are my baby and I am your care taker, so yeah, I am going force food
down your throat," I say and smile at him

He chuckles," I will eat, thanks,"

I smile and look at him," finally gave in,"

"You are beautiful," he says

"Thanks," I say, I love compliments. I know I am beautiful but I need it from someone else.

"Your name?" he asks

"Imani,"

" I mean your real name," he says

"Ashante,"

"Meaning Thank you," he says

I smile and nod.

CHAPTER 11

I turn my head so that I change the side I am facing. I slightly open my eyes and I am in this bed
with Daniel. I get up very fast and start pace up and down. At least I am still in my clothes. It
was myth stories and folktales that led to me sleeping in his bed. I wear my shoes and then walk
out of the room and pass the guards. I am going to my room, I don’t the time. When I get to my
room the first thing I do is to check the clock and it is already after midnight. At least I still have
six hours to sleep. I undress and get under the sheets and snore.

*
As usual I do my morning routine, when I am done , I pass by Vero's room and check on her. I
need to tell her about the issue at hand. She must release Mercy or she will get us unwanted
attention. She is awake, thank God, not that she is much of a sleeper.

"We have a problem," I tell her, I don’t need to greet her.

"You have made it a habit to just budge in here and don’t even greet me then you sing out your
best line on your everyday song," she says, that is not even funny, unless if she thinks it is
funny.

"What is it?"

"Zuri is asking questions already, she doesn’t trust me and believes that I am the one holding
Mercy captive,"

"That is the problem?"

I look at her, she cant be relaxed about all this.

She exhales, "Fine, I will take care of her, she has always been troublesome,"

"What do you mean, ' you will take care of her'?"

She shrugs," I don’t know, anything that comes to my mind then I shall do to her,"

"you cant go around holding people hostage, you are drawing unnecessary attention towards me,
"

"You are always stressing, tell e about the progress and let those monkeys poking their nose on
people's businesses to me,"
"I was called by Grez, and I am assigned to Daniel Since Mercy is Absent,"

"You see, we are making progress,"

"What is next? I mean what is going to happen next since we found him," I ask

"the siblings will decide on that, for now just hold on,"

I nod and walk out of the room, I need to attend to Daniel. I pass the guards down the corridor, I
don’t know how they are going to get their brother from this place with all these guards-- he is
awake already, that makes things easier for me cause I really was in no mood of waking
someone else, especially a grown ass man like him.

"Hi," he says

"Hey, how did you sleep?" I ask

"I am not at home so I just sleep but last night was different,"

"oh, how so?"

"I just slept nice, but then you decided to leave me and have nightmares of my old childhood
life,"

"Which nightmares?" I ask

"Of me being chased by a dog, "

"that is not funny," I say hoping to bruise his ego but he just smiles.

"To me it is funny," he defends his nightmare

"You always like this?" I ask

"I am just this person, the one you are seeing right now,"

"I have met your siblings, you know, they forced me into doing this, they threatened my family
for your life," I blame him for what is happening right now.

"I am sorry to hear that,"

"No you cannot be sorry when you are not the one deprived from your life events, my little sister
is about to graduate and I may not be there on her graduation day, my mother needs my help,
they are dependent on me,"
He stands up and walks towards me. "I am sorry about all that, I didn’t know about any of that as
you can see I am here,"

"Yeah if only you just give out what these people want then you wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t
be here. My family wouldn’t be dying from hunger,"

He holds my hand," I am sorry about all that, I honestly am sorry, I wouldn’t force you to be
here, if it was up to and if I had control over all this I would tell you to no go ahead with all this
bu-"

I intercept," you do have control over this, you just give me them what they want, I am the one
who has got no choice here, my family is being threatened but you, you have a choice and you
already made yours, "

"Do you really think that if I give them what they want they will let me go? No they wouldn’t ,
they have to kill me first, the reason I am not dead as yet is because they are keeping me as their
average, without be they won't get the coordinates of the box. Even if I tell them they will kill me
and my family would also kill your family, I believe that the reason I am keeping the coordinates
is also me keeping your family alive," he says

I shake my head no and wipe my tears," You were held here before your family abducted me?
How does that make you keep my family alive?"

He takes my hand and makes me seat down on the bed. He kneels in front of me.
"listen to me, I know and trust my siblings when they say they are going to pull me off from here
and I promise you that no one is going to get hurt,"

"But Vero has already hurt one of the guards," I say

"Vero is just being Vero, if you are talking about Mercy, they already had a beef,"

I keep quiet.

"Ashante," he calls my name.

"Ashante, look at me," I raise my eyes to look at him.

"I promise you that, no one is going to hurt your family, not even Anusha, she will have to think
twice before doing that okay?" I nod, he wipes my fingers using his thumb.

"Can I tell you something?" he asks

"What?"

"I think I have fallen for you,"

"This is not the time Daniel, I am your rescue team here, please don’t get me confused,"

"I am not, I am just expressing my feeling, I am an honest man by nature,"

"Well I am an honest actor by nature,"

"I don’t care about all that," he says

"I am annoying and I am not here to be romantic with you, I am here as your savior," I say and
he laughs.

CHAPTER 12

I am in my room, almost ready to pack up when Vero shows up and closes the door.

"We are not here for romance, but to get him out, now look what you have done," she says

"It is not what you think it is, we were not doing anything," I say in my defense

"Like Grez would care," she says

"Pack up, we are leaving before he sends his guards to us,"

"what? What about Daniel?"

"Now you seem to care about him a lot, he is also going with us,"

"But we cant take him with us," I say

"just pack up or you will die in this building," she says with a serious tone and before we could
know it, there was a knock on the door and it was the guards. Two of them.

"Not today boys," Vero said and took out her pistol and shot both of them. I screamed.

"Pack up lady," she shouted.

When I was done I took my bag, as we were about to walk out Zuri blocked our way and said,
"We going somewhere?"
She looked at the two guards lying down. "Still have an upper hand at shooting innocent people,"

"Zuri do not get in my way, not today,"

"you know what I think? I think we should get what is on our chest out,"

"You really wanna go that far?"

"verily so?"

"Okay then," she chuckled and put her hands in a fist. Zuri was the first one to jump in with a
superman punch which sent Vero to her bowing her head. Another punch landed on Vero's
face. As Zuri was about to throw another punch Vero held her fist and then punched Zuri on her
stomach causing her to groan. She threw another punch again followed by a kick on the stomach,
Vero let her go and looked at me. As she was about to look at Zuri, it was already too late cause
she had already sent her off with a double kick. Zuri looked at me and licked her lips. She
summoned the guards.

"What are you waiting for, take them to the chamber," she said, the guards dragged me along
with Vero who had fallen into a deep slumber. Is she that weak to be sleeping. As we got to the
chamber as they were about to tie us down, I heard a gunshots. I looked at who was shot and it
was the two guards. Vero shot them. She is the starring of the day.

"we need to leave now," she said headed to the door. But there stood Grez and Zuri.

"Thou shall not dare,' Grez said and Vero looked at him.

"Tie them up," he said to the guards that were with him. They had tied us to the poles.

"I had trusted you with everything as a friend," Grez said, "But for you to come here and
disrespect me in my own house, try to kill me in my own house, betray me in my own house,"

Vero spit out blood," I never disrespected you, you have always been a coward Grez, all this
dictatorship is because you are afraid of losing you power, I beat you, Rio beat you, now holding
his brother captive to get the box, that is being a coward,"

"mhmm, what a speech,"-Grez

You know Vero I am not much of a talker but I like proving my words with an action, now let us
not act all Bat woman and you tell me where is Mercy?"

"somewhere where you wouldn’t find her,"-Vero

"Oh, I think we can find her, it's just that we have to make you talk first, now where is SHE?"-
Grez

"I am not one to talk much Grez, you should have leant that by now," -Vero

"I don’t know why you keep running around the bush, you are down for Vero, it is us with
precious Daniel and you two, and you only have who? Mercy? Come on,"-Grez

Vero chuckled,"That is where you are mistaken, you only have e and her and we are not the
leverage here, as for Mercy I don’t know but as for Daniel all know is that he is long gone by
now,"
Grez took out his cellphone and made a call," Check our boy's room,"

"okay sir, " the guard said.

"and?" -Grez

As he waited for his answer, Gunshots were fired

"I guess that was the sound of our drum roll,"-Vero

"I need all men at the reception, shoot every imposter in the building,"-Grez

Vero chuckled

" where the hell is Mercy?"-Grez

"She is dead, you should know that by now," -Vero

"You bitch," he fired the gun. I looked at her as she slowly raised her head to look at him. He had
shot her on the stomach.

