Chapter One

Everything came crushing down for the Richards after the death of Stephen Richard, the former CEO of the Richards winery, makers of one of the finest most talked about wines in the whole country. It was a life long legacy as every generation handled the business and after Stephen's death, it was time for a new set of hands to run it.

"I hold in my hands the last will and testament of late Mister Stephen Richards," the family lawyer said, holding up a sealed dark brown envelope for all present in the living room to see it was still sealed. The room was still and quiet as though a fresh downpour of shiver was put in everyone present... As though his ghost was in that living room with them watching their every move like a hawk.

The living room was large enough to accommodate a whole extended family having everyone sit comfortably but those present were the three sons of Stephen Richards; Damian, Daniel and Duncan and their estranged uncle who had just visited from the village after he heard about the death of their father.

The lawyer carefully tore off the plastic seal that protected the envelope and brought out from it, white coloured papers each containing the written words of Stephen before his death. He began reading out the will as everyone adjusted more comfortably on their seats for they had all awaited that moment anxiously. Before that, they had to listen to a read out biography of Stephen's life and series of achievements before his death and were so delighted though didn't express it, to know the reading of the will had finally started.

"It is with deep regrets I announce that the only possessions I have now are the winery and the house," the lawyer read out and looked up into their faces searching for shocked reactions which he got, then proceeded. "The cars, houses in the estates, yacht and all other priced possessions were taken as collateral when I couldn't pay up my debts. I am so sorry I failed you and pushed the rest of my remaining unpaid debts to all of you. So I hand the running of the Richard winery to my first born son, Damian. I trust it is in good hands please continue the family legacy signed Stephen Richard," The lawyer said as he concluded by folding the paper back into the brown office envelope.

Their uncle Uche, was the first to speak up. He stood up and straightened himself while he let out a loud throbbing cough as he attempted to clear his throat, it was either that or just a signature way of beginning a talk. He took out his red chieftancy 'okpu' that completed the rest of his black matching attire and flattened the cap to a neat fold before starting.

"Stephen was my second cousin's brother-in-law and as such it makes me a part of this family. I remember when Damian was just a baby. He won't remember now, but I normally carry him around whenever I visited and I'm proud of the man he is now. As our people fondly say, the death of something begets life in another. It is such a shame that Stephen had to die an ignoble death and up until now, we all seemingly never knew that."

Daniel stood up in fury as he expressed dissatisfaction to the way a total stranger could come in and say mean things about their father. It stirred up an unnecessary back and forth argument with their voices thundering the whole room and their lawyer was forced to separate the budding fight. Damian's eyes lingered on the brown envelope as a white smaller envelope poked its edge out of the brown envelope. It wasn't the one that contained the will and while the lawyer still spoke, he nudged forward and took it out carefully placing it into his suit pocket unnoticed. He knew what it might have contained, a secret he had to keep hidden for the rest of his life. He remembered the different paper envelope from the night before his father's death.

Damian was the last to see Stephen alive before the sad death caused by multiple complications and finalized by a stroke. He remembered the night at the hospital where Stephen was rushed to and how he was drawn to sit beside him as Stephen gave him lots of advice mostly from the Bible. It was shocking as Damian had absolute certainty that his father was a heathen, but received the advice with open arms. It was then that Stephen requested for a piece of paper and an envelope where he would write the truth for everyone to know which was something Damian didn't want.

"I'm afraid this meeting will have to end here," The lawyer said and taking up the brown file, he put it into the briefcase he tagged along and closed it. Damian was glad the brawl stood in the way and made him forget about the envelope.

He was about leaving when a woman with a clean shaven head and a black embroidered gown walked into them. Her nose was pinched upward and it was quite difficult to tell if she had enough air to breathe through those tiny holes. Her face was caked with dust, sweat and tears as she walked towards Damian and placed her hands on his firm masculine face and smiled then did same for Daniel and Duncan too muttering their names as she did.

"Who are you?" Duncan asked quite impolitely.

"Can't you see?" She asked pulling her hands away from Duncan's face and said, "I'm your mother, Regina Richards."

*****

"So... Which of these should I wear to work?" Celine asked raising up two hangers on both hands as each held two different gowns that danced about and she wiggled them to get Tessy's attention.

