Keeping Secrets (The Essien Trilogy, #1)

by Kiru Taye

  Marry her?

  Shock would be an understatement as far as Ebony was concerned. Her ears must have played up. She had to pick her open mouth up off the floor.

  “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I heard you correctly. Did you just tell me to marry you?”

  He hadn’t asked, just stated the words in a casual tone. Like saying the sun would set tonight. A certainty.

  She stared up into Felix’s face, looking for signs of drunkenness. He looked sober, his midnight eyes clear, expression serious. Deadly serious.

  “Yes, I did.” His response struck her as emphatic, his stare unwavering. “It would solve your problem as well as mine.”

  “Are you out of your mind? I just told you I don’t want to get involved in another relationship. How is getting married to you not a relationship?” Ebony’s agitation drove her to wave her hands in the air.

  Felix raised his hand in a placating manner.

  “Just hear me out first.” His tone remained calm and serious.

  Ebony glared at him, backing away a touch. She’d moved so close to him in her confrontation, their faces only inches apart, his warm breath fanning her cheek.

  “Okay. I’m listening.”

  “I’ve got a problem. The board of directors for the Apex Group of Companies wants me to get married. They’ve issued an ultimatum and a date by which I have to tie the knot, or they vote to oust me from my position as Managing Director. I personally don’t want to get married. Don’t ask me why.” He paused, eyes intent as if studying her response.

  Ebony maintained an outward appearance of passivity, though her heart still raced with tension and disbelief.

  “However, I realise I have to appease the board, albeit temporarily, until I can acquire a stronger base. What I need is a suitable lady to play the role. We’ll get married before the deadline date and live to all purposes as man and wife. I’ll pay her a specified amount at the end of the marriage. While we are married, she’ll have access to everything the wife of the head of a major private bank should have access to. At the end of the two year period, we get divorced and she walks away with her settlement and all that she acquired whilst married to me.”

  Ebony had never heard anything so ridiculous. She’d heard of arranged marriages. But marriage as a business arrangement? No way!

  What was wrong with him? Why would a young, rich, handsome, and virile man like Felix want to pay someone to marry him? He had to be pulling her leg.

  “So how do I fit into your well laid-out plans? You can marry any woman you want. In fact, I know plenty who would kill to get their hands on you.” She swept her gaze up and down his body as she spoke sarcastically.

  “Those are the women that I want to avoid—the ones who’ll become emotionally involved and demand more when I am unable to provide. You, on the other hand, have stated quite equivocally that you don’t want to get involved, which means you have no intentions of being emotionally attached to any man. Right?” He paused, watching her closely. He cocked his head to one side, waiting for her response.

  The tension in her stomach tightened under his scrutiny.

  “Yes....” she said, suddenly unsure of where he was going with this. She wasn’t some cold-blooded bitch that could marry a man and not be emotionally involved with him.

  “Well, that suits me very well.” He shrugged. “You spoke about your recent split from your fiancé. I can only imagine the social headache that must’ve caused you and your mother, especially having to cancel so close to a wedding date.... How about getting back at the man who broke your heart by showing him you got over him in record time? I’m sure your mother will be very happy to see you settle down.”

  He had a valid point. A part of her wanted to get back at Dele—to show him that she’d moved on. That she had done better than him. Felix represented a great catch. More man than Dele, judging by their encounters so far. But something still didn’t sit well with her.

  “Yes, my mother will be very pleased to see me get married.” A blanket of sadness wrapped around her whenever she thought about her mother. What Ebony wouldn’t give to see her mother filled with joy and laughter again. “Still, what happens when the marriage breaks up? She’ll certainly be upset, then. How are we going to explain that?” she replied with a boldness she didn’t feel at that moment.

  “Marriages break up so easily these days. We could simply tell her it hasn’t worked out between us. She can’t hold that against us.”