"And now you, we are to deal with you,"

"Please, please I don’t know anything please," I said

"Damn right you don't pretty" -Grez

He untied me, held me by my hair then dragged me by my hair. We walked to the reception.
They were about to walk out. Many lifeless bodies lying on the floor. I looked at Daniel.

"Ashante," he said.

"You should just give us what we want and we get to end all this," -Grez

"I swear if you hurt her in any way I will-,"-Daniel

"You will what? I am not losing anything here, but you, your little love is going to die," -Grez

"Daniel please just give him what he wants," I begged.

"No Daniel, do not give up the coordinates," Anusha said

"Listen to your lover Daniel, you sister has always been one with no heart," -Grez

Anusha chuckled," No heart?"

"Daniel, think about all this, give me the coordinates for the box or she dies,"

"Please Daniel, just give him what he wants please, remember your promise," I said

"Daniel, you know better that even if you give up the coordinates, she is dead, do you think he
will let her go?"-Anusha

I shook my head no and he put the gun on my head,"Daniel,"

"You know what , let us get this over and with, this chit chat should just end,"-Anusha
She pointed her gun at Grez.

"Oh lady you don’t want to do that," -Grez

"Anusha what are you doing?"-Omari

"Oh yeah, I know what I am doing, I don’t know w

CHAPTER 13

We had to take him to the hospital, The Trust Hospital, Osu. We have been waiting here for
hours, the doctors are not saying anything to us. they just gave us forms to sign ton remove the
bullet. I am scared for him. I don’t want him to die especially knowing that he died saving my
life. He had made promises to me, yes he kept his word that no one shall get hurt but now I am
scared also for my family. What if Anusha kills them because her brother is lying in hospital.

"you ladies should go back," Omari says.

I am not going anywhere for all I care. I am not their hostage here, I have every right to be here if
they are going to kill my family just because their brother chose to play superhero when their
sister tried to play Bat woman. If I was a bad person, I would be pointing fingers at who is at
fault. Definitely their sister is one to blamed for all this. We wouldn’t be here if she didn’t try to
save the day. It is because she is stubborn. We see a doctor coming towards us, we all stand up,
already asking him on the progress of the man lying inside that ER.

"We managed to remove the bullet successfully, you actually did great that you brought him here
on time," the doctor says

Thank God he is okay.

"Can we see him now?" Bat woman asks, I am so pissed at her. Her being so emotional pisses
me off.

"Not now, he is still unconscious at the moment, but I would advise that you all go home and
tomorrow during visiting hours, you can come and see him,"-Doctor
"Alright, thanks doc," Omari says and helps his sister up. We all walk out of the hospital, then
drove back to the building.
After a 30 minutes' drive we arrived at the building. Edward was eating, is he always hungry or
what? Rio is seated with Jack.

"How is he?" Jack asks

"he will be fine, at least the doctor confirmed," Omari said

"Well, it still doesn’t feel like anything, I wonder how it would have been if he died?" -Edward

"If you have got nothing to say just shut the hell up,"-Rio said

"I was just asking, I mean no one is cryi-"Edward

"get out," Anusha said

Edward lifted his hands up," I mean no harm little sister," he said then walked out with his plate
of food.

"Go to your room Ashante," Jack said, I just looked at him and then walked out. If there's anyone
that they should be needing it is me, I am the last one to have a communication with their
brother but we talking about people who commit atrocities here. Who held me hostage to bring
their brother back home. All in all I can say that I am the starring here.

My bed is neatly made, I need to fall into a deep slumber, I have been though and seen the worst
today, people were killed in front of me. Vero, she is dead just because of wanting to be the
superhero and be secretive. I don’t know what is wrong with all these people and not talking. I
wouldn’t stop talking just because I want to protect the people that surround me. I am sorry but I
love and value my self more, if only she spoke what the hell is happening none of this would
have happened. Daniel wouldn’t be in hospital fighting for his life. If it was anywhere and any
day I would be drinking just so that I get drunk and just fall asleep and wake up after this all has
passed.

The next following morning, I woke up early, I want to go to the hospital with them. I want to be
there when he wakes up so that I can get to reprimand him of what he should and not do? What
did he say when we were together? 'I think I have fallen for you' yes those were his words-- I
have already done my hygiene process. I walk to their floor and knock once. They all look at me
as I walk in.

"Ashante, what are you doing here?" Omari asks

"I am coming with you," I say and Anusha looks at me. She better not try anything with me,
yesterday she was an emotional wreck after playing Bat Woman.
"you cant come with,"-Jack

"and why is that?" I ask

"Yes, why cant she come with?"- Edward.

They look at him, if there was any day of saying, kill that sibling who annoys you the most and
you will see God, that would be him on the list of their siblings.

"You just cant go with us, this is a family matter,"-Omari

"Well my family is waiting for me back home and you are telling me that this is a family matter?
It doesn’t make sense at all," I say

"Just listen and go back to your room Imani,"- Anusha

"Firstly it is Ashante and not Imani, secondly I am coming with or release me," I say

"Fine, release her," Rio says, I didn’t expect this from him. I thought him and I had a thing for
each other but clearly I was wrong. Yes I was wrong it was a crush but faded, I believe. I have
me some Daniel now, and not this grumpy ass of a man.

"what?" I ask

"You heard me, you are released Ashante, nothing is binding us together now, you completed
your task so you should leave," he confirms it with a little bit of an elaboration. I am going
home. I just rushed out of the room, I walk to my room and put on some shoes. I then pass by
Amara's room and bid her goodbye and bid the other girls good bye. I then walk to the gate and
wait for their confirmation to the guards to let me. I smile when the gate opens for me. I don’t
know where to catch a taxi but to my surprise, Rio is coming this way at the gate.

"Drive her to the location she tells you to, here is your payment," he says and hands me a brown
envelope. I smile and the look at the guard who is ready to take me home. I wave him goodbye
but he doesn’t wave back instead he says,"Good bye Ashante," then walks away. I get in the car
and the driver took off. I am going to start and Accra and buy goods for my mother and sister. I
already can't wait to get home to my bed and my freedom, visit my boyfriend. I know I am going
to be dumped already just from my return.

After buying a few things for my family, the driver drives me to Ablekuma. People here are
nosy, they are already on the streets gossiping. I am sure they are discussing my return, that is
how they are, they never tend to their businesses. I say good bye to the driver and then get inside
the house. Afreyea is the first one to scream when she sees me, startling my mother as we walk
to where she is. If she had it in her she would be up and rejoicing like the old times but she cant
do that. But atleast she is waving her hands up in the air and thanking God that I returned safely.
"How was work?" she asks when I have settled down. She is feeding me with all the sweets she
prepared-- I don’t know what she is talking about nw.

"Work?"n I ask confused

"Yes, you used to send us money, you called and told us that you had gotten a job that requires
you to be there for a particular time," Afreyea says

Oh so they lied to keep my family relaxed while they were threatening me with their lives. I give
them the upper hand. They are the best at what they do," it was okay," I say

"So when are you going back?"my mother asks this time
CHAPTER 14

Days passed, and I can say that I am glad to be home, catching up with my family is what I
needed. I would be lying if I did not miss my 'Job' as they claim it be. I do miss the team a lot, I
miss troubling Anusha and her threatening me always if I don’t do things her way.

"Where are you going?"Azizi asks, that is my boyfriend. He didn’t break up with me, instead he
understood the situation of me going to work. He is a cop, he had asked me 21 questions but id
dint want to dwell on the past of me being abducted by a group of siblings who care only about
themselves so as a woman I had to show him how much I missed him--sex.

He has been over protective these days, asks me where I am headed to, where I am coming from.
It sucks but I love all the attention towards me. I am already dressed up in my denim jeans and
white top and sandals.

"I am going to check on a dress for Afreyea for her graduation," I lie, I am not going there, I am
actually going to visit Daniel at the hospital. I just hope that he has not yet released. His family
cant threaten me now, I am out of their lives and we have no business together, my business is
with Daniel. He took a bullet for Anusha in my place, but I am not to blame here but Anusha for
acting Bat woman.

"Oh, want me to drop you off?" he asks politely so.

I walk to him and kiss him,"No,but thanks," I politely decline his offer.

"Well but you can have this just to buy yourself something, from me," he hands me 500
Pesewas then pecks my lips. I smile at him then walk out. I can become a millionaire if I want to
if I save up all the money I get from people, just that I am not interested at being one at the
moment--because I spend money carelessly.

