"I'll like to be left alone".
"It's late already and you are hiding inside a morgue".
Doctor Seth sat down beside her. Diamond flinched away from making contact with him. She hugged her arms. It was cold inside a morgue.
She didn't look at him but she could tell he was grinning from the corners of her eyes. "Aren't you scared sitting alone in a room surrounded with dead bodies?"
No she wasn't. It was better than sitting beside her mother.
"What do you want?" She finally said.
"To talk".
She shot him a glare.
"I heard everything".
She gave him a look of pure hatred.
He threw his hands up. "Ok, Diamond, I didn't plan to eavesdrop in your conversation. I was going to check on your mother when I heard your story".
May God help her and this sudden homicidal tendencies. If she didn't exercise serious self-control she will be leaving the Community hospital with blood dripping down her hands. She really wanted so bad to be left alone.
"Why don't you just hand him over to the cops?"
She said nothing. She wasn't comfortable with him meddling in her business. She wanted the hell out of here.
"You have every right to be angry..."
Diamond replayed the scene in her head. There were many things to think about and the man trying to console her was not part of it.
Haven't she made it clear? She didn't need anyone's pity. She didn't need anyone around. "I'm tired, I have to go". She got up and arranged her dress.
"Go where?"
"Home".
He didn't bug her anymore, he watched as she made her way to the door.
Doctor Seth knew it wasn't really right to meddle in patients private life, but he didn't know why he was interested in her. Maybe it was because he thought that she has been through a lot at her young age, but he really needed to stop interfering and focus on being a doctor he is and treating her mother.
Diamond slept with her eyes open that night. She had no dreams and she had no plans for the next day.
She woke up the next day feeling empty. She could hardly bear to get up from bed. Her head weighed a ton on her neck and every joint in her body was aching.
For a moment, she just lay still, looking mindlessly at the ceiling. No... actually she was deciding whether to get up and have a bath or just go back to sleep.
Her phone vibrated at the foot of the bed so she set up, curiously and reached for her phone. Like she guessed, it was the hospital... Doctor Seth, and he had left many calls that she had missed and messages she was unwilling to read.
Was it about her mother or was he just meddling in her case again? Then forget about it. She got so agitated at the thought that she sprung out of the bed and marched to the bathroom.
She got dressed into a blue dress and sat by the mirror and began to run a comb through her dripping hair.
There was this quietness about the house that made her uncomfortable. She should be glad her father... scratch that stepfather... in fact that man had not been in the house ever since that morning, three days ago. Yet, why was her heart pounding. All she wanted was to take her mind off everything and pretend yesterday never existed but everything seems to remind her about her ugly life. Staring back at the mirror, her eyes had darkened and a muscle going about her cheek. She was furious. She would never be able to get yesterday's conversation of her head. She needed to know, who and where her father was, and she wasn't going to help her so-called mother; she was going to ask Bob, her stepfather... that man.
Everyone in town knew Bob had an ex-wife and rumours which is undeniably true that he still sees her, and takes refuge in her house, so Diamond was sure she was standing before the door to the right house.
She looked around the environment. Rosa's resident was one of the finest places in town. The compound was large and decorated with garden flowers and grasses chopped in different shapes. Her house was furnished out of polished wood and it sure did look like heaven just sitting in the veranda.
The energy was not a positive one, Diamond had her heart in her mouth. Rosa was a repulsive woman and everyone knew it, but she was rich. Maybe she should just go back, Diamond thought. At this point, she had no single bone of tolerance to endure whatever embarrassment that will be waiting for her. She considered it but finally decided to take the risk. She knocked on the wooden oak door once, then twice... no response. She knocked again and the heavy door swung open.
"Have you know knocking ethics. If you break down my door, you can't possibly replace" A feminine voice murmured.
An agitated faced woman perched behind the door.
Rosa!
Her face relaxed to a hidden hatred and distate and came out, looking Diamond from up to down.
"What do you want?"
Diamond's throat went dry suddenly at simple question. The woman's intoxicating perfume also had something to do with it. Rosa was dressed in a rich attire and diamond earrings groaning in her ear lobes. She was also naturally beautiful despite the makeup.
"Have you lost your voice?" Rosa demanded angrily.
"Sorry" Diamond said. Diamond knew this was not the time to be rude. She needed something.
"I know he's here and I really want to talk to him". Diamond said.
Rosa crossed her arms and again, gave her a once over.
