Chapter 57

Surprised and confused at the same time, Vincent shifted his gaze to his stepmother who refused to look at him now and had averted her gaze. "Dad, I don't understand. Where's this coming from?"

"Just answer the question!" Nduka said in impatience.

Vincent sighed now after a slight hesitation. "No, I've not been bringing Chinasa over to the house neither have I been sleeping with any classmate of mine." Vincent calmly answered.

"But have you had sex at all?" Nduka asked and Vincent swallowed hard and lowered his gaze, unable to answer. "Son, I asked you a question, have you had sex at all?!" Nduka asked again, raising his voice a notch.

"Yes sir." Vincent contritely answered, unable to lift his eyes.

"You see!" Njideka suddenly exploded. "You see what I told you?! It's your son who infected you?! He even had the infection a week before you did, and yet..." She started to cry now. "...you came to accuse me of infecting you, Nduka... Nduka, you dared open your mouth to accuse me..." She slapped her chest thrice. "...your darling wife of adultery... Chaiii!" She shook her head slowly in self-pity. "I've suffered! Me, Njideka, adultery! Mua, adultery when I've been very faithful to you." She wept even more.

Nduka heaved a sigh of regret now as he softened at the sight of his wife's tears. "I'm sorry, Njideka, it was only a mistake... I never thought that the infection could also spread through clothing... I never saw it that way, please forgive me..." He tried to placate her as she continued to sob and wipe the tears from her eyes with her hands. "Please, I know that I've erred you greatly by accusing you wrongly, but I'm ready to make it up to you... Just tell me what you want right now and I promise that I'll give it to you."

"Biko, leave me alone jare!" She shrugged him away when he tried to pull her close to himself. "You think trying to bribe me will wash away what you have just accused me of?! Better leave me alone!" She continued to solve.

"Please nau, at least I've said that I'm sorry. Just name anything and it's yours, I promise!" Nduka pleaded.

"Fine...if you say so..." She sniffled now, completely wiping her eyes. "I want barbecue fish, a bowl of ice cream and thirty thousand naira to go shopping."

"Just that?" Nduka asked.

"That's all for now, baby." She answered, sniffling again.

"Okay... I'll go get them immediately and also come back to take you to the hospital for your own test, but first, before I leave-" Nduka turned to his son, "...Dike, apologize to your step-mother."

Vincent lifted his head now with a confused frown. "For what?" He asked.

"For the wrong accusation! You are the cause of all this!" Nduka stated. "You have caused your stepmother to cry, so apologize to her."

"What! But dad, I-" Vincent started to say.

"No buts! Apologize now!" Nduka snapped, cutting him short.

Swallowing hard again, Vincent mustered enough courage and reluctantly apologized to Njideka who smiled now in a childish way, leaning against her husband.

"When I'm back, we'll have a talk about your breaking your virginity and defiling your body when you know fully well that you are aspiring to be a priest and bring honor to this family..." Nduka said to his son in total displeasure and disappointment. "...In fact, now that it's obvious that you are being negatively influenced by your friends at school and by those ill-bred wanton girls, once you are done with your Jamb and WAEC, you are going straight to the Seminary in three months’ time!" Nduka said to Vincent, turned and left the house. 

Now left alone with Vincent, Njideka moved to the window to watch Nduka drive out of the compound. Once she had confirmed that her husband was gone, she spun around and smirked at Vincent. "That was a close call, wasn't it?" When the boy only glared at her, she asked again. "What would you rate my acting on a scale of one to ten, pretty impressive, right?"

"You didn't have to lie against me! You know that you infected himself!" Vincent said icily.

"Well, what does it matter if you take the fall every now and then for your darling stepmother? Not that you have anything to lose by the way!" She said apathetically.

"Nothing to lose?! Thanks to you, you've just hastened my going to the Seminary which I hate!"

"Oh, that..." She snorted and waved a dismissive hand as she sauntered to the sofa. "You are not going to start sulking, are you? If you ask me, you still have enough time here to enjoy me."

"Your cup will run over one day! It will!" Vincent hissed in indignation.

