The Right One

Thirty four

Hope could never emphasize enough how grateful she was for the people she had around her. She was convinced she had the very best circle of friends known to man, and nobody could ever tell her different.

Opening the door that morning and welcomed by the sight of her friends bearing flowers, gifts and balloons, she'd almost broken down in tears right then. Considering how crazy the past couple of days had been, she had really needed something lighter to make her genuinely smile again. They'd even gone the extra mile to prepare a cake with 'Cheer up, Hope!' boldly written on it. She wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry at their level of extra. Although she should have been extremely suspicious when Raymond had kept insisting that morning that they swing by her house to get some of her things even though she'd insisted she was more than comfortable making do with the ones Sophie had brought her when she was in the hospital.

"You guys!" Hope choked out, hugging Tayo, Paul, Oke and Val all at once. "You really didn't have to do this."

"With everything that's happened the past few days, we figured you needed some cheering up," Tayo said, wrapping her friend into another hug. "This is just to remind you that you have us here in your corner."

"That's really amazing of you all. Thank you." She turned to Raymond who was spotting a huge smile. "I can't believe you were in on this, and you didn't tell me!"

"Of course I didn't tell you. What's the whole essence of the surprise then?"

After that, they settled down with the cake. Hope was at a loss whether the cake actually belonged to her considering her friends took much more than she did.

Raymond had excused himself at some point when his phone rang, and that had been going on for a while, Hope took the opportunity to fully narrate the discovery of the past few days to her friends.

"Wow. This is every shade of messed up, no offense," was Paul's opinion.

"Trust me, none taken."

"I'm really sorry you had to go through all that, Hope," Oke said, looking more than a bit floored.

"Awww, you're so sweet," Hope cooed, laughing when the boy got all shy. So predictable, and so cute. "Thank you."

"How's your mum taking it?" Val asked, worried. She'd not seen Hope's mum much ever since Hope's stay at the hospital.

Hope shrugged. "Okay, I guess. She went to the station yesterday but not surprisingly, he refused to see her."

"What about his sister?" Tayo asked, "Have you guys met her after that first time?"

Hope nodded. "We did, and all she really cared about was her brother. The sibling bond between those two . . . It's kind of sad really, thinking about how differently all of this could have turned out."

The room went quite melancholic after that, nobody really knowing what to say and the silence was only broken when Raymond returned.

"Well, that took long," Hope observed.

"That was the lawyer," Raymond replied, immediately piquing Hope's interest. "The police have agreed to drop your-- his case, but only on the condition that he'll get help, and he's going to be under surveillance for a while; make sure he won't become a menace to society."

"He's already a menace to society," Tayo muttered, shrugging when Paul shot a look at her.

Hope sighed, a bit relieved and apprehensive at the same time. The days following her mum's breakdown seemed to be a blur in Hope's life. Her decision not to press charges against her 'brother' didn't come as much of a surprise to anyone. It'd seemed the only credible decision in the light of things, but dropping the case hadn't been as easy as she'd expected. The police had been reluctant to release him at first because they believed Philip to be capable of much more harm if he found another victim. Hope had been a bit surprised at that. She remembered making a joking comment that she never knew Nigerian police worked so hard. She was just so glad it all seemed to be working out at the end. He'll get counseling, or whatever form of help they felt he needed and she'd never have to deal with him ever again.