Chapter

Paula

I leave Martina's company very angry. Not only did she manage to get Steve away from me, but I'm learning things that aren't very good to hear. This girl had planned everything from the beginning. The Mballa-N'sang properties, the house of Steve's father and that of our father. How could I let myself be fooled so easily, it looks like a beginner? Martina played her game well. And now she's asking me to leave it at that. Don't let her think she's won the round because the game has only just begun. I have no intention of letting myself be overtaken so much. But what does she believe? That she can come back like that, snatch everything that's dear to me and decide she doesn't want to continue the game? She has long set the rules of the game and she cannot change them in the blink of an eye. Now it's up to me to lead the dance. Martina will see nothing but fire. When that stupid janitor came the day before yesterday, it was for Martina's errand and he left without leaving her for me. In any case, I have no intention of staying in this apartment until the end of his damn notice. Tomorrow, I will leave there to go home. Already that Steve is not there, I will be able, while waiting to find another apartment, to carry out my activities at home.

I walk all the way home with a lump in my throat. I enter any lift and I throw myself on the sofa. I think back to our conversation with Martina and I feel humiliation mixed with anger. I would give anything to make this plague disappear from the earth. It's not true, why did she have to be born to rot my existence that one! I was there brooding over my grief when I heard the bell ring. I get up grumbling to open the door and find my neighbor Cassandra.

"How are you Paula? Is that how you forget your friends? You threw me into oblivion now that your life dose!" She said entering. We sit on the armchairs in the living room.

"Who told you that my life doses my sister? I have a feeling that everything is going rather wrong." I replied once we are well settled.

"What's wrong?" she asks with a worried look.

"A lot of things Cassy, ​​a lot of things." I gave him as an answer the eyes lost in space.

"How about explaining it to me in detail?" she replies.

"My sister, a few days ago I returned home, and I learned that my husband left home." I said, pausing to catch my breath. Then I continue with a heavy heart.
"And that's not even all..."

"How so? Where did your husband go?" She cuts me off surprise.

"My cleaning lady also disappeared from the house and according to my mother's suspicions, they left together." I explained still in shock.

"Wait, my darling, I don't quite understand. Didn't you tell me that your husband obeyed you finger and eye?" She asks still not coming back.

"Yes! But for some time now, he has completely escaped my control. The fetish I used on him no longer has any effect and the marabout who designed it for me is deceased." I replied dejected.
"But I believed he loved me and would never leave me." I said with a hint of sadness in my eyes.

"But don't worry, I'm sure it won't take long where he went." She replies confidently.

"Do you really believe it?" I stammered doubtfully.

"I'm even sure of it my darling!" She answers confidently.
"Otherwise, what will they live on without your help? I'm sure he's currently using the money you gave him, but it won't last long believe me. As soon as he's depleted, he'll come back, Don't worry honey! Your husband will be back to you very soon." She concludes sure of herself.

"He had work and not just any." I replied with a bit of disappointment.

"Wow! How did he do it when we know it's almost impossible to find one these days in our country, without a network?" She hastened to ask, not coming back.

I wanted to answer him, but I'm asking him another question instead.

"Tell me, do you know the woman who owns all the buildings in this neighborhood housing the apartments we rent?"

"I will not go so far as to say that I know her, because I have only seen her once. In fact, she had come to settle a problem with the tenant of the apartment opposite and it was because this problem was serious enough that she made the move. Otherwise she never deals with her tenants. It seems that she is quite a powerful woman, even the big businessmen and the politicians of this country bows to him." She answers me.

"This woman is my sister and she's the one who got Steve a job." I replied calmly.

"Excuse me!? Did I hear correctly that she is your sister or are my ears playing tricks on me?" she asked, bouncing on the chair where she was sitting.

"Yes, you heard right." I replied with my same calm.

"And how is it possible that your sister is a billionaire, but you are there prostituting yourself and fighting all alone to be able to eat!?" She asked me in amazement.

"Oh my sister, it's a long story." I yawned.

