Ese had not seen nor heard from Siji after their face off at the Dean's office about a week ago but she could sense his presence. The knowledge that he was around was enough to unsettle her. It was as if the 5,000 acres landmass of the institution was too small for both of them. Any broad shouldered man she saw from behind that was about his height was usually a suspect. Her heart would always skip whenever she saw a guy whom she thought was him.
So when she found him standing outside her faculty's building as she parked and got out of her car that morning, she became a juxtaposition of emotions. For inexplicable reasons she was thrilled and apprehensive at the same time. He seemed to be looking or waiting for someone. He walked down to meet her when he sighted her.
"Good morning Ese." He greeted, smiling at her. This time the smile was genuine. This was the Siji she knew, the one she had loved, not the cynical one that had accused her of every crime under the sun.
"Morning" she answered cautiously, trying her best not to look up at him. Though she liked this Siji, she did not trust him.
"How are you doing?" He asked
"Good, looking for someone?"
"Yes, and I've found her." He replied looking pointedly at her and still smiling.
"Me, you were looking for me?"
"Yes."
"You can make any change you want to make to the design and structure of the building, I trust your judgement, you are the expert, you need not see me for that"
His smile broadened "you sincerely think that's what I want to see you for?"
"What else would you want to see me for?"
"Ese I...... This isn't the place to talk let's go into your office"
"I don't think that would be a good idea" she said hesitantly.
"Common, it's not like I'm going to jump you the moment we are behind close doors. We have to talk, you and I. You'd agree we've got things to straighten out"
"Siji we shouldn't be......"
"Tell me you don't have questions you are itching to ask me, that you don't want to know what happened. Well....if you don't, I do, I want some answers, even if it's just for the sake of closure. And I promise to be a gentleman this time, no accusation and all that."
He seemed to genuinely mean what he said. And truly, Ese had questions, lots of them. She'd like to know where he had gone to and how he had managed to bounce back, among other things. Her curiosity was strong but also was her fear. She knew he would not hurt her but what if he asked her questions she was not ready to answer. The battle between curiosity and restraint waged on in her head for a few seconds.
"Ese?"
"Okay, let's go to the office."
So when she found him standing outside her faculty's building as she parked and got out of her car that morning, she became a juxtaposition of emotions. For inexplicable reasons she was thrilled and apprehensive at the same time. He seemed to be looking or waiting for someone. He walked down to meet her when he sighted her.
"Good morning Ese." He greeted, smiling at her. This time the smile was genuine. This was the Siji she knew, the one she had loved, not the cynical one that had accused her of every crime under the sun.
"Morning" she answered cautiously, trying her best not to look up at him. Though she liked this Siji, she did not trust him.
"How are you doing?" He asked
"Good, looking for someone?"
"Yes, and I've found her." He replied looking pointedly at her and still smiling.
"Me, you were looking for me?"
"Yes."
"You can make any change you want to make to the design and structure of the building, I trust your judgement, you are the expert, you need not see me for that"
His smile broadened "you sincerely think that's what I want to see you for?"
"What else would you want to see me for?"
"Ese I...... This isn't the place to talk let's go into your office"
"I don't think that would be a good idea" she said hesitantly.
"Common, it's not like I'm going to jump you the moment we are behind close doors. We have to talk, you and I. You'd agree we've got things to straighten out"
"Siji we shouldn't be......"
"Tell me you don't have questions you are itching to ask me, that you don't want to know what happened. Well....if you don't, I do, I want some answers, even if it's just for the sake of closure. And I promise to be a gentleman this time, no accusation and all that."
He seemed to genuinely mean what he said. And truly, Ese had questions, lots of them. She'd like to know where he had gone to and how he had managed to bounce back, among other things. Her curiosity was strong but also was her fear. She knew he would not hurt her but what if he asked her questions she was not ready to answer. The battle between curiosity and restraint waged on in her head for a few seconds.
"Ese?"
"Okay, let's go to the office."
★★★
Siji took the office in when he entered it. It was relatively smaller compared to the Dean's office. It also looked less like a typical lecturer's office, with just few books arranged neatly on a shelf at a corner. It was modest and beautiful at the same time.
"You've got a nice office." Siji said as he closed the door behind him. "I can see a feminine touch to it."
