This has been quite an eventful first season, hasn’t it? Time to see how this comes to an end…

“Please, Naphtali, don’t do this to us. Please! Baby, I beg you!” a tearful Natalie stood at the gate of the Amanie residence, eyes bloodshot from so much crying. “Please, Nafty, we’ve come too far to just throw it all away. Please, don’t do this!”

In front of her stood Naphtali with an untucked shirt and his dark blue tie hanging loosely around his neck. He sighed and shook his head, observing the wreck before him. He knew it would come to this.

From bombarding his phone with messages begging him to showing up at his house. Granted, he didn’t think she would come this early; it was about ten minutes to six o’clock. But this was to be expected.

It was too late, though. He had made up his mind on this. He had thought long and hard about this, and now he was convinced that going ahead with this would be a step in the wrong direction.

“I’m sorry, Nat. But it is what it is. Honestly, it didn’t have to come to this, it didn’t. All I wanted was for us to be one on this. I kept trying to convince you, didn’t I? I never wanted it to get to this, but you pushed me here. It’s too late, I’m sorry.”

“Please, Nafty, don’t do this!” Natalie pleaded further, reaching for his hands as her cries grew louder. “Please! Look, baby, I’m sorry for being so stubborn, okay? I’m sorry. I’m not gonna force anything on you again. We can have the wedding the way you want it, but please, don’t do this…”

Naphtali shook his head vehemently, yanking his hand away. “Natalie, you don’t get it, do you? It’s not about what I want or what you want. It’s not about me or you, it’s about us. That’s what I’ve been trying to do. But you just wouldn’t listen. If it wasn’t your way, then it was a no. No space for compromise! And it’s sad that this is now making you reconsider your stance. Basically, you’re telling me that if I hadn’t made this decision, you wouldn’t have softened your stance. You know that, right?”

Natalie shook her head mournfully. “Nafty, please, I beg you in the name of God…”

“Please, Natalie, your voice is loud. People are still at home, I don’t think they need to be subjected to all this noise. It’s just past six o’ clock,” Naphtali murmured, slowly moving away from the gate. “Please, just go. My mind is made up. The wedding’s off, I don’t wanna do this anymore.”

“Please, Naphtali, pleas-“

“Ssshh! Stop disturbing the neighbours! Leave here and go to work!” he hissed at her as he closed the gate on her and locked it.

***

“Ah, if you’re not happy with what I’ve told you mpo, there’s a way to go about it. How do you just do ‘mtcheww’ at me and hang up like that? Foolish boy!”

“You that we’re trying to help you, look at what you’re doing! Ah, nahhh, this boy paaa, what kind of entitled rubbish is this? How do you do this to me?”

Wayne sat up on his bed, the memories of him flying into a rage running through his mind as fresh as ever. It was early morning, and he was much calmer now. But boy, did Nii Sodjah bring out the Hulk in him!

None of them had expected that reaction from the young man. For a person who was in need of help, one would have thought that he would be grateful to have any form of assistance, even if it wasn’t the type he wanted. They were working in his best interest, after all. But his rude reaction to Wayne’s statement had the Smiths in shock. Wayne called back twice, only for Nii Sodjah to reject them. And that was when he lost his temper. Nothing ground his gears more than disrespect, and this boy had dished out a huge chunk on him.

It took a while before he calmed down. Alayaa, who was equally not amused by the young man disparaging her husband that way, managed to put her displeasure aside and calmed Wayne down, before taking his mind off the matter with a demand to ‘complete his apology’.

As he looked at her lovely uncovered body lying next to him, he grinned and nodded. Between that time and the present moment, they had made love twice, and he was in a far better mood. Yep, that ‘completed apology’ sure was a mood-lifter. I feel much better now.

As if those thoughts were said aloud, she stirred and looked up at him. “Hey, my sweet husband,” she murmured.

“Hey my love,” he smiled, leaning down to kiss her on the forehead. “Good morning again. Ready to get up and get ready for work?”

“No. I’m not ready at all. I wish I could sleep a little more. I’m exhausted.”

