Chapter 61

"Hello, ladies!" Grace sweetly greeted in her nice accent.

While Anne and Doris acknowledged her, Violet simply placed her headphones over her ears as she half-laid on the bed with her upper back leaned against the wall and her knees up. Stephen stared at Violet and swallowed hard and before he knew it, Susan had shoved Grace aside and was trying to hug and kiss him on the lips just to bid him good night. Stephen quickly held Susan back by holding her shoulders at arm's length before politely declining her offer, then he gave an excuse that he needed to talk to his dad then quickly left the room. 

Once he was gone, Grace turned to face Susan now and her countenance completely changed from what they were used to, to something very sinister. "Now bitch, listen to me!" She grated to Susan in a menacing tone that stunned everyone. "I have heard all about you! I know your story, and I've gathered enough information to know that you are mean, manipulative and obnoxious! Well, I have good news for you, bitch, if you push me to the wall, I'll cut you!" She suddenly pulled out a switchblade, held it towards Susan's throat, pushed a button and the glinting blade shot up in a flash. "I'll cut you so bad and watch you bleed all over this floor and watch you die a slow painful death!" Susan's eyes widened in horror when she saw the weapon and she quickly staggered backward in trepidation. "I'm no pushover and if you think that you are a bitch, I want you to know that I'm a bigger bitch but just in case you doubt me, please call my bluff!" Grace sniffled, hit the heel of her palm against the side of her head and shook her head as she dragged in her breath as if experiencing a sort of euphoria only derived from hard drugs. "Just try me! Try me bitch and I'll stick this where it hurts the most!" She hissed, brandishing the switchblade in front of Susan's face.

Anne's and Doris' eyes were wide in shock and they slowly turned their heads to exchange looks before returning their eyes to the scene in disbelief. Was this the sweet and shy lady they had had dinner with who barely spoke a word? Why they pondered on how Grace had just behaved, Violet remained impassive as she stared at them from the corners of her eyes while she shuffled through her music and she didn't utter a single word.

"I'm not scared o..." Susan managed to say in a trembling voice, keeping enough distance between herself and Grace who retracted the blade and hid it somewhere in her teddy bear. "Don't just think that I'm scared of you... I'm not at all..." Susan murmured as she cautiously returned to her bed while keeping a wary eye on Grace.

Grace suddenly put on her former sweet and coy demeanor again as if nothing had happened. "Now, let's start afresh, hello ladies!" She cooed.

"Hello!" All the ladies besides Violet nervously answered with a forced smile. No one wanted to get on her bad side which she hid so well.

"Now, that's more like it!" Grace beamed in satisfaction and sat down on the foot of the last empty bed. "I'm glad that we will all get along easily. Now, why don't we start by introducing ourselves? I'll go first, my name is Grace Eweala. I used to run a salon in Amsterdam, and I'm thirty."

"I'm Anne Clifford. I'm a content writer and an entrepreneur. I'm thirty-one." Anne said.

"Doris Onome Osondu. I'm an ex-stripper, jobless for now and I'm twenty-eight." Doris said.

"Susan." Susan grudgingly said, refusing to add any other information as she glowered at Grace then secretly gestured to Anne that Grace was mad by rolling her finger towards the side of her head.

Grace turned to look at Violet now and when Violet noticed that they were all staring at her as if expecting her to do something, she lifted her headphones over her head and asked with a bemused frown, "What?"

"Introduce yourself!" Grace partially ordered.

"How about you all leave me out of this! You all can mingle all you want but I'd rather not be a part to it." Violet simply stated.

"No one is an exception!" Grace said flatly. "I'm in charge here and you are to do as I say if we are all going to have a peaceful two weeks together! Last time I checked, you both are the Intruders here who showed up uninvited just to ruin my chances of reconnecting with my one true love, and I'm the childhood friend who despite knowing him better than the two of you do has no choice but to compete for what's has always been rightfully mine- his love!"

