Chapter 19: All Alone

In all of the confusion and chaos of last night, no one had noticed Tiwa quietly exiting the theatre except one person. However, he had had to focus on the situation on hand.

They had gotten Patricia to the hospital, luckily in time. Tireni had nearly passed out when the doctors told them that a couple more hours and she would have died. They had thought it was a simple exhaustion or dehydration issue, but the results revealed something apparently way worse than that.

So bad that the doctor had to excuse Tireni to tell Patricia the results the next evening when she had finally woken up. The other girls had gone home and it was just Tireni keeping her company in the room. Tomiwa had gone to get some of their stuff from their hotel room.

Tireni decided not to pry when she came back into the room. She just simply took her seat in the chair, rubbed Patricia’s hand, and settled in to get some rest.

A couple of seconds after Tireni had shut her eyes, Patricia asked in a pained, shaky voice,

“Why did you try to poison me, Tireni?”

Those heavy words echoed throughout the silent room. Tireni slowly opened her eyes and turned her head to Patricia.

“Wha—What? What are you talking about?”

Patricia sat up on the bed with the little strength she had left.

“I know you heard me.”

“Are you crazy, Patricia?! Did you hit your head on the wall or something? How can you say such a thing? Oh right. This must be a joke. It’s really not funny, sis.”

But the tears falling down Patricia’s cheeks and her stony look proved otherwise.

“You are serious….”

“Dead serious!” Patricia yelled.

“I didn’t poison you! Is that what the stupid doctor told you?”

“He told me someone tried to!”

“And you just assume it was me? Wow. In all the time we have spent together, never have I seen you be so foolish.”

“Do not talk to me that way.”

“I will talk to you as I want. You are not the boss of me.”

“Do you understand that you attempted murder? ON ME! Don’t act like this is some misunderstanding.”

“How can you say such a thing, Patricia? Why would I poison you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you are jealous about my success” Tireni scoffed and turned her back on her. “Maybe it’s envy because you will never be as good as me”

“Idiot…” she whispered

“Maybe it’s because you have no one that cares about you.”

The tears that were on the brink of Tireni’s eyes finally fell and she spun around in anger

“Oh and you do?! Tell me is it the mother that’s dead or the father who couldn’t give two about you?”

Tireni regretted the words as soon as she said them. She never planned them, but they hit right into Patricia as shown by her broken expression.

“Get out.”

“Pattie, wait…”

“I said, get out!”

“No! I will not”
Patricia feebly got out of the cotton bed and barely stabilized herself on the cold tiles. She removed the IV from her arm and slowly dragged herself to push Tireni out of her room.

“Patricia…”

Something at the back of Tireni’s mind urged her to show Patricia the text message she had gotten. But showing her that meant exposing M.K. to Patricia, breaking the ultimate code of secrecy.

“Tireni, I loved you like a sister and you tried to kill me.”

“I wouldn’t do such a thing.”

“You gave me the bottle!”

Patricia finally got to where Tireni was standing, but she was breathing heavily and shaking.

“I found it in your bag!”

“So you say. I knew I carried no bottle yesterday. No wonder you wanted me to drink it.”

“You were nervous for crying out loud and I was being caring. My stupid fault.”

“Just leave.”

Patricia grabbed both of Tireni’s shoulders with her hands, but she shrugged them off too violently and Patricia fell.

“I’m so sorry, Patricia”

Patricia struggled to get up from the ground and tears fell from her eyes as her weakness and vulnerability hit her.

Tireni tried to help her up, but she refused.

A nurse walked into the room, saying

“Hey, could you guys reduce the—what’s going on here?”

She stared at the situation in shock

“She fell”

“She pushed me off. Please get her out of here.”

The nurse rushed to Patricia’s aid and directed her back to the bed.

“You have to leave, ma’am.”

“But—”

“Now please before I call the security man.”

Tireni knew she had no choice, so she went to grab her belongings in anger, clutching her phone especially tight.

“If only she could show her” she thought. But she cannot risk her family for Patricia, no matter how much it hurt her. She walked out of the room in tears and collided with Tomiwa.

“What’s wrong, Tireni? Is she alright?” he asked urgently.

She could feel the bile rising up from her stomach, irritated by his concern for her.

“She’s perfectly fine, Tomiwa” she said, angrily clenching her jaw.

She pushed him out of the way and kept running with her blurry eyes. Unfortunately, she collided with Ayo.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked, looking down at her and holding her arms gently.

“Nothing, absolutely nothing. Just let me go.”

“Come on. I’m right here to lean on. What’s wrong?”

Tireni looked at him through her blurry eyes. His caring, worried eyes pushed her over the edge of her emotional breakdown.

She broke down crying in his arms, and he rubbed her back soothingly as she wailed.

“Don’t worry, Sophia. I’m right here.”

She pushed herself off him in disgust, looked at him briefly with her pained cold eyes before walking towards the exit

“Oh wait sorry I meant Tireni” Ayo called out to her.

It was too late. She was already out the door.