CHAPTER 41 - STANDING ALONE

Riona opened the door to the house and entered. It was already past ten in the night, and she never

told anyone that she would be returning home late.

She was conscious of her movement as she was hoping everyone had gone to bed as she did not

have the strength to engage in any exchange of words with her dad or any other person.

She was shocked to see that the lights were still on and that everyone, except of course Talia, is in the

sitting room waiting for her arrival.

“And where are you coming back from this time young lady?” Wright shouted.

“Good evening dad” Riona managed to say.

She was not expecting the sudden attack from Wright. She actually thought that no one would be up by

this time.

She could see her aunt Kyra, she had disappointment clearly written on her face. Riona had not meant

to break any rule. She lost track of the time at the pack.

Today is her mum’s postpartum birthday, and she had decided to go have some moments alone at

some of her mum’s favorite places. She was so filled with the thoughts of her mum that she did not

know when it got extremely dark.

“Keep your greetings to yourself Riona. I ask again where the hell do you think you are coming from by

this time of the night” Wright thundered.

Riona wanted to reply, but she could not get any word out of her mouth. She had never seen her dad

this mad at her even on occasions she felt she had done worse than this.

“Answer me now” He screamed.

Wright was already irritated by Riona’s silence and if care is not taken, he might do something worse,

that, even he would live to regret.

He knew that Riona had never been out this late and that she would always call whenever she was

going to be some minutes late coming back. That is why he is still affording her the time to explain

herself.

He hated to think that it has gotten to the extent when Riona would openly have to undermine his

authority in his own house. If this was as a result of his softness towards her, then he was ready to go

all hard on her from now on.

In spite, Riona took her eyes away from her dad and focused on Maeve. She could not help but think

that this was all the fault of Maeve. Riona does not know the nexus, but she believed that if not for

Maeve, somehow, today her mum would be her to celebrate her birthday with them.

To Riona, Maeve should be blamed for whatever misfortune that she had to undergo.

“Take your eyes off my wife now” Wright screamed.

Riona was again taken by surprise. She immediately turned to look at her dad and she never attempted

to take her gaze away again.

“She has nothing to do with this, you went out to God knows where and returned late without any

justification and you deserve to be reprimanded. You don’t go about shifting your own faults to others, it

is not going to work for you this time” Wright cautioned.

Wright stopped and waited for Riona to put up a defense or maybe an excuse or anything at all. He

would not tolerate her standing there, staring at him and keeping mute.

“I lost track of the time daddy” Riona responded.

“What do you mean you lost track of the time Riona, where did you go to, and who did you tell you

were going out and what made you lose track of time?” Wright asked.

He was evidently trying so hard to gain control of his temper as his breathing was already loud enough

to the hearing of everyone in the room.

“Dad, actually, I …”

Riona tried to speak, but Wright’s words stopped her.

“Hold on, let us take the questions one after the other” Wright said.

He paused for a while and continued. “The first question is where have you been all day,” Wright

asked.

“I went out” Riona mumbled.

“I can’t hear you, Riona, would you please speak up” Wright commanded.

“I went out dad, I took the day off to be by myself,” Riona said.

“Okay, I have absolutely no problem with that. But then, who did you tell that you were going out?”

Wright asked.

Riona tried to say something, but it was barely audible and Wright could make nothing out of it. He was

starting to get agitated again.

“Would you speak up, and can you even hear yourself?” Wright said.

“I told no one dad, sincerely, I never intended to stay till this time…”

“Shut up girl, I said shut up this very minute” Wright thundered.

Riona was still trying to explain but Wright shut her up.

“And who cares what you intend or not intend to do? I only asked one question, just one simple

question, which was, who did you inform of your decision to go out and you are telling me of your

intentions? Are you implying that no one in this whole house, not even your aunt Kyra here is qualified

to be informed of your whereabouts?” Wright shouted.

He walked closer to Riona, and in fear, Riona took a few steps backward.

“Tell me, how grown do you think you are now? You think you are bigger than everyone now right?”

Wright asked.

When he got to a reasonable distance, he stopped.

Riona could not utter any words. There was fear written all over her as she does not know what her

dad might do next.

“Okay, that apart, now can you tell us what made you lose track of time, were you at the inside of a

hole where you could not distinguish night and darkness? Wright asked.

“I already told you, dad, I lost track of time, I never knew it was already this late” Riona replied.

“And why didn’t you go along with your phone?” Wright asked.

“I called you severally, only to discover that you had left your phone in your room? Wright added.

“It was intentional dad, I needed no disturbance” Riona replied.

“I am truly sorry for that dad, it would not repeat itself” Riona quickly added.

Riona was really hoping her dad would just accept her plea and apology and let her be. She had spent

the whole day reminiscing on her mum and right now, all she wanted was to go to bed and have a nice

rest. She desperately needed some sleep to enable her nerves to calm as she had worried too much

for today.

“To hell with your apologies Riona” Wright yelled.

Maeve could not bear to watch anymore. She thinks Wright is stretching this whole thing farther than

necessary and if she does not come in now, it might escalate into some form of brutality. Nevertheless,

she liked the fact that Wright was finally stepping up to correct Riona.

“It is okay dear. You can see that she is sorry and never intended for this to happen. Please let her be”

Maeve pleaded.

Wright was not happy that Maeve had stepped into this matter. He had always warned her to allow him

to handle this sort of thing himself. However, he tried to remain calm with her.

“Allow me to handle this my way Maeve, don’t you get it?” Wright said.

Riona was already infuriated. She can tolerate ten of her dad but not a single one of Maeve. Riona

wondered where she got the right to meddle in this matter or was she trying to make herself appear like

the good one here?

Riona hated the fact that she was trying too hard. Since she has vowed to remain here, what then is so

difficult requesting that she stay off her path? Riona thought.

Riona vowed within her that she would not allow Maeve to get away with this. She vowed to give it to

her hot, right there and then.

“No, allow her dad. Didn’t you just say that she was not responsible for all of these? Now I can see that

very clearly” Riona said.

“Would you just shut the f*ck up Riona, not another word” Wright ordered.

“You don’t ask me to shut up dad. She just talked now without being invited, what did you do?” Riona

shouted back.

“Stop it, Riona,” Kyra said.

“Please allow me, aunt Kyra,” Riona said to Kyra.

“You really want to know where I went?” Riona asked her dad.

“Okay, I will tell you. Today is my mum’s birthday dad, your late wife. But did you even remember that?

Of course not because you forgot about her the moment she took her last breathe” Riona said.

“It is okay Rio, stop it” Kyra screamed.

“No it is not aunt Kyra, I have been silent for too long, let me speak now,” Riona said to Kyra.

Riona turned to continue with her dad.

“The day you brought the news of mum’s death, you brought them with you to the house, right out of

the blues. And when I tried to stop dad, what did you do? You refused and went on to marry her behind

my back. She has been nothing but a bad influence to you, she stinks of negativity” Riona screamed.

She stopped to catch some breath and after a while, she continued.

“Even till this moment dad, I still do not know what ailment my mum suffered from before she died, I

don’t know what killed her. And you stand there and expect me to be cool and act as if everything is

okay even when I know the circumstances surrounding Maeve’s intrusion into this house. And just so Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

you know dad, I will stop at nothing until I unravel the mystery surrounding this intruder, here in our

home” Riona said.

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