"Ummmm.... The blue," Tessy finally said and returned back to her phone. Celine sighed frustrated and hung the other peach dress in her closet filled with identical dresses of different colours. The closet was just as big as another room having her clothes hang closely packed to each other. At one end, she had a line filled with suits still of different colours and shades and also had a line up of heels beneath the clothes reaching both ends of the closet on a shoe rack and had the pointy ends of the stilletoes poke their heels out through the rack.

"What are you staring at?" She asked as she returned to her room with a navy blue heel that matched the blue on her bed.

"Nothing," Tessy replied. Celine dropped the shoe she was holding and quickly grabbed the phone Tessy held and saw the jaw dropping picture of the fondly talked about Damian Richards and suddenly her expression changed.

"Why are you so into this guy?" Celine asked tossing Tessy's phone on the bed as she packed up a heap of the other clothes on the bed to neatly put them back to where they belonged.

"...because he is handsome and rich and..."

"Stone faced? I've never seen him smile."

"That's because he's a business man. Business people don't smile," Tessy replied reaching out to her phone.

"I'm a business woman and I smile," Celine replied, fitting herself into the blue gown she had set apart and having Tessy handle the zipper when it ate a part of her gown.

"Well..." Tessy teased twirling her hand in a wave like motion to depict uncertainty and was quick enough to dodge the pillow Celine threw at her.

"Whatever! You know how important he is to me," Celine said adding a finishing touch to her already styled hair. She reached out to her lipstick and smacked her lips after coating her lips with a red lipstick.

"Yes.. Yes I know and I'll try not to stalk him anymore," Tessy said and held unto the pillow Celine had thrown at her. The latter smiled and slipped her slender feet into her fancy pair of stilettoes then grabbed her handbag and descended the house in style.

She had just responded to a greeting from one of her maidservants when a call came in. She struggled to place the phone on her ears and then replied to the caller saying how she was on her way to the office already. The tap sounds her shoe made with the flooring echoed about the whole house thanks to the acoustics and very large building. The doorman opened the door to the house for her to leave and the sudden light of day reflected on her skin which glistened like the fleshy part of a ripe mango. She entered the car already waiting for her at the driveway when her chauffeur opened it for her and then walking over to the driver's seat, he drove her to work.

Celine Okafor was the goddess of beauty who ran Royal suites and was a shareholder to many other prominent establishments. She had just moved into town after the CEO of the hotel passed on in a tragic accident. She and her best friend Tessy, stayed together in her mansion and how Tessy leaped for joy the very first day she invited her over. The majestic chandelier at the base of the house dropping in its glory and being the major attraction in the living room, a grand piano by the side with a black stool tucked beneath it. The tall fans at the sharp ends of the living room each blowing out cool air amidst the air conditioning system stuck to the wall... Everything screamed Royalty.

Celine was but just an average woman who worked at the hotel as the events manager until surprisingly, the CEO willed everything to her name. He had however written and blamed his actions on her outright competence and because he remained a bachelor till he died, he didn't have children of his own to continue where he stopped but most people weren't buying the whole idea and rumoured that they had had a secret affair which Celine bluntly refuted but the rumors never stopped.

She walked into her office and sat on the thick black leather office chair with twirling wheels and sank on it as she rolled about the whole circumference of her desk in excitement. It was her first day at work little wonder why she leaped up again and fiddled with the shelf filled with her items and mouthed 'CEO' in self appraisal and confidence raising her shoulders mimicking how grand her title sounded until a knock came on the door. A young lady walked in holding a clipboard and a pen and pleaded Celine helped her resolve an issue at the hall. Apparently, two events were scheduled for the same day and it was starting a brawl between both parties.

She followed after the lady and they reached the hall soon enough and just in time before the heat was fully stirred. A birthday party and a wedding reception was scheduled for the same hall and it had caused the father of the celebrant and the groom to rat it out as they exchanged unpleasant words.

"What happened?" Celine asked after she got the attention she sought.

"Your events manager here booked two events the same day and same time," The father of the celebrant was the one who spoke up. He held a red balloon up with one hand and had his daughter's tiny wrist firmly locked with the other. He was huge and had an intimidating figure with a cone shaped birthday hat sticking up above his head.

"I'm so sorry for that. I believe this won't happen again," she said the last words slowly piercing her eyes on the events manager and then back to the little girl's father then continued, "since the birthday party is for a fewer crowd, may I suggest you push it to the other hall at the end?" She asked.

"No! I reserved this place for my daughter and her friends. I will not..." He started.

"For free. The reservation will be for free and another cake would be given for compensation. We apologize," she said.

