Page 100 of Cursed Daughters
The penny dropped. The name she’d read in Monife’s notebook, the name that sat beside the princess’s in the curse of the Falodun women.
“You’re…you’re Golden Boy?”
He winced. She felt the floor pitch. Of course the man she loved would be the son of the man Monife had loved. Why should she have something for herself? So that was the catalyst? Monife had lost the man she loved, had died for the man she loved, but still desired a happy ending? She rested her hand on an armchair for support. She barely heard Golden Boy when he said: “Has she sent you here to haunt me?”
Before she had a chance to reply, Zubby walked in with his mother behind him. Eniiyi straightened up and Golden Boy wiped a tear that had escaped his eye. Zubby’s mother’s photograph did not do her justice. She had a face that looked round and soft, with not a single blemish to be seen. Her eyes were also round, giving her the look of a doe in headlights. She had small, heart-shaped lips and long lashes. She looked kind. She could have been mistaken for a person half her age. And she was dressed quite simply in a white blouse and pale jeans with whitetrainers. She sported an auburn wig that bounced and curled at her shoulders but looked natural. It took Eniiyi a moment to note all these things, and another moment to note that her boyfriend’s mother was not pleased to see her. It was there in the downturn of her mouth and in the wrinkling of her forehead. She was standing beside and slightly behind her son, who dwarfed her, so Zubby did not see her expression.
“Oh! Great, Dad, you’re here. Mum, Dad, this is—”
“You!” his mother hissed. “God forbid. You have haunted my home, haunted my marriage…you won’t take my son, Monife! I won’t allow it!”
Then she was in front of Eniiyi. The woman had lost all composure; her eyes were wide, her wig had slipped. And then she raised her hand.
Eniiyi was slow to react to the slap, the scratches and the hair pulls. But she began to feel angry. Zubby’s mother was vicious, but not particularly strong. She clenched her own hand into a fist, cocked it back…Then the men were there, Zubby trying to get his mother’s nails out of Eni’s skin and his father pulling his wife back by the arms. She resisted him, but he was stronger by far. Eniiyi touched her face and felt a wetness there: blood.
“What do you think you are doing, Amara?!”
“Of course you defend her. You would have her destroy our son’s life too? ? ch?r? ka any? rap? ya ka ? gb??? nwa any? nwoke.” Eniiyi looked to Zubby for a translation, but he was staring at his mother with worried eyes. It was Golden Boy who spokeup.
“Are you losing your mind? Do you think you are standing before a ghost?”
“Fuck you, Kalu. Fuck you.” And then she was gone.
“Dad, what the hell?”
II
“I am so, so sorry. I…” began Zubby.
They were sitting in his jeep, in his parents’ compound. He was supposed to be driving her home, but they had been sitting in silence for the past ten minutes.
Suddenly he touched her chin, directing her face towards him and checking where his mother’s slap had landed. She didn’t know what he expected to see—her skin was almost as dark as night. It would take a lot for physical trauma to show.
“I cannot believe she did that.”
“Mmm…”
“At least we now know why your mum freaked out,” he said, attempting a half-joke. She didn’t smile. “Eniiyi. Please. What’s going on in that head of yours?”
“I don’t want to follow in her footsteps.”
“In whose…?”
It annoyed her that he even had to ask. She thought he had understood her circumstances, more so now that he’d seen all of their parents react so poorly.
“In Monife’s footsteps.”
Zubby groaned. “I swear down I am beginning to feel like your aunty is harrassing us.”
“Welcome to the club,” she snapped. “Don’t you think it is strange that of all the babes in Lagos, and of all the guys…we met each other and were drawn to one another? Sometimes I feel as though my strings are being pulled.”
“What are you saying?”
She didn’t want to sound crazy. She hoped to hell she wasn’t crazy. But whyhadshe felt so dazzled by him? Why had he occupied such a huge space in her mind since they met? He was an attractive guy, but she had met other attractive men. Why did he fuel her head and heart in this way?
“I don’t think it is a coincidence. What if I am Monife reborn? Perhaps she is trying to…I don’t know…use us to have her cake and eat it too.”
Zubby held her hand and squeezedit.