"It's temporal, that's why I restrained myself from completely rearranging and redecorating."
"If what I see here is a product of your restraint, I wonder how it'd look if you had gone all out to redecorate."
Ese sat behind the table across from him and smiled as she wondered why Siji was being nice. His behaviour was a far cry from the last time they spoke. What has changed?
"I am not a cultist, Ese. I was not a cultist, I never was." he said solemnly.
His sudden change of topic jerked her off her thoughts "I know, I know you weren't"
"How did you know?"
"I never really believed it to begin with, then Stella later confessed to me."
"She did?"
"Yes, I came back here a year after we left school to get my transcript in order to process my Masters Degree and I ran into her"
"I wonder why she did that."
"Confessed you mean?" She asked, then continued when he nodded. "She said she wanted to make amends, to restitute. She said she tried reaching you but couldn't."
"Oh! She found Jesus."
Ese ignored his sarcasm "I also tried reaching you but it was as if you completely vanished into thin air after your expulsion."
"Really?"
"Of course. Where did you go to? What happened to you?"
"I was mad at everyone, Pago, you, Stella, Jasper, the school, even those that showed sympathy. I just couldn't stand anyone. So I went back to Lagos, destroyed my SIM and was incommunicado for several months. I still do not know what I would have done to myself if not for Ma'ami. I was a recluse. Then one day there was a knock on the door, I opened it and found Jasper standing outside."
"He came to look for you?"
"Yes, I couldn't believe it myself. You see...I was specifically mad at him because I believed he could have helped me, stop them from rusticating me. He knew the truth, he knew I was innocent, he knew Pago set me up to cover his crimes, yet he couldn't fight hard enough for me. That was my thought then, but really it was beyond him."
"Excuse me, what crime did Pago cover by setting you up?"
"He was cheating, passing my scripts off as his and his as mine."
"I don't understand, how is that possible?"
" Can you remember I once told you Jasper asked me to rewrite an exam in his office?"
"Yes."
"He needed it to confirm his hunch. Pago and I have similar handwritings, and but for the last digits, our matriculation numbers were the same. Pago was swapping our matriculation numbers so my scripts would be marked as his and his as mine."
"But how exactly was he doing it? Was he sneaking into the lecturers' offices to change it?"
"No, lemme explain. My number was 0920003 and his was 0920008. He would write my number on his script during exams, then he would make sure he submitted his scripts right after I had submitted mine. He would then go back almost immediately, ostensibly to write his number that he had forgotten to write, but in actual fact he was going back to change the '3' on my script to '8', which is actually easy. All you need to change '3' to '8' is another '3' in the opposite direction. It can be done in less than a second. It was brilliant, despite myself I appreciated the ingenuity in it."
"But he couldn't have been doing it for all the papers and getting away with it."
"Not all the papers, just the tough ones and the tough ones were the ones with the highest unit load. It's easy to pull, he would only tell the examiners he forgot to write his number, they may protest, but they would still allow him to go write it and they won't supervise him since they were suspecting nothing. I noticed he was almost always going back to write his number but I thought nothing of it."
Ese was silent for a while as it sank in. She was not surprised by what she just heard. It sounded like what her husband could do. "No wonder your CGPA was dropping steadily while his was rising. How did you get to know about it?"
"It was Jasper. We were both his project students, so he knew about our hand writings. When he was marking my script for our final exams he noticed I performed poorly..... You see...Pago was no fool, so he still prepared well for exams to make sure I don't fail much in order not to arouse suspicion. I may not make 'A's, but I made 'B's and occasional 'C's. But I guess he wasn't so good at Jasper's course or he got too confident and I almost failed it. Jasper suspected foul play because he knew I could not fail the course that bad. He compared my rewritten script and Pago's own and found out they were exactly the same thing, so he asked me to call for all my papers without telling me his reasons. He only said he suspected something wasn't right. I told Pago that I was going to call for my papers. He advised me against it. If I had listened to his advice, I would not have been set up. He told me so himself when he visited me at the cell to gloat."
Siji moved to sit down, then he looked at her in the eye.
"Why didn't you come to check on me since you suspected I was innocent?"
