BOMBSHELL !

After having no luck finding Lara at her old house, Camille goes to her parents's house to get her current address.

Armed with the address, she decides to do a little shopping at the supermarket before trying to locate Lara's new residence since she has free time on her hands and Mitch is enjoying himself worry-free with her parents.

She is in the supermarket doing a little shopping by herself when she hears someone call her name.

"Camille, is that you?"

She turns in the direction of the voice to see that it is her old friend, Foyinsade. She runs towards her, and they hug for a long time before letting go of each other.

"I can't believe it's you, Foyinsade."

She takes in her heavily pregnant form with a pleasant look in her eyes.

"I almost couldn't believe my eyes when I saw you too. How have you been?"

"I have been good, my dear friend. I see you have the pregnancy glow. Have you had lunch?"

"Not yet."

"Good, there's a restaurant just a few blocks down the road; we should have lunch and catch up for old times sake. I won't take no for an answer.

She says, smiling.

"How can I say no when I was about to suggest the same thing? I have really missed you, Camille. I guess my shopping would have to wait."

Foyinsade puts down her shopping basket, and Camille does the same. Together, they walk the short distance to the restaurant where they are served lunch and begin to talk.

Foyinsade leans back in her seat heavily after wolfing two servings of food. She catches Camille looking at her and smiles.

"What? I am eating for two, you know?"

Camille returns her smile, slowly picking at her food.

"Trust me, I know. Congratulations in advance."

"Thank you."

"Tell me, when did you get married? I noticed the ring on your finger since we were at the supermarket."

Rubbing her hands on her stomach contentedly and purring like a cat, she replies,

"I got married about seven years ago."

"Wow! I had no idea. Is this your first?"

She asks, referring to the pregnancy.

"Not at all. I have two boys already, but we decided to try one more time for a girl. I couldn't let my husband take all the win. He keeps bragging about how strong his genes are."

She chuckles happily.

"I am so happy for you. Hopefully, this one is a girl. Do you know the sex yet?"

"Actually, I don't. The suspense gives us a certain thrill. We wagered on it, and I don't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing early, especially if he wins this round again."

"I am rooting for you, my friend. I hope this turns out to be in your favor. Tell me, who is the lucky man? Anyone, I know?"

"Yeah, it's someone you know, alright. It's Eben."

She shivers in her seat upon hearing the name.

"Which Eben?"

"How many Eben's do you know? It's Eben, Michael's friend, your Michael."

"Akinseloyin Michael? That Eben?"

"Yeah, it's him."

Not liking the turn the conversation is taking, she keeps silent. Her curiosity finally takes control, and she breaks the silence.

"How did it come to be?"

Smiling, eager to tell her love story, she leans closer to Camille.

"You remember that night we met them at the club some years back?"

Reminiscing sadly about the past, she nods.

"Yeah, I do."

"Well, I went home with him that night, and he asked me out sometime after. We dated on and off for a while before we finally decided the fire between us was burning too hotly. He eventually bent the knee and asked the golden question, and I said yes. Here we are now, seven years later. It's been a rollercoaster, but I wouldn't have it any other way."

She concludes happily.

"Well, I am happy for you both. What does he do now?"

"He works from home as a business consultant, a perfect solution to minding the kids when I am not around. I am actually skeptical about getting a nanny for the kids with all the horror stories one hears these days."

Flapping her hands excitedly, oblivious to the shift in Camille's mood, she continues.

"I am a banker, and my working hours are hectic, so we talked it out and decided on what's best for us. He's actually doing well for himself, and the most important thing is that we are happy."

She notices the sad look in Camille's eyes and pauses, taking her hands in hers.

"I am so sorry; that was so insensitive of me. Look at me blabbering about how happy I am when I know how your relationship with Michael turned out. Forgive me, please."

Wiping off the wayward tear streak in her eye, she sniffs.

"It's okay, really. I am happy for you. What happened between me and Michael is in the past. It's all good. You don't have to worry about sharing your happiness with me; I am pleased to hear it all."

Releasing her hands, she takes out a handkerchief from her bag and hands it to her.

"Enough about me; let's talk about you. Is it okay with you if we talk about past events? There are some things I just want you to know."

Folding the handkerchief in her palm, she forces a smile.

"Sure. Let's talk; I am good."

