So I am posting this on November 30th, days earlier than the promised release date because I am so excited I got it done in time. Enjoy! Love the growing fan base by the way!

Chapter 17

As experienced as Tiwa was, she didn’t notice the looming figure staring sadly at her by the bedroom door frame until he coughed out loud.

Tiwa jolted forward and lifted her eyes to see a downcast Tomiwa looking down at her.

“What do you want?” she asked under her breath

He didn’t reply. He just kept staring.

His presence coupled with the thick silence prickled Tiwa’s ebony skin. Anger rose within her until she could literally taste it on her tongue.

“Are you just going to keep staring?” she snapped “What kind of person watches someone while they are staring, huh?”

He refused to move.

“Don’t you have better things to do with your life? Oh right you probably want to propose again.”

His face twitched briefly in anger. She saw it. She had hit a nerve. That gave her sweet, exciting joy with some tints of sadness. She continued regardless.

“Let me save you some time. My answer remains the same. But if you want to hear it again—

“I heard you scream. That’s why I’m here” he cut in with a coarse voice.

“Boo hoo. So what?” she teased “Haven’t you ever had nightmares?”

He was about to give a swift retort, but he noticed the bandage on the other side of her face. It was on the far side of her cheek, almost beside her ear. His heart nearly broke thinking of how quickly she had managed to get hurt after just arriving. However, he suppressed all form of reaction, so she wouldn’t observe him noticing.

“Okay, I see we are back to staring. I need you to get out of my room.”
She stood up from the bed and walked towards the bedroom entrance to slam the door in his face. Just as she grabbed the white door, he stopped it with his foot and gently used his palms to remove the bandage before she could stop him.

She recoiled from the pain of having the bandage removed and let go of the door, quickly covering her wound. It was pointless. He had already seen it. It wasn’t like it was a nasty wound. Ejo had made a clean cut, and the scar had already started to scab.

“Make up a lie” her brain screamed at her, but she couldn’t think of one while looking into Tomiwa’s pained black eyes. She grabbed the door once more and quickly slammed it in his face before he had a chance to say anything judgmental.

Locking the door, she pushed behind all thoughts of what just happened. She crawled slowly back into bed, but she couldn’t sleep anymore. Her mind was haunted by the Room of Fire and Tomiwa’s sad eyes.

“Why didn’t he say anything?” a little part of her wondered.

Tomiwa stood at the other side of the door in shock. He couldn’t think of anything to say. Deep within him, he had been praying that Tiwa had changed after all her months away and had finally given up her dangerous life. In just a day, she had already gotten a scar. He wondered if he should tell Ayo his worries about Tiwa, but that would be stupid. Ayo never saw fault in her; she was his big strong sister.

Tomiwa hurried away from her door when he heard Ayo open the front door below.

“Hey guy, what’s up?” Tomiwa called out from the stairs.

“Guy I dey tired. We get any food?”

“I look like your servant ni? If you’re hungry, kitchen dey there. I dey go sleep” Tomiwa replied, heading for his room.

Ayo threw down his bag in frustration and dragged it to the living room. He would rather sleep hungry than actually have to cook.

With nothing to do, he brought out a little leather book from the inside pouch of his bag as he sat on the couch. He gently glided across the tiny compass-made carvings on the front that said S.B. With quiet resolution, he lifted the cover and smiled softly at the familiar writing on the other side: “The diary for my husband.”

The unknown black figure looking in from outside at the window opposite the couch peered closely at the book in Ayo’s hand.

Ayo flipped through a bunch of pages he couldn’t bear to read as they were about their wedding and first few weeks of marriage. Scrolling through the book, he realized there was no page that didn’t bring him pain. He finally settled for one of his favorites.

“Dear Husband,

I see you still don’t understand the meaning of a “diary”. Well I’m not going to indulge you today. I’m not going to share any “secrets”. All I have to say is I love you, and we both know that.  Can’t believe it’s been a whole month. I know you have forgotten that today is our first month anniversary as a married couple. I’m not angry though; I have known you long enough to understand you. And I know that you will pretend like you never forgot and order something off the internet. Typical, typical.

My mum called me this afternoon telling me she wants me to come home for some days. I wanted to tell you over dinner, but you looked so happy about your grade that I didn’t want to ruin it. I know you guys don’t get along. I have learnt to live with that. I need to go home though. I know that I shouldn’t be leaving so early after we got married but it seems really important. Besides, it might give you a chance to actually read for school.

Ugh look at me blabbing again. You are going to end up reading my diary forever. I just can’t help myself. Talk to you in the morning after you read this as I sleep peacefully like an angel beside you. You are lucky to have me.

With love from Blanks.”

Another tear slid down his cheek at reading her absurd signature ending. He quickly wiped them all away before anyone else saw them, trying to protect his “masculinity”. It was stupid, considering Tomiwa had already seen him cry and Tiwa had seen him cry so many times, but he did it anyway. The exhaustion of the day finally hit him and he tucked the book under him as he lay down in the couch to sleep. The stairs to his room were like a mountain he was not ready to climb. He fell asleep smiling, thinking of how his wife would soon be home.

The black figure outside tried to carefully open the glass window to no avail. It glanced one last time at the book before walking away.

Both Tiwa and Tomiwa stared at their room ceilings for hours. Patricia was still practicing at the dance studio, and nightmares scared Tireni from sleeping. Only Ayo had peace that night, but his wouldn’t last long.