Wayne snickered. “Of course you’d feel that way. After waking me up at 3:30 to jump on me…”

“Abi you know this second trimester and its cravings. If I didn’t come for it, like something go do me. And goodness, that legitimate sausage of yours felt so damn goooood! I really needed that. Besides, after our fight the previous night, I needed a double portion to make up. You know that, don’t you?”

The snicker turned into a laugh. That weird term she gave his manhood never ceased to be hilarious. “Yes, madam. I know full well. But yeah, I really needed that, you know. Aside the fact that these amazing cheeks are heaven on earth, I had to calm down after yesterday. Coz I was mad! I was really mad!”

Alayaa slowly lifted herself up. “I know, Wayne. I had to put my anger aside and calm you down, but I was so incensed. I mean, how? How do you do that? Why would you do that?”

Wayne shrugged. “Chale, I have no idea. I mean, he might have wanted to come stay with us, and after I said it wouldn’t be possible, he’d feel disappointed. Understandable to an extent. But to be so rude and hang up on me like that?”

“I can’t understand ooo. And he rejected your call on top.”

“Twice! Twice oo, Alayaa, twice he did that. Nahh, chale. It’s done. He’s finished. I’m sending his number to the therapist lady this morning. I’ll give her all the details she needs so she can deal with him herself. Then that’s it. I’ve done my part. If he doesn’t mind her, too bad. Ah! This boy paaa. Entitled little brat!”

Alayaa sighed. “Hmmm, this life. It’s sad ooo… how you can pour your heart out to help someone, only for them to disrespect you and treat you like dirt afterward. After all the effort we put into helping you… comforting you when you were down… ah well. Humans. They’ll always do you dirty.”

“Yeah. Sad, sad thing. But honey, we did what we could, and God knows we had nothing but good intentions for this boy. He may have disappointed us, but God will still bless us, all right?”

“All right, my love. Life goes on, I guess.”

“Yeah, it does. Anyways, time to be up and about. Let’s move! And oh, pray those cheeks don’t tempt me when you’re in your uniform, else you’re gonna be pretty late for work.”

Alayaa giggled. “I hope you know I’d happily take a query and a blasting if getting extra strokes from you is what makes me late.”

“Hahaha! Herh, you this girl, eh.”

***

An hour or so later, a morose Natalie walked by the roadside, looking deflated and defeated. She had about an hour to get to the courthouse, but at that point, that seemed inconsequential and useless.

Who cared about work when your world had just fallen apart? The inner voice that would have screamed at her to get to the nearest bus stop or get an Uber was stripped of any power to do so.

She just could not believe this was happening. This was the stuff of nightmares. The kind of thing you wouldn’t want to wish on anybody. A few days ago, she was on the road to becoming the wife of a wonderful, awesome young man. Now it had been snatched from her.

What was she going to do? What was she going to tell everyone around her? From her family to her close friends to her workmates, everyone knew how excited she was about marriage. How was she going to have to face them and tell them that Naphtali had called it off? The questions would be numerous, and the scrutiny behind her back would be intense.

God, what am I going to do? Eh? What am I going to do? she inwardly cried as she walked along. How do I live with this disgrace? How? This is too much. Please, there has to be some way out of this. Please! I beg you, Lord, change Naphtali’s mind for me! Please! I can’t be humiliated like this…

So caught up in her moment of misery, she was oblivious to the car that was honking its horn behind her. She thought it was just one of those taxi drivers looking for a customer, so she didn’t bother to turn around, assuming he would take the hint and drive off.

The car behind her moved to her side, and the next thing she heard was her name. Called out by a familiar voice.

“Ei, Natalie! Is that you?”

She turned and saw the person in the driver’s seat, and a weak smile spread across her face.

It was Lawyer Marty Amegbo. Dressed up for court. It was likely he was heading for Sowutuom Circuit Court.

She waved and feebly responded, “Yes ooo, Lawyer. It’s me. Just… trying to get to work…”

“Uh, Natalie, is something wrong?”

She stared straight at him. “What?”

“Is something wrong? You look… miserable. I hope nothing’s happened to any loved one.”