It's a long drive to the hospital he is at but I make it to the hospital before visiting hours end. I
just hope his family is not there. I don’t want to talk to them ever in my life. I know his ward so
it is easier for me to locate him. I hid by the stairs when I see Rio speaking with Daniel's doctor.
I turn my back against him as he passes me.
Sigh!

I continue with my walk to his ward, hopefully no one else is in there. To my expectations there's
only a nurse with him, the nurse is smiling as he lies his way through her, he just wants her
numbers after telling me a romantic story. He is just like the rest of them, a player. I don’t even
care who he flirts with or who he asks for a date, I have my cop with me who cuffs me if I am
doing naughty things. So to hell with this man.

"Oh Ashante, the person I have been waiting to see," he says sitting properly.

"You just going to stand there and not come and give me a hug atleast?" he asks with his right
arm open for a hug. I walk to him and hug him.

"I thought I would never hear from you," he says after we have broken the hug.

"And here I am, the one to come looking for you," I say

He chuckles,"I meant that If I had died,"

"you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t try to play superhero and catch strays for people, who are
you? Superman to save the day?" I ask

"But now I am catching strays from you and feelings for you," he says

I roll my eyes, " I am not here to stay, I just came to check on you, my boyfriend is on his way to
get me," I lie at the last sentence.i just want to bruise his ego and show him how I am not so
interested in him.

He chuckles," he is your boyfriend and not mine, so far he is your boyfriend, I have got nothing
to worry about, he never promise you a wedding right? So " he shrugs his right shoulder.

"Where did you get shot," I ask changing the topic

"Don’t you want to see for yourself,"

"No, I will pass," I say and I roll my eyes then catch him staring.

"What?" I ask

"Cant I admire your beauty?" he asks

"Well unfortunately there's someone who already admires my beauty,"

"I am not someone, I am Daniel,"

Confidence much.

I clear my throat," I should get going, my husband will be here soon,"

He nods and I walk to the door where he calls my name,"I will see you when I get discharged
right?"

"my man is a cop so I can have a protection order for you," I say and he just chuckles. I roll my
eyes then walk out.

I am so super hungry, lucky me soon to be a millionaire, I have money in my account so I pass

by Accra and buy myself something to eat. I take takeaways for my mother and sister. I need to
talk to Azizi about married, I will tell him that maybe it is time we got married. What is the wait
for. I can see that he loves me and I like him, so why should we hold off on getting married. I
want to bruise Daniel's ego, that he can't get anyone he wants just because of his looks and
money. After paying a visit to the family, I will go to him and announce this whole thing, I just
hope it wont come as off me being desperate. It will be during a sex session. Everyone lies and
makes promises they don’t keep during intimacy. Yes that is the best idea ever. I should have
studied psychologist cause wow I am good at solving bad situation to be smooth situations.

It is all set, I am in my lingerie seated at the lounge sipping wine. I am proposing to a man but in
a different way. I hear the door opening and I open my legs wide open for a beautiful welcome. I
am surely graduating for having the best sex positions and being so thoughtful and idealistic. He
drops his bag when he enters the lounge.

"Baby," he says

"Wanna play housewife and husband ?" I ask

He comes to me taking off his shirt. He should be losing this weight, I mean he is always at the
field running around to catch those criminals like Anusha and her siblings--Whatsoever I have no
complaints over his weight as long as my needs as a woman are satisfied, then I have no reason
to cry.

I am now on top of him shaking my waist around his manhood. I lean on for a kiss then kiss his
lips then kiss his chest down to his manhood. I smile at him as he groans from me kissing his
manhood. I stop and look at him, he also looks at me.

"Lets get married," I suggest.

"What? Marriage?" he asks

"yes," I say and kiss his testes.

"Uhh uhm, lets have fun then we will discuss marriage after this,"

"No, we can have this discussion right now," I refuse

"Come on Shasha, "

I get up, but he pulls me down, "Okay fine, over dinner," he says and I smile

"Well lets get down to business," I say and start kissing him.

CHAPTER 14

Days passed, and I can say that I am glad to be home, catching up with my family is what I
needed. I would be lying if I did not miss my 'Job' as they claim it be. I do miss the team a lot, I
miss troubling Anusha and her threatening me always if I don’t do things her way.

"Where are you going?"Azizi asks, that is my boyfriend. He didn’t break up with me, instead he
understood the situation of me going to work. He is a cop, he had asked me 21 questions but id
dint want to dwell on the past of me being abducted by a group of siblings who care only about
themselves so as a woman I had to show him how much I missed him--sex.

He has been over protective these days, asks me where I am headed to, where I am coming from.
It sucks but I love all the attention towards me. I am already dressed up in my denim jeans and
white top and sandals.

"I am going to check on a dress for Afreyea for her graduation," I lie, I am not going there, I am
actually going to visit Daniel at the hospital. I just hope that he has not yet released. His family
cant threaten me now, I am out of their lives and we have no business together, my business is
with Daniel. He took a bullet for Anusha in my place, but I am not to blame here but Anusha for
acting Bat woman.

"Oh, want me to drop you off?" he asks politely so.

I walk to him and kiss him,"No,but thanks," I politely decline his offer.

"Well but you can have this just to buy yourself something, from me," he hands me 500
Pesewas then pecks my lips. I smile at him then walk out. I can become a millionaire if I want to
if I save up all the money I get from people, just that I am not interested at being one at the
moment--because I spend money carelessly.

It's a long drive to the hospital he is at but I make it to the hospital before visiting hours end. I
just hope his family is not there. I don’t want to talk to them ever in my life. I know his ward so
it is easier for me to locate him. I hid by the stairs when I see Rio speaking with Daniel's doctor.
I turn my back against him as he passes me.
Sigh!

I continue with my walk to his ward, hopefully no one else is in there. To my expectations there's
only a nurse with him, the nurse is smiling as he lies his way through her, he just wants her
numbers after telling me a romantic story. He is just like the rest of them, a player. I don’t even
care who he flirts with or who he asks for a date, I have my cop with me who cuffs me if I am
doing naughty things. So to hell with this man.

"Oh Ashante, the person I have been waiting to see," he says sitting properly.

"You just going to stand there and not come and give me a hug atleast?" he asks with his right
arm open for a hug. I walk to him and hug him.

"I thought I would never hear from you," he says after we have broken the hug.

"And here I am, the one to come looking for you," I say

He chuckles,"I meant that If I had died,"

"you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t try to play superhero and catch strays for people, who are
you? Superman to save the day?" I ask

"But now I am catching strays from you and feelings for you," he says

I roll my eyes, " I am not here to stay, I just came to check on you, my boyfriend is on his way to
get me," I lie at the last sentence.i just want to bruise his ego and show him how I am not so
interested in him.

He chuckles," he is your boyfriend and not mine, so far he is your boyfriend, I have got nothing
to worry about, he never promise you a wedding right? So " he shrugs his right shoulder.

"Where did you get shot," I ask changing the topic

"Don’t you want to see for yourself,"

"No, I will pass," I say and I roll my eyes then catch him staring.

"What?" I ask

"Cant I admire your beauty?" he asks

"Well unfortunately there's someone who already admires my beauty,"

"I am not someone, I am Daniel,"

Confidence much.
I clear my throat," I should get going, my husband will be here soon,"

He nods and I walk to the door where he calls my name,"I will see you when I get discharged
right?"

"my man is a cop so I can have a protection order for you," I say and he just chuckles. I roll my
eyes then walk out.

I am so super hungry, lucky me soon to be a millionaire, I have money in my account so I pass

by Accra and buy myself something to eat. I take takeaways for my mother and sister. I need to
talk to Azizi about married, I will tell him that maybe it is time we got married. What is the wait
for. I can see that he loves me and I like him, so why should we hold off on getting married. I
want to bruise Daniel's ego, that he can't get anyone he wants just because of his looks and
money. After paying a visit to the family, I will go to him and announce this whole thing, I just
hope it wont come as off me being desperate. It will be during a sex session. Everyone lies and
makes promises they don’t keep during intimacy. Yes that is the best idea ever. I should have
studied psychologist cause wow I am good at solving bad situation to be smooth situations.

It is all set, I am in my lingerie seated at the lounge sipping wine. I am proposing to a man but in
a different way. I hear the door opening and I open my legs wide open for a beautiful welcome. I
am surely graduating for having the best sex positions and being so thoughtful and idealistic. He
drops his bag when he enters the lounge.

"Baby," he says

"Wanna play housewife and husband ?" I ask

He comes to me taking off his shirt. He should be losing this weight, I mean he is always at the
field running around to catch those criminals like Anusha and her siblings--Whatsoever I have no
complaints over his weight as long as my needs as a woman are satisfied, then I have no reason
to cry.

