Chapter 9

It was here, the long awaited dinner was finally in two hours. My fate would be sealed on that dinner table and tonight I would meet the woman I was going to marry.

"Red or blue tie?" I asked Bankole as he scanned through a magazine while sitting on the couch of my own hotel suite.

"10 ways to keep the flame rising even after marriage," he read out, deeming my question irrelevant. 

"Dude, were you even paying attention to what I said?" I asked and his head was still bent, absorbed in the words in front of his eyes for a few seconds before he realized I said something this time.

"What?"

"The Tie," I replied, holding the two colours up for him to pick.

"Wait a minute, Jacob. You're going to the den of an austere tribe. Shouldn't you at least prepare?" He questioned suddenly as if he had just had an epiphany on the whole situation, forgetting the ties again but at least he had abandoned the magazine.

"What's there to prepare for?" I asked while crinkling the corner of my eyes.

"Like what exactly Hausa families expect from possible in laws, greetings, respects," he added whilst standing and surprisingly, picking up the tie from where I had dropped it. He must have heard me then...

"This isn't a genuine occasion. It's strictly business and not some sort of family get-together," I informed after picking up the Life Magazine he had been holding. The front page had a picture of the popular chef, Nita and come to think of it, I hadn't yet seen her around despite the notice of her as a special guest here.

"Blue."

"The Daran's don't strike me as the family inclined type. Everything is business to them, even their daughter's happiness and to be honest it is sad," I uttered while retrieving the colour he chose with my other hand.

"Yeah it is, I wonder how she must have felt. Was she okay with this decision? Or did she even have a choice," he pointed as I stood in front of the mirror, putting on the tie.

"For me I think she didn't have a choice but I'm curious honestly as to what type of person would I meet today," I verbalized more in thought than to him.

He had returned back to sitting on the couch, going through more entertainment magazines and newspapers, when my other friend, Osaze entered the room. We were complete, I thought as I took in the contents from a bottle of water I had retrieved from the fridge.

 A while later, I spared a moment to look at my friends, brother's almost, the only difference was blood between us. I was lucky to have met such people in my life when all appeared to be gloomy as we could do anything for each other and I was sure I could trust them but could they do the same for me?

"Where do we start exploring guys? I mean new city, numerous unmarked highlights," I asked while joining Bankole in sitting, referring to a list we've had since forever. It was a routine or should I say a habit that whenever we visited new locations, we always tried to see and visit all the tourist attraction sites and as I said 'highlights.'

"The Sultan's palace is definitely a top priority," Bankole said.

"Yeah, I heard it's a great view," Osaze chipped in as he walked over to find a holder for the flowers sent as gifts amongst many other things from both previous and current partners.

"Flowers? Really?" Bankole commented in surprise as the action was a bit weird but maybe it had been meant for Rashid's daughter instead.

Although, I didn't expect their gestures because I had thought everything was still a secret but I hadn't known the Daran's had started full preparations.

They were cunning fools either way as it was only now they knew they would send gifts and show signs of their support. They hadn't once contributed to help in any way to save this company from bankruptcy but when they heard the Daran's were involved, they carried fake smiles and gestures as offerings.

"I'll do some research, just focus on the marriage stuff and I and Osaze would handle the rest," Bankole said.

I just sighed, allowing my head to fall back on the chair in thought. My feet kept tapping in a repeated pattern as I was really expectant of the day's ending event. The two had started talking about other things but what caught my attention was Bankole's next words.

"I think Mary is hiding something from me," he confided and I brought my eyes back to him with a wary crease forming on my forehead in confusion.

"How?"

"I don't know, I stumbled upon a file," he explained vaguely.

"What file?" This time it was Osaze that asked, now holding a glass with water for the flowers.

"Should I be worried because I think she's pregnant but why isn't she saying anything? It's supposed to be good news right?" Bankole spilled and I was both shocked and surprised.

  I hadn't expected the news but Bankole was just being paranoid. I was sure she was happy about it and maybe just wanted to keep it as a secret to surprise him later.

Crash!

I turned quickly at the sound only to see that the water vase had fallen from Osaze's hands.

"What happened?" Bankole queried in equal shock as he took in the sight of the broken pieces and spilled water in the middle of the room.

"It uh slipped," Osaze answered frantically as he bent to start picking the pieces to discard them before it caused any more damage.

The discussion was over as they were both focused on the mess and meanwhile I had received a phone call from David. I excused myself right away from them and left to hear what news I was about to be made aware of, hopefully it would be good.

"David talk to me," I said as I walked down the hallway of rooms heading towards the stairway.

"I checked the bank statements and transaction records of the Daran Empire."

"Did everything add up?"

"Yes, the profits there were earned solely from personal income and not at all embezzled but I'm more concerned about how?" he said and I paused my strides to think as well.

"I did some further tracing also and found a branch business but when I researched on the details, it turned out that it didn't exist."

"So, if the business didn't exist where did the profits come from?" I voiced, still running my thoughts in a circle, trying to figure it out.

"Also, why would they create a surface show, unless...unless they had something to hide," I continued immediately when it dawned on me.

"I don't know something unimportant or maybe illegal," he followed up, hitting the nail finally on the head.