Condemned Daughter

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 7

Immediately I scrolled through my phone to dial Raymond’s number and I looked up at the writing on the wall, the writing had disappeared.

The gun had disappeared too.

I panicked.

That means the person that had wiped off the writing and taken the gun from my desk was still in my office.

Raymond connected the call. “Hello, I am in Mirabel’s office, where are you?”.

“Raymond, I need you in my office”. I mumbled.

All of a sudden,someone closed the blinds and my office was completely dark.

I saw the figure walk past me.

A tall figure that was wearing a mask.

The figure escaped.

Suddenly, someone pushed open the door and walked in.

Clara…

Gretta’s bestie.

Clara glared at me. “Must I always sit in for you all the time? If you are not sick today, you are going out tomorrow! I am tired of working in Sparkles because of you! Today, you are not going anywhere with that handsome detective! You will remain here and do your work except you want to divide your salary in halves!!!”.

Clara was just a blabbermouth just like Gretta.

They had both intimidated me those days in school even though I had always taken my time to give them the beating of their lives.

I walked towards her and the coward stepped back.

She thought that I was going to beat her up like those days in school. “Did you see someone step out just now?”.

She rolled her eyes. “Are you playing pranks with me?”. She dropped some files on my desk. “Do your work yourself and stop making Mirabel give me your work to do all the time!!!”.

Raymond rushed into my office breathlessly. “Rosa, what happened?”.

“He is gone”. I found my voice.

“Someone came in here?”. He inquired.

“He wiped off the writing and took away the gun”.

Clara shook her head at me in disbelief. “You need to go to a psychiatric hospital. She met Raymond’s eyes. “Your wife is now seeing ghosts. And as for where you guys are going, she is going nowhere! She is doing her work herself!”. She stomped out of the room.

Raymond touched my face. “I am sorry you had to face such”.

“The killer had purposely framed me that day that he had killed Gretta. Now he is after my life”.

Raymond squinted thoughtfully. “How come he came here just after I had gone to question the Andersons?”.

I nodded thoughtfully. “You are right. Are you insinuating that the killer is one of the Andersons?”.

“I need to find Gretta’s ex-husband”.

“Her ex-husband?”.

“Arnold talked about him”.

“Who is Arnold?”.

“Gretta’s elder brother. The second born”.

“Oh, that quiet guy “.

“Yes. According to what he had told me, Gretta’s ex-husband might have an idea why she had died”.

He ordered the biggest treat that I had ever had in my life.

Chinese fries, Italian dishes and so many more.

I leaned to eat.

Now that I was getting used to exploring real foods, i now realized that real food was the bomb!

After eating to my fill and drinking orange juice, I told him that I wanted to dance.

“You dance?”.

“I won best dancer twice in RELAND HIGH SCHOOL!”.

He beckoned to the DJ. “Ask for her favourite song”.

The DJ played the music after I had told him the one to play and i began to swirl to the rhythm.

Raymond was laughing at me.

He hadn’t expected me to dance ‘THE PETIT AFRO DANCING STYLE’. But that was what I was good at.

The African dance style.

Immediately I was done with dancing, he rushed to hug me.

We walked along the beach, holding hands like long lost friends.

I looked up at him. “Tell me about your family. How is your family like?”.

He chuckled. “Why do you want to know about that?”.

“True friends hear from each other. Not just one person talking all the time”.

He nodded and smiled thoughtfully. “I have an elder brother and an annoying teenage baby sister. We live in the house that my father had inherited from my maternal grandfather”.

I nodded thoughtfully. “Dad once mentioned it that your mother was from a rich home”.

He grinned. “That woman is still a spoilt brat though. The rich blood in her still frustrates us at home up till now”.

We broke into laughter.

He cleared his throat. “I don’t pray to achieve too much, but I want to build a good home just like my dad had done. For the past thirty three years of my life, peace had existed in our home. No unusual fights, just quiet and jokes. Mum still says that even if my father was a carpenter, she would have still chosen him. She said, it is better to choose the best, than to choose a man with money”.

“What of for men? What do they choose based on ? How do they choose?”.

“Men choose a woman that they can deal with, not a woman that will deal with them”.

We broke into laughter.

I sighed deeply. “What of Ryan? Do you know anything about his lovelife?”.

“Ryan has never liked anyone except you”.