I am now on top of him shaking my waist around his manhood. I lean on for a kiss then kiss his
lips then kiss his chest down to his manhood. I smile at him as he groans from me kissing his
manhood. I stop and look at him, he also looks at me.

"Lets get married," I suggest.

"What? Marriage?" he asks

"yes," I say and kiss his testes.

"Uhh uhm, lets have fun then we will discuss marriage after this,"
"No, we can have this discussion right now," I refuse

"Come on Shasha, "

I get up, but he pulls me down, "Okay fine, over dinner," he says and I smile

"Well lets get down to business," I say and start kissing him.

CHAPTER 16

Afreyea had no choice but to come around and take a cab to the graduation, she saw the state I
was in and didn’t want me embarrassing her because eve after make up I still looked bad, my
eyes were still red from the drinking I did last night. So here I am left with the house together
with my mother whom I have to take to the hospital for her check up, she needs to get a steel leg
so she can get out of the wheelchair. I am already bathed just waiting for the lady to get over
here so that we go. I have requested a cab and it is on it's way.

A bell rings on the outside, that could be the cab,I call out to my mother while I check the cab.
To my surprise it is a black car. I am surprised when he comes towards me and removes his
sunglasses then.

"Hello, is your mother available?" he asks and I nod. What business does he have with my
mother? The only thing I do is to follow him inside the house. He greets my mother who just
smiles at him as he settles down. What is going on here?

"I am here to take you to your check up," he says

"Sorry, but we have already requested a cab and it is here," I say

He looks at me and then looks at my mother, what is going on here?

"Baby Ashante, thank you but this is my ride," my mother says.

"You let me request whilst you had a ride to the hospital?" I ask

"you didn’t bother asking me if I need help with transport or what?" my mother says and the
shrugs.

"You know what whatever," I say and cancel the cab. I have no choice but to travel with them,
after all I don’t trust this man around my mother, what if they want to kidnap her so that I come
back to them and do things for them this time? We will never know. I am the silent through the
drive to the hospital. My mother and Rio are the one doing the talking. He drops us off and then
tells us that he will come and fetch us when we are done. Basically my mother should give him a
call so that he knows when we are done but instead my mother instructs him to fetch Afreyea
from the graduation and he promises her to do so before coming to fetch us back because we are
going to be here for a long time. I don’t know what is going on here but I do not like it.

I am the one pushing my mother inside to where she is set to go.

"I just hope things go well today," she says holding my hand

"Do not worry mother, everything shall go according to God's will," I say

"I just want to do my house hold chores like before, if only I had not driven in that speed that day
then none of this would be happening, you wouldn’t have to take care of me like you do and you
wouldn’t have to worry about me, I can't help but think I am the reason behind you not getting
marriage at your age just like your mates. ,"

"no do not think such, I do not want to get married now, I love doing this for you, this is the least
I could do as a daughter though shall not worry about me," I assure her. I do not want to get
married yet I proposed a wedding idea to Azizi and he left me to hand.

It is her time now to go in, I hug her then wish her luck. I am seated outside the room of the
doctor helping my mother, the door opens and the doctor walks out wearing his scrubs.

"Ashante," he says and I look at him. It is him kicking and alive. I never thought I would ever
see him oh my goodness I am so happy. How did he heal so fast? Instead of asking him questions
I jump on to him and hug him. He made so many promises before he acted superman.

"it looks like you missed me but didn’t even attempt to come and visit me," he says

"oh my goodness what are you saying, I was with you the other day and I didn’t think you would
be back your feet so soon," I say

He chuckles," it was just a minor injury, "

"ok Mr Superman,"I say

He chuckles again exposing his gold teeth,"I am no longer Batman now?"

"You are every superhero out there,"

"you are funny, I need to get back on my patient, you never told me what you are here to do,
surely you didn’t come to visit me,"

"I actually came to visit you, then they told me you are no longer on the system and told me to
come here, so I amhere waiting for your doctor,"

"I am my own doctor,"

"oh whatever that means I don’t care,"

" I need to get back on my patient, give me your digits then I will call you maybe someday we
will have dinner,"

"You are a doctor?" I ask confused

"No I am a surgeon," he hisses

"whatever it is the same things just people decorating the name and being fancyyyy,"

"it is different Ashante,"

"no, you people are hyperbolic,"

"I won't do my job if I continue staring at your beauty talking, your digits," I smile at that as he
hands me his cell phone and I enter my digits. He winks at me and he smiles disappears when he
sees a man being pushed by a stretcher bleeding profusely.

"Move him to the ER, I WILL BE THERE IN A FEW MINUTES, STOP THE BLEEDING SO
LONG IN MY ABSENCE," he yells to the paramedics and the nurses that are pushing the man
to the stretcher. I really need to go. I will call you maybe tonight. He perks my cheek and the
walks inside his room. He is the one helping my mother? Jesus, it can't be happening. Rio cannot
be my mother's driver while Daniel is her Doctor.

Hours pass still waiting for my mother to be done with whatever it is happening, now I am
getting scared for no reason at the same time I am worried about Afreyea she hasn’t called and
told us that she is home or rather she is fetched by a man who is quiet and have good looks and
she is scared that if anything happens to her she we shall trace her call.

"Thank you Doctor," her voice says as the door opens. Finally. The first things Daniel does is to
go to the ER, it has been long since he has been inside with my mother. I am sure the man in the
ER is tired of fighting the antiseptic by now, he would be dead by now. I just hope he is not dead
and pray that Daniel does everything in his power to save him. I help my mother outside the
hospital building. The car is already there waiting for us along with its owner--Rio. I don’t like
this but I have no choice but to cooperate for my mother's sake. He opens the door for my mother
and helps her inside the car, I get in after her. This is not the car we came with in the morning, I
am tempted to ask but I know rather not to. This man is the man that kidnapped me, fired a gun
at me and I almost died because of him. He is just a nightmare of a man.

Nothing has changed now, they are the only ones doing the talking on 'how did everything go,
this is a new start for everything, atleast my daughters this and my daughters this and marriage
this,' I log on my whatsapp and nothing new is happening besides having Azizi who completely
blocked me. This is new, I am now single after a traumatic incident I am coming from. I was
kidnapped I deserve some chocolate deliveries and a therapy session from him not a blocked
contact. My sighs are now heavy. Rio is looking at me through the rear view mirror. It is because
of him and his siblings I lost everything. Because of saving the might doctor Daniel.

We are home and the first thing I do is to go to my bedroom, I want some space alone from
everyone. I don’t want to talk to anyone just a moment of peace and have a real conversation
with my heart. Where do I go from here. My phone rings, I hope to see an unknown number for
Daniel but it is my friend Nuru, the one who dates older man. I let the phone ring unanswered
and lay cover my face with a pillow.

CHAPTER 17

I waited for his call for the past three days and he decides to call today when I have no zero
interest in his call. When I have ran, defending him on my subconscious mind that maybe he is
held up and he in on day shift, no maybe he is not a day caller but a night rider. But nothing, no
calls from him nor a message from him. I was angry at him for not calling me the day he
promised to but I cant say that I am angry cause I respect my pride and that would only make me
like I have any interest in him, I am trying to be the good girl here so I didn’t even tell him that I
was angry that he didn’t call me, so I am here smiling at his phone call, his beautiful voice, he is
good with words, Amara was not lying at all.

"So why are you now at work today?" I ask

" I am from work, just decided to call you,"

"oh so you decided to call me 'just'?" I ask

"No I came from work, took a shower then took a nap and after taking a nap decided to call you
immediately when I rose up,"

"Mhmm, you surely do not rest, you going to work again?" I ask

"late shift, a very late one so I have all the day to myself, meaning I am willing to sacrifice my
time for you and we can go out to that dinner,"

"well,"

"well, if only you do not mind," he says

"no I am free, just tell me when and where?"

"I will text you the details," he says," Good bye Ashante, I will see you later,"

"Good Bye Dan,"

He chuckles before he hangs up. I jump up and down in my room and call Nuru, I need her help
with dresses. We are of the same size. I will be given a lecture before she actually says yes, I
don’t mind the lecture as long as I am beautiful for my date. Uh uh it is not a date but Dinner, but
whatever who cares?

Just like I anticipated, I am being given a lecture on how you don’t answer my calls when I call
and how you disappear and never told me when you are back, the only words I am saying is 'I am
sorry," repeatedly so. She finally comes around and says she will see check on what she has with
her.

My mother walks inside the room, she can no longer stay in her room and let us leave in peace
since she is Terminator with a steel leg now.

"what is going on?" she asks

I frown at her," with what?"