"Run over?" Njideka scoffed. "Speaking of running over, I think those balls of yours are already full and needs to be milked again." She said in a sultry tone. "I've given you a whole week to rest but the only problem besides your father's presence in the house, is that you keep locking your door at night...what are you afraid of? Thieves or me?"

"You have got to stop trying to sneak into my room! I heard you trying to force your way in two nights ago!"

"Oh, don't be so difficult! You know very well that you also want it as much as I do but you'd rather play Mr. Hard-to-get!"

"And get infected again? No, thanks." He said, "You either stop doing this or I might have to damn the consequences and tell my father everything!"

"Wow! I'm so scared!" She gave a false shiver. "Your gullible father will believe me anytime, which means that he'll always pick my word over yours! But all the same, you should do well to know that you can't avoid me forever, dear stepson! If I can't get you now, I will definitely get you later when I finally figure out how to get past your locked door. In three weeks, your father will have to leave for the city again, so what will you do then when he's gone? Stop coming home?" She teased him.

"I mean it, Njideka, stay away from my room!" He warned and stalked back to his room.

"Finally, he calls me by my name." Njideka chuckled and slumped on the chair, waiting for her ice cream and Barbecued fish.

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Kikelomo walked towards her mother's room and found her sitting outside her hut on a mat with her legs sprawled out in front of her while a maid plaited her hair on her knees.

"Mother, you sent for me." She said with slight displeasure evident in her voice.

"Took you long enough to come." The Queen said, giving her a disgruntled look. 

"I was taking my beauty sleep when you summoned me, maami." Kikelomo complained. "How do you expect me to maintain my beauty if I can't sleep in the afternoons."

"Beauty sleep ko, beauty sleep ni... Sha joko. (Just sit down)" The Queen said, patting a spot beside her.

Kikelomo reluctantly sat down and asked, "Now, mother what is it?"

"Did you go out on the sacred day this morning?" The Queen asked.

Kikelomo averted her gaze now. "Who told you?"

"I checked you early this morning but you were not in your room. You know better than to leave the premises of the palace on the day reserved for the spirits and gods."

"And why does this rule apply to Ige? Does she have two heads?"

"You can't compare yourself to Ige! You and I and every other person in this village know that Ewatomi is not an ordinary child! If that girl runs into malevolent spirits, she can handle herself but you can't!"

"Well, in my little walk to the hills, I met no malevolent spirit! They either don't exist or they were scared of me and that was why none of them intercepted me on my way!"

"Shut that mouth of yours! This day was reserved yearly for them for a reason! Because you were lucky enough not to have an encounter with them today, doesn't mean that they do not exist! Do not test the gods! Many have either run mad, gone blind or ended up dead for breaking the law! Let this be the first and last time you ever leave the palace on a sacred day! And for your own good, stop comparing yourself to Ewatomi! You don't know the history behind that child! Sho ti gbo mi? (Have you heard me?)" Asked the Queen, pulling her own ear for emphasis.

"Mo ti gbo. (I've heard)" Kikelomo said reluctantly, pouting.

"And lest I forget..." Began the Queen. "...ever since you started your monthly flow, news has reached me that you have been flirting around the village with boys, is that true, Kike?"

"Isn't that supposed to be one of the symptoms of puberty?" Kikelomo asked with a frown.

"Don't you realize that you are a princess? Is this how I trained you? Do you want to put the name of the royal family to shame?! Yes, you are beautiful, no one is disputing that; all the men can admire your beauty by feasting their eyes on your face, but the beauty which lies between your young thighs is only reserved for no other man than your husband! Have I not told you this before?"

"And what if I don't want my husband to be the first man? Why do I have to wait that long to feel like a woman when I can start feeling like a woman now?" Kikelomo stubbornly asked.

"Ha! Kike!" The Queen called, tilting her head towards her daughter.

"Maami?"

"Kike!" She called yet again in a warning tone.

"Maaami!" Kikelomo answered in slight frustration.

"Kikeee!"

"Maaaami!" She angrily answered. "I can hear you na." 

