"Nothing, she said she can only be friends with me and nothing else. I think she's only saying that because she does not want trouble with Bola"
"Hmmm, maybe you should give her sometime then. Since she agreed to be friends with you, I think she may still get to love you"
"I believe so too"
"Yeah, but what do you intend to do with Bola"
"I'm still thinking about that, but I don't think I'll leave this place already"
"Wow! Better, you're just talking" Bode cheered. "You can just accept the baby and not marry her. No marriage will work if its a forced one"
"Yeah, the only problem is how to relate this to her father"
"Hmmm" Bode sighed. "You just have to do it, I believe he is a man and he'll understand. He'll understand that you can't live under that kind of marriage"
"I'll try that"
"Good" Bode smiled and patted him on the shoulder.
After some minutes of silence, Bode spoke up again.
"Bro, there's still one thing I'm not happy about. You have to settle your rift with Kelvin. You should know Kelvin, I don't think he'll ever betray you or even me"
Frank was silent for a moment before he replied.
"I know, I'm ashamed of myself really" he answered, a tone of guilt in his voice. "Amarachi told me about how Bola had also tried to destroy her relationship with her friend Ini, she told me Frank never spoke to her about me"
"Hmm, you see"
"I don't just know how to even face Kelvin, I've been acting crazy to him although he tried to give me the right advice."
"You just have to face him, I'm sure he's ready to make up with you too"
"Yes, I am" Kelvin said with a slight smile as he appeared in the living room that moment. He stood still and stared at his Friends in silence.
There was silence for about one minute.
"I'm sorry Kelvin" Frank said as he stood up from where he was seated and walked towards Kelvin. "I should have trusted you, please forgive me"
He extended a handshake to Kelvin who was just watching in silence.
Kelvin took his hand in his and hugged him, "It's Okay bro, we should not let anything come in between us"
"Good morning Pedro" Chief Olatunbosun shook hands with Pedro Fayemi, welcoming him into his office.
"Good morning sir" Pedro replied bending a little as he took his hands in his as a sign of respect.
"Welcome, sit down" the Chief motioned him to a seat in front of his table and went to the other side of the table to take his seat. "Thanks for answering my call immediately"
"Okay sir, hope there is no problem. I was surprised when I got your call this morning"
"Yeah, hopefully there'll be no problem if we do the right thing" the Chief continued, clearing his throat. "I don't think I'll be able to provide support for that your boy Femi, he's not a good choice"
"What happened sir? Did anything go wrong in your meeting yesterday?"
"No, nothing went wrong. But I believe that guy is going to fight against us if he gets there. He's too focus on doing the right thing, he won't favour us there"
"But I think we can give him our terms and conditions"
"No Pedro, you don't do things like that. From the conversation we had yesterday, the guy's gonna block some loopholes in the system that favours us. He was talking about installing another crimes commission chairman, and the person he suggested is an enemy of ours." The man paused and stared intently at Pedro.
"Hmmm"
"So you see, if he does not share the same ideologies with us now, he might turn against us when he gets there"
"But what If we tell him what to do?"
"Come on Pedro, stop fighting a lost cause. I can't support that boy", the Chief paused and checked his wristwatch.
"Sorry Pedro, I have a meeting with some state elders to attend this morning" the man stood up and adjusted his Agbada, a yoruba native wear.
"Okay sir"
They both walked out of the Chief's office and Pedro saw the Chief off to his car with guards around them. He watched them leave before he returned to his own car.
He had barely settled into the back seat before he shouted at his driver.
"Come on, drive off dunce. What are you waiting for?" He shouted
The driver who was unsure of the cause for the transferred aggression ignited the car engine at once to prevent worse actions being taken on him.
Mr. Pedro dialled a number on his phone as soon as the car moved.
"Ken, meet me at my office right now"
They arrived at his office after anout twenty minutes drive, he walked straight into the office ignoring the greetings of his staffs. He met Ken who was already flirting with the secretary outside the office, he ignored him and walked into the office.
Ken needed no one to tell him to join Mr. Pedro in the office at once as the manner at which the man glanced at him and stormed into the office was already very instructive.
"Good morning sir" Ken greeted as he closed the office's door.
"What's good about the morning?" Mr. Pedro slammed. "Everything is working against us and you are there flirting with a young girl outside, is that what you did to loose Bola to a riff Raff?"
Ken looked at him without answering.
"What are you doing to get Bola back?" Mr. Pedro asked
"Ermm... I'm trying my best sir"
"You're trying your best? You've been trying your best for how long now?"
"Listen carefully" Pedro sat on hod office seat and motioned Ken to sit in front of him. "Femi Fadeyi has spoilt our plans already. I think we should have prepared him well before allowing him to meet Chief Olatunbosun. Now he told the man that he intends to stop some corrupt practices and you know what that means"
"Wow! That's bad"
"Really bad, I'm just regretting why I chose Femi at first. I should have picked some other person who knows the game better"
"Why don't we just let Femi contest without the man's support? Since he is already loved by the people for his good works"
"Dunce!" Pedro cursed. "How do you expect him to win? He won't even win the primaries"
"I'm sorry sir" Ken replied, feeling bad. "So what are we going to do now?"
"The success of this depends on you, if you are able to marry his daughter, then we can defeat him. His mind is made up to give fifty percent of his investments and properties to his daughter's husband since he has already settled his son who is overseas"
"Hmmm"
"So you see, get married to his daughter, we need his money first. Once we get the money, then we'll use his daughter against him. So get to work Ken, get to work"
"Okay sir, I promise to get her back by all means"
"Please act fast, the man is getting more powerful and dangerous everyday. Let's stop him fast"
"Over here" Ini called to Sandra who was trying to locate her.
"How are you doing?" She asked as Sandra opened the car door and sat beside her.
"I'm fine, thank you" Sandra replied as she settled into the seat.
"Thank you for coming. I'm really sorry for troubling you"
"It's okay, but I don't want us to keep on seeing on this matter again. I'm afraid of what would happen if my Boss finds out that I'm talking to you about his personal life" Ini said with a pleading voice.
"It's okay" Ini replied, patting her gently and drawing her close for an embrace. "He won't find out, you just have to help me. I want to be sure if..."
"Wait!" Ini paused and looked and pointed at someone walking outside, " do you know that Lady?"
"Which one?" Sandra asked and also peeped through the car window.
"That one on white suit"
"Ermm..." She stammered, "I don't think I know her"
"You don't?"
"Yes" she answered more confidently and looked at Ini who was staring at her suspiciously.
"Ermm... I'm not sure I saw her face well, it was only her side view that was clear"
"Okay" Ini said unconvincingly, "that was Amarachi, is that the girl you saw with Kelvin?"
"I'm not sure, I didn't see her well"
"Hmmm" Ini sighed, "Okay. I want you to do something for me"
"Okay"
"I need you to inform me whenever she comes to your office again or whenever you notice that Kelvin wants to meet her"
"Okay, I'll try my best"
"Thank you very much" Ini smiled. "So where's your place so I can give you a ride home?"
"No, don't bother. I still have something to get in town"
"Oh okay, we'll see later then. Thank you"
"Okay" Sandra smiled and got out of the car.
Ini watched her as she walked to the bus stop and got a cab before she started the car engine and drove off.
...to be continued