"Who?"
What a pretentious, annoying woman! snarled an angry voice in Diamond's head, but she knew she would be damned if she lashes back, so she controlled the impulse and in a reluctant voice, she said, "My dad".
Rosa laughed. It was a rippling, bubbling laugh... extremely mocking. "Your father?" She choked on another laughter, her shoulders heaving.
Diamond felt stupid. There was no need to be paranoid. Rosa already knew Bob wasn't her father and that was the reason why she was being hysterical.
After Rosa had laughed to her satisfaction, she gave diamond a hard look. "Go look for him somewhere else and never come back". She turned and went into the house and was about to shut the door. Diamond couldn't contain her anger anymore.
"This is not fair you can't leave me here like this," She retorted. Upon that, Rosa still slams the door against her. Diamond banged her fist against the door, harder and harder until the door wrenched open. She dropped her hurting hand when she saw Bob. He shut the door and gave her the old look of death. "What is wrong with you?"
"She told me you were not around why are you lying and hiding?" She shot back.
He didn't fight back. The look in his eyes were understanding enough... he didn't deny it. He was lying and he was a coward.
He sighed. "Look, I am sorry about everything".
"Sorry?" She grimaced. "Mom is in the hospital because of you and she's going through a terrible brain disease and you do not care! What kind of person are you?"
She caught her breath and continued. "Do you know the worst part? Yesterday I just realised you're not my father... can you start explaining?" Her voice began to tremble. Bob's expression was funny. He didn't seem fazed, if anything, he was totally indifferent.
"You should go back and watch after your mother. I don't owe you any explanation".
Tears were already brimming under her lashes but she won't let him see it fall. Her emotions will not betray her again.
"So you admit it. You know, I tried so hard not to believe her but now I know you are both liars and I don't need any of you in my life".
"Fine and good, Diamond, why don't you just get out of here", Bob said.
"No. Not until you tell me where he is", Diamond protested. Bob frowned. "Why don't you ask your mother. She's a whore and all her nasty behaviour which you have inherited is what this is all about".
"What are you talking about?" Diamond asked, notified. She wasn't sure she heard right.
"You have to deal with the truth. You are an unwanted child. Freda never wanted or thought of having you. You happened as a result of a premarital affair and she got pregnant for the man she called her lover and he abandoned her. I came into your mother's life to clean her mess, that's why she fell so hard for me because I was the only one she had at that time. I was the one who saved you and now you turned out to be a bitch biting back at me.
God, Diamond couldn't believe what she just heard. Bob couldn't possibly be lying, right? He had said this straight without biting his tongue. Oh no, Bob is a devil incarnate alright, but this was shockingly hard not to believe.
Her mother is the main reason why her life is this miserable. Her mother managed to keep this information from her all these years and...
Diamond couldn't even cry. It was a bit like hurting yourself really badly. Sometimes you don't feel the pain at first, because you are so numb with the shock. But you know it's coming.
"Between me and you, you're mother deserves to die". Fear assailed diamond. That was not possible again. Not after she had taken a fortune from Hawk for her mother's surgery and agreed to meet with him in the evening. He had given her his number after dropping her off at school. He was very nice. He asked her to call him if she need any help. When the doctors told her the amount of money needed for her mother's treatment, she realised she had nobody, she then remembered the rich guy that gave her his number... Hawk. Her mother wasn't going to die after she undergoes this surgery no matter how terrible she was, Diamond didn't want her dead. She still hated Bob more than she hated her life. "You are dispiceful. You never even loved us. You took everything from her. You deserve to perish in hell for all the pain you've caused us".
"I don't care whatever you think of me. Tell Freda I am done with both of you and I don't care whatever she is going through".
"And you think we need you? I just need to know the name of my father and I'll go".
Bob was annoyed. "I don't need to tell you that".
"Please", She probed. At times, things don't go so sternly as usual. She was begging her stepfather... that man.
Bob looked thoughtfully, which was unusual. She knew he had something to say and he was trying so hard to hold himself.
"Your mother told me not to tell you". He finally said.
"Why?" Her brows creased.
"It's risky".
"Just this last time, I really need to know. I am tired of everybody hiding things from me".
He gave her a hard look, still considering it but then, he obviously wanted her out of here... and real quick.
"He's a dangerous person and if I tell you this, remember, you never heard it from me" He warned her. There was this seriousness all over his face that was by bewildering but she nodded.
"His name is..."