She shook her head quickly. “No, no, no. Nobody’s dead. It’s just…”

Trailing off, she could feel the tears in her eyes start to brim over. she shook her head again, trying hard not to let her current state show. The tears spilling over, though, were an indication that her attempts just weren’t good enough.

“Natalie, what’s wrong? Come, sit in the car, come, come.”

Once she was seated in Lawyer Amegbo’s car, she broke down totally, wailing like a two-week old baby. The middle-aged man simply stayed silent, watching her bawl her heart out for the next two to four minutes.

She lifted her head after a few minutes, sniffing and wiping her eyes. She looked at Lawyer Amegbo and whispered, “My fiance has called off our wedding.”

“Ohhh!”

She nodded sadly. “Lawyer, the pain in my heart right now, eh. God, it’s so horrible…”

Lawyer Amegbo’s face was full of sympathy as he gently patted her on the back. “It’s okay, Natalie. It’s okay. Just take your time and cry out all the pain in your heart. I’ll be here to take you to the court when you’re ready, okay?”

She looked up at him and nodded. “Thank you,” she whispered gratefully.

“Anytime, my dear.”

“And please, don’t say this to anyone in the court, I beg.”

“Oh, no, no, no, no. I won’t. Trust me. Nobody else will know about this.”

***

“Chale, Sule is at it again. Forgetting to put the proof of service on the needed dockets,” Divine grumbled to Wayne, his partner for the past week, as he went through some files for the next day. “I dunno why he sleeps on this like that.”

“Hmmm. One of these days, he’ll get himself into trouble ooo,” Wayne commented. “He did that to Lawyer Sama in one of her cases, and as she complained, she told me that one bailiff went and slacked in some other court, and the judge blasted him in open court. He should reason up ooo, coz the day my Lord decides to strike, eh…”

“Mesee! The day he’ll strike diɛɛ, he’ll go and cry in some corner. Chale, lemme see if I’ll find him outside, so I can get him to do the needful.”

“Sure, sure.” Wayne nodded as Divine took up the files and walked out of the courtroom. He leaned back in his seat and shook his head. “Ei, these bailiffs and their asuoden life. I dunno why it’s like that almost everywhere you go. For Sule di3, he should be careful, na Paul Kwarteng Takyi doesn’t like that kind of slacking…”

His soliloquy was interrupted by the vibration of his phone lying on the table. He straightened himself and looked to see who it was.

The caller ID instantly made him sneer.

It was Nii Sodjah.

The boy really had the audacity to call him back? After that crass and uncouth behaviour the previous night? He had another thing coming if he thought he was going to answer the phone.

He quickly rejected the call.

“This boy is mad. After this level of disrespect, you are calling back for me to do what? He should comot for there. Idiot!” he snarled.

A minute later, the phone vibrated to indicate a message had come through. Wayne picked it up.

Sir, pls, am sorry for yday.

Wayne scoffed. Quite a weak attempt at trying to apologize. After muttering such offensive words to a person trying to help you, a better apology than that was needed.

Not that Wayne would be accepting it, in any case.

Shaking his head, he quickly typed out a lengthy response to the young man. Inspecting it and nodding in satisfaction, he hit the send button.

Please do not call me or my wife again. We have no business with you. The therapist will call you and help you out. Have a nice life.

***

“Ah, this girl paaaa! So Felix wasn’t lying, she really is insane! So she really did that?”

“She is ooo, she is! Banging on the gate and insulting all of us at the top of her voice this early morning. It wasn’t funny at all. She really showed her madness levels. Thankfully the police came in and took her away quickly enough, so that’s over, and Felix went with them to the police station too. So, yeah, that’s what is happening.”

“Interesting. Well, maybe that chapter is over now. I really hope so.”

“Me too. As for Maame, she said when he comes back, this evening, she’s going to sit him down and tell him he needs to stop this foolish lifestyle of his and get serious with life. Na the way this guy has no self-discipline diɛɛ, he can’t be trusted.”

Elias laughed, his phone against his ear as he walked by one school park where the schoolkids were busily having fun during break time. “Chale. I can only imagine how that will go. Please, fill me in on how it goes, wai.”

Akyaa laughed as well. “Sure, I will. Abi you’ll be coming back tomorrow morning?”

