Chapter Twenty-One

He lay on his bed, looking at the ceiling, practically staring into nothingness, the thoughts of the girl who looked exactly like his former aide, Jibawo Ketu, engulfing his mind. It had been a few days ago and he had been told he was just seeing things, but how could that be? He knew he had seen her vividly and she had made a threat to kill him, but no one would believe him. He had committed a lot of atrocities, but still lived very well. It was as though he wasn't born with a conscience. According to the Christians, there was no peace for the wicked...but they were wrong. He had peace, even more peace than their troubled souls had. That's probably why the people around him weren't taking him seriously. If after all these years, he still managed to live and sleep well, why was it at his old age that he'd be getting haunted? The guards that were with him on that uneventful day hadn't known Jibawo Ketu, so, they couldn't tell if he had been right or not. He had taken pills, tried to convince himself that he had been wrong about seeing a replica of Tade's former lesson teacher, and had watched a lot of movies to get the incident out of his mind; but still, it lingered on. There was a knock on the door, and he waited for one of his aides to go and open it, when he realised that no one was with him. He then remembered telling them not to bother him a few hours ago, and so, there was no way they could open up the door for him. He looked from the ceiling to the door a few times, contemplating on how he was going to stand up and start walking over there to open up the door. Being a very fat man who weighed over 110 kilograms was not easy on him at all. He had tried working out once, but had later stopped, using the excuse of being advanced in age as a cover-up for his laziness. 'Sir, some of your board members are here to see you. I told them you don't wish to be disturbed, but they insisted that you were the one who called for a meeting in your house today, to discuss the forthcoming anniversary," One of his aides announced, from outside the door. Chief Alade Wellington didn't even have the strength to shout back at him, in order to tell him that he'll be downstairs soon, and just texted him that he'll be out in thirty minutes. Truth be told, he hadn't always been that way. He used to be a skinny young man, working all sorts of menial jobs just to make ends meet. At the age of 16, he had watched how a strict money lender who controlled things in their slum area, which was well-known for the waste littered all over, beat up his dad with a stick for failing to pay back his loan. Still, his father grovelled at the man's feet and begged for him to show him mercy, explaining that the Nigerian government who he worked for hadn't paid him his due salary for months, but the notorious money lender was less concerned and asked him to pay back in three days, or pay with his life. That may have been a literal statement, but his father hadn't been able to bear the real effects those words had. He was going to be paraded around the street and tagged an oni gbese (a debtor). After that, all his properties would be sold, and if that couldn't complete the payment of the debt he owed, he was going to be beaten to a pulp and forced to work on the man's farm and in his house as well, until he was satisfied and let him go, and that could take ages. He was likely to even die in the process, and if the money lender still wasn't satisfied, his children will continue from where he stopped. It was definitely a harsh and unfair treatment, but it had always been that way in their slums on the outskirts of the city of Ikire, Osun state, and over the years, no one had bothered to protest against it, because even if they did, they knew nothing was going to be done to eradicate the issue. One morning, on the day of the expiration of the three days his father had been given, he had been forced to wake up by the high-pitched screams and lamentations of his mother. Sighing, he stood up and walked to the parlour, where his mother's voice was coming from. He thought that she was just making a mountain out of a mole hill, due to a minor situation again, but fell to his knees in shock and disbelief, on seeing his father hanging lifeless from the fan. He had hung himself; he had committed suicide, and he was no more in existence. When the money lender heard of the news, he came to their house to inquire if they would be relocating to the village after the death of their benefactor, and when their mother had replied in the negative, giving him a cold hard glare, he nodded his head in satisfaction. They didn't know why he had come to ask such, but they soon knew, when after two weeks of burying his father, he came with his thugs who took away all their properties. He had just stood there, shocked at the lack of sympathy the man had shown to a family who was still mourning, while his mother looked on, helplessly. They were then forced to evacuate their premises, as the landlord was a very good friend to the money lender, and their rent had expired months ago. The lender then told them to live in his servants' quarters and work on his farmlands, and work around the house. 'Them" consisted of he, his younger sister and his mother, and they had accepted their fate as slaves, and had done as he instructed. Three months into working for him, his mother suffered a heart attack from the workload and overthinking, and after spending a few days in the local clinic without getting the proper care she needed, she passed on. Chief Alade Wellington, at the time, had never for once shed a tear or showed how hurt he was, and had concealed the pain life brought to him, masking it with a tough exterior, which had built him into a hard-hearted and emotionless individual. When he had turned eighteen, and his sister was sixteen, looking really beautiful with all the curves in the right places, she had been molested and defiled by one of the money lender's thugs, and got the deadly virus, HIV, from him. At first, they hadn't known what had been wrong with her and she was always getting sick. When the illness grew worse, making her look like the shadow of her former self, he gathered all the money he had been saving from his other menial jobs and took her to the hospital in the city for the doctor to run tests on her. The doctor had been the one to break the news that the illness had graduated into AIDS, and although, they could try to manage her sickness for the meantime, she wasn't going to make it, because they hadn't gone to the hospital earlier enough. It was there and then his sister opened up that she had been raped by one of the lender's thugs, and told him who it was. Clenching his fists, he looked at his sister's once beautiful face and determined to get revenge for her. She hadn't deserved what had happened to her at all. She was a sweet bubbly girl, who did everything she was asked to, without throwing tantrums or complaining. He knew he would lose her, but she was definitely not going to go down alone. Three years later, on the fifth remembrance of his father's death, he set his plan in motion, which he had been plotting with two other slaves for over a year. He had used his looks to woo one of the lender's daughters and they had ventured into a secret relationship. She always sneaked food into his room, and always comforted him, saying she'd beg her father to let him be. He'd just smile, and