Dedicated toGiftDaniel08

I don't know if you are still counting, but more than two months have passed already so this update is for you!😁✨

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_Chidinma_

The police checked everywhere, every abandoned building in the district. Kelechi was nowhere to be found.

Two days.

It had been two days. Two days of endless sorrow. I had never seen my parents look so hollow, so sad, so clueless.

They were confused and paranoid. They couldn't figure out why their children were being kidnapped, couldn't figure out who they had hurt, what evil they had committed to deserve all they were going through.

But I knew. I knew why Kelechi was missing. It was them. They who had turned my life into an endless spiral of bleakness.

I hated myself. If I had just stayed on my own and minded my business, if I had just left this all to the police, then Kelechi wouldn't have been kidnapped, my parents and I wouldn't be going through all these.

All I needed was a clue. One clue that would save him. The day Rex had been interrogated, I had told the police about Fega's involvement in my abduction. They had dismissed it and said that they couldn't convict her or accuse her of anything as I did not have any evidence whatsoever.

Knowing that they would be useless as usual, I confided in Darina before I got the shocking revelation about Rex. She said she would look into it and with the successful bribing of Bintu, she was coming to visit me today by ten o'clock in my house arrest. Despite the guilt I was feeling, I couldn't just sit by and do nothing while days passed, days that came with a slight chance that my brother could be rescued and the kidnappers arrested.

The shrill ring of the doorbell brought me out of my thoughts. Getting up from the living  room sofa I had lodged myself on, I opened the door to see Dari. We hugged and she offered her condolences. After we settled and I had gotten her a drink, she brought up the information she had gathered.

"According to the private investigator that I had contacted to help me with Fega's investigation, Oghenefega Precious Iduseri has no criminal record whatsoever. She actually lives a normal life, no record of violence, nothing. That's why I'm saying she must either be brainwashed which I highly doubt, or is being ridden by someone who she has a very intimate relationship with. Other than these options, there's really no motive behind all these." She finished shrugging thoughtfully.

I stared at her, the wheels in my head turning.

"But she did tell me that she had always disliked Chioma and I in secondary school and she also felt the same way towards Chioma even when they were in the same uni, something I didn't even know of till she told me. You don't think that is enough to cause her to team up with whoever she is working for to make my life miserable!?"

"Yes and No." Dari replied adjusting her glasses thoughtfully.

"Yes if she is a psycho who holds grudges over the smallest things and thinks people should be punished severely for offending her, and no if it was mere teenage jealousy and inferiority complexes."

I massaged my forehead. This wasn't taking me anywhere. I almost thought of crying again in frustration when an idea struck me.

"This source you hired, the PI, is he in anyway connected to the police?"

"No, he's a private investigator..he works alone for people who pay him well..why do you ask?" She asked skeptically.

"I don't know, couldn't he investigate Fega? As in catch her when she is at home or preferably at work and just ask her a few questions?"

Darina adjusted her frames again.

"I don't know Chi. It's a bit too risky for us. I mean we have already interfered with police protocol by looking at her records, and if Fega gets agitated by him she could tell the authorities..but then again, he is a PI so technically he does have the right..."

"Please Dari!" I begged. "We're grasping at straws here. I really won't..I won't forgive myself if anything happens to Kelechi, and I can't exactly do much under house arrest. Even though Bintu let you come, she'll never let me leave. Please."

She sighed heavily, ran her hand over her cornrows, took off her glasses and massaged her eyes. I felt bad for stressing her so much, but I had no other option. She sighed heavily.

"Okay. Lemme call him." She finally said. I jumped up and hugged her and smiled my first real smile in two days.

"This one you're hugging me. Just pray he grees o!" She chuckled and went into the kitchen to make the call.

A few minutes later, she came back into the living room, a soft smile on her face.

"He said yes, he'll do it. But the cash.."

"Don't worry, I'll pay!" I said excitedly, feeling very hopeful. Maybe Fega slip something up to him that could help us figure out where Kel was. Maybe.

"Okay then, I'll send you his account number. I have to get going know, my daughter is having her graduation today by twelve." She said smiling wistfully.

When I heard this, I almost broke down in tears. She was a mother and yet she was stressing herself for me. I threw her another hug.

"Oh my God! You're a mother! Congrats. What class!?" I asked.

"Grade five." Dari replied proudly.

"Jesus Dari! How are you looking this young!?" I was shocked to say the least. Dari didn't look like a mother talk more a mother of a ten year old. I was jealous of how ‘in shape’ she looked to be honest.

She just laughed mirthfully. "Don't worry after all these, I will tell you the full gist. For now, I have to go so that she won't kill me when we get home."

I hugged her again. "Thanks Dari."

"It's okay take care of yourself okay? Don't cry too much. This will all pass very soon."