“Yeah. Just enjoying a little walk around town. I’ll go back and pack my stuff, then chale, by 4 am, I’m on my way back.”

“Awww, great, great. We can’t wait to have you back, please.”

A sweet, warm feeling appeared in Elias’ chest. He smiled widely. “I can’t wait to be back too.”

“Hehehe. Great. Anyways, lemme allow you to enjoy the last bits of your break, wai.”

“Sure, sure. I’ll talk to you later.”

Hanging up, Elias had the goofiest of grins on his head. The kind of grin a guy like him never permitted on his face. If anyone from the courthouse were to see him at that moment, they would be stunned. The man was very stingy with small smiles, yet here he was with a huge one on his face.

And it was all down to Akyaa.

He never would have imagined he would mean every word of it when he said he couldn’t wait to get back to Horez House. But he did, and it was for only one reason: to see Akyaa and spend time with her.

It really was deeper than he thought, and he liked it too much. As he stood a distance away from the school park, he shook his head and smiled to himself. The warm, fuzzy feeling nestled in his chest was so sweet. And he was left in no doubt as to what it was.

I’m falling in love. I’m falling in love with Akyaa. Don’t care that it’s so soon. I am in love…

***

“So where has this guy gone to?” Divine grumbled, walking around the compound, the most impatient of looks on his face. Sulemana had disappeared, and nobody seemed to know of his whereabouts. As to whether he had gone to deliver some court processes, or was on a frolic of his own, nobody could tell. And the fact that he was not answering his phone did not help matters, either.

“This guy diɛɛɛ… oh no no no. One of these days, we really for deal plus am, because this slacking lifestyle really dey bore. Ah, if you’re on assignment kraaa, tell somebody! You just disappear like that. Mtchew. This guy…”

After scouring the entire compound in an unsuccessful bid to find Sulemana, he threw up his hands in frustration. “Well, I’ll just have to wait,” he said to himself.

He moved away from the car park when he heard sniffing. Looking back, he noticed a familiar frame standing behind one unused car in the park. The familiar little lady dressed in all blue corporate attire.

It was Natalie. And she seemed to be on a phone call. While crying.

Divine’s curiosity was immediately piqued. “What’s going on?” he wondered to himself. Is it with her guy?”

Without answering himself, he quickly moved back into the courthouse, and passed through the corridors to the washroom at the end of the building closest to where Natalie was standing. Thank goodness these toilets are kept clean, he thought to himself as he stepped into the stall nearest to the window and stood on the seat to strain to hear what was being said.

He was going quite the mile to be extra inquisitive, but considering she had come in quite late and was very quiet throughout the day, he had the feeling her claim that she was not feeling very well was not because of any sickness, but something deeper.

As he steadied himself, he could hear it all.

“Nafty, please, I beg you. You can’t do this to us. Please, I’m begging you…”

“Look, Nat, I’ve made up my mind, and nothing is changing it. Honestly. This your promise that you’ll loosen up is not genuine, and I can’t take it. If I hadn’t said all this, you’ll still be attacking me that I want a cheap and forgettable wedding. Please, forget.”

“Nafty, Nafty, see, I’ve come to understand how foolish I was. Please, let me start over. Please…”

“Nope, Natalie, nope. It’s too late. I’m not interested anymore. Just accept that it’s over. Period. I’ll let my family know, so if we need to come for the drinks or whatever, we’ll do it. But look, I’m done. It’s off. Bye.”

“Please, Naphtali…”

Silence followed. The guy must have hung up.

Divine stood there, shell-shocked. He could only stand on the seat and shake his head and cover his mouth as the sobs of Natalie echoed into the stall.

His suspicions had been confirmed with that eavesdropping session.

And my, what a devastating, heart-breaking piece of information he had obtained.

A tear formed at the bottom of his left eye. “Oh, oh, oh. Poor Natalie. Poor, poor Natalie…”

Well well well! Now that the wedding’s been called off, what is Natalie going to do? Are we seeing another love story spring up between Elias and Akyaa? And the Smiths, are they truly done with Sodjah?

Questions, questions, questions. Well, we can only await season 2 to get the answers! Stay tuned for that!