The LONGEST WAIT

Chapter 17

Tim's Stories' THE LONGEST WAIT

CHAPTER 17

"Where is my mum?" I asked, afraid. Where is Mama Buchi?"

"Who is looking for me?" I heard a familiar voice behind me asked. I turned around quickly, and it was my mum.

"Oh!! Mama. I was so scared. How have you been?"

"Buchi! Buchi, my son." My mum ran towards me and hugged me so tightly that for a moment I stopped breathing.

"It's me, Mama, flesh and blood." I said, smiling.

"I thought I had lost you, my son. Welcome back. How have you been? How's your wife?"

"Mama, everyone is good. Don't worry, we will talk about it later. We will talk about everything. Where are my children by the way?"

"They were behind the house, playing. Where are these children? Chidinma!! Chioma!!!! Your daddy is here oh, come and greet him. Where have they gone to?"

My Chidinma was the first to see me.

"Daddyyyyyyy!!!" She shouted and ran towards me.

"My daughter. I have missed you. Wow!! You have grown. Where is Chioma?"

Just then, Chioma came running and hugged me tightly. Chidinma started crying and before long, we were all crying. After a while, I took everyone into the house. I gave them their mother's wishes and all the goodies I had brought for them. I also assured them that we would all be together soon. I asked the reason for the gathering in the compound and my mum told me that it was an old neighbour who died. I felt relieved after hearing that.

I spent a total of ten good days with my family and everyday was like gold to me. However, all good things have an end. The time came for me to go back to Port Harcourt. On the day of my departure, my children wept and wept and begged me not to go. There was nothing I could do. All I had to do was assure them that we would all be together soon.

As soon as the entire crew was back to the ship, we got prepared and set sail. On one warm evening, we said goodbye to Nigeria and our ship sailed into the open sea once again. We were on our way back to Italy.

We got to Italy about a month later and the next day after our arrival, we had a progression intervention meeting with Mr. Giovani, our boss. We needed to find out what went wrong and what went right. After the business meeting was over, and our boss was satisfied with the whole operation, he dismissed everyone and closed the meeting. He seemed satisfied with himself and with everyone else, especially me.

"Well done, Mr. Buchi. You have proven to me how worthy, reliable and indispensable you are to me and to the whole organization."

"Thank you, Sir."

"I know you are eager to go and meet your wife. However, there is something important I would love to talk to you about. So, let's go to my house and discuss over lunch. What do you say about that?"

"It's alright boss. Whatever you say goes. You are the boss, remember?"

There was no way I was going to know but going to Mr. Giovani's house that day was going to change the whole trajectory of our relationship forever. When we got there, his wife and beautiful daughter were home, and they were all happy to see me. The wife had prepared food and had already set the table for us.

There were lots of laughter all throughout lunch. After lunch, Mr. Giovani took me to a side room for personal briefing. He told me he was happy with the way I handled things, especially when we were attacked by pirates. He told me he had already transferred some money into my account and that we should start making arrangements for the next project.

Remember in the previous chapters, I had said Mr. Giovani's wife had no knowledge of his illegal businesses and lifestyle. He had done everything within his power to keep everything from her. However, that day in Mr. Giovani's house, everything changed. As we talked in the side room about our operations, we didn't know that Mr. Giovani's beautiful wife, Bianca had heard everything.

She was a wise woman. Every other woman would have confronted her husband head on and that would have sparked a rumpus. Instead, Bianca waited until we had left. She then got into her car and came to my house. She wanted to have a one-on-one talk with me. Chisom wasn't happy about her coming. She complained that she wasn't comfortable about my recent closeness to the boss' wife. She didn't even know what was happening. However, in order for me to allay her fears, I had to tell her the whole thing.

"This is getting dangerous, baby. Please be careful. Hope you didn't tell her anything implicating."

"I did, babe. I had no choice. She already overheard us talking. There was nothing I could do."

"What if her husband finds out that you have spoken to her about your trade?"

"I don't know, babe. I am just hoping that she handles things diplomatically."

"What if she doesn't? You know how women behave. There is a high possibility that she wouldn't. I don't want trouble."

A few hours later, I was at home with Chisom talking about my trip to Nigeria when my phone rang. I checked and it was Mr. Giovani. I picked and he told me he would love to see me first thing the following morning. He didn't sound happy, and I got scared, When Chisom asked me why he called, I lied to her that it was just a regular call about business. However, Chisom was a wise woman and knew all was not well.

The next day, very early in the morning, I drove to Mr. Giovani's house. Before leaving my house that morning, Chisom and I prayed and hoped on God that everything went well.