  Felix sounded so certain but Ebony just couldn’t shake the feeling that this would be wrong. She didn’t want to deceive her mother even if the act of getting married would make her happy. Yet, deep within her, the urge to help Felix weighed her down. There had to be another way.

  “So when do you have to get married by?” she asked in a sedate tone, trying to rack her brain for an alternative solution.

  “First of January.”

  Her eyes almost popped out. “That’s less than two months away. It’s not enough time to plan a wedding. No, I can’t do it,” she blurted out while shaking her head. This whole thing reeked of crazy disaster, anyway.

  “Yes, it’s not enough time if we were planning a big wedding with bells and whistles attached. But this is just for show. If we keep it to the barest minimum, and the guest list to family and friends, then we should be able to do it. Moreover, I think my brother, Tony’s, current girlfriend is a wedding planner, so we could probably use her services to make things easier,” Felix stated in a matter-of-fact tone, as if he were discussing some business transaction.

  His calm appearance and cool concentration unnerved her. She looked away, trying not to get distracted by his intense gaze.

  “That’s handy.”

  Whenever worried, she chewed her bottom lip, like now. Another thought entered her head. She spoke it out loud before she had processed the implications.

  “What about children?”

  “No children. This is going to be a temporary arrangement so there is no need to bring children into it to suffer when we split up.” He sounded so emphatic, so sure that it left Ebony feeling disconcerted but she wasn’t sure why.

  “Oh...okay,” she spluttered, suddenly thrown off balance when the image of her holding a chubby baby boy with Felix’s dark eyes sprang into her mind.

  Butterflies fluttered low inside her. If he didn’t want children, did that mean there would be no intimacy, no passion, and no lovemaking? She looked at Felix’s all too masculine body again. What a shame. A big fat travesty. A warm shiver washed over her body. If she married Felix, she would want to spend every night in his arms and in his bed. Nowhere else. His presence lit a spark within her that threatened to raze her, to turn her into puddle of need. It would only get worse if she married him.

  Except she didn’t want to marry him, did she?

  “Listen. Think about it. You don’t have to give me an answer tonight. I know you need to process the information and decide if it’s the right thing for you. You can give me your answer tomorrow night when I pick you up for dinner.” His lips widened in a smile, dimpling his cheeks, and his dark eyes twinkled like stars.

  She nodded, relieved that she didn’t have to give an answer straight away. She smiled cheekily when the full meaning of his words filtered to her brain. “Nice one, but your distraction tactics failed. I don’t remember agreeing to a dinner date. Why don’t I just tell you my answer on the phone?”

  “Because I enjoy your company so much that I’m sure you wouldn’t deprive a desperate man of it, would you?”

  Before she could respond with a nifty retort, her phone beeped in her purse and she picked it up. A text message from Faith.

  We’ve gone to get some Suya. You were enjoying yourself so much I didn’t want to disturb you. You can come join us, if you like. xoxo F.

  Trust Faith and her matchmaking antics. Ebony smiled and shook her head.

  “That was Faith. Mark’s taken her to get some suya. We’re invited, if we like. I th
ink that’s another way of her saying ‘don’t you dare disturb us’.” Ebony laughed.

  “I think so, too. They barely gave us a moment’s notice whilst they were here.” Felix laughed, too, his husky tone threatening to melt her bones.

  “Not that we gave them a moment’s notice, either. Now I feel guilty because we were supposed to be out together.” She started chewing her lower lip again.

  “Hey, stop doing that. You are in danger of damaging your lovely lips.”

  Smiling, Felix reached across and tilted Ebony’s face upwards with his fingers, caressing her lower lip gently with his thumb, as if soothing out the damage her teeth had caused.

  “Next time you chew your lip, I’ll have to kiss it better.”

  Heart skipping a beat, her breath hitched in her throat and warmth spread all over her. With her lips tingling at his touch, she couldn’t say a word. Just sat mesmerised under his starry gaze, wishing he would carry out his threat.

  Instead, Felix leaned back and dropped his hand. “Let me take you home.”

