Chapter 4 To hell with your funds!

“You really want to leave with her?” Oscar’s brows creased to his forehead. “You know you can’t afford to roll with losers, huh?” Lizabeth smiled and held Mariama’s right hand and squeezed her palms in hers. Mariama squeezed in in response, and like a mother and her daughter, they turned against Oscar who was standing there, witnessing the madness. “Let’s walk away from him.” She whispered as though gossiping with Mariama. “He doesn’t deserve us.” They nodded to each other and strutted out of the room, not minding to look back at the man they left behind, who stood totally bewildered by their little drama. “You will regret this, Lizabeth!” Oscar thundered. “She has nothing for you, and she’s cutting no pound of my flesh. She has no dime for hatchet.” The ladies said nothing till they strolled out of the mansion, ignoring other domestic workers who heard the noise and were there to stare at them as they left the mansion triumphantly like amazons who won a battle outside their kingdom. “I took the Richard Miller watch.” Lizabeth whispered. “You know we have nothing on us, but we can stay at my place and make a life out of whatever we will make from the sales of the watch.” Mariama scuffed and stopped, there were already at the roadside, without a dime to stop and pay a cab. Mariama took nothing from the mansion, apart from her phone, and Lizabeth has nothing but the watch and her duty outfit. “Maybe we trek.” Lizabeth thought she knew why Mariama had to scuff as though she was in a mess. “My place is far from here but not as far as hell.” Mariama nodded. Even with her memories lost for three years, she never got to experience the life of poverty, and if not for Oscar’s madness and abuse, she wouldn’t have had a reason to fall back to her senses after losing them to a ghastly accident that nearly cost her life. “Come on, we have no time to waste here, else, we get into trouble. There are thugs out here. Too many thugs.” Lizabeth has a lot of things to say. “Wait.” Said Mariama. “I know what to do.” She dialed a number and placed her phone on her left ear. Lizabeth raised her brows. She thought Mariama knew no one and thus does not have anyone to call or anywhere to go, but she now seemed to prove to her that she might have grabbed some contacts from the parties she used to attend in the very good days with her man, Oscar who turned silly and rude after getting so obsessed with the Russian actress. “Come now, It’s Lady Light. Track my line and hit my spot in ten minutes.” She turned off the phone and returned it to the fat pocket of her gown. “Who did you call?” Lizabeth asked. “And who is Lady Light?” Mariama scuffed once again. “I’ll explain later, Lizabeth. It’s so complicated.” Said Mariama. A car horned behind them and they turned. Lizabeth was excited because she thought it was the person Mariama just called on phone, but it turned out to be one of Oscar’s luxurious cars. It stopped by them and the glass wind down. “Finally, I’ve eased myself of the dirty burden called Mariama.” He said with a chuckle. “I feel no remorse for having you run out of my mansion like a dog, but I feel seriously sorry for who you took along.” Mariama said nothing. She knew he was back to give Lizabeth a second chance and ensure she goes off alone and without any sort of help. “Lizabeth.” He took a deep breath. “Decided to increase your salary and give you a second chance. Remember you have a lot of problem. A husband in jail, a son in the hospital and a daughter at the blink of expulsion.” He paused for a while to have his word sink into Lizabeth the very way, he wished to have them sink into her nerves and create a gully hole on her heart. “I right your wrongs and give you a happy life again, but don’t forget I can make things worse than they ever were for you.” He continued. “Make your choice now. Devil, or an angel with nothing?” Lizabeth said nothing. She knew she made a silly decision to have followed Mariama out of the mansion, and a part of her was already pressuring her to yield to the amnesty and salary increment that was offered her by her boss, Oscar. “What do you have to say, poor woman, or…” Oscar’s eyes met Lizabeth’s hand. “You think that little watch can solve all your problem, or you both think I’m stupid.” He scratched his chin and scuffed like he was tired of talking to the stubborn old woman. “I already froze her account with just one phone call, and I have ordered all her friends whom she met through me to cut her off their circle, else, I will crush their businesses, and guess what, they gave me their word. All of them.” he was such a threat and talker drum. “Oscar.” Said Lizabeth without fear. “Do your worst.” Oscar narrowed his brows in surprise. No poor person has ever had the balls to talk back on him or reject any of his generous offers, or asked him to do his worse after a head swelling threat speech from him. He was mad from the inside, but he covered his dismay and anger with a weak smile that meant a lot of shit. “Lizabeth.” He stressed that name gently. “You have no idea what you just got yourself into. You think she’s getting a divorce settlement, huh!” “I want nothing from you!” Lizabeth yelled. “Let us be.” Oscar laughed again and again like a silly barbarian. “Not without my watch, poor thing.” He sneered. “Your friend has no money. She bought it with her allowances which were paid into her dumb account by my secretary whom I left her problems to.” Lizabeth looked at the watch. It was a very pretty piece which she knew will cost a fortune if they sold it off. She sighed and threw the watch into Oscar’s car. “To hell with you!” he yelled in tears. “To hell with you!” Oscar laughed. He has stripped them completely, such that the both of them will have nothing serious to do with their poor lives when they make it back to the slum where Lizabeth used to reside with her family before she was called off the slums for service in the luxurious mansion of Oscar. “No wealthy person will employ or relate with the both of you in this city, and no business will employ the two of you under my watch.” Oscar said. “Lizabeth, you have just the next thirty seconds to make the right decision.” Lizabeth smiled. “I’ve made my mind. No going back.” She uttered. “I don’t need whatever you have and I promise you, we will get over the storm.” Oscar laughed once again. it was said that the poor does well with words but fails woefully in the dark face of reality. “Good luck.” He wined up the glass and took off from them.