Money, Fame and Love IX

The story so far– Yaw Mensah is a wealthy and shrewd businessman who has done more than a few crazy things in the past. His daughter Angie, falls in love with a lawyer, Derek Orleans. Derek is the son of Judge Orleans who died a few years ago under mysterious circumstances. In the last Chapter, Derek is able to confirm that Angela’s father, Yaw, masterminded the death of his dad, Judge Orleans. Let’s read on to discover how the story unfolds.

Outside, Derek shuffled his way into the car. The drive back to his house was one of the longest drives of his life. The events of the last few days kept running through his mind. At the traffic intersection just before he got to his house, he almost ran over a little girl who was crossing the road. Thankfully, he slammed on the brakes bring the car to a screeching halt a few feet from hitting her. Phew!

He did not know how he made it home safely. Outside of his house, the house boy opened the gate for him and he entered. Derek managed to get out of the car, still in a daze. He muttered an inaudible ‘thank you’ to the lad and made his way inside the house.

In the days that followed he had no appetite to eat and sleep became a struggle each night. He phoned his partner at the law firm and explained to him that he felt unwell and needed to take a week off work. During that week Angie called incessantly, for the first few days but he firmly told her that he really needed some time to think things through and did not want to be under any pressure. He felt the pressure to do right by his father.

But try as he may, he could not ignore the cords of love for Angie that were tugging at his heart.

He wished his mother, Eno Yaa, was still alive so he could turn to her for solace and advice. But his mother had passed away three years before his dad was murdered in cold blood. After days of praying and puzzling over the situation, he finally understood the course to take.

On Saturday morning after his breakfast, he drove back to the Mensah’s home. This time with a lighter heart.  At the gate of the Mensah’s villa, he met the gardener who greeted him with a cheerful salute.   Derek smiled back at him and asked him if Angela and her dad were home. To this, the gardener responded in the affirmative and waved for him to come inside to meet them.

Angela was just about stepping out of the house to get her hair done at the salon. She was surprised when she saw Derek and stopped in her tracks. Derek motioned with his hand and together they went in to meet her dad; he was mindlessly flipping through the television channels watching nothing in particular. His focus had not been the same lately.

‘Hello dad’, we have a visitor, Angela announced. Her father looked away from the T.V. and set his gaze on his daughter standing by Derek. He didn’t know whether to be sad or happy at the sight of his visitor. The worry lines were deeply entrenched in Yaw’s forehead.  He hadn’t had any sleep over the last week and he felt very tired.

‘Come over and have a seat’ Yaw said, that was all he could think of. Derek and Angela moved towards where he was seated and found themselves some seats. ‘Well’, started Derek without much ado, ‘I have been thinking a lot since I left your home last week and I have finally come to a decision.’ He looked down for a moment and then continued ‘After much deliberation and prayer I have decided to let sleeping dogs lie’ After he spoke these words, he looked away briefly and let out a sigh. It was as though a huge burden, had been lifted off his shoulders. Yaw too heaved a huge sigh of relief as he also felt his burden lifted. ‘You’re forgiven Mr.  Mensah’, Derek continued. ‘I have decided not to hold this against you’.

Yaw got down on his knees. ‘T – T-thank you my son’ he stuttered’. Derek stretched out his hand towards the older man and pulled him back on his feet. By this time Angie was already up on her feet, tears of relief and joy were streaming down her cheeks, smudging her make-up. Derek turned towards her and enveloped her in a hug. He believed he had made the right decision.

THE END.