"Well... I guess if it's for free then I can compromise," he said and then had the events manager whose name she later figured out was Lilian, move the children and their party items to the smaller hall at the other end.

"I apologize again," she said clasping her hands in sincerity as she addressed the father of the groom.

So much for her first day...

*****

Damian paced about the living room watching as the woman who had claimed to be their mother told them everything about each of them to prove she wasn't a fraud but he was unyielding.

"Damian please sit like your brothers let me explain myself. My son," she pleaded holding out her hand to him but he brushed it off.

"You had no reason to leave us like that! There is no reason!" He barked.

"Damian listen to what mother has to say." Daniel was the one to talk this time.

"She's not my mother! She stopped being my mother the moment she walked out of that door on us," Damian retorted. His voice having a tone of finality. Regina clutched the hem of her dress and subsequently her chest as she winced in pain like a wounded deer.

"You don't know what happened," she said gradually standing up and tearing up.

"Umm... I think I need to leave now," Duncan said when he felt he had heard enough.

"You see, Duncan barely knows you. That's because you left him when he was still a baby," Damian said gesturing with one hand as the other parted his suit jacket and slipped into his pocket.

"But you don't understand, you didn't know your father very well like I did. He was an evil man and sent me away when I found out his secrets."

*****

On her way back home from work that day, Celine received a call from Tessy and couldn't wait to tell her how her day was. She held her phone up in her hand and lost grip of it when she approached a bump on the road. As she struggled to pick the phone that had slipped from her hand, she bumped her head on the car's tinted glass window and saw something or someone of interest.

"Oh my God! That's him," she said tapping the driver's seat and instructed the driver halted. She drew out her iPad and pressed the right combination on the locked screen and giving off a click sound, it opened displaying floating icons that bubbled about. She had almost forgotten Tessy who was at the other end of the call muttering 'hello' and blaming the poor service for the cut in transmission.

She tapped the gallery icon and swiped through a train of pictures until she got to a particular one and smirked satisfied. She picked up her phone and spoke into it, "Tessy just hang in there OK? I just found something. I'll place you on hold," she had said.

One would wonder why she couldn't just cut the call and call back later instead of letting precious minutes of unspoken words slip away and each second having a price to pay literally but that was typical Celine. She had so much money at that moment that she stopped all rational thoughts. At that moment, she knew exactly what she had to do. She stepped out from the car and hurried to the ATM stand where she had seen the mystery guy. A lot of angry Nigerians stood on the queue waiting for their turn and slipping through the short spaces each person gave the other, she reached the neon lit stand.

"Hey! We've been on this line for long! You can't just come and maneuver your way through!" An angry woman spoke up tightening her hand into a fist and wiggling it in the air in defence.

"I'm sorry I just want to tell him something!" Celine replied and looked back at him. "Here, take this," she said slipping in a wad of hundred thousand naira notes into his hands and then stepped aside. He fiddled with the buttons and had the machine stick out a part of his card then he pulled it out and put it back into his wallet.

"Who are you and why did you do that? How did you know I didn't have money?" He spoke up.

"I know everything about yo- I mean you were wasting so much time at the stand. There could only be a handful of explanations to that," she replied clutching to her bag. "I'm Celine. Celine Okafor. Businesswoman.. New to town...You are?"

"Duncan. My name is Duncan Richard." He said and took the offer of a hand shake she was giving.

"Yea! I suspected you were a Richard, your family reputation preceeds you. One of the most successful businesses I've ever seen. I hope to work with you all some day," she said flashing her sparkly pearly whites.

"The business is in shambles... I don't have money because you wouldn't have given me that money if we still had our glory." He walked away placing his earphones over his ear.

"Wait!" She called after him doubling her steps to meet up. "How about I offer you a proposal? This is my card, call me if you're ready to partner with me."

"I didn't get to say thank you earlier for the money. Thank you," he said and took the card from her and then walked away.

Celine smiled victoriously not only because she had gotten to form an acquaintance with the Richards but because everything went according to planned. She knew everything about the Richards and the recent death of their father. She knew he would take the card, hesitate a bit, but eventually call her at the brink of losing it all. It was only then that she realized she had left Tessy on hold.

She dipped her hand into her bag searchingly and brought out her phone. She clicked the hold button again and was back to the call with Tessy.

"Tell me everything!" Tessy squealed excitedly.

"I will when I get home but for now, just know I've met part of my family. I'm going to pay the Richards a visit... I can't wait to meet my brothers."