NADINE.


    Throughout that day, I was in a contemtive mood. I thought about Anna and the ordeal thaty in front of her. I felt so sorry for her; she was too young and did not deserve to experience such a grueling trial. But life was not fair. I remembered that I had some money in my bank ount, and if Naomi could ess it, she could get some and use it for the meantime. At least, until we find something else to do.


    Later that day, I tried to engross myself in the crime novel when the butler came in. I had a call from Naomi, he said.


    “Hey, Naomi,” I said. “What’s up?”


    “Hi, Nadine,” she said, her voice t. I knew something was up.


    “Something happened?” I asked. “You sound so dull.”


    “Ohh? I’m sorry,” I could tell she was making a deliberate effort to not sound somber. “I’ve just been tired.”


    “No problem,” I said. “So how did the trip to the hospital go?”


    “Well…” She said, “Erm, we might have a little problem.”


    I sat up, my heart beginning to race.


    “Did something happen? How is Anna, is she okay?” I asked.


    “Yeah, she’s fine,” she said. “At least for now.”Text ? 2024 N?velDrama.Org.


    “So what?” I asked.


    “You see, remember I told you we were going to need a shitload of money for Anna’s treatment,” she began, “well, that’s what is. The bill for her medication and hospitalization cost up to ten thousand dors per month. And she’s going to need steady and uninterrupted treatment for the next six months, which sums up to-”


    “Sixty thousand dors,” I said,pleting it. The money felt like an unseen weight in my hands. I had never made up to a tiny fraction of that money in my life, or seen it. I think at that time, the closest I hade to such an amount was the money I tried to steal from yton.


    “Yeah,” Naomi said. “So that’s a problem.”


    “Oh, fuck,” I said, more to myself than to Naomi. I buried my face in my free hand.


    “What are we going to do, Nadine?” She asked me.


    “I don’t know, honestly,” I said. “I am so confused. Where am I going to get that amount of money?”


    There was a long silence, and I kept racking my brain. I knew that I had about seven hundred dors in my bank ount, an amount I had been saving up to help with unforeseen circumstances, butpared to the sixty thousand dors it was nothing. Even whenpared to the monthly ten thousand dors, it still paled inparison.


    “I have a bit of money, though,” I told Naomi. “In a bank ount. When you go home, there’s a drawer near my bed, you’ll find the details there.”


    “Ohh, okay,” she said. “How much money is it?”


    “It’s … nothing,” I said with my eyes shut. “Just a little something to help while we try to figure out this mess.”


    “I see,” she said.


    When we had talked and the butler had left, Iy face down and screamed into the pillow. I could not cry, tears were useless, they could not turn into money. So I just screamed until I was tired. I considered all the ways that I could get money, but all of them seemed foolish. Perhaps if I was outside, it would have been easier, but I was entirely powerless inside there.


    It waste in the evening when an idea shed through my mind – yton. That was it, I could ask yton.


    *


    It was a difficult decision to reach, because I detested the bastard. He had had me locked up for so long, and had also assaulted me. But I did not have that much of a choice; Anna’s life depended on how well I yed the cards that were spread before me. Later that evening, when the butler brought in my dinner, I decided to ask him.


    “Hey, I want to speak with yton,” I told him.


    He gave me a puzzled look.


    “I’m not sure the boss would like to see you,” he said as he poured me a ss of wine. “He has been in quite a bad mood this past few days.”


    “I know,” I told him. “But this is urgent. I need to talk to him.”


    “Mmm, I see,” he said indifferently.


    “You’re gonna speak to him for me?” I asked.


    “I’ll try,” he said. “But I make no promises. I do not like toe under the ire of Mr. yton.”


    “I know,” I replied. “Please, do your best. A life is at stake here.”


    He nodded and then left the room.


    I said a little prayer before I ate the meal, hoping that yton would at least agree to see me.


    yton:


    I hadn’t been to work in days as I was taking my time to shed off the stress. I also did not leave the house. I nned to go to work the next day after my secretary called me and told me about an urgent meeting. I heard a knock at the door and knew it was the butler. I had requested for some white wine; white wine helped me rx and I needed it to get ready for work the next day.


    “Come on in,” I said and he opened the door and strode inside, the wine and a champagne flute in his hands.


    He poured me the wine and as I sipped, he watched. I wondered why he lingered.


    “Sir, Nadine has requested to see you,” he said as I emptied the ss.


    “Nadine, you say,” I said. “See me for what?”


    I was still smarting from that embarrassment so hearing her name still did not sit well with me.


    “She has a few challenges, and would like to discuss them with you, sir,” he said.


    “I see,” I told him. “Well, next time you attend to her, tell her that I’lle see her only when I want. I give the fucking orders around here, not her, not you, not anybody.”