Episode 56: Amara’s Story

Amara told Tunde and Gold the reason for eloping from the wedding. At first, they didn’t believe her but she showed them some things that proved her words to be true. After hearing her entire story, Tunde walked out.

Gold followed him. She saw that Tunde looked very disturbed, so she went to him. When Tunde saw Gold, he started apologizing to her, “I’m sorry, Gold. I don’t understand what’s happening to me, but I…” Gold held his hand and told him to stay calm, “Can we talk for a moment?”

Tunde hesitated but agreed. They sat on a bench nearby, close to each other. Gold noticed his weakness and decided that it was time to find a solution to this problem. Gold started talking, “I have noticed that you hesitate to talk about anything. I want you to know that there is no need to be afraid of anything when talking to me.” Tunde lowered his head, still in confusion.

Gold continued, “We are friends, Right? We are together and I am here to help you talk about anything, no matter what it is. Your feelings and thoughts are very important to me.” Tunde still said nothing. “You consider me your friend, right?” Tunde nodded his head in agreement. “Then we will face everything together and we will handle everything together, okay? We have no control over the past, but our present and future are only in our hands. Think about that. I understand that your pain is very deep but only you can bring yourself out of it. You have a lot of courage. You just have to fight with yourself, understand yourself and then see—your mind will stop troubling you.”

Tunde nodded. Listening to her words, he felt much lighter and he calmed down. “Thank you… for understanding me.” Tunde said. “No problem… Have you told anyone at home?” “Yes, Mother was asking a lot of questions. When I told her, Father also overheard.” “He…” Gold was about to say something when her phone rang. Her aunt Beauty’s name flashed on the screen. She immediately picked up the call and spoke to her.

A little later, when she placed the phone down with a sad expression, Tunde asked her what had happened. Gold told him everything. Hearing her words, Tunde also became very worried. They went to Amara and talked to her and in the end, the decision they made was very difficult for both Gold and Tunde, but they saw no other way.

9 PM, Adeyemi Mansion.

After much insistence from everyone, Olamide and Rita had gone out for dinner today so they could spend some time alone together. All the guests had also left and now they would come directly to the wedding. Tunde had called and informed that they would be late, so everyone had already eaten and was now sitting in the hall discussing the upcoming functions.

A little while later, Tunde and Gold arrived home. As they were entering, Father saw them and said, “Where were you both? It’s so late now. They must not have eaten anything. Come on, quickly freshen up and I will get food served on a plate for both of you.” Mother said and quickly started heading towards the kitchen but Tunde stopped her and said, “Mother… not two, three plates…”

Hearing this, everyone looked at him in confusion. Tunde and Gold stepped aside a little, and everyone’s gaze shifted behind them towards the door. Seeing Amara enter with the support of a nurse, everyone was shocked and immediately stood up. Their eyes fell on the bandage wrapped around Amara’s legs. Amara walked inside and stood between Tunde and Gold with her head lowered. Gold supported her. Tunde then addressed everyone, “Amara will be staying with us in this house for a few days…”

At that moment, no one could understand what was happening. Mother and Bukola had no idea about Amara’s accident, so they remained silent, just watching everything. But Mother became very angry and looking at Tunde and Gold, said, “We need to talk to you both. Come with me right now.” Saying this, she walked away with Father. Tunde and Gold told Amara to sit inside and then followed them.

As soon as Tunde and Gold entered the room, Mother burst out at them, “Have you both lost your minds? Do you even understand what you are doing? Before making such a decision, could you have at least asked us once? How did you even think that this girl could stay here with us?” Father also scolded them, “It was a mistake that she met with an accident and you both helped her—that much is fine, we accept that. But instead of dropping her at her home, why did you bring her to our house?”

Tunde tried to explain, “Mother, Father, please… calm down. Just listen to our side of the story once.” But Mother was too angry, “Listen to what? And why? That girl left you alone on the day of your wedding and ran away. We have seen you in pain and now you expect us to…” “She was helpless, Mother. Running away from the wedding was her compulsion.” Tunde then told them everything Amara had revealed at the hospital.

Flashback.

Amara said, “Please Tunde, I was helpless…” Gold asked her, “What kind of compulsion was that?” Amara started telling, “One day before the wedding, I received a message from Nikhil saying that he wanted to meet me. But I refused him clearly. However, he did not stop. He started calling and threatening me that if I went through with this marriage, he would defame me and my family. He sent me our old photos and said that if I didn’t talk to him, he would make them viral in the media. If he had done that, it would have ruined our reputation and also tarnished the name of Tunde’s family. That’s why I was forced to meet him. He told me to call off the wedding but I refused and immediately left from there. I told him that he could do whatever he wanted—I would not break this marriage under any circumstances. I even pleaded with him, saying that I now only love Tunde and want to be with him. But he could not tolerate any of it.”