  Nodding, Ebony couldn’t shake the curious mix of disappointment and relief that descended on her. She picked up her purse and walked out of the bar with Felix’s arm around her shoulder.

  Chapter Seven

  Ebony remained on edge for a couple of days. Felix had called her two days earlier to cancel their dinner date. He’d had to travel to Johannesburg on urgent business and wasn’t due back in Lagos until today.

  This afternoon, she strolled through the detailed, sizeable garden at the back of her parent’s modest, colonial-style home. But her thoughts focused less on the beautiful variety of plants, layers, and colours displayed by the different trees, shrubs, and flowers. The main thing on her mind became Felix and his bizarre marriage proposal.

  His giving her breathing space to make up her mind should have cheered her. Strangely, it didn’t. She wanted to hear his voice and his reassurance that whatever decision she made would be the right one.

  Why she needed that level of validation from him, she couldn’t decipher. She’d been independent since eighteen and had been able to make decisions about her life without input from others in the past.

  So why was this one different?

  When she bit her lower lip in her usual manner—a sure sign she worried about something—she realised what her action meant and stopped.

  Ebony noticed their housekeeper walking towards her. Margaret—a slim, middle-aged lady—had worked for them for as long as Ebony could remember. She got up from the bench and met the woman in the middle of the curvilinear cobbled path carved in the otherwise green lawn. When Margaret told Ebony her mother wanted to see her, she followed the housekeeper indoors. Her mother waited in the ground floor sitting room.

  “Mum, you wanted to see me?” Ebony said when she walked into the spacious room filled with sturdy, antique African furniture and family ornaments. On the off-white walls hung a mixture of family portraits and paintings from well-known African artists. Her mother sat on a mink-coloured upholstered sofa, one of the few modern items in the room.

  “Yes, come and have a look. A bouquet of flowers just arrived. Aren’t they just lovely? Begonias, African tulips, and chrysanthemums—some of my favourites.” Her mother waved in the direction of the flowers set in a white porcelain vase on the mahogany sideboard.

  “They are beautiful. Who sent them?” Ebony asked as she walked over to take a closer look.

  “I don’t know. Margaret just brought them in but I think there is a card attached.”

  “There is,” Ebony said as she stood in front of the bouquet, inhaling its sweet, exotic fragrance. Reluctant to pick up the card, her hand hovered above as she stood unsure who might have sent it.

  “Go on. Read the card and end our misery.” Her mother encouraged her with a smile as if sensing Ebony’s hesitation.

  Ebony picked up the card, opened it, and read the simple words.

  Have a great weekend,

  Felix.

  She froze, her stomach flipping over. Different emotions swarmed her. Surprise. Joy. Apprehension.

  Gosh! What was Felix trying to do to her? Didn’t she have him in her head enough already without this torture? She put the card back on the table and backed away from the bouquet. Moving over to a sofa, she sat down, still eyeing the flowers as if they were vipers.

  “Ebony?” her mother probed.

  “They’re from Felix,” she replied, her gaze still on the flowers but her mind in a thousand and one places.

  “Oh, so nice,” Mrs. Duru enthused. “They are absolutely beautiful, and he is such a charming young man. I think he likes you,” she added with a wink.

  Ebony stared at her mum, her mouth agape, heat rising to her face in embarrassment.

  “Mum! Felix doesn’t like me...at least, not the way you think, anyway. He is only wishing us a happy weekend,” she said, moving her hand back and forth to emphasise the two of them, though the card hadn’t said so. She didn’t want her mum getting the wrong idea about her and Felix.

  “I may be crippled but I’m not blind. I saw the way he looked at you when he dropped you off the other day. He likes—likes you, Ebony. Surely, you can see that. And with the flowers, well—”

  “The flowers don’t mean anything. People send other people flowers every day for all sorts of reasons. It doesn’t mean it’s anything romantic.” The shrill words tumbled out of her lips in frustration. “I can’t believe I’m having this conversation with my mother,” she muttered under her breath.