She stood up and faced her office wall, backing him. "I was ashamed of myself, of what had happened. Even though Pago literally forced himself on me, a part of me couldn't forgive me. I had gotten drunk and allowed him to come into my apartment. I just could not face you. I was so devastated, even Teju couldn't help. It got worse when I discovered I was pregnant. Thank God I was done with everything in school then, so I packed my things and ran home." She turned back to face him, looking at him with misty eyes "I am sorry I didn't show up."
"It's alright, I understand"
"So what happened after Jasper came to see you?"
"He spoke some sense into me. He told me he had cleared my name with the university but it was done quietly and that I still couldn't go back. The school simply cleared my record with them, as if I never stepped my feet in here. Then he helped me win a scholarship to study in Germany. I still studied Engineering. While I was there I met some friends, A Chinese studying Architecture and a Lebanese studying Building Technology. We are pretty close, so it was easy convincing them after we graduated to come to Nigeria with me and start up a company."
They were both silent for a long while, each in their thoughts
"Can I ask you a question Ese?"
"Yes."
"Were you serious when you said your daughter.......that Rose isn't mine?"
"Yes, I am Siji" she said, then thought deeply for awhile before continuing "When I discovered I was carrying a child, I told my mum. I told her about you and me. And how Pago forced himself on me. Initially she was mad and scolded me real bad, but she later became excited at the prospect of being an Inlaw to the Adebantus. She warned me not to tell anyone about you, that the child must be Pago's, but I still argued with her that there was also a likelihood of you being the father. I was so sure you were the father, that was the first time I tried to reach you. She personally told Pago's dad about my pregnancy and threatened them with lawsuits if Pago didn't do the honorable thing and marry me. We were forced to get married but Pago's dad still insisted on a paternity test after the baby was born. It was a very quiet wedding with just family. Teju and Kalu were the only friends there. A paternity test was carried out immediately Rose was delivered and the test showed Pago as her dad. But I still was not convinced because my parents and his dad organized it, and knowing my mum, I couldn't rule out some manipulations, hence I decided to do it myself. But I couldn't immediately because I left the country for my Masters when Rose was about 8 months old. When I came back, I took a sample from Pago without him knowing and went to an hospital to do the test myself and it was the same thing, I tried two more hospitals for confirmation and the results were all the same, the DNA march were all above 99%. I can show you the tests results if you want. Rose is not your child Siji.
"You've got a nice office." Siji said as he closed the door behind him. "I can see a feminine touch to it."
"It's temporal, that's why I restrained myself from completely rearranging and redecorating."
"If what I see here is a product of your restraint, I wonder how it'd look if you had gone all out to redecorate."
Ese sat behind the table across from him and smiled as she wondered why Siji was being nice. His behaviour was a far cry from the last time they spoke. What has changed?
"I am not a cultist, Ese. I was not a cultist, I never was." he said solemnly.
His sudden change of topic jerked her off her thoughts "I know, I know you weren't"
"How did you know?"
"I never really believed it to begin with, then Stella later confessed to me."
"She did?"
"Yes, I came back here a year after we left school to get my transcript in order to process my Masters Degree and I ran into her"
"I wonder why she did that."
"Confessed you mean?" She asked, then continued when he nodded. "She said she wanted to make amends, to restitute. She said she tried reaching you but couldn't."
"Oh! She found Jesus."
Ese ignored his sarcasm "I also tried reaching you but it was as if you completely vanished into thin air after your expulsion."
"Really?"
"Of course. Where did you go to? What happened to you?"
"I was mad at everyone, Pago, you, Stella, Jasper, the school, even those that showed sympathy. I just couldn't stand anyone. So I went back to Lagos, destroyed my SIM and was incommunicado for several months. I still do not know what I would have done to myself if not for Ma'ami. I was a recluse. Then one day there was a knock on the door, I opened it and found Jasper standing outside."
"He came to look for you?"
"Yes, I couldn't believe it myself. You see...I was specifically mad at him because I believed he could have helped me, stop them from rusticating me. He knew the truth, he knew I was innocent, he knew Pago set me up to cover his crimes, yet he couldn't fight hard enough for me. That was my thought then, but really it was beyond him."
"Excuse me, what crime did Pago cover by setting you up?"
"He was cheating, passing my scripts off as his and his as mine."
"I don't understand, how is that possible?"