"I heard you screaming ,"

It is now that she comes to me and asks me why I was screaming, I was screaming 10 minutes
ago. "it is nothing to worry about, Nuru bought me a dress so we are going out," I lie

"oh my baby,I am happy for you, go and enjoy yourself, I will do the cooking today,"

That is the problem, I may not eat her cooking tonight," well I will be back late,"

"tomorrow is still a day Ashante, you will find your plate waiting for you," she says in assurance

"and that is why I love you," I say.

There's a knock at the door. It must be Nuru, my mother tells me she will go and get it. We
shouldn’t have gotten this leg, now she thinks she can do everything, when will she get at the
door. Luckily for Nuru, my mother says come in halfway the door, I hear them exchange
greetings. The door opens and it is her, I rush to her and hug her. Today she is Bat woman,
superhero. She checks all the boxes.

"I can't really say you missed me, you just want my dresses," she says

I break the hug and peck her nose, I cant peck her lips this one sucks D**k, ," I really missed,"

"Whatever Shasha," I have many nick names, I don’t know which one I like most but Shasha I
definitely not the one and she know this too, but I don’t fight her.

"who is the guy?" she asks

"Just a doctor I met while I was away," I say

"a doctor? That is a jackpot do not let him go," she says

"We are not dating, I am sure he doesn’t see me like that, he just wants to make up for the
promises he made to me. He so much of an Flirt, flirts with everyone ,"

"Come On Shasha get the boy in line, you got the power to do that I know," she winks leaving
me confused.

"and that is where this dress comes in," she says showing me a black dress that is short with a slit
on both sides, it is beautiful and expensive but it is hot, I like it.

"This is beautiful," I say and find a price tag. I look at her shocked and she nods.

"it is new? " she continues nodding while I jump on her and hug her.

"that is enough," she says and I pull out of the hug. I need her to do my make up since she is
good at it. It is a hobby, she learnt with my face to apply make-up so she should doll me up right
now. She had this in mind so she brought her equipment with her.

*
I look stunning in this dress, I look like Beyoncé from the president's daughter. I have taken
pictures using Nuru's iPhone. She also offered to drive me to the restaurant. I just hope it is not
one of Rio' restaurant. It is a five start restaurant, near the Real estates, this place is beautiful.
Nuru drops me off and tells me to be safe. She link her device to my device and turns on my
location incase of an emergency . I walk inside the restaurant, I don’t know why he had to be so
extra just for a dinner, either way I am loving it. He is seated at the last table. I walk to him, he
stands up as I approach the table and opens the table for me when I get to his table. I take a sit
and he sits opposite me.

"you look beautiful," he says and I smile, I love compliments, I know I am beautiful but when
someone else tells you that you are beautiful it just becomes double like a double scotch of
whiskey. My smile says it all I do not have to say thank you. He raises his face and the waiter
comes to our service. He orders meat only and I order both meat and veg. I love eating food, just
different combinations of food. We ordered our drinks, I am drinking a Rose wine while he is
drinking a Hennessy Whiskey. Our order arrives.

He smiles looking at me as I eat, "what?" I ask

"nothing," he says

"Why are you eating meat only?"

"because where I was I did not eat meat," he is lying , he did eat meat. Hey served him with lots
of it.
"Well, how is it like to be back at home?" I ask

"Home feels like home as always,"

"And your brothers? Rio? Edward?"

"What do you want to know?"

"It is just a question Daniel, " I say

"If you asking about my relationship with Edward I can only say that it is better than it was
before, we made up for the sake of Anusha,"

"Just for the sake of Anusha?" I ask

"For the sake of peace, we made out, we are cool now," he says

"You made out together, which position?" I ask

He frowns opening his eyes then chuckles," You are silly?" he is laughing, I wait for him to
finish laughing. I never thought he is the type to have tears when the joke hits loud. He calm
himself down and apologizes.

"So is this your way of paying me?" I ask

"What do you mean I am paying you?"

"I mean I must be the special superhero to get a dinner as a thank you, I mean I rescued you
remember?"

He frowns," where in the hell did you rescue me?"

"I mean you were kidnapped, held hostage and I come with my acting skills and save you from
those people, I am the hero here not you or your sister," I say

"What does my sister and I have to do with you being a hero,"

"Because your sister decided to act Bat Woman to save you and you acted Bat Man which got
you shot, so I am the hero here, I didn’t get shot or injured in any way,"

"So you gave us names and that hurts you so bad that you are not Superwoman and my sister is
Bat woman?"

"it doesn’t hurt me in any way, I just hate the fact that you guys think so of yourselves," I say

"But Bat Woman still saved the day," he says

"Superwoman has go more powers more than Bat woman," I defend

"you want to be Bat Woman?" he asks

"Well, I saved the day so I am Bat Woman and no one else,"

"but I believe I am the superman here because I got shot and still alive,"

"But you never saved the day," I say

He chuckles ," I give up with you," he takes out his card and instructs me to stand up.

"we leaving already?" I ask

"Yeah, they want to close down,"

"but what about desert?"

He sighs," we will have dessert somewhere,"

"one of the best dessert ?" I ask

"Yeah, we will drive to some restaurant that is still open at this time and get desert," he says and
I take my side bag and lead the way. I don’t know which car is his but the one that flickers it's
light, I am headed towards it. I make myself on the passenger seats as I wait for him to finish his
conversation with the waiter. He comes to the car after 5 minutes of waiting for him.

The drive is short because he played some songs as I sang along them, taking late night videos
with his cellphone, should buy myself a new cellphone since I am about to become a
millionaire. We are parked at some big house. I open the door for myself, I just want to see
myself inside this house, or is it an restaurant? It is red in color, lights on. He leads the way
inside the house. The house interior is white, everything is white with a touch of red. This is
money, it is beautiful. He left me to admire the house to myself. Once I become a millionaire I
should buy myself this type of a house.

"Shante?" he calls out to me, I love the name Shante. I walk to where his voice came from . He is
in the kitchen, the refrigerator is wide open.

"You can get yourself the dessert you want, " he says and opens himself a beer. I take out the
half sliced cake, yoghurt together with some strawberries and help my-self out. I have a sweet
booth. I finish the slice of cake I sliced .

"are you satisfied?" he asks and I nod.

"one of the best dessert I have ever had in my life," I say

He is looking at me smiling.

"Do I qualify to be a chef?" I ask

He frowns," where is that coming from?"

"after the dessert I made I think I need to become one,"

He comes to my side and takes out another beer, and turns me to look at him, "Well the problem
is that you didn’t make the dessert, instead you put up together items to make it look one,"

"but I made the dessert," I say

"No you didn’t put the ingredients together to bake the cake nor make the yoghurt, but a brother
of mine can teach you a thing or two,"

"really? Who?" I ask I would not mind being taught how to bake or free.

"Osorio," he says

"Who the hell is that?" I ask

"Rio for short," I think I will pass.

"do you think he won't mind ," I ask

"No, infact I will talk to him,"

I look at him, "Would you do that for me?"

"anything for you," he says and I perk his cheek. He looks at me then puts his lips on my lips, he
moves the lips kissing me, he doesn’t have to bite me to kiss him back but I do so voluntarily.
His hand moves to my waist and I wrap my hands around his neck. He lifts me up as it gets
heated, he walks around the kitchen and makes me stand infront of the dining table. He unzips
my dress and breaks the kiss then looks at me. I take off my dress slowly , It falls and pools at
my feet so that I’m standing naked before him. He strokes my face with the backs of his
knuckles, and his touch resonates in the depths of my groin. Bending, he kisses my lips briefly,
placing me on top of the dining table. I lay on the table as he breaks from the kiss and looks at
me.

“I could look at you all day,” he says, and with that he leans up my body, and straddles me. He
climbs off me and bends to give me a quick peck on the lips. Then he stands and lifts his shirt
over his head. He undoes his pants and drops them to the floor. He is gloriously naked. My inner
goddess is doing a triple axel dismount off the uneven bars, and abruptly my mouth is dry. He
has a physique drawn on classical lines: broad muscular shoulders, narrow hips, the inverted
triangle. He obviously works out. I could look at him all day.

He bends to lick and suckle my nipples, he moves down my vagina and moves his tongue around
it,

“Oh … please ….”

“I know, baby, I know,” he breathes as his tongue works its magic. He doesn’t stop, just doesn’t
stop, and my body is climbing—higher, higher. He slips one finger inside me, then another, and
he moves them with agonizing slowness in
and out.

