"Mr Felix! Please help my family, I beg of you…please!"
"Shut the hell up and stop causing drama in my office! We aren't family are we? Your dad was just opportune to be one of my close friends and that was it!Now he's dead, and you expect me to take responsibility of what isn't mine? I have a family to shatter for as well, so just get lost, okay?"
"My mum really need money for surgery within this week else? I don't want her to die of cancer, please… Pay back the money you owned my dad" she climbed herself to his legs, shivering like a tiny leaf.
"I already told you, crazy witch! I'm not owing your dad any penny, he was the one owing me and perhaps, it's been how many years now since his death? Five years?!" He kicked her away like a piece of shit.
"Just one million for the surgery, sir. Help me this once and you'll never see my face again, I promise."
"Get the hell out of here. Right. Now!" He opened his office door, commanding her to leave.
"Please sir, help me!" Scarlett managed to lift herself up, holding her stomach tight with so much pain and discomfort.
"Only you can, Mr Felix. Only you…"
His secretary, a tiny, light complexioned lady peeps from the corner.
"Miss Lydia!" Felix called as she rushed to where he was, at his door step.
"You see what you've caused? Don't worry, I'll deduct two months pay from your salary!" She just shivered, unable to agree or argue.
"Get me the security guards, immediately!" He snapped his fingers as Miss Lydia went to call them on the telephone standing on her desk.
Scarlett quickly wiped her tears, running back to him again.
"Please sir, don't do this to me… I beg you with everything you hold dear, reconsider…"
As if he was concerned, he bent down his head, closer. Grabbed her jaw, full fist.
"Look here, Scar! I can only help you if you're willing to help me as well. Things won't end well for you and your family if you keep acting like this."
"Help me sir, I'll do anything to save my mother." Scarlett cried once again. Mr Felix's eyes raped up and down her skinny body.
'Using this one would be child abuse, I'll take her sister' he thought…
"Tell Valeria to meet me in Nicon Hotel this evening, 10:00 p.m on dot, and she she come alone."
"What? Nicon Luxury Hotel?"
"No one must know about this else, I'll change my mind. And… I'll make your lives living hell than it already is, got it!" He spits on her face.
"Got it sir," She muttered as he leaves her "but Alhaji Musa, what if she doesn't come?"
"The choice is yours, Scar!" He threw a $100 note to her, "Your transport back home."
Just then, the bodyguards came in to fetch her out. Two built security guards dragged zainab's slim body like a piece of trash.
Mr Felix was her father's best friend. They used to be business partners until Monday when Mr. Benjamin Moore was found dead along with his personal driver. All the members of his extended family were so determined in sharing his wealth and dividing his inheritance within themselves and their children, since their mother was unable to bare him a son. Some of Mr Moore's sisters were planning to take away her girls from their mother but.. His wife, Mrs Michelle who was a business woman had to leave her matrimonial home, in order to save her children.
Twenty Years ago, Mrs Michelle who was then, Michelle Blair Carson had just finished medical school and was about to start her internship in a well recognized hospital when her parents introduced Benjamin Moore. He was caring and supportive but begged her to become a full housewife so she would take care of his children and family. As a good wife, she followed his command and opened a small supermarket to keep herself company. But when tragedy strikes and her husband died, she became sick ever since then. All their effort in treating her became abortive, nothing-ever-worked. They had no family, nobody except God... And Mr Felix of course.
He was owing their father 100 billion dollars but he denies this.
Valeria, Scarlett's elder sister just completed her first year in Columbia University, where she's studying law. Getting the admission itself was miraculous, getting the tuition fee itself is heartbreaking. Valeria have to do all in her power to get her tuition fee else? She'll have no other option than to dropout.
But life comes first, it was just like yesterday since their dad left, now this. The doctor said that Mrs Michelle had a few weeks to live. Perhaps, 168 hours. All the thought of getting money tortured Scarlett, as well as Valeria, who was doing menial jobs just to gather something. She would have to resume school very soon but saving her mother was most important.