" Can you remember I once told you Jasper asked me to rewrite an exam in his office?"
"Yes."
"He needed it to confirm his hunch. Pago and I have similar handwritings, and but for the last digits, our matriculation numbers were the same. Pago was swapping our matriculation numbers so my scripts would be marked as his and his as mine."
"But how exactly was he doing it? Was he sneaking into the lecturers' offices to change it?"
"No, lemme explain. My number was 0920003 and his was 0920008. He would write my number on his script during exams, then he would make sure he submitted his scripts right after I had submitted mine. He would then go back almost immediately, ostensibly to write his number that he had forgotten to write, but in actual fact he was going back to change the '3' on my script to '8', which is actually easy. All you need to change '3' to '8' is another '3' in the opposite direction. It can be done in less than a second. It was brilliant, despite myself I appreciated the ingenuity in it."
"But he couldn't have been doing it for all the papers and getting away with it."
"Not all the papers, just the tough ones and the tough ones were the ones with the highest unit load. It's easy to pull, he would only tell the examiners he forgot to write his number, they may protest, but they would still allow him to go write it and they won't supervise him since they were suspecting nothing. I noticed he was almost always going back to write his number but I thought nothing of it."
Ese was silent for a while as it sank in. She was not surprised by what she just heard. It sounded like what her husband could do. "No wonder your CGPA was dropping steadily while his was rising. How did you get to know about it?"
"It was Jasper. We were both his project students, so he knew about our hand writings. When he was marking my script for our final exams he noticed I performed poorly..... You see...Pago was no fool, so he still prepared well for exams to make sure I don't fail much in order not to arouse suspicion. I may not make 'A's, but I made 'B's and occasional 'C's. But I guess he wasn't so good at Jasper's course or he got too confident and I almost failed it. Jasper suspected foul play because he knew I could not fail the course that bad. He compared my rewritten script and Pago's own and found out they were exactly the same thing, so he asked me to call for all my papers without telling me his reasons. He only said he suspected something wasn't right. I told Pago that I was going to call for my papers. He advised me against it. If I had listened to his advice, I would not have been set up. He told me so himself when he visited me at the cell to gloat."
Siji moved to sit down, then he looked at her in the eye.
"Why didn't you come to check on me since you suspected I was innocent?"
She stood up and faced her office wall, backing him. "I was ashamed of myself, of what had happened. Even though Pago literally forced himself on me, a part of me couldn't forgive me. I had gotten drunk and allowed him to come into my apartment. I just could not face you. I was so devastated, even Teju couldn't help. It got worse when I discovered I was pregnant. Thank God I was done with everything in school then, so I packed my things and ran home." She turned back to face him, looking at him with misty eyes "I am sorry I didn't show up."
"It's alright, I understand"
"So what happened after Jasper came to see you?"
"He spoke some sense into me. He told me he had cleared my name with the university but it was done quietly and that I still couldn't go back. The school simply cleared my record with them, as if I never stepped my feet in here. Then he helped me win a scholarship to study in Germany. I still studied Engineering. While I was there I met some friends, A Chinese studying Architecture and a Lebanese studying Building Technology. We are pretty close, so it was easy convincing them after we graduated to come to Nigeria with me and start up a company."
They were both silent for a long while, each in their thoughts
"Can I ask you a question Ese?"
"Yes."
"Were you serious when you said your daughter.......that Rose isn't mine?"
"Yes, I am Siji" she said, then thought deeply for awhile before continuing "When I discovered I was carrying a child, I told my mum. I told her about you and me. And how Pago forced himself on me. Initially she was mad and scolded me real bad, but she later became excited at the prospect of being an Inlaw to the Adebantus. She warned me not to tell anyone about you, that the child must be Pago's, but I still argued with her that there was also a likelihood of you being the father. I was so sure you were the father, that was the first time I tried to reach you. She personally told Pago's dad about my pregnancy and threatened them with lawsuits if Pago didn't do the honorable thing and marry me. We were forced to get married but Pago's dad still insisted on a paternity test after the baby was born. It was a very quiet wedding with just family. Teju and Kalu were the only friends there. A paternity test was carried out immediately Rose was delivered and the test showed Pago as her dad. But I still was not convinced because my parents and his dad organized it, and knowing my mum, I couldn't rule out some manipulations, hence I decided to do it myself. But I couldn't immediately because I left the country for my Masters when Rose was about 8 months old. When I came back, I took a sample from Pago without him knowing and went to an hospital to do the test myself and it was the same thing, I tried two more hospitals for confirmation and the results were all the same, the DNA march were all above 99%. I can show you the tests results if you want. Rose is not your child Siji.