“Just here,” he murmurs, and he strokes the front wall of my vagina while he continues the
exquisite, relentless licking and sucking. I erupt unexpectedly into a mind-blowing orgasm that
stuns all my senses, obliterating all that’s happening outside my body as I writhe and groan, that
was so quick. He’s hovering over me, sliding on a condom, and then he’s inside me, hard and
fast.

“Oh yes!” he groans as he slams into me. He’s sticky, yes right there. Oh my goodness, this feels
good , he suddenly pulls out of me and flips me over.

“This way,” he murmurs and abruptly is inside me once more, He leans over, and pulls me
upright so I am practically sitting on him. His hands move up to my breasts, and he palms them
both, tugging gently on my nipples. I groan, tossing
my head back against his shoulder. He nuzzles my neck, biting down, as he flexes his hips,
deliciously slowly, filling me again and again.

“Do you know how much I feel you?” he breathes against my ear.

“No,” I gasp.

He smiles against my neck, and his fingers curl around my jaw and throat, holding me fast for a
moment. “Yes, you do. I’m not going to let you go.”

I groan as he picks up speed. He snakes one hand around my waist while his other hand grasps
my hip, and he pushes into me harder, making me cry out again. . His breathing grows harsher
and harsher, ragged, matching mine. I feel the familiar quickening deep inside, my toes curl and
we reach our climax. We are both panting heavily.

"We should carry on the bathroom, I will have someone to clean this in the morning,"

CHAPTER 18

The shine is shining bright light across the room, I turn to change my position, as I open my
eyes, I am alone in this bed. I try sitting up.
"Dan," I call out to him and there's no response. I check the note on the pillow and it is from
him. It reads that I had work to do, please help yourself and feel at home, next to me it is bank
notes, I get up from the bed then straighten the bed. Once I am done I take a shower and use his
cosmetics. I wear his t-shirt and walk downstairs, I am hungry as fuck.

As I walk down the kitchen, I find a man eating, he turns to look at me, no not him. "Imani," he
says

"It is Ashante and not Imani," I say.

He nods and shrugs at the same time," why are you wearing my brother's t-shirt," he asks

"why do you care, the last time you did not even care about him," I say, I expected anyone and
not Edward in Daniel's house.

"Well we fixed our issues, I answer your question and now it is time for you to answer mine,"

"he is a friend, " I say

"Friends with his t-shirt?"

"Yes, friends do wear each other's clothes,"

"I only know clothes not t-shirt,"

I frown , he is dumb, what is t-shirt? It is a cloth right? I won't entertain his madness.

"but that would only mean that you are those kinds of friends that know each other in and out
right?" he asks as I make myself something to eat.

"Daniel is not here,"

"yeah, I know he is on his way back now, his shift ended,"

"Ok," I say and he nods.

"I will be waiting for him in his study," he says

"I will tell him that,"

"And your dress on the lounge, right there," he says and winks at me then walks away.

I sigh and walk to the lounge and get my dress. How the hell does this person of his clean? I
don’t have time for that I need to leave this place. I walk to the bedroom that I woke up in and
change into my dress. I request a cab, though it charges a lot I don’t mind, I have got money in
me. I walk downstairs to wait for my cab. Thankfully Edward is still in the study. I hear
footsteps approaching an it is him, he looks tired for the morning. He barely had some rest
yesterday. Edward walks inside the lounge while Daniel walks towards me and kisses my lips.

"I thought you two were friends," Edward says

"no, we are more than that," Daniel says and smiles looking at me, I don’t know what more than
that mean but I just want to get out of here.

"Oh ok," Edward

"Look Eddie, I need to take her home first then I will come back and tend to you okay?"

Edward nods," he doesn’t deserve the name Eddie, he is too much," Daniel helps me to stand up .
We walk to his car, he opens the door for me and I get inside the he rounds to the driver's side.

"I had already requested a cab," I say as he starts the car

"well you can cancel that cab," he says and shows me his gold teeth, he likes smiling, no he is
always smiling.

"what time did you leave?" I ask

"After you fell asleep," that was 00:10.

"and you went to work that time of the hour?" I ask

"yeah, I had to or else people die and I don’t want anybody's blood on my hands,"

"Well, speaking of that we should go to church then," I say

"okay, when?"

"you would go to church with me?" I ask

"yes, for you I would do anything ,"

"Not for me silly, for yourself,"

"but I will be going to church because of you,", I am blushing already, he needs to stop these pep
talks of his, He holds my hands as I am still blushing.

"I meant it last night and even now , I would do anything for you, and I meant it when I said we
are more than friends, I want more from this, I want a relationship," he says and perks my hand.

"I don’t know what to say,"

"there's no need to rush things, we can take things slowly but I doubt that can be possible cause
we already took things to the next level," he says

"You are a flirt," I say the honest truth, something that doesn’t tick my boxes.

"I will stop being one then,"

"Why? You do not have to change who you are for me?"

"I will change being a flirt for you, what I want between is more, I felt something last night and I
know you felt it to,"

"Well if you will stop being a flirt then I see no reason in denying your offer," I say

"So we are one?" he asks wearing a smile on his face. I love him, yes, it is one day but I love
him already.

"we are one," I say

He smiles once again then perks hand.

"Did you give Edward the keys to your house?" I ask

"Every sibling of mine has access to my house," he says

"I thought you two were not close"

"we were close, just that after his mother died together with our father he blamed his mother's
death on my mother and I had to defend my mother so he hated me for that,"

"and now you 'made up'?"

He chuckles, " yeah we made up,"

"I love that," I say and he smiles and looks at me then looks back on the road.

CHAPTER 19

We have been dating for long now, yes three months is a long time to me, I never thought I
would last in the relationship, I lasted because I didn’t propose wedding but I think I should
propose one to him, just to check if he truly loves me, I guess this is my trick of checking if the
man loves me, Azizi did not love me hence he left me, good riddance to bad rubbish. He is here
to see me, I called him to tell him that I am hungry. He is in my mother's kitchen, this is the
second man I introduced to my mother, she is just not ready to ask me if I am settling with this
one or not.
"So are you also one of her boyfriends that she uses and dumps whenever she has money?" she
asks, my mother is a hypocrite.

"I am not one of them, she wouldn’t dump me if she has money because I take very good care of
her," Daniel says

"Oh, Baby Ashante, you have met your match," she says. What does she think of me? Does the
think that I date people for their money and then leave them once I am sorted.

"Daniel, remember your patients?" I ask

"what about them?" he asks

"you had to check up on them remember, and you need to get me food before you leave," I say

"oh ok, I will get you your food, Mother please excuse me," he says and gets up from the couch.
He walks out and I follow him. As soon as he walks outside I hug him and kiss him. He is
surprised, his frown says it all.

"I missed you," I say and he smiles. I am in love with this man.

"Come let us go get your food," he says and walks with me to his car. He opens the passenger
door for me then walks to the driver's side. He takes out a paper bag and hands it to me. I open
and it is what I requested him to bring for me. I love him more now.

"Let us get married," I say

He looks at me with a frown, "what?"

"yes, let us get married, I want to marry you," I say

He is silent for a few seconds, he looks at me and flashes a smile at me," We will get married,
how about tomorrow?" he asks, he thinks I am joking.

"I am not joking Dan," I say

"and I am also not joking, we should get married, how about next week," he says

"whoa, I was just kidding," I say

"and I am not kidding,"

"are you serious?"

" yes, I want you and only you," he reassures me

"well okay," I say with a smile on my face.

He reaches for the paper bag and hands it to me. I hope it is not more food, I think I had had
enough for the day, I will save this for Afreyea since mother got hers.

"what is this?" I ask

"this is your dress, I want you to wear it tonight, my family is having a lunch," he says

"Your family?" I ask

"Yes,my brothers are bringing along their girlfriends and I thought maybe I should bring my
soon to be wife "

"what about your sister? Who is she bringing?"

He shrugs, "no one,"

"ain't she dating anybody?"

"No, she is prohibited," he says. Okay, I don’t have to ask more questions.

"so? What do you say? Will you come?"

I lean over and kiss his lips the look at him," I will come," I say

"no you will come with me, I will come and fetch you," he says and I nod. He perks my lips then
gets out of the car and comes to my side and opens the door for me. We then walk to the house.
He want to bid my mother goodbye.

"it was nice having you once again Doctor," my mother says after hugging the good doctor, who
smiles at my mother. I walk him out, he we share a kiss before he drives away. as I was about to
enter inside the house, she Is already screaming, t is none other Nuru, she is so loud. She follows
me inside the house and greets my mother then follows me to my room. She throws herself in the
bed and takes off her shoes.