"Okay, firstly, I just want you to know that I am sorry for all that happened to you. You are a good person, and you didn't deserve to go through all that. Secondly, it's important to know that we tried to reach out to you, myself, and Funmi, but we couldn't. When that unfortunate incident happened, we called you, but you didn't pick up our calls. Also, we went to your house and eatery, but you were not there. I went to your parent's house, and I saw your mom, who told me you were not feeling fine and shouldn't be disturbed. I even contacted Lara to pass a message to you, but she was snobby toward me, and she stopped picking up my calls. Shortly after, we heard that you had left the country, and we had no means of communicating with you since you deactivated your social media accounts too."

"Thanks for all your efforts, and sorry about my mom; she was just being protective of me because I had it really rough then. As for Lara, she was just being Lara and sorry about her behavior. I left the country sooner than I expected and couldn't tell you; I am sorry about that too."

"No problem; I understand; no hard feelings. Congratulations on your hospital; I heard in the news the other day that you are getting it open soon."

"Thank you, I am."

"I hope you have moved past all that happened. You shouldn't dwell on it; it's obvious that you are not completely over it."

"I am trying, I promise. It's been so long, but I feel like I will never heal. I am scared of how people will react to me when I begin operations in my hospital, especially if they remember me from what happened. The pictures of me are there for all to see. All it takes is just a Google search."

"No, you got it wrong."

"How do you mean?"

"Of course, how could you know? You have been out of the country for so long. Senator Akinseloyin took care of all that."

"Took care of it, how? I don't understand."

"I don't really understand myself; all I know from the little Eben told me is that he paid a huge sum of money to get those pictures taken down somehow."

"As much as I want to believe it's over, it's not. Do you have any idea how many people would have downloaded the pictures before they were taken down? How many reposts and tags it would have gotten? It's not that easy. The internet never forgets, sadly."

She says, shaking her head.

"You don't understand. Eben told me something about tracking down the IP addresses of people and deleting pictures. The senator himself even threatened legal action against anyone caught circulating those pictures. He's no longer a senator, but people still fear him. So, believe me when I tell you, those pictures are buried and forgotten. You can check for yourself if you don't believe me."

Still, in disbelief, she shakes her head. "Is that actually possible?"

"I didn't know it was too, but with the technology these days, anything is possible."

"You mean I can finally breathe peacefully again?"

"Sure, girlfriend, you can. So many news articles were destroyed, many social media accounts were shut down because of you. Newspapers were burned on your account. Every single copy of the newspaper that was sold featuring your pictures was tracked and burned. The people that couldn't be located got coaxed to come out with whatever copy of your pictures they had to get paid. In conclusion, it's all settled."

"Oh, lord! I am grateful. I can't believe that phase is finally over. I don't have to worry about people whispering about me wherever I go. Thank you, Jesus. You know I didn't keep up with the activities in the country once I left because of that? I just shut everything relating to Nigeria out of my mind and life. Thanks so much for telling me this; you have no idea how relieved this makes me. I can finally go about my life without the fear of condemnation from people."

"You shouldn't thank me; you should thank the senator, although it was his own way of making amends for what happened."

"I guess I have him to thank. The experience was hell on Earth for me."

"I can imagine. You know, I still can't believe Michael could be so cruel."

"I still can't, too. I am still in denial."

"Eben flat out refused to hear me condemn Michael for what he did. He said Michael loved you too much to have done that."

"What did you expect him to say? Michael was his friend; he would have supported him to the very end."

"That's not why he's supporting him; he said they discovered Michael's car was tampered with when it was recovered. Someone intentionally wanted him to have that accident. Eben believes the events of your pictures getting leaked and Michael's accident are connected. How he came to that conclusion, I would never know. The man watches too many spy movies."

Camille pauses from chewing her food.

"His car was tampered with? How?"

"I really didn't pay attention when he said it because I was too angry to listen. It was something about the lug nuts on the car getting unscrewed and something happening to the brake fluids. I can't really remember now; I am sorry. The car is still somewhere in his parents's house. Why they are holding on to it, I would never know."

Resuming her chewing, she pouts meditatively.

"Who could have wanted to hurt him?"

She asks rhetorically.

Shrugging her shoulders,

"Who knows? The list is too long to even consider. It could have been as a result of his father's dealings or maybe someone who had a grievance against Michael himself. You know he did a lot of bad things to many people."

"The past is past; we should leave it there. The matter is best forgotten. Michael was a good man regardless of what he did; may God bless his memory."

Frowning in confusion,

"Why are you talking like he's dead?"

"What are you talking about?"

"What are you talking about?"

She redirects the question to her.

"What do you mean, what am I talking about? Shouldn't God bless his memory? My sincere wish for him is to rest in perfect peace."

"What memory are you talking about? Michael is alive!"