  Her mother laughed. “I heard that....You know, I worry about you sometimes. As a little girl, you used to dream about your wedding day. You even played bride a few times in my wedding dress. And now look at you. At the mention of a man sending you flowers, you are like a cat on a hot tin roof. What happened to my little girl?”

  Her mother’s face screwed up with worry lines and her eyes appealed to Ebony to tell her ate at her.

  “I grew up.”

  And my heart got broken, crushing all my romantic dreams of a white wedding and happy ever after.

  Her mum looked at her, sadness darkening her brown eyes. “My dear, I hate to see you still upset by the episode with Dele. You have to put him behind you. You have your whole life ahead of you. You should live it fully and not let people like Dele stop you from doing so.”

  Ebony hadn’t thought she could get over the heartache of the break up with Dele. He’d been part of her whole adult life. The first and only boyfriend she’d ever had. So finding out at the last minute that he cancelled their engagement had been devastating.

  After a long struggle, Dele had given in to his parents’ wish that he marry someone from his ethnic group, someone they selected for him. She hadn’t believed that after his promises to her of the contrary, he’d eventually caved in all because his father threatened to cut him off from his inheritance.

  So much for true love. She’d learned a hard lesson but she’d learnt it well. Love only mattered when it proved convenient. She wouldn’t fool herself by falling in love ever again. Didn’t need the aggro. Or the heartache.

  “I plan to live my life to the fullest. Dele and his ilk can’t stop me. I just don’t want to have any men in my life again. I can live happily without them,” she emphasised as gently as she could.

  Seeing the tears in her mother’s eyes though, her stomach sank.

  “My daughter, it is so depressing to hear you say that. Do you wish to keep punishing me? Isn’t it bad enough that we lost your father and your brother—my husband and my only son? Now you tell me I’m never going to have the joy of being the mother of the bride? I’m never going to see my grandchildren before I die? It’s times like this I wished your father were here.”

  Her mother started sniffing, tears rolling down her cheeks. Guilt flooded Ebony’s mind. She quickly moved closer to her mum, kneeling in front of her and passing her the box of tissues from the coffee table.

  “I’m sorry, Mum. I didn’t mean
to upset you.” She held the older woman’s hand, squeezing it tight.

  Ebony could believe her own selfishness. Seeing her mum this distraught took her back to the days after the car crash that took the lives of her brother and father. Grief had bonded mother and daughter, helping them to get over their loss. Her mother’s consolation had been that she had a daughter alive and well. Now that same daughter caused her grief by banishing men from her life.

  “I want you to be happy.” Her mother sniffed as she mopped her face with the tissue.

  “And I want to make you happy, Mum.” Her mind whirled. There remained only one thing that would make her mother happy right now. And she needed to stop being self-centred, for once. Her previous selfish act had resulted in the deaths in her family.

  “How?” Her mum peered at her through a hand full of soggy tissues.

  Ebony came to spontaneous decision.

  “I have some news that will please you.”

  Her mum now looked at her expectantly, eyes sparkling. No turning back now.

  “Felix asked me to marry him.”

  What have I done?

  Telling her mother about Felix’s proposal had seemed the best way to stop her tears at the time. Thinking on your feet, it’s called.

  Well, at the time, she’d been on her knees. Now, there would be no going back.

  Felix would be here in any minute.

  Conflicted, Ebony had dragged her feet upstairs to call him after speaking to her mother. She’d gnawed her lips with nervous energy while staring out of her bedroom windows, overlooking the back garden with its hedges of double blushing lilac hibiscus and rows of vibrant red dahlias as they’d arranged a dinner date for the same evening.

  Now, as she gazed at the tight lines on her pensive reflection in the mirror on her dressing table, Ebony questioned the wisdom of her action.

  “This is such a bad idea,” she said out loud. “I should call him and cancel.”

  The image of her mother sitting on the sofa, disintegrating into tears, played back in her mind.