CHAPTER 105
As soon as Ryan and Ruth finished setting the table, Lawrence and Vivian arrived and went straight to the dining table. They knew that food was ready since they smelt the delicacy of the meal as they entered the house. Magdalene and Naomi also accompanied each other to the dining table as soon as they smelt the delicacy of the meal.
" I can sense that this food has been cooked by Ryan. I can't wait to start eating" said Vivian as she sat on the table eating.
" Yes! I myself sat on the kitchen as I watched him cook. He even made me taste his food. I am absolutely sure that the food will be delicious. Let me take it upon myself to serve all of you" said Ruth as she stood up and went to serve Magdalene but Vivian immediately stopped her.
" What are you doing? You cannot serve your people first. In our community, it is required that the owners of the house should served first then the guests" said Vivian angrily.
Ruth assumed Vivian and continued serving Magdalene. This made Vivian to take the bowl and drop it on the floor.
" What is the problem with you? Don't you have any idea of how things work in our community. The rules that the elder ones should be served first regardless of who they are. I cannot go against my culture rules too" said Ruth who went and sat on her dining chair angrily.
" Why don't you stand and go and serve your grandma? I think that we should go by the rules of your community which is more important" Said Ryan smiling as he signalled to Ruth to stand up.
Ruth stood up and went towards Magdalene and served her who blessed her in return as the expected tradition.
" Thank you grandma. Vivian is expected to go and serve my mama too" said Ruth smiling.
Vivian stood up angrily and left. She did not really want to serve Naomi.
" I am afraid that we cannot eat till Vivian takes it upon herself to serve my mama" said Ruth .
Ryan immediately left the dining table to Vivian's room where he felt that she had gone to hide. He found Vivian seated at the corner of the room crying. He immediately went towards Vivian and tried to comfort her.
" Please Vivian. I know that I am hurting by Eve that I have said to you and the fact that I am forcing you to accept and go by another person's tradition. Do you know why? Because their customs tend to make them respect the old which makes the old to have power to curse the young. I beg you to go back to the dining table and serve Naomi so that we cannot eat. Unless.....you do not want to taste cassava your favourite which I have cooked for you" said Ryan smiling.
" Listen Ryan! I am only doing this because I respect you and trust you. Let's go" said Vivian as she left to the dining accompanied by Ryan.
Vivian went towards Naomi and served her which astonished Lawrence. As soon as she finished, Ruth served Lawrence whereas Vivian served Ryan as the both sat and served themselves too. They all finally sat and ate the dinner silently. Nobody wanted to say a word to the other.
Tere on the other had was seated at the garden in the house. She was accompanied by Nurse Peninah and Haggai who were planning on how they would destroy Ruth by delivering the fake evidence to the police. Unluckily, Martin overheard them as he was passing by the garden. He immediately went towards them and slapped Tere which astonished Haggai who hit him on his chest in return.
" Why are you hitting my wife? What do you want here?" Asked Haggai angrily.
" Are you asking me why I hit your wife? I paid her a huge amount of money to go to Mambo town and bring Ruth back to the closer gates only to find out that she has come with this woman" said Martin pointing at Nurse Peninah.
Haggai looked at Tere angrily. He had no idea that Tere was given such a huge amount of money. He felt betrayed by that fact which made him to forcefully take Tere to the guest room where they had been ushered in by Martin.
" How could you have hidden such kind of a thing from me? Are you really my wife?" Asked Haggai angrily.
Tere remained silent since she did not know what to say. She went away from Haggai and kept peeping through the window pretending that she wanted to know what was happening outside the closer gates.
" Are you trying to ignore me? Have you forgotten that you could not have suceeded in your plans if not for me? Now that you have all the money in the world then it seems that you don't want anything to do with me" said Haggai angrily.
" What do you think of yourself? Do you think that I have ever loved you Haggai? All I wanted was to be with Martin but I decided to stay with you since you were the father of Vela and I loved Vela more than I loved myself" said Tere who left the room angrily.
She went downstairs as she tore her clothes and hit herself on her cheeks till red sores were formed. Tere therefore went to the study and found Martin seated there checking through his books at the study.
Tere immediately ran towards him and hugged him as tears welled down his eyes. Martin hugged Tere back as soon as he saw the sores on Tere's face.
" Did he do this to you?" Asked Martin in a pellucid voice.
" Yes! He did this to me because I did not tell him that you paid me a huge amount of money in order to get Ruth back to the closer gates. What wrong did I do with that Martin? Is that not my money that I was going to work hard for?" said Tere as tears welled down her eyes.
" What must have forced him to do this? No! I am going to take him out of the closer gates today" said Martin as he held Tere's arm and led her to Haggai's room.
They both found Haggai searching through Tere's thing to see if he could find any money but he got angrily when he did not find any man. Haggai turned towards Tere and was astonished to see sores all over Tere's face which made Tere to be filled with lots of hesitant. She knew that Haggai would attack Martin thinking that Martin was the one who beat her up.
" Does money give you the guts to hurt a woman Haggai? I thought that you were a well respectable man who valued the dignity of women. Get out of here and get out of the closer gates too" said Martin who went to Haggai's closet and started removing some of his things which made him to move towards Martin and try to beat him up but three strong men came towards him and stopped him at once. They helad his arm as the beat him till Martin told them to stop.
" Let him pack his things and leave the closer gates. He should not also be seen anywhere near him. We have no toes with him and closer gates will never be his home as from today" said Martin angrily who left.
Tere stood there aghast for a while. Everything happened so fast that made her to be filled with shock. All what Tere wanted was for Haggai to be warned not to interfere with her money and not to leave the closer gates. This made Tere to feel bad since she knew that Haggai treasured the closer gates too much.
" Listen! I know this is your home and you have always treasured it but I ......." Said Tere but Haggai immediately interrupted.
" I will come back for revenge against you. I have always that you never loved. You only used me to get the power of the closer gates. You are a selfish woman. Let's see how you will be able to do everything by yourself because when I come back then the revenge will be more worse than you can take it" said Haggai who took his luggages and left.
Tere followed him closely as tears welled down her eyes till he finally left the closer gates and the gates were locked.
Tere had no idea that Haggai carried along with him all the fake evidence that were meant to takes Ruth and Faith to jail. He immediately destroyed the evidence since he did not want anything to do with it. Besides, it was one of the ways that he wanted to revenge on Tere. He entered the taxi and left to Mambo town. He arrived at the boundary and was surprised to find out that the boundaries to entering the town were locked by the fence created all round.
MARRIED AT SIXTEEN.