Scars (Romola 2)

95: Revelation

Romola would've slapped Yetunde if Olumide was not quick enough to grab her by her waist and pull her to himself. He locked his hands around her torso until her back touched his chest. He tightened his hold as he rested against the chair, keeping her bound while Yetunde ran behind her father's back.

"Words, Romy. Use your words." Olumide said.

"Fine. Yetunde you are a conniving sick, lower than the belly-of-the-snake liar. You are a manipulative woman with no self control or empathy and you'd rather destroy your daughter than tell the truth. I won't let you do that to save face."

'If you know who the father is, why don't you tell us?" Ajoke akimbo, glared down at Romola.

"Oh gladly." Romola glared at Yetunde's father since she couldn't see Yetunde. "It's your driver."

"I don't have a driver."

"You see. I told you that she would just lie. She—"

Romola understood now why Yetunde's father did not let his daughter finish her words. Cutting Yetunde mid-lies was the only way for truth to prevail.

"I'm not done. You used to have a driver. He left the house sometime before Yetunde discovered she was pregnant."

"No." Yetunde's father shook his head furiously, then paused. "No. Baba Tayo. No. He wouldn't. He was a married man with kids."

"Didn't stop him. Didn't stop Yetunde either."

"No!" Yetunde's father turned to his daughter, red in the face and roaring. "Tell me she's lying."

Romola folded her hands. "Of course. She'll tell you I'm lying. Those are her favourite words. But think of it. When she knew Heritage wasn't the father, why didn't she say anything? When I asked for the father from the beginning, why did she keep shut? When you practically begged, she didn't say a thing. She would rather lie than let such a shameful secret out."

"Yetunde!" Her father bellowed in such a way that she felt Olumide flinch behind her.

"Mummy?" Yetunde ran to her mother.

Her mother pushed her away. "Shebi, I asked you."

"I'm sorry, Mummy. Daddy, please. I didn't know how to tell you." She shrunk from her father's gaze.

"You didn't know how to tell me? But you couldn't open your mouth for Modupe's sake. Is that how much you hate her?" Her father yelled.

"I don't hate her." Yetunde said.

"You should shut up now, Yetunde. At this point, I doubt any sane person would believe a word that comes out of your stinking mouth because when it was important you did not speak. You did not think it was important that a young man was festering away in prison for a crime he didn't commit and that it would follow him for the rest of his life." Romola said.

"Heritage is not innocent!" Yetunde's father said.

"On whose words? By whose account? By the same voice that refused to identify the father? Okay, dey dull." Romola said.

"But why? Why would you lie about something so serious? If that man downstairs is innocent, you've ruined his life." Doctor Sammy asked.

"It's the same reason she told lies about me. Easy target. No one would question it. After all, it's gentle fragile Yetunde's words over the words of a street kid or a boyfriend her father doesn't even like. To her, it's a game to get whatever she wants no matter the cost to others. I swear, even if she told me the sky was blue, I would not believe it simply because she said it."

"Even if what you are saying is true, and I am not saying it is," Ajoke shifted from one foot to the other. "Where is the evidence? You can't prove it."