I gasped. “Are you kidding me?”.

“Your sister had once confessed her feelings to him but he didn’t feel anything for her, but this guy has been following you up all through those times you had gone to jail, when you were released and all”.

“Wow, I didn’t know that he was that serious about me”.

He chuckled. “A rich man is always serious when he looks at only one woman”.

We walked on in silence.

He drove me out of the amusement park.

As he drove on, Ryan’s car appeared from nowhere.

He got off his car and walked towards Raymond’s car where we were both seated in.

I got off the car.

He hugged me. “Let us get married, Rosa”.

My heart slipped.

I wasn’t expecting anyone to tell me that.

…not even in the next five years.

I pulled off his gripse. “What are you talking about?”.

“I get so jealous anytime anyman take you out of my sight! I can’t bear it anymore! Please let us get married”.

Raymond rolled his eyes. “Jealous human being”. He turned to me. “I will head back since you guys have important stuff to deal with”. He winked at Ryan and drove off.

My heart was in my mouth as I was left alone with Ryan.

He searched my eyes. “You don’t feel excited about getting married to me at all”.

“That’s not it. I really like you, Ryan…but we just met. Is liking each other enough to get married?”.

“Do you know how long I have loved you? I don’t like you, Rosa, I love you. We can get married and you will get to love me for real”. He forced me into his car and drove to our house.

My mother was the one that opened the door.

Ryan prostrated to greet her.

She called my father and elder sister to the big parlour.

Ryan cleared his throat. “I came to ask for the hand in marriage of Rosa Harrison”.

I had woken up later that night and walked towards my sister’s room, and just as I had expected, she was crying .

I couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t marry Ryan if that would make my sister cry.

I sent Ryan a text that day.

When I got home that evening, my sister glared at me. “Why did you disagree to Ryan’s proposal?”.

I avoided her eyes. “I don’t like Ryan”.

“You did it because of me?”

“No, I…”.

“Don’t ever do anything because of me!”.

“I won’t get a partner that will make my sister get hurt”.

“I am completely fine, Rosa!!!”.

“I am completely fine too!!!”.

“Will you just stop all these?”.

“You too, don’t talk about Ryan to me again or else I will scratch your face”. I winked at her and walked into my room.

Those feelings arising for Ryan had to disappear.

It was not right.

It was hurting my sister.

“So you mean Ryan the Playboy engaged the ex-convict?”. Richard cried out and burst into laughter.

Richard was Raymond’s elder brother.

Raymond knew it that his brother had a personal grievance against the Harrisons because Dominic was a strong competitor at work.

Richard and Dominic were working in the same court house.

Both persecutors.

But Raymond’s father preferred Dominic’s way of handling cases to Richard’s way of handling cases.

“Richard, you don’t have to call her an ex-convict. She never spent up to three days in prison and she was never taken to court”.

“As long as she was once accused of a case, she is an ex-convict”.

Judge Joel Maxson, Raymond’s father smiled mischievously at Richard. “Stop transferring aggression from elder sister to younger sister”.

Raymond burst into laughter.

Every true Maxson knew that Richard was jealous of Dominic.

“Let us just eat and stop talking about people that don’t matter in our lives” Katie cried out as she joined them at the dining table.

Lizzy smiled as she dished out food for everyone at the table. “Thank God my sons are not unreasonable to bring in an ex-convict to the home. Take a good look at Richard, he is engaged to the granddaughter of the chairman of Unilever, and you, Raymond…I know that you are gradually falling in love with Sophia the well behaved coffee girl, that is why you always look for excuse to go to her coffee shop”.

Richard and Katie burst into laughter.

They knew how much those words Lizzy had said disgusted Raymond.

“Mother, I only patronize Sophia because I love her coffee. Stop jumping into conclusions”.

“Don’t tell me that you still love Mirabel?”.

Raymond rolled his eyes. “Can you now see why I don’t like coming back home and prefer staying at my place? I hate your marriage topics which you bring about all the time”.

“Will you shut up! How many reasonable thirty three year olds are not thinking about marriage? I give you this year to bring in a well behaved girl and let us bless the marriage”.

Raymond Maxson finally found the home address of Gretta’s ex-husband.

When he got there, he knocked and the man opened.

Mirabel stepped out of the house.

What was Mirabel doing in the house of Gretta’s ex-husband?