"You still have much time to think about it" Anna said, "I'm sorry I won't go with you. I want to spend much time with my man while he's free. I missed him so much."
"It's okay," Fiona said.
"Alright then, let me go prepare tea for them." Anna said and started heading back to her room.
"We saw you on TV, Fiona, dancing with celebrities in LYSA club yesterday" Mama Josh said.
"She upper graded in life" Anna replied the lady chuckling. She left the lady laughing and got inside her room.
"Seems like your friend fucked my friend yesterday." Anna said to Liam sitting on his lap on sofa.
"Max?" Liam asked, "Why do you think so"
"She has hickeys and her husband hasn't come to her for days. Now I understand why she wasn't talking on phone last night." She said drawing lines with her index finger on his arm.
"So Max ended up bedding the girl? Not the way he had been looking at her yesterday." Liam said. "Is she fine, though?"
"For now, yes. But I don't know how she gonna handle them all." She said sad, "One thing I realized is that she loves her husband. But now with Paul back in the picture and Max adding himself on the list, I'm expecting bad news."
"Don't worry about Max, he won't look back. I don't even know how he got attempted because he never deals with local young innocent girls like Fiona. Besides, he doesn't do commitments or stick around after getting what he wanted."
"Huh?" Anna frowned, "And yet he has a girlfriend?"
"He has never dated any girl before, he has never fallen in love even for once to have a girlfriend yet he has bedded every race on this earth. Plus, that woman is four years older than him for him to date her." He said, "He worries me like Kim, I don't know if he will ever settle down and commit to one woman."
"How old is he?" Anna asked.
"27"
"And you mean that young girl I saw yesterday is 31? No way!"
"Even a fifty years old woman can look fourteen when she's got money for surgeries and maintenance." Liam said.
Anna clapped her hands in astonishment, "Are you for real? All those woman and he hasn't gotten kids?"
"That's my and he's fear. We think that he could be barren or something. Many women have lied to him pregnancies but end up birthing other men's kids. The hope of having his own children is subsiding now, which kills him a lot." Liam said.
"Oh! Sorry. God who hears his people will hear him someday. Or will answer you and Kim's prayer on his behalf" She said, "Now tell me about your story"
Anna said and sat on the edge of the sofa for a more comfortable posture then put her legs on his lap.
"Well, " Liam started, "I think I was like five years of age when my parents took us-- me and Lewis to this new school after we had immigrated in here from US. It was so boring since I had no friends like other kids. But after a few weeks, I met this cute chocolate skinned boy who was one class above and two years older than me eating alone and I joined him.
We introduced ourselves and he told me he's called Nimrod Maxwell but I could call him Max as most people do. We connected there and then and we became best of friends the following days. We became inseparable that where you could see one, you would find another. He took me to his house one day and his parents warmly welcomed me because I was the only best friend their only son had ever shown them.
Somehow, we connected our dads and our moms that they also became best friends. We would go for vacations in US, UK, Dubai and other nice countries every end of the year for years. Life went on like that studying together, exploring some African countries me and him and sometimes Lexie going with his dad; Mr Maxwell as he was a gold dealer man who had established his territories all around East Africa and some West African countries.
His mother finally gave him a sister at fourteen years and we all was excited. One day, I went for a sleepover at his place as we would usually do. We were playing video games late in the night when we heard a loud bang in the sitting room. We slowly opened the door to see three men holding handguns standing infront of Max's parents who were now kneeling with raised hands.
One of three men who was their leader was Mr Maxwell's older and only brother. He asked where Max was as they couldn't find him in his bedroom and Mrs Maxwell lied that Max had gone at my place for a sleepover. He asked Mr Maxwell to sign all his properties in his names but Mr. Maxwell couldn't as he had already willed all his properties to his son and the son would only fully possess them at eighteen years of age so the guy had no way to take anything apart from hard cash.
Max's uncle roared in much anger and shot Mr Maxwell multiple times in the head and on chest. Mrs Maxwell screamed on top of her lungs in fear and agony but the guy kicked her in the stomach severally to shut her up. Loud begging screams of the lady I will never forget my whole life filled the mansion in the middle of the night but nobody helped as there weren't immediate neighbours. They shot her thrice and left.
