chapter 8

"You," she uttered loud enough to gain the attention of the other people occupying the room.

"Any problem?" Marie asked.

"None at all," Naina replied, eyes downcast.

"Then let's proceed," Marie said as she started the meeting.

Slowly lifting her eyes up, she found Christian looking at her, whispering," Do I know you?" He asked.

Staring at him, she was delighted he didn't remember her. She was already embarrassed that day her affairs were spoken in front of him, and she didn't want him thinking that she got this postion out of sympathy.

Therefore, shaking her head, she said," No. I mistook you for someone else," and focused on what was being discussed.

"No, I refuse to let this man take a dime of my money. Money that i have worked so hard for while he spends his day parting and sleeping with all sorts of women," Grace rejected the offer to give him forty percent of the wealth.

"That is preposterous. That money is ours. We earned it together. And I want half of it," Mr. Hunderson demanded.

"Together?" Grace uttered with a laugh. "You already spent half your money traveling around the world and getting all sorts of women pregnant," Grace yelled.

"There is no need to fight. We are here to resolve this peacefully. According to the law, when a couple is splitting then each party goes with half the property. Then its only rightful for Mr Hunderson to get his half," Keith defended.

"Yes. When there is proof that both parties have participated in bringing in the wealth. But Mr Hunderson has already squandered his and its only fair he got nothing out of this divorce," Marie said.

The argument continued back and forth till a later date was selected to settle it before going to court. Everyone packed up and left to give room to the other lawyers that wanted to use the boardroom.

 Heading to her office, Marie stopped her," head downstairs and have Renee  inform someone to bring my car in front. And i want you to call Mr. Gordon and schedule a meeting to finish up his divorce," she directed before heading to her office.

Informing Renee, she was about to head back up to finish her work for the day, when her name was called. Turning around, she found Christian.

"Hello. Is there anything I can help you with?" She asked, moving closer to him.

" I remember you. You are the girl sponsored by the Dean," he addressed.

"Of course you do," Naina said, annoyed that he remembered her.

"No-no, I don't mean it in a bad way. Like being sponsored by the Dean is something good. He is known for having an eye for seeing greatness," he said quickly, not wanting to make the girl more uncomfortable than she already was.

"Okay," Naina said, not understanding the purpose of the conversation.

"The case seems like it may drag itself around. I guess we will be seeing each other often. Have a great evening Naina," he said, smiling before turning around and exiting the building.

 Turning around, confused by the conversation, she found a cheeky smiling Renee and a slightly amused Marie. Just shaking her head, she quickly went back upstairs.

 ******

Standing outside the building, Naina was confused as to which direction to take to lead her to CBD where she was to board a bus to Juja where Rick lived, who was currently housing both her and her brother.

 Despite living in Nairobi in the early stages of her life, she hardly knew the Nairobi streets, especially after moving to Kiambu rural and all the developments happening.

 Finally choosing to take the moi avenue road, a car pulled up next to her. The window sliding down, Lily yelled, "get in."

 "I have never been this happy to see you," Naina sighed, getting in.

"Of course you are. Even with the Google Maps, I doubt you would have been able to navigate Nairobi," Lily teased, joining the Nairobi traffic heading to Thika town.

 "I could have," Naina defended. "Eventually, that is" she added with a shrug.

"Don't worry, I will show you around Nairobi when we are free," Lily said, laughing. "Even though I have been wanting to show you but you would rather bury your face in a book," she added. 

"Anyways, how was your day?" Naina asked.

"Pretty sweet. The studio has amazing pieces by an artist with so much to tell. I hope I can be like them in the future. Oh! My you should come by some time and see this piece. It's quite beautiful with a mixture of colors, different sorts of birds… It's truly a work of art," Lily went on rumbling.

Laughing," I am sure it is," Naina said, admiring her friend's passion. Even though her first day wasn't bad, it wasn't great either, especially during the morning, but she did enjoy being part of the case.

 "What about yours?"

"Can you believe me when I say that Christian is the assistant of a divorce attorney who was hired by the husband of our client?"

 "Christian as in Christian the school president?" Lily asked, a little shocked.

 "Him and to make it worse he talked to me and even said we will see each other around," Naina added, still confused.

 That was enough to shock Lily, who stopped the car without warning, almost having the car behind them ram into them.

 Turning around to look at the man in the car behind them, yelling expletives at them, the girls could only laugh to rid themselves of the shock before starting to drive again.

 "I can't believe the no- nonsense president was flirting with you," lily said. " At least get his number first and give it to me before you go all Naina on him," she added with a laugh.

 "He was not flirting," Naina defended before adding, "what do you mean by that?"

 "Nothing," Lily said.

 Grabbing their supper on the way home, they continued teasing each other about their love lives- or lack thereof.

"Hey Rick. Where is Nicky?" She asked on arriving.

 "His room. Had a good day?" Rick asked, eyes still glued on his laptop.

 "Yes i did," Naina yelled already halfway down the stairs.

 "How are you doing?" She asked poking her head through the door.

 "Alive," a grumbling Nixon said under the covers.

"Need anything?"

"What I need, you definitely won't give it to me."

 "You got that right," she said, moving in the direction of her room after confirming that Nixon was okay.

Dear Rossa.

I'm very upset with you, grandma.

Were we that stressful that you had to give us away to one of your children, whom you knew very well would take advantage of us being in their home and live a luxurious life off my mother's hard work?

 Well, good news. They did.

In only four months, they managed to build a shop with mother's money pretending to be getting things for us. While we only got mistreated and treated as help.

And now that mother has refused to send more money, saying she has sent more than enough to even take care of her kids, she has decided to bring us back to you.

Seems like you can't get rid of us, grandma.