CHAPTER 5

After Philip's hand recovered a little, he drove all the way home to visit his family. When he got there, Sandra opened the door for him and on seeing him, she hugged him. She was so happy to see her older brother again.

"You are here!" Claudia said as she hugged him with her charming smile. Philip missed his mother's warm hug, he felt at home when he looked at her again but then, his smile dried up when he saw Paul.

Instead of greeting his father, he turned to Sandra with a smile hoping to deceive her.

"I know I just got here but I really have to go home now."

Unfortunately, she wasn't a small baby anymore. "If you don't stay for dinner, I will never speak to you again." She said and he knew that she was telling the truth.

He sighed and walked past his father to the dining table and Sandra sat beside him starting a dialogue with him while Claudia went to the kitchen to get food. She was happy that her son had come back home to visit them, she didn't want to miss this opportunity to be with him again before he went back.

"You never told me that Enya was your girlfriend" Sandra asked.

Philip shot a look at her and turned back to his phone. He was replying to Enya's message.

"She came to the hospital to stay with you."

"She is not my girlfriend....she is just a friend."

"A close friend?"

"No, just a friend."

"What happened between you and Enya that night?" Sandra asked.

The whole house was quiet after they heard her question. Even Claudia who had sat down to serve the food stopped what she was doing.

"She left him to die in that fire. I told him that she never really had feelings for him." Paul said glancing at Philip.

"Paul stop this....." Claudia uttered.

"I didn't save you that day because Enya was also kidnapped and I wanted to see if you would sacrifice your life for hers. But it turned out that she left you to die in that fire!"

"Paul!"

"It's enough of all this pretending Claudia. I have to tell him the truth! You want to hear the whole truth, this is the whole truth and the truth is that we came that night to save you. We saw the place on fire when we came and after the fire service had put out the fire, we searched for you but didn't see you. I was scared to death but when I didn't see your dead body, I knew that you had escaped. When I asked someone around what he saw, he told me that he saw a girl and her father running out of the building while it was still on fire. I asked him if he saw any teenage boy around the building and he said that he saw the young boy run out after the girl and her father were long gone. Then the building caught fire!" Paul said while looking at Philip. He wanted to correct Philip's mentality about Enya.

"I was only kidding when I said that I wasn't going to save you, I knew that you could save yourself. He called me some minutes later and told me that he had set the place on fire and that he had set Enya free. So he was going to see who she would save. She ended up betraying you and you are still close to her! You are still protecting her life!"

"Paul, this is enough!" Claudia said, infuriated at her husband's behavior.

"She isn't the same person." Philip said calmly.

"She is a traitor! The easier you know that, the better for you."

"You have no right to accuse her. She and her father fell into that mess because of me."

"It wasn't really your fault was it?" Philip kept quiet after hearing his question.

"You just want to blame yourself for someone's actions. You and I know that the kidnapper was sent as a warning to her father, you tried to defend them and he got to you! It wasn't your fault so stop saying that!" Paul said loudly.

Philip's anger rose within him and he stopped eating.

"Philip..... please don't mind your father." Claudia said.

"I don't know about you but I will do anything to make sure that she doesn't live to see another day. She will have to pay for what she did to you....to us!"

"Paul! That is okay from you!" Claudia said.

After hearing his father's words, he pushed the plate of food away and got up from the chair. He didn't say anything before he left the house. He wanted peace for a while but it seemed like he was hurting more and more each day.

He knew that his father was saying the truth about Enya, he could have avoided Enya or better still change universities but he didn't. For some reason, he wanted to be close to Enya and far away from her at the same time.

He was so annoyed by the truth that he couldn't drive home, he knew what his father was doing to him. His father was slowly brainwashing him into hating Enya but despite his reasons, he still couldn't hate Enya as much as he wanted to.

Enya knocked at Philip's door one evening to check up on him and he opened the door and let her in.

"I called you yesterday, you didn't pick up all through so I was worried." She said.

"I am fine. You don't have to treat me like a baby anymore." He replied.

"What happened?" "Nothing, you should go now." he said.

Enya looked at Philip for a while, she had just finished her classes and wanted to check up on him but he wanted to be alone. "You know, I have endured a lot of insults from you after apologizing for my unforgivable actions. I like you a lot Philip, I just wanted you to know that. You can hate me all you want but it won't change how I feel about you."

