Chapter Sixteen

                                    

                                              


                          
Obinna was seated on a chair in the balcony outside his room that overlooked the lawn, his BlackBerry in one hand, a glass of sherry in the other, his eyes looking out at the night. The screen was glowing as the network searched out the YouTube videos he had requested for. He looked down at the phone in his hand, and there were the most popular videos in the country displayed on the screen before him.
                          
A small wave of emotion travelled through his spine when he saw that the number one video was captioned: Interview with Adamma about her separation with husband. He sighed, and then he clicked on the Enter button so he could stream the video. When the video started to play, he put down the glass of sherry and glued his eyes to the screen.
                          
It was a ten-minute video, and there was Adamma, her face filling the screen as she smiled at the woman who was seated cross-legged with her in what looked to be a small parlor. The woman was a face he recognized as one of the most famous TV presenters in Nigeria.
                          
'I know that you must be really busy, but I am quite glad that you're here to talk to me,' the petite screen dragon said in a low, soothing voice. 'Now, how does it feel to have entered the doors of matrimony and decide to walk back out again?'
                          
Adamma gave her a slow smile. 'My dear, I never chose to leave the home of my husband; I was a victim of circumstance and that is all there is to it. We just had to be away from each other for a while because it seemed not to be working out anymore. So there.'
                          
'But you've been away from him for a while, and he's known as one of the most eligible men around in the crème of Lagos society. What if another woman were to get him for herself?'
                          
Adamma laughed heartily, and Obinna knew from his experiences with her that it was one of her pure laughs of enjoyment. 'You see, what I must tell the woman is good luck. Believe me when I tell you that no other woman will ever be good enough for him. You may think that I'm boasting, but it's far from that. I was the only woman who was able to hold him, and the hold I had over him survived the years that we'd been away from each other. Like you know, he was unaware that he was the father of my kids and there was no way for him to have known that since I was the only one to be able to give him that particular news. I know him too well, and no other woman can ever know him the way I do and be able to hold him down the way I do.'
                          
Patricia smiled sweetly, apparently moving in for the kill. 'But that's not really what we're here to discuss, is it? There are news flying around all over the internet about you, being spread by a woman who says she has inside news about you and your marriage, and also about what she says was your life before you were discovered. I hope I am not discomfiting you in any way?'
                          
Adamma shook her head emphatically. 'No, that's not possible. I came here because I wanted to talk about this and put an end to what everyone calls rumors about me; let them know the real truth. Della_ for she's the woman who is responsible for this_ said that I was a whore, that I danced naked for money for the pleasure of men.'
                          
'Well, did you?' the other woman asked gently.
                          
Adamma looked up, and the camera zoomed into her face, lighting up her luminous eyes. 'Yes, I did dance in a club for the pleasure of men who had the money to pay to watch me do my act.'
                          
Obinna gasped, and only distinctly did he hear the sympathetic murmur that came from the mouth of Patricia as the beloved singer dropped the bombshell that nobody was supposed to know. How could she have done that? Why?
                          
'I was a dancing girl who was driven to the clubs by the fact that she had no father or mother to help her through her teen years. Do you think it's easy for a young girl to grow up without the love and the care of her parents? And yes, it was a huge secret that was kept under wraps so that the image I was building up for myself through my music would not be tarnished in any way. I had kids, yes, and it was in that club that I met my husband who was responsible for my pregnancy though he was ignorant of the fact at that time. I had to succeed in life, and if dancing half  naked was what it took to be able to be able to take care of myself so that I could survive in the world, then so be it.