CHAPTER 51

After Richard bought the water that he wanted from the store, he was walking away when somebody recognised him and called the police. Immediately Richard got close to his car he felt his left ear twitch and every time that happens, it means there is trouble. He decided not to ignore the sign as he quickly entered his car and drove away, but instead of driving to the direction that he was going, he drove in the opposite direction. Immediately he drove away, the police arrived and the store owner told them that he has driven in the opposite direction so they went after him immediately. 

It never occurred to the police that Richard is very intelligent and always watching his back because he knows that he is a scammer and the police can get him at any time. What Richard did was drive his car to another store, parked it in front of the store like he wanted to buy something, went across the road and entered a public transport which was going the way that he had just come from.

When the police arrived, some of them stood beside the car and the others ran into the store as they believed that he has gone into the store to buy something. They went in calmly and began to search but he was not found in the store. The ones who were standing by his car decided to walk away from there as they believed that if he sees them, he will escape but after about an hour when they didn't see Richard, they decided to search the car and when they did, they discovered that the car does not belong to him rather, it was a missing car. The car was reported missing three days ago buy a lady who owns the car. She reported to the police that her car was snatched from on our way from church by some hooded men.

The police could not believe that they have just been fooled so easily and they couldn't even say it that they have been outwitted by a wanted man who they're supposed to be on the lookout for. They began to think of how the way report this case to their superior when they get back to the police station because what they have just done looks stupid and their superior will scold them for it.

While Richard was in the plane flying back to South Africa, he took a deep breath because he knows that he narrowly escaped the police today and just as Mica once told him, his daughter might be the one to bring about his downfall if he doesn't stay away from her. Every time Richard sees his daughter, he has this pull to call her name or walk up to her and carry her to swing her in the air like he always does back when they were still living together. Richard couldn't blame himself for loving his child that much as he never planned on having one let alone loving her but his daughter came and he couldn't help but love her because she is very lovable.

Ima's mother was taking a walk in the garden of the house where she now lives when the maid walked up to her and told her that she had a visitor. When she heard that she had a visitor, she thought it was Rainbow but on getting back to the house, she was surprised to see her husband's lawyer and she knew that he brought her the divorce papers so she collected the papers and asked him to wait because she has nothing to think about as she doesn't want his money which he wasn't ready to give.

She read through the divorce papers and all she saw there where the clauses where her husband stated that she is not to come back to collect anything from him and also she is to drop his name immediately after signing the divorce papers else he has a right to sue her for that. She collected a pen from the lawyer and happily signed on the divorce papers. After signing, she took her copy and walked away as she looked at the paper and smiled. She told herself that this is her certificate to freedom. She also told herself that she has stayed too long in that toxic marriage where she was not wanted by the man she got married to and his family but now she is free to live her life the way that she wants to without looking over her shoulder all the time or thinking that karma will catch up with her soon.

 The lawyer was surprised as the woman easily signed the divorce papers because he was expecting to do some persuasion or blackmail before she will sign the papers. He expected her to put up a drama or try to beg for more time before signing as it is not easy to just walk away from a marriage that you have been in for over twenty years. She looked very different and changed as she has this air of happiness around her unlike when he used to see her in her husband's house that she was always looking like a scared bimbo.

When he got back to his client's house, his client looked surprised to see him return so soon as he never expected his wife to sign the papers. When he saw his lawyer coming, he laughed to himself and said "I trust her to create a scene and not sign those papers." He walked up to his lawyer and while the lawyer was bringing out the file, he said "my wife did not sign the papers right? I trust her to always act drama in little things that she can just resolve within seconds. I guess she's used to my money and she doesn't want to leave so soon as she still thinks that I will give her something from my properties but she is dreaming because she wouldn't get even a dime." While he was still talking, the lawyer handed him his copy of the divorce paper and he was shocked to see his wife's signature appended on the divorce papers.

He told the lawyer to excuse him as he walked up to his chair and picked up his reading glasses because it seems his eyes are beginning to fail him. After wearing his glasses, he looked into the documents again and saw that it was really his wife's signature that was there. "How did you do it? How did you get my wife to sign these documents because this is unlike her." 

The lawyer looked at the man talking and said within him "some men think that they are gods and lords of their wives but they don't know that they are making a mistake because it doesn't take women time to move on." The lawyer told himself that the woman he saw today is someone who has given up on him already. "With all due respect sir, your wife only scanned through the divorce papers and told me to give her a pen as she signed on it. While she was leaving after signing the divorce papers she never turned around even for once to look at me." 