There is a ten years old gap between Valeria and Scarlett. This is because Mrs Michelle had been having still births after Valeria. It was through lots of medical operations and observations that she later had Scarlett. Many people especially her husband's family members didn't know she was pregnant until she finally gave birth. Despite the hard days and stormy days, they faced it all together until death snatched him away from her hand, and it was struggling with her now. Scarlett is just eight years old.
***
The sun was about to set like it does on everything other day. The sky was orange and beautiful like every other evening. Scarlett got home and met Valeria in the kitchen making tea and cookies. It was meant for their mother whom had been admitted for months in Mississippi Teaching Hospital. In one of the local areas in America, were she was referred to.
"Hey sis," Scarlett greeted as she entered their very tiny room.
It was a room, self contain. As it is, their uncles and aunts had already sold the mansion they spent their early years in, to an hotel in Las Vegas. Passing that same road always being nothing but sad memories of the past to their minds, especially Valeria whom was already thirteen, then... Scarlett was only three.
Michelle took the little cash left in her bank account and sold all she had in her shop in order to rent a house somewhere in the local g.
"Hello Scar" Valeria answered, poring the hot tea into an old flask. Scarlettfamishly took off her hijab and walked to the kitchen to take a cup of water.
"So how was it go, Scar. Did he give you anything this time?"
"Yes, just $100 for transportation and here I am…" She handed her sister the change of $245." He said you should visit him at Nicon Luxury Hotel this evening by 10:00 p.m and alone."
"Alone?"
"Yes sis, Alone."
"How can you just say this Scar! Don't you know what that old cargo is capable -" but Scar cuts in…
"Yes, I don't know why but who cares? Just go and get the money so we can save mummy" Scarlett stared back without hesitation."Do this for mummy and me, please…"
Valeria stared into her sister's lovely eyes, passionately.
"Scar! I guess you still don't know what Mr. Felix is capable of… What am I saying, you're just eight, you wouldn't understand!" She grabbed her sister's tiny shoulders abruptly. "You'll never understand!"
"I agree that I'm only right but trust me, I'm not a baby anymore! What are scared of, Sis! Tell me… What are you hiding? It's not as if he would eat you raw or something! Maybe you don't love me... Or have you given up on mum, already?!! How do I make you understand that this is our only chance, Valeria!!!"
It's true that Scarlett is only right but at times, she acts as their mother, herself. She has a body of av twelve years old and a brain of a middle aged woman. Sometimes, she even commands Valeria.
"This isn't a chance Scar, it's a trap! Why are we meeting in a very private place so late, and alone!" She swallowed. "How I wish you'll see things from my own perspective but no! You're too young to understand any if these!"
Scarlett's eyes flashed with disappointment as she watched her sister pack the food into a large, plastic basket.
"You must go Valeria, this isn't a request. It's an order! If you truly love me sis, please do this. Do whatever it takes to save mother…" She broke down in tears, again.
Valeria gently cups her sister's tiny face into her palms.
"You're who I cherish most in this world, Scarlett. And I hate to see you like this but…" Her eyes too started watering as her mind was filled with so much emotions.
"No buts! Just do it! He promised to give the money only if you go. So, please... Go!" Scarlett cried, looking into her sister's eyes with so much plea and persuasion.
"Okay, if it's the only way out…" Valeria faked a smile and Scarlett threw her a very tight hug.
"Thank you! Thank you sis! I know you'll never fail me!!" She yipped with so much joy and tears. "I know you'll do whatever it takes to save mummy!"
"I need to visit mommy now," Valeria said, gently placing a black poly bag of fruits inside the basket.
"She had gone through a lot already. Now, its time to serve her."
"Yes sis, but should I follow you? To stay with mum of course, since tomorrow is Saturday."
"No don't worry, I'll do better alone. We'll visit her together tomorrow afternoon. Just take care of the house. I'll need to leave now so I can easily get a taxi to town. Hopefully, mum would get her surgery done tomorrow."
"I hope so too, Scarlett said, finally biding her sister good night."
"See you tomorrow then. Bye!"
"Bye-bye sis!"