"is that the man we have been seeing?" she asks

"first it is not 'we' but I have been seeing, and to answer your questing , yes," I say

She bursts into laughter, that causes my mother to tell us that we are loud," you are not okay you
answered my question twice,"

Is this what she is laughing, excuse me if it is not funny enough for me to laugh my ass out,"
"what is this?" she takes the paper bag and takes a look on what is inside," oh my goodness, this
man is your my love, I am just waiting for the wedding invitation," she says

"help me with my make-up please," I say

"another dinner date?"

"no dinner with his family," I say

"already? No he is marrying you," she says and gets her equipment out. I love her but she is loud.
She is now telling me about her old man who wants kids and she is not up for it, even thinking of
living her. When she is done she helps me freshen up and get in my dress. It fits me perfectly, I
wonder how he knew my size. I am on my heels, I am beautiful by nature, no lies. I am just
waiting for him to come and fetch me.

After doing my make over and venting out Nuru left. My mother is all laughter in the lounge, I
decide to go and check what she is laughing at and she is with Daniel, they should get married
since they spend more time together. He is even seated to show that he had no interest in coming
to call me, I am hurt by this even earlier on they got to their doctors and patient business.

He looks at me and then stops laughing, my mother gasps and tells me how beautiful I am. Well
she can save her compliments later on, she is not the one I am angry at but this boyfriend of
mine, and he wants us to get married.

"I didn’t know you had arrived," I say

He stands up and hold my hand," I was about to call you," he says

"well come and call me," I say and turn back to my room. Two minutes later someone knocks
on my door. I open up and it is my mother, I did not expect her but him. He is overworking my
mother, I am grateful for what she did, we walk back to the lounge after she told me that
someone is looking for me. It is dumb I know but I wanted him to do it, so that I am rest assured
that he is here for me. We walk out of the house after bidding my mother goodbye.

The drive is silent with him holding my hand, "I was about to call you, your mother just got me
in cracks,"

"that is not a problem Daniel," I say

"then why are you quiet?" I ask

"you didn’t even text me that you are on your way," I say

"I am sorry, I don’t like using my cellphone when I am driving," that is not reasonable

"Before you left," I say

"Ok, I am sorry," he says and turns to look at me then smiles. I smile back at him. His smile
brightens the room , no he has cold teeth so his smile goldens the room--if it makes sense.

He make a stop, the gate opens and it leads to the white mansion. He makes a stop behind the
VW RLine . He opens the door for me once he gets out. He then helps me out of the car, we walk
inside the house together, its interior is whitein color with a touch of gold.

"Is everyone's house in your sibling white?" I ask

"No, Rio's house is black in color," he says and pecks my l cheeks. We walk to the big dining
area, this place is huge.

"This is the family house, lived our parents in it," I am tempted to ask if he means both wives
and a man in the house but I know better not to. The first person to lay their eyes on me is
Anusha, she walks to me, looks at me then at Daniel then back at me.

"Ashante, I was not expecting you,"

I want to say neither did I but I just smile at her.

"Daniel can I have a word with you in silent?" she asks and Daniel looms at me then pecks my
lips before walking away. they stand far away from everyone. They are at it, the finger pointing
can tell everything. She is not happy, he is also not happy by her talking. Omari walks to them,
finally someone puts an end to it. They are all gathered in one place as siblings, talking to
Anusha who wants to hear none of it. Edward is having a plate of samosas with him. They are
hot, you can tell by his eyes being red. I want them. They disperse , My man is back to me , we
are walking towards the dining table. He opens a chair for me and I sit down. I look at Edward,
where did he get those samosas.

He catches me looking at him and he shrugs his shoulders, he is the youngest from what I heard.
I signal to him asking where he got the samosas and instead he does the opposite by asking,"
want to taste?"

Everyone is looking at me now, I take two of them, it would be rude to say no, they know I too. I
had no choice but to take them I want them, they are so hot chilli. I want more but Edward is not
shifting his attention towards me, I like him now me and him should be friends from now on and
we are of the same age group. After having dinner the brothers disappear . I am left with the
girlfriends. I have been receiving compliments from them and I am tired and no longer want to
hear any of them from any on. I left them to admire the house. It is huge and beautiful.

I stop by their tree plans as siblings. They all want to have kids besides one person, Rio. He
doesn’t want to have kids. They all plan to have families one day but not him, he plans to have
army of soldiers and his own infantry on the family part. I walk to the patio to get some air.
There's some cool breeze here. There's a voice talking but I don’t know who is it from. The
person hangs up and is now visible who it is. It is Rio, he has to be everywhere I am. He greets
me and I greet back.

"Did Daniel tell you about me?" I ask and he frowns.

"About baking, I am good at it, I once made this dessert and it just looked so perfect,"

"yes, he told me, we will start the next following week," he says

"thanks, I am good at making desserts,"

"Good, " he says then walks away.

He is rude, he will have to tolerate me because I am going to be baking with him.

CHAPTER 20

I thought this day would never arrive but it is here, I am so happy and can't wait to start making
desserts, I will show Rio who I am made of. I am not troublesome but I also know how to make
many things. Am fully a chef, wearing their skirts and their upper garmet. Daniel is driving me
to Rio's house, they call it the black house, I just want to see if indeed it is the black house.

"you look beautiful in this attire," Daniel says

I smile at him, "Thank you," I say

"but Rio was going to give you the aprons to wear," he says

"I don’t need an apron I am a chef by nature, I just need to show him how I make different kinds
of desserts," I say and he nods to continues to drive.

We are here, it is indeed the back house. What type of man can live in this type of a house? A
house so black? It is only the devil himself. Even the interior is black, everything inside this
house is black, I am sure even the kettle is black or rather the pots. Just like I anticipated the
pots are black, the man himself is wearing black. He is surprised to see me in my attire but
compliments it. Daniel leaves me with Rio, he tells me that he has to go to the hospital and that
he will be back in a while. Now it is just me and Rio. He takes out the ingredients and tells me
what we making. I am confused.

"What?" he asks, does my face give it away that I am surprised?

"I thought we are making desserts," I say

"using what?" he asks

I go to the fridge and open in , "using this, your cakes, yoghurt, custard."
"firstly I baked those cakes and made those yoghurts so you need to learn that before making a
dessert,"

"I don’t want to bake," I say

"Then why did you wear this attire?" he asks

"to make desserts," I say

"Well you won't make desserts with my cake, you need to bake yours,"

"we will bake one after I have made my desserts, I want a dessert now ," I demand

"Well bake yourself a dessert," he says closes the fridge.

"fine we can bake," I say and he sighs .

Good, just follow the instructions in this book,"

"I thought we were doing this together," I say

"no, you must do it first ,then I will tell where you are doing it wrong," he says

"ok," I wash my hands and then take the bowl and pour the easy mix flour on it. I beat the eggs
on the easy mix and he stops.

"This is not how you do it Asha,"

I look at him, we are giving each other nicknames now? I love Asha more.

"Then how?" I ask him.

“It appears this is something that I can do and you can’t. Let’s face it, I think this is a first. Here,
I’ll show you. He moves me and I steps back.
.
“Like this.” I he beats the eggs in a separate bowl , careful.

“Looks simple enough, I took the shortcut.”

“No shortcuts in baking,” he mutter ironically.

He gazes at me impassively for a moment then sets about his task as I continue to prepare the
mix. I start to stir the combination together carefully, slowly. Oh my, we’ll be here all day. I
wash my hands and hunt for the, the oil, and the other ingredients I need.

"please follow the recipe from this book," he says

"I cant see this hand writing," I say and he doesn’t say anything. He takes the other bottle and do
the same thing as I do.

“You’re quite good at this,” I mutter as he preheats the oven.

“heating the oven?” I bat my eyelashes at him. “Years of practice.” I take the pan from him and
look at the book.

"you do not cross me as someone who bakes,"

"And you do not cross me as a person who do not know how to bake.

"I can bake, trust me," I say

"I am better than you,"

"then we shall see between me and you who will bake the best cake“

"Is that a challenge?” I ask

“Maybe.” he says

He comes to the table and gets the oil. I look at him as he greases the pan.

"what?" he asks

I shrug. "I believe I hate you for kidnapping me and firing the gun at me,"

"you are the only one who believes like that?" he asks , what is that supposed to mean. I give him
a confused look, he turns to look at me. He saunters slowly over to me, his eyes burning. Leaning
past me, he switches the oven.

“I think we’ll do this later,” he says.

