Chapter Eight

Nena and her dad.

Barrister malcom daniels(SAN) had been the head of the the daniels chambers for as long as 20 years. he had been a studious hard working man . it was no wonder his daughter grew up aspiring to be the diligent workaholic that she was , following her father's footsteps . 

Nena was always proud of her father , but was more proud of how far she had come following his footsteps as a lady in the Judiciary. Just thinking about it alone made her smile anytime it came to mind , just like she was smiling now as those elegant footsteps of hers walked up the stairs to her fathers office . she had walked into the building in a black suit and had not responded to anyone of the greetings the staffs threw at her except for the secretary that was outside her fathers office.

"good morning miss Nena" the secretary greeted , now standing up with a smile.

hmm, miss. that's about to change pretty soon , she thought to herself "Morning Rose. is my father in?" she asked.

"yes he is" Rose replied "he was actually expecting you yesterday. let me inform him you are here now." she picked up the office phone to place a call through.

" you can do that " Nena said, obviously having no time to spare for the call to go through. "I'll be going in now" 

she walked away from the secretary and headed towards her father's office , totally ignoring the unfortunate secretary who was now stuck between trying to place a call through to Malcoms office and trying to stop Nena from barging into the said office. 

Nena increased her pace and didn't decelerate until she approached the door of a cubicle that read "BARRISTER MALCOLM E. DANIELS (SAN)" on it. she stood at the doorstep and spared a minute to stare at the title that was inscribed on it, taking in and exhaling a deep breath before she went it.

she opened the door and saw a man seated behind a desk with a lady sested rather too comfortablly on his lap. the lady appeared to be within her early stages of adolescence . she was on a very short gown and on a low cutted hairstyle with weird piercings on several locations of the face and ears. the man seated behind the desk looked in awe as he saw Nena who was rather looking more exhausted than suprised. he appeared to be rather irritated that his good time had to be interrupted and cut short now. 

" i didn't know you will be coming in today. you didn't tell me" he said now giving the girl seated on his lap a discrete signal to excuse them which she clearly understood as she got up to leave.

"well, i tried calling earlier but i wasn't getting any responses. obviously, you had your hands full" Nena replied now staring at the young mistress who was now about leaving. the lady threw thesame cynical stare right back at Nena as she walked past her and headed out of the room.

"i'm sorry you had to see that daughter" Malcolm daniels began " but a man has his needs you know"

" i know " nena replied. " and obviously , his needs are far way more important than maintaining professional discipline in his office." she walked to his desk, placed her briefcase on his table and drew out a chair to sit in. 

Malcolm smirked. this wasn't the first time he and his daughter has had one of these arguments resulting from his matrimonial infidelity. he wasn't about to get into just another one of those right now . " so how was your trip" he began " i hear the weather in abuja is real stormy this time of the year. i hope your flight didn't experience much turbulence"

"it was okay " nena replied " our plane didn't fly at a very high altitude so , not much turbulence". She as well didn't want to give out a truculent demeanor in this conversation just because of what she just witnessed. It wasn't the first time she had gotten such shameless scenes from her father's sexual misconduct so she wasn't about acting up this time. She thought she'd had just enough those arguments with him about his sexual immoralities.it wasn't an unusual experience . One time , it almost cost him a scandal on his career which later got saved eventually, by a slim chance. She thought, lf that didn't teach him something in yet, nothing she would ever say will anymore.

"okay that's good" malcolm replied to his daughter , now going through the files on his desk. "actually daughter, it's a good thing you came in now. the meeting at the NDLEA would be starting soon. i was about sending olamide to represent you when i thought you couldn't make it"

"i know dad " Nena began " but i'm here now. so you can tell olamide to sit his ass back at desk duty where it rightly belongs.."

"haha. i sure wil daughterl. of course"

"what exactly is this meeting all about anyways" Nena asked her father.

"i told you already , there is a new superintendent on the RICO case for the interim period. detective wallace illorh is currently medically indisposed. i can't go into much details but apparently, this new guy wants to meet with all of the staff working on the RICO and know how far you all have gone with the Maestro case." he replied, giving a shrug.

 Nena nodded in accordance to comprehension of what he just said. "okay " she replied " i have to head out there then." 

"not too fast daughter, why in such a hurry. tell me about the Lucile's case . how did it go over there in abuja"

" it was okay. nothing difficult. "

" did you meet with her parents , your aunt?" malcolm asked

" yes i did. they were very relieved that i could accept their request to prosecute on the case personally".

"okay good. it's a good thing you decided to do their family this favour "

nena nodded her head.

"but i do have to confess daughther. originally, i was really concerned about you " malcolm began " about if you were going to be able to handle Lucile's case efficiently while working on lease with the NDLEA on the RICO , I mean the maestro investigation. i guess i just didn't have enough faith in you from the begining. considering the cases you have pulled off, i should have sure known that if there was anyone who could work on these two cases simultaneously , it was you . i am so proud of the work you are doing here daughter". he brought a bottle of brandy and poured himself a glass . he was about to pour another offer his daughter but she raised her hand, indicating her decline. she probably didn't want to appear at the NDLEA office drunk on brandy this early in the day, even though she really wanted that brandy. The thought of "just a sip" was written all over her face.

"okay. suit yourself" he said putting down the bottle " i have a SAN meeting in an hours time as well. so i guess we would be leaving together then , right?"

"No i would be leaving now" Nena replied as she retrieved her briefcase from the desk and stood "i just came in to briefly inform you of my return and.." she paused for a minute.

" what is it daughter " Malcolm asked , observing the strange face his daughter had just made.

"nothing Dad. we would talk about it later. " she said as she proceeded to kiss her father on his cheeks and left "I have to go now" she said

"bye daughter" said malcolm "would i see you at dinner tonight?" 

"i don't know yet. i'll keep you posted . bye"

Nena walked over to the door and exited the room. On her way out , she stopped short at the mistress who was earlier excused from the room by her father, now seated in the reception with her father's secretary . She locked eyes with her and felt her eyeballs rolling slowly from the top of her head to the sole of her feet, scrutinizing the young girl's physique with an outward look of disgust. "You could do better honey" she said while she reached for the door , excusing herself from their prescence.