I was ushered into his living room by a uniformed servant. As I sat there, waiting for him to come and see me, I kept wondering what could be the cause of the sudden and urgent invitation. However, my mind kept going to one thing only; my conversation with Mrs. Bianca Giovani. I was brought out of my reverie by Mr. Giovani. I looked into his eyes, and I saw fiery anger in his eyes.

"Good morning, Sir."

"What is good about the morning?" He answered rudely.

"Sir, you asked to see me." I said, shivering.

"That is true. What have you been talking about with my wife?"

"Sir, I am sure she overheard our conversation the other day. That was why she came to me, making inquiries."

"And you told her everything she needed not to know."

"No, Sir. I tried as much as possible to be discreet." I defended myself desperately.

"And you did a bad job in your attempts to be discreet. Mr. Buchi, my wife now knows everything about our operations, thanks to you. What do you think I should do with you?"

"I am sorry, Sir. So, so sorry. Please forgive me." I went down on my knees.

"Look here, Mr. Buchi. In this business, there is no room for mistakes. Mistakes are neither admitted nor tolerated. One mistake, just one mistake could expose all of us to the risk of long prison terms and even death. If any other person had done this, I would have sent the person to hell where the person belongs.

However, because it is you, and because you have had an impeccable record, I would make an exception. I will let you go. But you have to know that the damage is already done. Try next time to be more guarded about our company secrets, no matter who is involved. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir."

"Mr. Buchi, please, leave now. I will talk to you when I need you."

"Yes, Sir. Thank you."

I went out of the house, got into my car and drove back home. A lot of thoughts ran through my mind as I went back home. I hated my job and now it was becoming a family affair. Mrs. Giovani was now complicating the whole thing for me. The pressure was too much on me. I was working for a man I didn't like. His beautiful daughter was doting on me. Now, his beautiful wife had found out about his closely guarded operations because of me. I hated the whole situation.

I thought to myself that instead of living every day of my life in fear, why didn't I just plant a bullet in Mr. Giovani's heart and ended the whole thing. That was a shortcut to me regaining my freedom again. I smiled at the thought of that. However, even as I smiled, I knew it was an almost impossible thing to do. He had many armed men guarding him round the clock. I am sure I would be taken out even before I pulled my gun. But I had become tired of the whole thing. I was afraid that someday, I was going to snap in front of him and put myself in big trouble.

When I got home, I explained everything to Chisom, and she was greatly alarmed. She advised me to alert the authorities and set Mr. Giovani up. I replied in the negative. Going to the authorities was synonymous to committing suicide. He had many security officials in his payroll. No one would last more than twenty-four hours after reporting a man like Mr. Giovani to the authorities. Things had to be done another way.

The next operation was supposed to take place in the United States. We were going to sail to the US to deliver our merchandise. We planned on doing things the submarine way once again. That was an opportunity for me. As extensive as Mr. Giovani's tentacles could be, there was a huge chance that he hadn't gotten to the US officials yet. I could give up myself and explain everything to them. Most of these officials always go for the bigger fish. They would only be so happy to get Mr. Giovani in their dragnets.

That was a powerful and well laid out plan than could lead to success if executed perfectly. However, how about my wife? What would become of her? As soon as Mr. Giovani realized that I had betrayed him, he would send his men to s*******r my wife. God!! What had I gotten myself into? I wish I could get my wife away from Italy before I set my plans into motion. But I knew Mr. Giovani's men were now watching me twenty-four hours. Any attempts to evacuate my wife would lead to immediate suspicion and a swift and painful death for my wife.

I decide that I wouldn't hurry, I will take my time and make my plans until they have been perfected. After that, I would carry them out. No matter what I did, my wife's safety must be paramount. No one needed to remind me that it was thanks to her that I had come to Italy in the first place.

I decide that I would come down and let events unfold slowly. I needed to be more diligent with my job now. I also needed to avoid seeing Bianca Giovani again for whatever reason. As for Mr. Giovani himself and his beautiful daughter, Mia, I couldn't stay away from them because they were both involved in the day to day running of our operations.

It had been about a week now and I hadn't met Mia or her father. Her father, however, had been talking to me almost on a daily basis about our next operation to the US. For some reason, he was avoiding to meet me, which kind of worked for me perfectly. I didn't want to meet him again anytime soon. I was comfortable working with him online for the time being.

Because I was now working mainly online, I had more to time to spend with Chisom, my wife. We had all the time to catch up on all the times we had missed and also to reminisce about old things. Our life was going swimmingly. Then one day, everything came to a halt. Mia Giovani appeared on my doorsteps one early morning and told me her mother's life was in danger because of her father. She needed my help.

TO BE CONTINUED...