kiss her on the cheeks. Upon his request a few months later, she made duplicate keys and gave them to him. One night, when they were all asleep, he snuck into the room where she had told him her father keeps all his money, as he didn't believe in going to the bank. Already, his friends who were in charge of making food for the thugs had added sleeping pills to the food and they were all fast asleep, with their snores filling the atmosphere. They gathered the millions of naira in various bags and took them one after another to a big bus which belonged to the money lender, who had probably sensed something was going on, because the next minute, he showed up in front of them, shocked at the sight of their actions and hollered on his guards who didn't show up. Sensing something must have been wrong with them, he brought out his revolver, and threatened to blow off their heads. In a bid to stop him, Chief Alade, at the time, had engaged in a scuffle with him, and ended up pulling the trigger, killing the man in the process. He was amazed at the lack of remorse he felt, and that was when he knew he had lost all his feelings and emotions over the years. That night, they knew that the police would definitely come after them for stealing and the murder of the wicked money lender, whose name was Lord Uwaifo. Once again, he met the deceased's daughter, knowing she'd heed to his request, being consumed by the love she had for him, and forgetting the loyalty she was supposed to owe to her family. He asked her to say that it was robbers who had invaded their house, and in the process, the slaves had escaped. She understood that it had been in self defence that he had killed her father, and knew that the slaves did what they had to do to attain their liberty, so, she agreed to do what he asked of her, and he promised to return to her someday. A few months after the incident, he had relocated to a sublime area in Ibadan, and had begun his money lending business as that was the only thing he could think of. The money gotten from Lord Uwaifo had been shared equally between he and his two friends, and they had gone on separate ways. In a year, he had made triple of his capital, and saw money lending as a true lucrative business. He was then approached by a Chinese man, who gave him the idea of people repaying with their kidneys if they failed to pay back the loan they took. In return, he would pay him their loans in fourfold. Chief Alade had accepted this offer and educated his debtors on the fact that they could live healthily with just one kidney. In time, his business expanded, and he had an army of ruthless thugs, who carried out his work, worse than Lord Uwaifo had done. He ensured they always signed a contract which contained the clause of giving one of their kidneys if they failed to return the loan. At first, he persuaded them, but as time went by, he didn't do anything and made sure they signed out of their own free will, and ensured to find them and get their kidneys whenever they decided to run. At times, someone could have just one kidney, but he still took it, and at his order, when someone had proved too stubborn, he just erased them from the face of the earth, sometimes, with their families. He became unfeeling, violent and bloodthirsty. He hadn't always been like that. In his defence, he was only a manifestation of what life could do to you. When he was the age of twenty-four, he remembered the girl who had loved him, Lord Uwaifo's daughter, Sandra, after years of forgetting her. He took a trip back to his hood, and there, he saw she and her family living poorly, still in their house, with no guards or servants. They were already contemplating on selling the house and relocating to a quiet neighbourhood, and he was glad that he had met her there still. She had told him that she thought he forgot all about her, and had been thinking of him with every day that passed, all the years he hadn't been around. He lied that he missed her and spent a few days with her, then gave her family a huge sum of money, then on her insistence, took her back to him to his house in Ibadan. Sandra had been disappointed at the work he was into, and expressed how hurtful it was that the two men she had ever loved were heartless monsters. He was, however, less concerned, and told her to leave if she hated it there, but of course, she stayed. It was she who had founded Welling Fam Heights, first known as Sandra's Fashion House, out of her obsessive love for fashion, in a small organisation, not as a company, but more of a plaza with unique designs, and within three years, it was thriving. To avoid the constant questioning from the police as to how he kept getting richer, he helped Sandra build a company, and employed staff on her behalf. He then asked to be named the co-owner since it was his money she had used to start the business in the first place. She agreed, on the condition that he married her first, and in a few weeks, they got married, and had Tade a few years later, who was his source of joy and happiness. After his birth, the doctor had said she couldn't produce more children, but Chief was content, and he gave the little one all the best there was in life. As time went by, he gradually fell in love with Sandra, and tried all he could to make her happy. He wanted to stop his loan business and just concentrate fully on the company, but he couldn't because he wanted more money, and became greedy. When he was almost letting go of the business, his only child, Tade fell sick, and needed a bone marrow transplant. It was rare to have a parent, whose bone marrow matched their child's, but it happened in Tade's case, as his mother could transplant hers to his. Unfortunately, the doctor had warned that due to some complications, Tade's mother could die, and he was at a loss on what to do. He then reasoned that Tade was the only blood relative he had, and that Sandra's father had killed all the others indirectly, and he couldn't just sit back and watch his only blood relative die. Due to that, he never told his wife what the doctor said, and encouraged her in going for the transplant, which was successful, but had a negative outcome, as it brought an end to her life. After her death, he erased every thought of stopping his loan business, and became even more stonehearted, on the grounds that life was unfair to him, and everyone deserved to be as miserable as he was. Chief Alade Wellington managed to stand up from his bed, and stared at himself in the mirror. With all the things he had done, he still lived well, all because he was broken from a young age. How was it then possible that after so many years, his past would be coming back to haunt him? For a while, he had been scared of the girl he was sure was Jibawo Ketu's daughter, but it seemed like he had forgotten who he was. He was Alade Wellington, and he could do and undo things; the girl should be scared of him, and not the other way round. As he stepped out of his bedroom, he reasoned not to ask anyone to get information on Jibawo Ketu's family. Even if the girl knew all that had happened, how exactly was she going to go about killing him when he had many men that protected him? She had made a mere threat, or he had probably just been seeing things like Tade had said. One thing was sure though; he hadn't done anything wrong. He was a product of the society, and if she wanted war, she could bring it on for all he cared.