"How many times did I call you?"

"Lemeta maami. (Thrice, mother)"

Good! I married your father a virgin and it's necessary that you do the same. When your suitors from near and far start coming around once you have come of age to seek your hand for marriage and you choose one to be your husband, you can have all the fun you want, but for now, no man is to lie with you o...no man...not even testing..."

"But why are boys not told this? Why is this only directed at the girls? Nobody tells a boy to abstain from sex before marriage." Kikelomo grumbled.

"Because boys do not get pregnant, Kike! Don't say that I didn't warn you o! Do not put me to shame, for it is said, when a child is good, it's the father's but once a child is bad, it becomes the mother's. Better open those ears of yours and hear me now! On the night of your wedding, the blood of your virginity will be displayed to all by your husband to prove your chastity, so take heed and keep your thighs closed till we give you off to a man with our blessings."

 "Mo ti gbo. (I've heard)" Kikelomo simply said, eager to leave. "May I leave now?" She asked.

"You can go..." said the Queen and as Kikelomo rose to her feet, she exchanged secret flirty smiles with one of the guards who was standing akimbo with his hands behind him by her mother's hut, and the Queen didn't notice this secret exchange. Apparently, Kikelomo has been letting the guard who was almost twice her age "massage" her young breasts when no was around, and she even looked forward to more.

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A Month Later...

In the middle of the night, Vincent was roused from sleep when he found out that something kept rubbing against his face, especially close to his lips. When he opened his eyes, he was shocked to find out that his step-mother had snuck into his room, using a spare key and climbed his bed and straddled his face, and what had been rubbing his face was actually her hanging labia majora which she was secretly trying to put in his mouth. 

As he tried to jump out of bed, she grabbed his throat and tried to press her vagina against his lips, but he aggressively fought her off, wriggled away from underneath her and scrambled to his feet, panting hard and violently wiping his lips and face with his hands in disgust.

"How did you get in here?!" He asked angrily.

Njideka gently got off the bed and sat on the edge of it with her eyes glazed with lust. "Does it matter? I want us to make love, Dike."

"Get out of my room right now!" He pointed at the door. "Get out!"

"Keep your voice down." She whispered. "I'm only here because I'm sex-starved! Your father has refused to touch me for the past four weeks because he claims he needs to let the antibiotics work well and he didn't want to infect me, in case the infection is still lingering in his system."

"And how's that my business?! Then go to your priest!" Vincent snapped, still very much disgusted that she had tried to put her vagina in his mouth.

"C'mon, have you not noticed that he hasn't come around for a long time now? We are not on good terms, and besides, he was the one who infected me in the first place."

"Listen, I don't care if you are sex-starved or not on good terms with the priest, I won't be your victim anymore! Please leave before I wake up my father! How can you even try to seduce me again despite knowing that my father is in the house?!"

"Please na, Dike, try and understand... Just a little sex and I'll be on my way." She pleaded.

"It's like you are not listening to me! LEAVE MY ROOM!" He ordered but when she still refused to bulge, he said, "Fine, since you don't want to leave, you can as well make yourself comfortable! I'll go sleep in the sitting room!" As he grabbed the door handle and turned it, the door refused to open. He tried again but nothing happened. Realizing that she had locked it, he turned to ask her, "Where's my key?"

"Here." She pointed at her cleavage.

"Let me have it!" He stretched an open palm towards her, keeping a safe distance close to the door.

"Come and take it yourself."

"Njideka, if you don't give me the key to this door, I'll scream till my father wakes up!" He threatened.

"Go ahead, scream!" She said, unperturbed. When he frowned in surprise, she revealed, "in case you don't know, this is all premeditated! I drugged your father's dinner which means that he won't hear a thing since he's sleeping like a corpse!"

"Just how evil are you?!" Vincent asked in shock. "You'll go any length to have whatever you want!"

"Evil enough to get what I want. Your father will be out cold for the next six hours. Not even an earthquake can wake him up, so you have two choices, you either give me what I want or I'll take it like I did the last time."