She replied touching my face fondly. And with that she gathered her things in her bag, and walked out the door, waving.

I looked at the clock. It was eleven fifteen. I just prayed she got to her daughter's graduation on time.

~~~~~~

Later that evening, I sat on the couch feeling anxious. It was ten in the night and Bintu who was currently lounging in the living room, had given me only thirty extra minutes before I went to bed as it was part of her job to make sure I was asleep before she was, so that I wouldn't leave the house. She even hid the house keys from me so that I wouldn't be able to get out without her permission. To say least, I was literally in prison.

Darina had still not called to tell me if the PI had gotten any information and it was getting to me.

What if the PI had just used Dari and I and ran off with the money I sent to him?

I started judging myself and biting my lips when my phone rang as it lay on my bedside table. I hurriedly reached for it, thinking that it was Dari calling to finally deliver the information, when I caught wind of the caller ID. My heart seized at what it read.

Unknown Number.

My heart started pounding erratically. The last time I picked a call that read like this, I had almost gotten killed. With my finger hovering shakily over the accept button, I willed myself to answer the call.

Maybe Dari was just calling me with a new number for some odd reason best known to her. I thought to myself.

But that didn't calm the wave of dread that washed over me. I answered the call.

"Hello?" I spoke in a shaky voice. The voice I heard next took my breath away. It was Fega's.

"Hello sugar. I swear if I had had to ring you a second time, I would have just lost it and would have decorated your brother's skull with a nice, little bullet hole." She drawled in a sickly sweet voice.

By this time, I was already sweating and crying bullets. Why? Just why did she hate me so much that she had to call me and mock me with hurting my brother? My tears were immediately replaced with boiling anger. I had enough of her and the sick games she kept playing.

"Fega! Fega I'm warning you, you bitch! Release my brother, you efd up witch! Release my brother or else.." I raved insanely, my head pounding.

"Or else what! You little bitch! Or else what!? You'll fool yourself and somehow find me!? Well I'm sorry but that's not an option sweetheart as I have already taken care of that. You know the stupid PI you sent after me?"

My breath caught in my throat and my hands started shaking violently when I heard that. No..no she hadn't!.

"Really Chi you really should learn to work with smarter people. I caught the idiot moping around my house and when he asked to talk me, I led him into the living room and strangled him from behind. Don't worry, he isn't dead, he's here with your brother."

I just cried into the phone my heart breaking over and over again.

"What do you want Fega?" I asked shakily my voice breaking.

"Just tell me. What do you want from me?" I listened as she chuckled evilly.

"Me? Nothing really, just wanna see you suffer that's all. It's he who wants something from you, but I'm not here to tell you stories." Her voice turned serious. 

"In the next twenty-four hours, I'm going to send you an address to which you will come. If you decide to be stupid as usual and you as much as give off a vibe that a fly is following you, we will shoot your lovely brother to the head and I'd hate to see him go to waste like that, I mean, he is very handsome."

All I could do was whimper into the phone.

"So what's it gonna be princess? You come and die in place of your brother or your brother died in place of you? Your choice. My boo is not a patient man so you have only twenty-four hours sweetie. In the meantime, we will take good care of your handsome brother and the incompetent PI, but remember, one slip up and they're gone okay?"

I nodded even if she couldn't see me. I sniffed and willed myself to stay strong and asked shakily into the phone,

"Please.. please could I hear his voice..to..to make sure he's okay?" I heard her sigh heavily and boredly.

"Fine..just for a sec though."

I heard a painful ripping sound which made my eyes start selling up again. I know how he felt. I had felt it.  Fega cussed at Kel and could feel him shaking through the phone, could feel him crying. I started crying all over again when I heard his voice come on.

"Chidinma..Chidinma..if..if I don't make it.."

"No Kelechi! No..don't say that okay?.. you're gonna make it out, I'll rescue you, I'll take your place, please..don't.. don't..say that!"

I sobbed into the phone, the sound of my tears mingling with my brother's own. I never liked hearing him cry. It was ugly and heartbreaking. He didn't even get to reply when I heard Fega's jeeringly sweet voice cut through the line.

"Bye!" She exclaimed.

And with that, the call went dead, and I cried my shattered heart out, while lying on the cold bedroom floor.

~~~~~~

*Sigh*😪

First off, I would like to apologise for the inconsistency of this story. It's just that exams after exams have been jamming me and now I'm down to the big W.🙇🏾‍♀️

So in two months I will be done with school for sometime!💃🏾

So I'm dropping this and the next as compensation for those two months, hopefully my readers may pardon me😁

I 💖 you all!

Second off, I kinda like Fega tho. Although she's queen witch, she kinda reminds me of Harley Quinn in this chap. DC fans will grab. ( That rhymed! Tee-hee!😁)

Anyway, lemme goan study. Hope you guys likee. Please vote, comment and share!😘☺️