Chapter 7

9 April 2016.

Abaji, Abuja.

15: 37 pm.

Owolabi Residence.

The triplets looked at each other in surprise.

Why was he laughing? Did Tayinde say anything funny? They were confused and embarrassed.

Tayinde fumed and stood up. "Owolabi, so you are taking our advice as a joke, right?"

Chief Owolabi laughed for nearly two minutes, then stopped.

Tayinde fumed even more.

"Well, well, well, " Chief Owolabi said, suddenly serious.

"You three want to know why I was laughing? Okay, I will tell you then. You three are messengers in our beloved company, your job is to deliver news to other companies, right?"

Taiye and Kehinde slowly nodded.

"And you deliver bad news to fellow workers like news that they are fired, huh?"

Taiye and Kehinde nodded again. Tayinde clenched his fist.

"But why today of all days would you advise me on my personal matter? Couldn't you have said it at work or what is wrong with you guys? I am so disappointed in all of you. By the way, what's your business with my personal life? And just because you met that local woman who cooked lies and told you, you think I am over pampering my own daughter!" He fumed then continued.

"Even if I am overpampering my daughter, I don't see what concerns you. Do you think she's like your poverty stricken children that all live in a house with the whole family? No. She is an Owolabi. She is Chief Owolabi's daughter and she was born wealthy and with a silver spoon...what am I saying? silver spoon? No. In fact, golden spoon." He paused.

Taiye and Kehinde were already red with embarrassment while Tayinde looked as if he could lose his temper at any time.

"And you, Taiye, all you know is how to counsel, right? Why don't you go and counsel your wife on how to stop giving birth recklessly?"

"And Kehinde, I know you very well. Weren't you a prostitute back then? There was a nightclub you used to dance in, what was the name again?," He pondered.

"I don't remember but you were an entertainer until a guy from that bar decided to marry you and now that you have your own children, a prostitute is advising me on go raise my own children, while only Allah knows how many children you have aborted."

Kehinde tried her best to hold back her tears as Chief Owolabi reminded her of her ugly past. But he wasn't done yet.

"And you," Chief turned to face Tayinde who was already red with anger.

"You have no right to come into my mansion and lecture me. If you love lecturing so much, why don't you engage your services as a lecturer in a university...wait, what am I saying? No University would accept an illiterate as a lecturer.."

"STOP! STOP THIS NOW!" Tayinde screamed.

Chief Owolabi smiled.

"You have insulted I and my siblings enough now, I won't hear anymore from you again or else you will witness the worst side of me."

Taiye and Kehinde were shocked. They had never seen their brother so enraged before. He was so angry that veins covered his whole face including his nose.

The guards of Chief Owolabi in the room brought out their guns. Tayinde calmed down a little when he noticed that. But nevertheless, he continued.

"No need to throw us or gun us out of your house, we are already leaving. He who has ears, let him hear, like my grandfather used to say. We have said our own and if you choose to listen, it's your business but we are leaving now." Tayinde said and they all walked to the door of the sitting room but Tayinde turned back and added.

"I will never forget this day, Owolabi. You might be a Chief but you are nothing but a Chief of disgrace to all humans. May you pay for all your sins..."

Tayinde was cut short by four bodyguards who bundled him and his siblings and threw them out.

Back in the Owolabi Mansion, Chief Owolabi thought hard. Some people have got some nerve to come inside a Chief's house and insult him like this. I will surely make them pay. But how? He reasoned. Then he smiled and got a devilish idea.

NINETEEN DAYS LATER

Chief Owolabi was watching a cartoon with Lolade in the fourth sitting room and smiling. He hated the cartoon but he had no choice. He had to 'be a good father'.

His thoughts were cut short by Lolade.

"Daddy"

"Yes, my princess"

"I have a complaint"

Complaint? Why would Lolade, the one and only heir of the Owolabi Empire have a complaint? It must be attended to with utmost critical urgency.

"What complaint?"

"About my school"

"What about your school?" Chief Owolabi enquired, his curiosity heightened.

"I don't like my new school"

"Why, though, it is one of the best schools in the whole of Nigeria" He interjected.

"I don't like my classmates" She said after a while.

"Would you care to explain, my princess?" He asked lovingly.

Lolade shuddered as her mind went back to the previous day at school. Her father had shifted her to a new school in the middle of the term. As much as she didn't like that, she had no choice but to acquiesce to her father's decision.

It wasn't as if she didn't like the school. She didn't even know the name of the school even though the school spelt luxury.

The chairs there in her class were not wooden or steel as she expected but they were massage chairs. So it wasn't an unusual sight to see children almost dozing off in class when the chair was vibrating.

As much as she loved the idea of massage chairs in class, she always wondered if it was actually sensible.

And the tables were made of 17 carat gold and were very nice to behold. She didn't even want to describe how luxurious the school was. She didn't want to talk about how they were given free food every hour or how the class robot automatically cleaned the floor if there was a mess or even that there were tiny bikes in their classes that made them able to move around the school without even moving a muscle.

And the school fees were too much for a secondary school. She didn't know the exact price but she knew it was about 2.5 million naira and her old school fee was less than half of that.

Well, that day, Lolade was on her seat , solving mathematics when Olaf, a boy coaxed her to join them in playing and stop carrying books around. Worse of all, he called her a nerd and also a grandmother.

Lolade told him off and told him to start reading and stop wasting his parents' money.

Olaf laughed and told her that she was polluting the class with her bad breath then ran off.

Lolade ignored him because to her, silence was the best answer for a fool.

Then, Darius, one of the many security guards in the school entered the class to inspect it and in his way out, he slipped and hit his head on the wall.

The whole class of 14 students erupted in laughter except her.

Lolade was disgusted by her classmates' behaviour, so she helped Darius up and took him to the school's hospital.

When she came back, her classmates laughed and jeered at her. They called her names like 'Holy Mary' and 'Good Samaritan' and they stigmatized her greatly.

Tears came to her eyes as she narrated her ordeal to her father but he didn't answer.

"Daddy?" She said.

There was no response.