I and Max ran to Mrs Maxwell to find her gasping her last breathes. She weakly held Max's hand and smiled looking in his eyes.
'Glory to God you're alive, take care of Kim and keep your dad's legacy all the days of your life. We will always be with you' the lady said in much difficulty then looked at me, she nodded at me with a very beautiful smile I would never forget. She said to me, 'Please never leave Nimrod's side'
The little me nodded with blinding tears and the lady died in the following minutes. We sat sobbing and wailing shaking the dead Mr and Mrs Maxwell to wake them up but they didn't. It was the most scariest, painful and traumatizing moment for boys of our age could experience in this life time, all alone in the echoing big empty mansion, stranded and scared to wits. Miraculously, baby Kim slept all night long regardless of loud gun shots." Liam paused when he saw Anna shed tears.
"Sometimes I wonder why God let things like those happen" Anna said with a heavy heart. Liam smiled at her,
"I believe he always has his own reasons. And I know that he's choices are never questioned" Max said kissing her foot.
Anna took a glass of water to calm her burning heart, "Why didn't you call your parents to come"
"I did later on" He said, "Max had completely lost his mind to think of anything so I ran up to his room to get my cellphone and I called my dad. I guess he called the police first as they reached before him and mom. The police took dead bodies and mom took the baby out. We went at our place but life never remained the same again. Kim was only five months old, she would cry every time for her mother and Max would cry with her. The police caught the culprits basing on our statements and detained them as they faced the court.
A few weeks later, Max told me he wanted to kill his uncle. As kids who had traveled and seen defferent people, we had connections with thugs so they helped us get a hand gun. When we went for the next court trial, Max got out the gun he had hidden in his pants and shot his uncle in the head three good times.
The police arrested him as expected and detained him for six years....."
"Six what? Damn!" Anna asked, "How could they do something like that when that stupid man had killed his parents."
"They were treating his mental health and he deserved it, he had lost it. He had changed to something unexplainable in those few weeks he was at home and I'm pretty sure he would've done himself something real bad if it wasn't his sister who needed him the most." Liam said.
"Didn't they have other relatives to help comfort him or care for the baby?" Anna asked.
"Their grandmother had only two sons, she died as soon as she heard that her son killed his brother because of his hard earned money." Liam said.
"This is why you didn't do anything to Rocky preventing history to repeat itself?"
"Why are you so wise?" Liam teased, "Killing him can't be a mountain to climb but I can't. Besides being greedy and selfish, he's still my brother and I like him but what hurts me is that he saw what happened to Maxwells but still does shit."
Anna shook his head, "May God never let that curse befall on you, honey. Didn't you get affected by the tragedy and Max's arrest?"
"I was, my life flipped upside down, the images of the bloody Mr and Mrs Maxwell and their pleas and cries for mercy took very many years to get out of head. I was scared of darkness and any scream or screeching sounds. I would get night mares every night to the extent that my parents decided to sleep with me for weeks to get a little better. I would cry every time for my best friend who was facing the hardest life he hadn't known of in his life in jail, getting bullied by other inmates when he was still grieving for his parents. I was so attached to him much more than my twin brother and anyone else.
Kim fell sick for improper care because my mom was working and she would care about her at night only and careless maids would babysit her during day. I myself looked for a nanny to care for only her. I got a lady and mom interviewed her, she said her husband had kicked her out of his house because she was barren. Mom employed her because she was compassionate enough to still love and care about the little boy of eight years she was with; her husband's son, and that's Gab.
Mrs Annette loved and cared for Kim like her biological mother, and so did Gab as a real brother. I would most times sleep with Kim on my bed and I would go with her each and every end of the month for six years to visit Max. He would always cry and laugh at the same time seeing her grow up taking their mother's features.
Studying, managing some of their businesses and taking care of Kim hardened as a twelve years old me and I think that's why my grandpa willed his school on me later, my hardships qualified me. But all in all, Rocky did a very good job to make me stay sane. He would take me to parks and play with me which always made me feel young and cared for and not so responsible and mature I mentally was, he made me overcome a lot. I would never forget that on him!"