"I think this is where I say goodnight!" Undaunted and not in the wood to banter words with Grace, Violet stated, then turned on her side, turning her back to Grace and ready to call it a night. Feeling disrespected, Grace lividly fetched her switchblade from the teddy bear and started to rise off her bed towards Violet in a threatening manner, probably to coerce an answer out of her when Violet who had heard her get off her bed, said firmly without turning, "Don't even dare! Where your craze end, na there my own start! (If you think you are crazy, yours doesn’t even stand a chance next to mine)."

                                                                                    ★★★

As the days slowly passed, Grace knew it was best to stay clear of Violet, but Susan, she could easily bully. She was the apple of Mrs. Michael's eyes and she was almost certain that her other rivals stood no chance at all. Meanwhile, Susan's nervousness worsened as the days slowly passed by. Dreading that Anne might stay true to her words by not helping her cheat in the cooking, Susan went for other alternatives. 

She paid and began to take online classes on how to make several dishes. If she was not on the zoom online class, she was on Google, browsing on how to make certain meals. In fact, Anne was so surprised when Susan practically changed. She began to dress her bed when she woke up and do her own laundry herself instead of taking them to the dry cleaners as usual. 

The five ladies- Anne, Doris, Susan, Grace and Violet made a duty roster where each person had to take turns in sweeping the room daily and washing the bathroom every three days, and Doris volunteered to start first. Anytime Mrs. Michaels came to the room, it was only to check on her prospective daughter-in-law, Grace. 

Besides Anne, she was indifferent towards Doris after she had found out that she was friends with Violet, but she was cold and unreceptive towards Susan and Violet. Unlike Violet who didn't care what Mrs. Michaels thought of her, all Susan's efforts to impress the hard-headed woman were futile, but she determined to keep trying even though she kept getting contempt in return.

More friends, relatives and loved-ones continued to arrive at the house, making the place more crowded. There were always voices and laughter everywhere you turned but the good news was, the house and compound were big enough to still find a spot for privacy. Stephen however found out his twin sisters seemed to spend most of their time with Violet. They enjoyed her company more but would quickly pretend or leave whenever they saw their mother coming. 

While his sisters freely enjoyed Violet's company, she seemed to suddenly vanish whenever he wanted the same. However, every effort he made to be on good terms with her kept falling through and it was really beginning to frustrate him. Sometimes, he would see her chit-chatting with Jerry, Rufus, Emmanuel, his younger brother and other male guests, but whenever he appeared at the scene, she'd either suddenly go quiet or simply bid the men goodbye then get up and leave. 

He didn't know what he could do to make her forgive him for what he had done to her at the barrack and his friends were not even trying to help him out. In as much as he tried to make sure he pleased her by staying away from the opposite gender, Susan and Grace would just not leave him alone, not to mention some of the other female guests who began to flirt with him, including distant female cousins. 

They all kept coming at him and Mrs. Eweala never ceased to seize any slight opportunity where she could force her daughter to keep him company even when he really wanted was solitude. While all these activities were going on, Mr. Michaels keenly observed them all from afar but said nothing.

Grace's chores and cooking went perfectly well and while Mr. Michaels commended her, Mrs. Michaels praised her in an exaggerated manner in front of everyone. Susan knew that Grace had not entirely prepared all the meals by herself because her mother was always around to help her. Grace however was very proud of herself, but sometimes, Stephen noticed that it was like she was always high or something. 

She was always itching and scratching her arms and neck and she seemed a little bit unstable. One afternoon, while they were seated on two swings behind the house, he had carefully asked her if she was on drugs but she had vehemently denied his claim and had then taken an excuse that she needed to be alone.

However, Stephen started to avoid her when he noticed that almost every time they were alone, she was either trying to kiss him or touch him in a way that made him very uncomfortable. In fact, she soon developed the habit of making sure that she sat next to him during breakfast, lunch or dinner. 