"I have plenty of time to listen to you my darling." she replies, arranging herself well on the armchair where she is sitting.

I realize that she won't let me go until I tell her in great detail what happened with Martina.

"Martina was born three years after me, and that's when my ordeal began. My father compared me to her all the time and he didn't hesitate to put me down in front of everyone, finding Martina better than me." I began painfully the story of this painful past. I continue.
"The irony is that she was so exemplary at home and very smart at school, while I was stalling in my studies. She had her baccalaureate before I passed the probationary."

At this point in my story, I am silent, so sad emotions resurface in me. I keep a short moment of silence while Cassandra encourages me with her gaze to continue my story. I breathe and I continue to tell.

"Feeling humiliated by this affront, I decided to take revenge on her. I set up an ingenious plan which worked wonderfully and turned our lives upside down forever."

I see the scenes scrolling through my head, as if it was only yesterday that it took place. I narrate to Cassandra my whole Machiavellian plan against Martina, as well as the consequences that followed, until Martina's return which marked the end of my happiness and the beginning of my calamities. Nevertheless, I purposely omitted to inform him of the murders of my father and my stepfather. You never know enough about a man, so I reserve myself to keep this secret until the grave. She listens to me religiously, without losing attention. At the end of my story, she exclaims in shock at my revelations

"Wow! I'm flabbergasted by what you're telling me here Paula! So like that, I underestimated you when I saw you for the first time?!"

"I had noticed it." I replied smiling.

"In fact, you look innocent at first glance while deep down you are a tigress, a lioness who devours her prey without any mercy. I admit, the appearance is really deceiving.' She said laughing before continuing, becoming serious.

"We have to be careful with you actually, otherwise we risk a lot."

"You can't imagine how dangerous I can be when you touch what belongs to me. That's why I've been so upset since Steve left." I say with rage in my voice.

"But your sister, she must have a good heart anyway!" she exclaims.
"Few, not to say no one, in his place would have accepted your husband's forgiveness, but to go so far as to find him a job, it is all the same to show nobility. I am speechless in front of such an attitude ." She says admiringly.

"Yes, she's very kind and naive. It's those virtues that lost her in the past, and that's what will lose her again. I intend to take advantage of that weakness." I replied in a resolute tone.

"What will you do?" she asks me with interest.

"I don't intend to sit idly by and watch her take my property and now destroy my family. I intend to get revenge on her. She won't see it coming." I replied confidently.

"Be careful Paula, even though she is your sister, and despite what may have happened in the past, she is still one of the most powerful personalities in the country and in Africa. She could destroy you, as well as all his at the snap of a finger." She said anxiously.

"Don't worry my little one! I said smiling. I know what I'm doing. I'm in control of the situation. But for the moment, the emergency is to find me another apartment."

"Okay, I'll contact the man who found me this apartment. Do you want an apartment that costs approximately how much?" she asks me.

"In the same price list as this one."

"About 150 thousand francs... It will be found very quickly."

"What? How much?" I exclaimed when I heard the rental price of my apartment.

"Why are you fussing over the price of the apartment? Isn't that how much you've always rented it for?" She asks, not understanding my astonishment.

"No, not at all. I was renting it for half that price." I replied with the same look of astonishment.

"Ah... I don't understand anything anymore." She said lost.
"Anyway, mine and almost all the other apartments in this neighborhood cost at least that price, and more."

"I understand everything now." I say, coming back to my senses.

"What do you understand?"
she asks, looking into my eyes.

"It was a bait. Martina knew that at this price, I was going to rush to agree to rent the apartment and in this case, she could control my actions." I explained very sure of myself.

"I think that makes sense." she answers.

"While waiting to find me another apartment, I will return home." I say determined.

"And how are you going to deal with the gaze of the family?"

"At the moment, it's only my mother who is here. And she's always supported me, so she won't see a problem with it. Please help me sort out my affairs."

Cassandra stayed at my house to help me and she came home late at night. I managed to pack everything in the apartment. Tomorrow, I'll take them home.