Chapter 5

"Rosa, my darling! Remember that the day Philip came was when I returned from Brazil, and you had specially prepared that meal to welcome me? I guess your daughter wanted him to have a feel of what good cooking is all about! Rosa," he paused as he lifted her face up to his again. "He merely praised your mastery in the art, my dear. He never ogled. As for the house," he swept his arm across the large but comfortable room they were in as he continued. "Anyone with a great taste for beauty can not help admiring our home. The structure is out of the ordinary!" he said proudly as he brought his forehead down on hers, smiling into her eyes.

Rosa did not return her husband's smile. She still sported a frown as she argued further. "I know he's one of those people who take advantage of unsuspecting ladies. He has Ame wrapped around his finger! You should have seen how she ran to welcome him the day he was here! She behaved rather shamelessly, I'd say!" she complained further, grasping at straws in her bid to make her husband see reasons with her why their daughter's relationship with Philip should not be approved.

"As to his being an opportunist, I can't agree with you on that, my dear. He strikes me as a very resourceful young man. From my brief observation of him also, I dare say that he is deep. And, believe me, my love when I say the love is reciprocated by the young man. He adores our daughter a lot. Have you noticed the way he looks at her? And I believe that our daughter has been well brought up and will not choose wrongly." He nuzzled her soft smooth chin with his rough one. That gesture had never failed to draw a smile from her. It did not fail still. A rather tiny smile softened her demeanor as Rosa fell for her husband's age-long tactics to appease her. "Be a mother to our daughter," he said softly against her cheek and then he planted a gentle kiss on her lips, making her smile grow wider.

Dapo Adejare paced angrily about the room. He kicked a side stool which was in his way violently, upsetting the tray of drinks which the maid had arranged on it before he came in. He was in one of his foul moods and the maid had wisely steered clear of him, having been the unlucky recipient of his unleashing the last time. 

Although her madam had seen to it that she was well tended to by their family doctor and had compensated her handsomely, no doubt to buy her silence, the maid had sensibly made herself unavailable immediately she had seen Dapo storm in. 

Chief (Mrs) Abiola Adejare a dark-skinned, moderately built woman in her late fifties, entered the room and witnessed her son's raving. She winced as swear words poured out of his mouth like an uncontrolled tap. 

"What is it this time, Dapo?! Why have you rejected your food?" she asked as she came into the room, taking care to avoid the carnage on the Persian rug in the centre of the room. It was her son's private apartment which he used anytime he came visiting. He lived in one of her husband's estates on the island.

Dapo eyed his mother angrily as he addressed her without any form of greeting or respect. "It's your stingy husband again, mother! Why should he renege on his words now?! Why?!" he shouted at the top of his voice, his rage getting the better of him.

Abiola looked wildly about her as she tried unsuccessfully to hush her son up. "Keep your voice down, son! The walls are listening!" she whispered in a soft reprimand.

"Then they had better listen well, mother!" Dapo answered her rudely, hitting his balled up fists on his palms.

Abiola sat on the edge of her son's large bed. She noted that the room was in disarray again. Dapo was never one to uphold the virtue of cleanliness, she mused. She made a mental note to instruct one of the maids to clean up the apartment later that night, knowing fully well that her club-trotting son would be well out of the way by then. 

She sighed inaudibly as she looked up at him now. He had his back turned to her and she could see that he was much agitated. She guessed he came home straight from his earlier meeting with his father. Her husband never took her into his confidence when it concerns their son. He always complained that she was 'sparing the rod and spoiling the child'! 

She looked up now at the man her son had become. A handsome well-bred looking young man who, sadly, was more 'knowledgeable at womanizing and clubbing than at making money', to quote her husband's very words.

"So how did the meeting with your father go?" she ventured at his turned back. 

He turned to face her, a deep scowl on his handsome face. "I said your husband went back on his words," he spat vehemently. "He has refused to hand over the Warri oil wells to me, claiming I am 'not mature enough'!" Dapo mimicked his father at the tail end of his words. He advanced towards his mother. "Can you imagine that, mother?!" He stood before her, his eyes blazing as he continued. "What more does he want, eh?! Must I slave under him forever?!" He swept his hand through his hair and turned back to the window, gazing out with unseeing eyes.

Abiola's head was bowed. What game was her husband trying to play now? She would have to tackle him when he came home that night. Dapo's voice broke into her thoughts as he continued speaking, still facing the window, making his mother to look up at him again. "My birthday is around the corner yet he has not made good his promise to give me the Ojodu mansion," he complained further. 

"Maybe your father's still angry about that episode of you and that lady," Abiola offered, trying to placate her son. "Your father believed it was a dent on our good name. You should have been more discreet, you know," she finished lamely.

Dapo turned back angrily to look at his mother. "Mirabel is my very good friend! I believe I don't need anyone's approval to choose my friends! Just leave her out of this, please!" he lashed out verbally at his mother.

Abiola smiled sadly as she looked up at her irate son. When would he ever learn that those free women he frolicked with were no 'wife materials'? He was about to turn back to the window when her voice stopped him in mid-stride. "What of Ame? I thought you two hit it off back then?" she asked carefully.