It was glamour at its best, the men where impeccably dressed; some in expensive suits and others in regal traditional attires. It was hard to point out who was a Chief, a Prince or a King. Biola was the lady in red, a turtle neck dress flowing on the ground with a slit any inch higher would cause a riot from the women stalking her with both jealous and adoring eyes.
The dress was made by a young designer Mr Ese, it had golden embellishments that followed every curve on Biola’s body sensually and the sleeves were made of lace that drew peoples’ attention to the shade of her skin. Her hair was made into an up do and her shoes gave her an extra five inches, if the most beautiful China doll in the world was 6ft tall that doll would be Biola because she resembled an Asian queen.
As she glided through the banquet hall looking for Umar she noticed the eyes admiring, judging, calling and stripping her, at first she wasn’t sure why eighty percent of the room was looking at her until she looked into the mirror in the fifty million naira Aso villa visitors’ toilet; a knowing smile appeared on her face
“You look amazing” a woman washing her hands confessed “normally we quarrel when my husband is staring at another woman in front of me but we didn’t this time because we were both staring… at you, you are going to make the president jealous because peoples’ attention won’t be on him as usual” the woman walked closer and stretched her hand towards Biola for a hand shake
“I am Ibiyemi Barbs…the Chief of Staff to the president” Biola shook her hand and curtsied “I know… I saw you on TV last week” “of course you did… good luck on tonight” she replied and left.
Biola did not understand why she wished her luck and she did not care, if people wanted to stare at her it was their eyes not hers then she remembered that she was at the event with Umar. Umar a jealous lover would find it very difficult to restrain himself from acting on his jealousy but it was fine, she believed that he wouldn’t try anything stupid because they were at a presidential event in the Aso Villa with very important people including the president and Umar’s father.
“Where the hell have you been” Umar’s grip pulled her to a corner just as she came out of the bathroom “I went to freshen up” she tried to pull his hand away vainly as his fingernails dug into her skin “you just got here and you are already trying to freshen up, who were you in there with?” she could barely discern his words through his clenched teeth “you think I don’t see how everyone is staring at you? You better behave yourself” “you behave yourself” she retorted, shoved his head and walked back into the hall to re-join guests, who quietly listened to the president’s speech.
There was well deserved ovation after the speech then came great laughter created by a comedian called Basket mouth; as great humour went around so did the best food and liquor “I’m sorry” Umar whispered and just as Biola turned her face to kiss Umar on the cheek she exchanged a very quick but impressionable glance with the president and because of the power in that glance Biola avoided looking in his direction the rest of the night but he did not.
Umar and Biola enjoyed the rest of the party until a man propositioned Biola right in front of him and instead of taking his jealousy out on the man he took it out on her as usual. Umar dragged her into a small empty room and began to hit her this time gunning to disfigure her face but Biola was ready to fight back.
She managed to push him to the ground and marched his hand injuring it with the sharp heel of her shoe and this angered him more that he started strangling her “I will kill you today” Biola noticed Umar looked as if he was staring into space and she immediately knew that he wasn’t going to let her go but she struggled as much as she could even though strength sipped away from her by the second.
Umar strangled her like his own life depended on it and just before Biola became completely unconscious he stopped and fell down, as she coughed and tried to inhale as much oxygen as she could she noticed the president standing with a rod in his hand and Umar’s blood flowing around his feet, she rushed to Umar but he was already dead “what did you do?” Biola called and shook Umar but there was no reply “it is in your destiny” a distinctly familiar voice called her, it was Madame Deloris reaching out the rod to her.
“No! No! Umar! No!” Biola screamed as she woke up filled with panic “it’s okay… relax, it was only a dream” a calming voice grasped her attention, it was the President. President Kenneth Orji.