Ima's father got very angry after hearing what his ex-wife did so he asked the lawyer about the house where she lives.  The lawyer told him that the apartment is beautifully decorated and had CCTV and his wife now has this glow around her which makes her look like a heavy burden has been lifted off her shoulders because she tends to look younger that he has always known her to look.

Her ex-husband was very unhappy when he heard that she was doing great and her life looks different. When he refused to allow his wife pick up any things from his house, he thought he was being the ultimate bad boy but now he feels angry that she did not go into depression and come back begging him as he has expected. He told the lawyer that he would like the lawyer to take him to the neighborhood where his ex-wife now lives. He was surprised that she could find a place to live in after he kicked her out.

Rainbow arrived shortly after the lawyer has left so she showed him the divorce papers which she has just signed and told him "my husband has finally done his worst by bringing the divorce papers through his lawyer for me to sign. If he thinks that I'll feel bad or cry after signing these divorce papers, then he really overrates himself. I signed the papers almost immediately because I don't want to see him and listen to his abusive words again.

While she was talking Rainbow had a flashback to that year when they wete still much younger. He flashed back to how much he cried the day that he learned that Jacqueline was getting married to her city lover. He can't believe that that marriage which he was so envious of has finally come to an end through a sheet of paper. When Jacqueline also gave birth to her first and only child, he wished that that child was for him but after seeing Ima today, he thanked God that the child was never his because all the havoc that Ima has wrecked in this town is enough to last some people a few months while those that it happened to are left with a permanent scar. He knows that Ima can never get out because the moment she gets better and leaves the psychiatric hospital, she is going to jail for the murder of a fellow model whose name was Lima. He doesn't want to tell her mother this because he knows that it will break her heart more. Sometimes when he looks at Jackie's daughter, he wonders how that girl turned out to be that way because her mother was never a bad person as her greatest crime to him has always been greed.

Rainbow walked up to Jacqueline and told her that now that she is free from her marriage and everything, what would she like to do with her life? He told her that it is never too late to start something and she told him that she has been thinking about it and she wants to follow her passion.

She and Rainbow talked at length as she discussed her dreams with him and he told her how to go about certain things and also assured her that he will be there to put her through and also give her a platform to explore. After they were done talking about her, she looked at Rainbow and asked him "I hope I am not prying because I've been meaning to ask you about your family. What about your wife and children? Are they aware that you are helping an ex lover and is your wife comfortable with this? Believe me, I just got out of a toxic marriage and the last thing that I need is a woman coming after me or trolling me on social media that I am a husband snatcher. I would rather get another place to live than make another woman feel insecure because I know that feeling and it is not a good one at all." 

"I guess it won't surprise you if I tell you that I don't have a wife and my children do not live with me as they live with her abroad. My wife and I got divorced a few years ago. She is a citizen of the United States and we gave birth to our two children there before coming down to Nigeria so after the divorce, she took our children and left. I talk to them occasionally because I was not denied any rights of seeing my children as our divorce was a peaceful one. We both came to the agreement that we make the worst couple after trying for years to make our marriage work. I can say that I am very blessed because even the woman I got married to, did not stress me till the day that we got divorced. It will also surprise you to know that she is married to someone else as should never wasted any time brooding about her failed marriage." 

Ima's mother felt sad and told herself that she missed a very good man because she was after wealth. She wished that she had put her greed in check and stayed where she found happiness instead of chasing after the wealth which sou never got at the end of the day. "I'm very sorry to hear about that. I thought you had a happy family that you live with. I guess we all have our plans but life has a way of altering them for us and showing us that we are not masters of our lives as we all think that we are. If someone had told me that I will end up where I am today, I guess I wouldn't have believed them because I thought that I had my future all planned out for me." 

Rainbow smiled at her and said "In the end, you and I are seated in one room discussing our life's journey which has not been so good but has been worth it. Do you know that if you never married the man that you married, you might never know what would have happened as you would have always thought about it and wished that you had taken the chance when you had it. I believe that instead of blaming life for certain failed relationships, Business Ventures, and many other things, we should thank life for giving us the opportunity to go through them and still sit to talk about them with others. When you decide to start your life all over again, you will do that with nothing on your mind. You will do that without any sort of what ifs. I just want to tell you that wasting your time brooding or regretting is not worth it because what has been done has been done and we cannot go back in time to change what we have done or turn back the hands of time so all we need to do in this life is to keep moving on. I don't want you to blame yourself for how your daughter turned out to be because we all forge our paths in this life and your daughter has forged hers. It is not your fault that the girl turned out to be the way she is because I have met many children who were pampered to rubbish yet they still turned out good and accomplished a lot for themselves. Do not let your ex-husband blame that on you because obviously the girl has his temper.