★★★
"Mr Adebantu, Mr Richard is here." His secretary said over the intercom.
"Please ask him in, thank you."
Pago wondered what Segun Richard wanted to see him for. Richard doubled as the company's and family lawyer, a position he had inherited from his late father who had been Victor's bosom friend. Segun was the serious type who hardly had time for chitchat, so when he booked an appointment to see him, Pago knew it must be something serious.
"Have your seat please, would you like tea or coffee?" Pago asked as he reached for the phone.
"Don't bother Mr. Adebantu, I will only be a moment"
"Okay, so Mr. Richard, what is it you want to see me for?"
"Your wife's lawyer called me yesterday evening" Segun said as he opened his briefcase to bring out a file."
"Oh" the mention of Ese made his heart race. "Does he know where she is?"
"He would not say."
"So what does he want?"
"Not him, her. Your wife has filed for a divorce, he sent the document to me this morning"
Pago's palms suddenly became sweaty but he maintained his cool, his worst fear had just been confirmed. Segun continued "She is not laying claims to any of your property, she only wants a dissolution of the marriage and full custody of your daughter."
"Have you told my dad about it?"
"No, I thought it wise to inform you first."
"Thank you so much, but can you please not tell him yet, I just need time."
"I can keep it away from him for a little while longer, but I can't hold it for too long, I will eventually have to tell him."
"I know I know, I just need some time, please."
"Okay, I'll let you know when it's getting too long."
"Okay, thanks"
Pago swore immediately Segun closed the door behind him. ---She doesn't want anything from my property but she is going to make me lose my inheritance----. "No, I can't let you go Ese, not now. As far as the old man is breathing, we are stuck with each other"
He picked his mobile phone and dialed the number
"Hello sir." The voice at the other end said.
"Hello my a**, what the h*ll have you been doing about the person I am paying you to find?" He growled into the mouthpiece.
"Please ask him in, thank you."
Pago wondered what Segun Richard wanted to see him for. Richard doubled as the company's and family lawyer, a position he had inherited from his late father who had been Victor's bosom friend. Segun was the serious type who hardly had time for chitchat, so when he booked an appointment to see him, Pago knew it must be something serious.
"Have your seat please, would you like tea or coffee?" Pago asked as he reached for the phone.
"Don't bother Mr. Adebantu, I will only be a moment"
"Okay, so Mr. Richard, what is it you want to see me for?"
"Your wife's lawyer called me yesterday evening" Segun said as he opened his briefcase to bring out a file."
"Oh" the mention of Ese made his heart race. "Does he know where she is?"
"He would not say."
"So what does he want?"
"Not him, her. Your wife has filed for a divorce, he sent the document to me this morning"
Pago's palms suddenly became sweaty but he maintained his cool, his worst fear had just been confirmed. Segun continued "She is not laying claims to any of your property, she only wants a dissolution of the marriage and full custody of your daughter."
"Have you told my dad about it?"
"No, I thought it wise to inform you first."
"Thank you so much, but can you please not tell him yet, I just need time."
"I can keep it away from him for a little while longer, but I can't hold it for too long, I will eventually have to tell him."
"I know I know, I just need some time, please."
"Okay, I'll let you know when it's getting too long."
"Okay, thanks"
Pago swore immediately Segun closed the door behind him. ---She doesn't want anything from my property but she is going to make me lose my inheritance----. "No, I can't let you go Ese, not now. As far as the old man is breathing, we are stuck with each other"
He picked his mobile phone and dialed the number
"Hello sir." The voice at the other end said.
"Hello my a**, what the h*ll have you been doing about the person I am paying you to find?" He growled into the mouthpiece.
About the Author
He studied Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, he speaks Yoruba and Hausa fluently and he is trying to learn Igbo and Spanish. His hobbies are reading, writing and playing some indoor games.
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