Gold and Tunde was listening to this all with shocking expression. However somewhere they both were thinking that she must be lying. Gold asked, “But you both were broke up right? after your Breakup! What problem he had with your wedding?” Amara continued, “Earlier, Tunde had already had a fight with him during a business meeting and Tunde had even threatened him but he couldn’t harm Tunde because of his status. Since then, he started hating Tunde. I had no idea about any of this because I had broken up with him a long time ago. But when he found out that my marriage was fixed with Tunde Adeyemi, he decided to take revenge on Tunde through me. One day before the wedding, I received a letter. It was clearly written in it that if I did not leave the wedding and come to him, he would take my parents’ lives because he was willing to do anything to take revenge on Tunde. It was also written in the letter that he would show our photos to everyone in the middle of the wedding, which would cause a huge scandal. And if I tried to act smart or seek anyone’s help, the consequences would be terrible. I immediately went outside and he was waiting for me there. He showed me a video in which a truck was chasing a car at high speed and that car belonged to my father. Seeing all that, I got very scared. I pleaded with him, begged him a lot but he didn’t listen to a single word of mine. He forcibly made me write a letter stating that I was running away from the wedding of my own free will. As soon as I wrote the letter and gave it to him, he sent it to my room through his man and then forced me into a car and took me with him. After a while, I lost consciousness. I don’t remember anything about what happened to me. But when I opened my eyes, I was at Nikhil’s house with him. He was sitting there, watching the news on TV. He seemed very angry because everything around was scattered in a broken and messy state, and he kept drinking one drink after another in anger. He had thought that if I ran away from the wedding, Tunde and his entire family would face great humiliation on the wedding day. Nikhil knew that Tunde loved me, so he deliberately planned all this so that Tunde would be shattered after being betrayed by me. And by taking advantage of that, Nikhil could easily destroy him. But things didn’t go as he had planned. He was waiting for the news that Tunde Adeyemi’s wedding had been called off. However, instead of that, the news was showing that the famous business tycoon Tunde Adeyemi had a grand wedding today. But Tunde’s bride’s face was not clearly visible… Seeing this news, Nikhil went crazy with anger. He couldn’t understand whom Tunde had married. I was also very shocked to hear about your wedding but at that moment, I couldn’t do anything. Even after seeing this news, I requested him to let me go because nothing had happened as he had planned. But he said that if he let me go, his plan would fail, so from now on, I would have to stay with him. I was very scared. I wanted to escape from there, but he had arranged very tight security to make sure I wouldn’t run away.”

After hearing everything, Tunde said to her, “So, what you’re trying to say is that Nikhil forcibly kept you with him. But the photos I received show you staying quite comfortably at his house… So please, stop lying now.” Amara said with tears in her eyes, “I am not lying! I don’t know which pictures you are talking about. But he had given me complete freedom inside his house—I could go anywhere. But I couldn’t step outside the house even once. I wanted to escape from there and for that, I had to gain his trust so that he would reduce his security. And I succeeded. That’s why I am standing in front of you both today.”

Gold asked to her, “How did you escape from there?” Amara replied, “Just two nights ago, I barely managed to escape. Even now, they are after me and searching for me everywhere. I wanted to meet you as soon as possible and that’s why I have been hiding and running away for the past two days. But today, they saw me and I was running away from them when I had an accident with your car… and ended up here.” Amara started crying. She held Tunde’s hand and sobbing, said, “I can’t believe that after so many hardships, I am finally with you. Call it coincidence or fate, but I collided with your car and destiny brought me back to you. Forgive me, Tunde. I was helpless… I cannot live without you please.”

After hearing everything from Amara, Tunde didn’t know what to say. Just then, Amara looked at Gold and then asked her, “I have told my side of the story… but you two—together? How did that happen? You two had never even met before, right?” Hearing her words, Gold replies, “When uncle received your letter, he was very worried. Then he spoke to Tunde’s parents and both families decided together that this wedding could not be called off. Otherwise, both families’ honor would be ruined. So, uncle asked me to marry in your place.”

“And you agreed??” Amara said in such a way that it was clear she didn’t like her marrying Tunde at all. But for now, she held herself back and didn’t say anything. Gold didn’t like Amara questioning her like this but at that moment, she didn’t want to say anything. Amara asked, “So, does this mean that your marriage wasn’t by choice?” “Hmm… Tunde didn’t know that I was sitting in the mandap instead of you. He found out only after the wedding.” Gold said. “So that means there is only a namesake relationship between you two? You are bound to each other out of compulsion?”

Amara’s words didn’t sit well with Gold at all. She wanted to shout and say that she loves Tunde a lot and wholeheartedly accepted this relationship. But… she couldn’t say it. Amara then turns to Tunde and says, “Tunde? Why aren’t you saying anything? Are you still angry with me?” Both Gold and Amara were waiting for his answer.

The rest of the story will continue in the next chapter.