I walk to the oven and preheat it, When I turnback, he’s beside me. And we stand staring at each
other, drinking each other in—the atmosphere charging between us, almost crackling, neither
saying anything, just looking. I bite my lip as desire for this man seizes me with a vengeance,
igniting my blood, shallowing my breath, pooling below my waist. I see my reactions reflected in
his stance, in his eyes. In a beat, he grabs me by my hips and pulls me to him as my hands reach
for his hair and his mouth claims me. He pushes me against the fridge, and I hear the vague
protesting rattle of bottles and jars from within as his tongue finds mine. I moan into his mouth
and one of his hands moves into my hair, pulling my head back as we kiss savagely, I have
always wanted this man before I met Daniel, I didn’t think this would happen so soon.

“What do you want?” he breathes.

“You,” I gasp.

He smiles and hooks his index finger into my open shirt, pulling me toward him.

“Good girl,” he murmurs, and without taking his blazing eyes off mine, slowly starts to unbutton
my shirt. Tentatively I put my hands on his arms to steady myself. He doesn’t complain. When
he’s finished with the buttons, he pulls
my shirt over my shoulders, and I let go of him to let the shirt fall to the floor. He reaches down
to the waistband of my jeans, pops the button, and pulls down the zipper.

He kisses me and unleashes his tongue, his joy-inspiring expert tongue. I groan and fist my hands
into his hair. He doesn’t stop, he dips his fingers inside my panties and separates my labia. He is
just rubbing his fingers on my pussy making me more wet.

The intercom rings and he pulls out of me, the person walks in whistling, I fix myself while he
continues to grease the pan.

"Babe," it is him--Daniel. Holy crap

CHAPTER 21

He is driving me back home then he will go for his shift later on. I am quiet and he keeps on
stealing glances at me each and every time like he wants to ask something. Him doing that makes
me feel bad already I almost cheated on him with his brother, what was on my mind? Rio of all
people the man that I hate and at the same time he is used to be a crush?

"What do you want to say Daniel?" I ask, I am pissed right now.

"what do you mean, what do I want to say?" he asks acting dumb

"you keep stealing glances at me like you want to say something to my face," I say

"I don’t see anything wrong with admiring the beauty of your soon to be wife,"

I roll my eyes, he is just making me feel more guilty.

"how was baking with Rio? He is strict with his recipes,"

"it was good,"

"Did you enjoy yourself?"

"yeah kinda did,"

"Did you learn a thing or two,"

I look at him," What do you really want to know?"

"I am just asking Ashante and I don’t know the reason you are getting so worked up like
someone who is a suspect of committing a crime,"

"so basically you want to say that I committed a crime"

"I never said that, I am just making an example,"

"And you identify me as a simile of someone who committed a crime?" I ask

"Let us just let this go, I don’t know why you are so worked up, did Rio try to do something?" he
asks

I keep quiet.

"Ashante," he calls out to me

"No Daniel, he didn’t try to do something,"

He sighs and perks my lips.

"You have many insecurities, which is something that I never thought you struggle with," I say

" I don’t have insecurities," he defends himself.

"then why would you think that Rio tried to do something,"

"because he thinks that you are my temp and that he will also get to have you together with all
my brothers.

"and what is that supposed to mean? That you are and you brothers made a bet on who will have
me next since we fucked on our first dinner date?" I ask

"no, but they don’t actually believe that you are soon to be my wife,"

"well I don’t care what they think about me," I say and looks outside the window.

"you look fine when angry,"

I pout to hide my smile, that is not sexy, but it has me blushing.

"I love you Ashante," he says and I blush more.

"I guess someone doesn’t love me back," he says

"I love you back Daniel."

"please dress up today we are going to one of Anusha's events," he begs

"I don't think I will be able to come," I say

"why not?" he asks wearing a confused look on his face.

"I don’t think your sister would like that,"

"what do you mean by that,"

I look at him, "Let us be honest here Dan, you sister doesn’t like me, not even a little bit,"

"You got it all wrong," he defends her

"You wouldn’t believe me even if you saw it the other night,"

"I did not say I do not believe you,"

"you were there and I saw you guys speaking to her to stand me for one night, imagine if it is her
function, what is the probability that she wont chase me out," I ask

"That was then, now she is changed," he defends her again

"So what do you say? Will you come or?"

"I will think about it, I am tired for the day,"

"right," he says

"You know I don’t know how this will work when you are always defending your sister? You
failed to admit that she was at fault for you shooting if only she didn’t act Bat woman, and now
you are defending in this," I say

"she is my sister Ashante, I will always have to defend her,"

"even if she is wrong?"

"she has her flaws and sins but we are all not perfect,"

"Ok," I say

he holds my hand and perks my hand, "I love you Ashante a lot," he says and adds, " and I will
do anything for you,"
" don’t say that Daniel,"

" please come to the function," he begs

I stay quiet.

" please come, I am begging you please," he begs once again.

"I will decide when I wake up from my nap, "

"I will send a car to come and get you incase you decide to come, I will also have a dress
delivered to you," he says and parks the car on the driveway then perks my lips before I got out
of the car. I think I have gotten myself in some deep shit. He will never put me before his sister,
he will always defend her in everything wrong thing she does.

CHAPTER 22

FINALE

The dress is delivered. I have been battling with my mind whether to or not to go. I decided that I
will go, I went with my natural look today, I don’t have time for sitting for hours just so my face
could be painted. I love my natural light skinned look. I am already settled in the dress,
thankfully it is not short, I am tired of short dresses with slits on either sides. This one is long and
has no slit. It is red in color. I love it. I settle in my platform heels, they are not that long, I am
also tired of heels. I walk out to the car. The driver opens the door for me and I get in then he
rounds to the driver's side and we hit the road.

"please open the window," I say to him and he does as instructed. I am feeling hot to a point that
I took off my shoes. The drive is long, I am tempted to when will we arrive but I do not ask. I
just hope and pray that it is soon. I am already hungry and feeling tired. He makes a stop at some
huge house, this is not the house I was in the last time. This is not Anusha's house right?

I walk on the red carpet to the house, I pause for a few pictures before my eyes search for Daniel.
He is nowhere to be seen. I see none of his brothers here. Anusha walks downstairs. She spots
me and walks towards my direction, she grabs a glass of wine before she comes to me.

"I am surprised you came, earlier on you made it sound like you were never gonna make it," she
says and sips her wine.

"I thought about it and I couldn’t miss free food especially from my former employer," I say with
a smile.

She fakes one, "That is so thoughtful of you, well help yourself," she walks away. I walk to the
food station and help myself with food, I need to wear flip flops or I will faint in these shoes I am
wearing.
"Never thought you would come," his voice says, it is Rio.

"Clearly you and your siblings discuss everything," I say

"we do," he says

"Well, that is some good therapy session then, no need to hire one since you all have solutions to
everything," I say hitting back

He chuckles.

"Since you share everything with your siblings, please make sure that you don’t share what
almost happened between us?" I say

"What almost happened between us?" he asks

"I would also like to know," his voice says, this time it is Daniel. I hope he didn’t hear anything.

"I cursed him and almost fought him because he didn’t let me make dessert," I lie

"so that is the reason why you were grumpy?" Daniel asks.

"oh I was grumpy?" I ask with a serious face

"You know what I mean babe," Daniel says

"I think I will excuse you guys," Rio says

"No stay, I will excuse myself," I say and walk away to the stairs. I think I will admire the house
for now and have a good look at it. I wonder whose house is it? I love the portraits in this room.

"It looks like you want to live this lifestyle, or rather see yourself in this house,"Anusha says
behind me, her voice is my nightmare.

"I would live in this house if I wanted to but I have no interest in living in it," I say

"I don’t like hypocrites Ashante and I can smell one from far away,"

"how am I a hypocrite," I ask

"you were into Rio before Daniel and now you are into Daniel, "

"I love Daniel, I think it's best you let go of your brothers, let them live life, I honestly think you
have a crush or keeping them to yourself, you are such a snoep kind, that is what you are and you
won't admit," I say and chuckle but receive a hot slap. She just slapped me.
"You just didn’t," I say, if there's anything I have always wanted to do was to beat this girl,
unfortunately I don’t have the tools to do that, but I am not letting her go with this one.

"you are going to jail," I say and she chuckles

"you think you can send me to jail because of a lousy slap?" she asks and chuckles once more. I
raise my hand to slap her but she hold my hand and slaps me instead. I slap her back and she
holds her cheek then chuckles before giving me a punch right across my nose. She then kicks me
by the stairs and I fell making me roll down, screaming.

"Ashante," that is the voice that I hear, it is Daniel. I have lost balance and control of the stairs. I
am rolling down them. This is the end of me, I am nowhere near the ground. I am sure the
minute I hit the ground I will be long dead. This is the end of me.

THE END