Marriage Chronicles - Season 1 - Episode 14

5 years ago

Marriage Chronicles - Season 1 - Episode 14

☆☆☆☆☆
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continues..

..COREEN..

The mirror revealed a pale faced and tear stained me. Well I’d done a lot of crying ever since I came to learn Anna was officially missing. I felt guilty for her disappearance or her death cause I couldn’t run away from the thought that maybe Rajesh had gone ahead and killed her. Oh God, if only I’d taken some action sooner, none of this would have been happening. For starters, I should have confronted Anna the first time she slept with Rajesh or perhaps I should have just gone ahead and exposed her but no, my envy had led me astray now who knew where Anna was or what state she was in?

I washed my face and applied a touch of make up then walked out of the bathroom. I was at my place having a change of clothes. I was on my way out of the house back to the police station when I ran into Cephas who was perspiring like no man’s business.

“Coreen,” he stood in the doorway, blocking me. “We have to talk.”

“About how Lubuto died?”

“No. About us, and our marriage. Lubuto is dead so let’s not give her the fun of ruining our happy marriage.”

“Is that so?” The urge to laugh was so strong but I managed to fight it. “You do realise I wasn’t even aware you’d once had another wife not until I started seeing Kimono me, right?”

“Don’t call her that, name’s Lubuto Bwalya. And point of correction, she wasn’t my wife.”

“Truth be told, I no longer give a s--t,” I curtly said. “And please get out of my way cause I’ve got more pressing issues to tend to.”

Cephas opened his mouth to say something but the glare I gave him told him retorting wouldn’t help so he moved aside and let me pass.

I arrived at the police station to the news that Rajesh had been arrested at the airport and was now in police custody.

William who was with me outside the police station was saying, “The b-----d is denying everything!”

The frustration I saw in his eyes was intense. I said, “Of course he’ll deny everything but thank God I have some evidence to tie him to Anna though it ain’t very incriminating but its better than nothing, right?”

“Yeah,” he replied while scratching his chin. “Speaking of evidence, you knew all these months Anna was cheating and you didn’t bother do nothing?”

His words stung but I shrugged, “I didn’t really think it was my business to go around telling a grown up whats good and bad for her marriage, am sorry.”

William shook his head and walked out on me without uttering another word.

Anna’s mum was next to approach me. “Hi, Coreen.”

“Hi, aunt.”

“Can we find somewhere to sit and talk?”

“Sure.”

We found a bench under a mango tree and sat there. Anna’s mum said, “I find it really difficult to believe that my Anna is capable of cheating on her husband.”

“Am so sorry you had to find out the way you did. But she was cheating on him with an Indian dude.”

“It’s fine..Can I ask you something though?”

“Um..yes.”

“How come you possess evidence Anna was cheating on William? What sort of friend are you?”

“Aunt, its not what you think. I-”

“Save your breath, Coreen. All I want to say to you is that you’re a fake friend cause had you been a true one, you would have talked some sense into Anna. Anyway,” she stood and looked at me so intently that I cringed. “What goes around comes back around.”

What just happened? I inwardly asked myself when aunt left. Like is she being for real? Gosh!

Since I didn’t want to stay with Cephas for now, I booked a room at a cheap lodge and that’s where I stayed for the next stressful month.

I call it stressful because of all the interrogations I had to undergo being Anna’s best friend. In the past one month, William and I had spent quite a lot of time together working with the police. He too was being interrogated as he had been a suspect in the beginning but he no longer was.

Rajesh was the prime suspect but the psycho kept on denying seeing Anna on the day of her disappearance but he at least had accepted being her lover.

Cephas on the other hand still didn’t wanna tell me nothing more about Kimono me so him and I weren’t on talking terms and Kimono me herself? Seemed she had decided to give me a break cause I hadn’t seen her since that encounter in my bedroom where she had presented me with that splendid illusion.