That was the last thing she said before leaving his house. He watched her leave the house and when he looked out the window, he saw her getting into Martins' car. They had come together but Martins had not come in. Philip exhaled out of hatred, he hated her and he was still jealous at the same time.

"What did he say to you?" Martins asked.

"Never mind.... don't worry about it. He's just suffering from the inside...he doesn't want to share it with me."

"Does he really love you? You have done a lot for him and he keeps pushing you away from himself."

Martins didn't know the full story about their relationship, Enya knew very well everything that Philip had done for her even after what she had done four years ago. He was there for her even before she betrayed him and he didn't stop protecting her after.

She didn't reply to Martins and he got the signal then he stopped talking about Philip. She was probably hurt by what Philip had done. He dropped her off at her house and she thanked him. He wanted to get closer to her body at that moment and console her unfortunately for him, her feelings for Philip were greater than the feelings she had for him, and that got him frustrated.

He smiled and watched her enter her house. It wasn't long before he drove away. Enya could not sleep that night, she sobbed and cried on her bed and later slept off.

Exams had begun and everyone was busy. Reading began so not everyone went to parties or went home to their hostels to discuss with friends. Enya didn't see much of Philip, she only saw him once every week.

She had not visited him for the past three weeks since the exam started and she didn't know how well he was feeling. She wanted to visit him so many times during the past weeks but she knew that he would just insult her again like the other times.

On the other hand, Martins had been a good friend to her throughout the past weeks, she was happy to have him by her side as a friend. He was always caring and helpful, he would help her understand some things in her course that she wasn't clear about. Even though he wasn't studying her course, he proved to be knowledgeable about some of her courses.

After the semester's exam ended, she and Olivia went out for a drink.

"You have to stop seducing our lecturers. You might regret it." Enya said.

"Forget that nonsense, Enya. I always have the upper hand and it comes with my body."

"I see."

"You and Martins....has there been any intimacy?"

"Olivia stop your talks and questions. I and Martins are just friends."

"Okay.....I get it, so that means that you have not gotten over Philip yet."

"You know I am trying to."

"Try hard enough Enya. Martins may be in love with you and you expect him to wait for you?"

"He isn't in love with me."

"That was what you said the last time about the other guy. He waited for you to overcome your feelings for Philip for more than a month. What did you expect him to do at that party when he saw you?"

"Love doesn't just happen in a few months. It takes time."

"Let me guess, just like your relationship with Philip right?"

"We have to stop discussing about me. It isn't going to be easy for me to pretend that I love Martins."

"But you do like him, don't you?"

"I do but..."

"Then let him touch you and let him feel that you like him. At least he will wait for you to love him finally." Olivia said.

Enya closed her eyes and sighed, Olivia was an expert in these love relationships, she was the one that advised her to do some things that made Philip to start noticing her in the first place when they were still young. She decided to heed Olivia's advice.

Martins opened the door and saw Enya standing outside, he wasn't surprised because she had already texted him that night that she was coming to visit. She came in and he closed the door behind her.

"Welcome....you can sit." He said.

Enya nodded and sat down on a sofa just in front facing the television. After he had served her a drink, he sat beside her with some space between them.

"You didn't tell me why you wanted to come? Don't you think it's quite late to come to a man's house?" He said with a smile.

"Not too late actually. Let me tell you a secret, I used to walk home with my friends after parties at night."

"Impressive."

"It is.....but one night, my father waited for me to come back and when I did, he held a bold stick at me and threatened to beat me to death or bury me alive if I ever came back at night again."

"Wow....your dad was really strict."

"He was but he still treats me like a baby." Martins laughed softly and shook his head with a smile.

"And you are behaving like one."

"I don't like that compliment but I will accept it because I am in your house" she said with a smile.

"You're welcome....so what movie do you like?.....action or romance?"

"You know very well that girls love romance."

"Of course they do....very boring at times when they talk about it."

"I heard you" Martins searched and took out a disc and inserted it. He had bought the film mistakenly and the person he bought it from refused to collect it when he came to return it.

They watched the film but when they got to the middle of the film, Enya felt someone touch her hair gently, her heart beat faster knowing that it was Martins.

She felt him draw nearer to her and she felt his warm breath on the skin of her neck as he kissed that place. She closed her eyes and let him continue, she turned to him and felt his hands on her neck, while his face got closer to hers.

As he leaned towards her, she gently laid down on the sofa breathing faster than before as he got above her and drew his face closer to her, it wasn't long before he kissed her and she surrendered to her emotions.