And while everyone ate and chit-chatted, she would either begin to secretly caress his thigh with her hand or caress his leg with her feet under the table and whenever she did this, he noticed that her mother kept a close look on them as if she was aware of what was going on under the table. This made Stephen very uncomfortable and he started to avoid Grace, especially due to her annoying clinginess which was obviously being encouraged by her mother.

Three nights later, Stephen was already deeply asleep, when someone knocked on the door. He roused and checked his bedside clock which read 2: 03 a.m. then he switched on the bedside lamp. Wondering who could be knocking on his door at this time of the night, he got off his bed and walked to the door. 

When he opened it, he was surprised to see Grace standing in the hallway in front of the door with her teddy bear clutched to her chest. She was dressed in a wine-colored satin sleeping robe and had her hair down instead of in her hairnet. He also didn't fail to notice that she was also wearing light makeup.

"Grace." Stephen murmured as he tried to rub the sleep off his eyes with his hand. "What are you doing here? Why are you not asleep?" He asked in concern noticing that she also looked crestfallen. "Is something wrong?" He yawned a bit.

"I couldn't sleep... I had to see you." She mumbled. 

"Are you okay?" Stephen asked.

"Yes, I just really needed to see you." She said softly, swallowing hard.

"It's really very late now, you know? Can't it wait till morning?"

"No, it can't." She shook her head then said in an anxious tone. "I noticed that you've been kinda distant towards me and it got me worried... Stephen, are you avoiding me? Was it something I did?" She asked softly.

Stephen exhaled now and decided to tell her what she needed to hear so that he could go back to bed since she had thought it wise to disrupt his beauty sleep with such an irrelevant topic. "No, I'm not... I'm not avoiding you, Grace. I just needed some space and more time to spend with the guys, that's all."

"Sure?" She skeptically asked.

"Sure." He assured, hoping she'd leave now, but much to his dismay, she lingered still. "Is there anything still the matter?" He asked again.

"Can I spend the night in your room?" She asked after she glanced into his dim room.

Although they had slept in each other rooms when they were toddlers and up even till they became teenagers, but now that they were both adults, the thought of it sounded weird to Stephen, so he decided to come up with an excuse to prevent such from happening. "I don't think that's a good idea, Grace."

"Why not?" She asked, perplexed.

"What if the others find out?" He asked.

"They are all asleep. I made sure they were deeply asleep before I left the room." She assured him.

"And my dad?"

"Well, he doesn't have to know. No one has to, Stephen. This will just be between the two of us. Have you forgotten how we used to sneak into each other's rooms in the dead of the night when we were much younger? I promise that I'll be gone before anyone wakes up, Stephen. I promise."

Stephen contemplated for a moment before he sighed in resignation from the compelling pleading look in her eyes then moved aside to let her in as he said, "Fine, you can come in...but it will only be just for tonight."

"Yes, thank you." She smiled a bit now and walked past him into the room while he closed the door and turned to find her admiring his room as she walked towards the bed. 

"So little has changed about this place. I still remember every detail when I left fourteen years ago." She whispered. "I remember that we made a lot of memories right here." Then she slowly turned to look at him with her eyes glazed with nostalgic passion. "We even had our first kiss right here."

Stephen simply nodded, even though he had no idea why she was trying to bring up past memories between them. "I think you should sleep now so that we can call it a night." He said, walked past her and threw himself belly-down on the bed. Since his face was turned towards his bedside lamp, he only felt her get into bed next to him a moment later. "Good night." He told her without turning as he switched off the lamp and returned to sleep. He had barely closed his eyes for ten minutes when he heard her quietly sobbing. Surprised and confused at the same time, he switched on the lamp and when he turned on the bed to look at her, he found out that she was curled in a fetal position, backing him while still clutching her teddy bear to her body. 

"Grace?" He called softly. She quieted down now but didn't reply, nor did she turn to look at him, so he had no choice but to pull closer to her. Placing a hand on her shoulder now, he gently pulled her, and when she turned to lie on her back, he saw that her eyes were filled with tears while her face was already tear-streaked. "Is something wrong?" He was really worried now.