Anyway, William and I were coming from the court one day, where Rajesh couldn’t be sentenced because Anna’s dead body hadn’t been found so the court couldn’t sentence him. Kidnapping was a dead case too cause there was no evidence to prove Rajesh had kidnapped her. He was still in police custody though.

“Have faith, William,” I patted his hand as I led him to my car. “Am certain Anna and your baby are doing perfectly fine.”

“My baby?” he looked shocked. “What are you talking about?”

“You didn’t know? Willy, Anna is pregnant.”

“Oh God,” he placed his fingers on his eyes. “That f----r really has to pay for this!”

So Anna hadn’t told her husband she was pregnant? What a shady woman. Now I was beginning to get convinced Rajesh was the father of her child.

One Tuesday afternoon, I decided to pay Rajesh a visit in his cells. He was brought to the visiting area where it was just the two of us and some police man standing out of earshot at a distance.

“You look pathetic,” I told Rajesh without preamble. “What I don’t get is why you murdered Anna. What wrong did she ever do to you, huh Rajesh?”

“How many times do I have to repeat myself and tell you all that I didn’t kill nobody?”

“Oh come on, drop the act already. I know you killed Anna, Rajesh. Because what you are is some sick maniac who is violent with women!” I leaned closer. “You are an animal, Rajesh Sharma.”

“Fine,” he smirked and whispered. “I killed the b---h. What will you do?”

“I wasn’t expecting you to crack open so soon, Raj. I still had some filthy names to call you but thank God you made my work so d--n easy.”

“What do you mean?” asked a confused Rajesh.

I shrugged and stood, grabbing my handbag from the floor. “Instead of watching those e----c movies Cephas tells me you like watching, I reckon you try other genres and maybe you’ll learn a thing or two while you’re at it. Well, it’s too late now so see you in court.”

“You b---h!” he snarled when he realised what I’d just done, hitting the desk in anger.

I laughed and did a catwalk outta the room. Long story short, I’d recorded our little conversation. Ten minutes ago, I thought I was just doing something silly but now I was ecstatic I finally had evidence to prove Rajesh had indeed murdered Anna. S--t, Anna was dead, Rajesh had just confessed that!

I cried a river the rest of that day.

Three weeks later, Rajesh was found guilty of Anna’s murder even though he pledged not guilty. He was still sentenced to life imprisonment.

I was walking out of the courtroom while dabbing at my eyes when some typical Zambian woman walked up towards me and slapped me.

“What the heck? Who the hell are you?”

“Am the mother to the innocent man you just helped get locked up. I curse you, Coreen or whatever your name is. I pray you never find happiness ever again in your miserable life!” she spat at my feet and walked away.

Before I could even process what had just happened, Cephas’ mother showed up in front of me.

“Rajesh is your husband’s cousin for crying out loud!” there was so much spite in her tone. “But you and her are just the same. You share the same face after all so what can I expect from you? I just wish you can disappear from the face of the earth without a trace like that Lubuto Bwalya had done!” she too spat at my feet before dashing off.

I stood in the scorching Sun and let the tears flow. Not because of my mother in-laws words nor those of Rajesh’s mum’s but because of what I’d just seen. Anna’s parents were walking out of the courtroom hand in hand, sobbing uncontrollably. William was tailing behind them while doing a fair share of the sobbing himself.

I sobbed too and then felt strong arms engulf me. I buried myself into them warm arms.

“Don’t pay attention to what either of them just said,” said Cephas soothingly. “You know you’ve just done the right thing.”

“How come I still don’t feel at peace, Cephas?”

“Because,” it was Anna’s voice inside my head. “You won’t be at peace until my body is found and you’re certain am dead. You’ve done your part, Coreen. Am dead and my body won’t be found because Rajesh had burnt it to ashes.”

“Did you hear that?” I pulled myself out of Cephas’ embrace and asked, hoping he’d heard what I’d just heard.

But as expected, he hadn’t. “Hear what?”

I shut my eyes and thought, ‘So seeing Kimono me’s ghost isn’t enough, now I have to deal with Anna’s too?’
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