Someone was sweeping outside. The sound of stiff bristles and a woman’s voice humming a hymn pulled Afosua from her sleep. The room was deathly silent, save for the sound of that distant spiritual song and someone else’s breathing. Afosua sat up in a panic and looked around.
“Good afternoon, beautiful,” Tony whispered. “You’ve been asleep for a while.”
Afosua put her hand on her forehead and leaned back against the pillow.
“How long have I been here?”
“Only for a day,” Tony replied, pouring her a small cup of juice. She took the liquid and drank it greedily.
“You’re a bit knocked up, but the doctor thinks the shock of your ordeal might be worse than your physical bruises.”
“By ‘ordeal’ do you mean kidnapping and near murder?” Afosua asked sardonically.
Tony smirked and nodded. He didn’t want to upset her by talking about what she had been through, so he fluffed her pillow and rubbed her head instead. Afosua moaned and he rubbed a little harder.
“I wish I could say that was pleasurable, but my head is killing me,” she said apologetically.
“Sorry – sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“I know,” she smiled.
Tony was about to say something when a nurse walked in with a chart and a bottle of pain killers.
“You’re awake!” she said with glee, and a little too loudly.
“Yes…”
“Ei! As for this your husband? He never left your side oohhh. I wish I had a husband to treat me so nicely. And he’s very handsome too!”
The nurse smiled approvingly at Tony, making hardly veiled attempts at seduction as she bent over to feed Afosua her medication. Afosua swallowed the pills and closed her eyes. She was suddenly exhausted and drowsy.
“He’s not my husband,” she murmured.
“Saa?” she heard the nurse marvel before she let out a girlish, flirtatious laugh. “So would –“
“No, we’re not married, but I do love her,” Tony said pointedly, cutting her off.
Afosua smiled absently and drifted back to sleep. She thought she heard Tony say something about ‘love’. She could ask him when she woke back up.
When she woke, Mark Phillips was standing in the corner of the room talking to Tony. She cleared her throat to get his attention. Mark grinned and sat on the edge of her bed.
“Do you think you’ve napped long enough?” he joked.
“I think I’m ready to get out of here. I’m not a fan of hospitals,” she said frankly.
“Any idea when I can be discharged?”
“By the end of the evening, if we’re told correctly,” Mark replied. “I wish you had told me you had such an exciting leave planned. I would have tried to join you!”
Afosua nodded and pinched at her bed sheets, forming little white peaks with her fingertips. Mark covered her hand with his.
“In all seriousness, Afosua – what you did was very dangerous. I wish you had come and talked to me about it first.”
“I know, Mark,” she sighed. “But I didn’t know who I could trust. I didn’t know…”
Her voice trailed off.
“I understand,” Mark said, filling in the silence. “But perhaps you will have the opportunity to find out that I am very trust worthy. We’ve just had a new position open up at Phillips & Boakye…although we’d have to seriously consider a name change, given the circumstances. Phillips & Gyemfi, perhaps?”
Afosua brightened at his words and sat up straighter.
“What? Really? You’d really consider me for partner?”
Mark laughed.
“Ah. But of course! I think you’d make a fine partner. Judging by the state of your face, I’d say that isn’t anything you would do for the company.”
When Afosua frowned, Mark thought he had offended her.
“Do you think you can handle it?”
“I’m just hoping you can handle me!” she smirked.
Feeling suddenly renewed she swung her feet out bed and motioned to Tony.
“Can we call the discharge nurse? I’m ready to go home now.”
******
Afosua waited tensely for Tony to bring the car around to the front of the hospital. She still wasn’t sure what to make of him. Why was he being so attentive? She had done nothing but give him the cold shoulder unless she wanted something. Still, this wasn’t enough to drive him away. In her heart, she was glad that he didn’t abandon her, but her mind could make no sense of it at all. She was also eager to get to a phone and find out what had happened to poor Annette in the last few days. The sound of frantic shouting in the street cut into her thoughts.
“Madam! Madam! Agoo!!”
A dark sinewy man in a ‘Made in America’ t-shirt was trying to get past her. He was hurriedly carrying a lifeless woman wearing a loose dress into the entrance. A woman in traditional cloth chased after him, carrying a very expensive looking hand bag. Afosua felt really sorry for her. She doubted that the woman would pull through – her face looked absolutely mangled. The taxi that the woman had been brought in was still parked in front of the building. Curious, she strode up to it and asked the driver what had happened. The good thing about Ghana is that everyone is eager to play the reporter.
“What happened to that lady?” she asked.
“Oh, sistah. It was so pathetic,” the driver replied, clicking his tongue dolefully. “The woman was driving and lost control of the car. She hit a big pole and destroyed the whole car!”
The man made wide gestures and shook his hands to display the magnitude of the crash.
“Oh, I see.”
“And what is even more sad, eh, is that the woman is pregnant. That is why me? I will never allow my wife to drive if she is pregnant!” he declared. “I mean how! And it was such a fine car too. A nice Nissan.”
“What area did the crash happen?” Afosua asked breathlessly.
“Oh. At Dzorwulu,” the driver mulled. “We had to drive so far to bring her here. Lucky, some good Samaritans came to help me bring her to the hospital.”
Afosua looked towards the open hospital doors and felt an acid pain consume her heart. She wanted to drop to her knees, but her feet carried her back into the hospital instead.
Please God – No…not my friend.
She hoped she wrong, and it was not Naa Akweley that had just been brought in. When the charge nurse confirmed that it was, she lay on the ground and screamed until her voice refused to allow her to scream any more.
9 comments On ATS: When Love Hurts
Yaay! First! Fabulous news for Afosua, she deserves the promotion… and I’m so so sad for Naa Akweley. I think Afosua should have checked up on her before now, that might have helped to prevent this from happening-but then again, the story wouldn’t have been so juicy! Waiting to see how Anettte does.
omg naa? i hope she pulls through.. i bet that her slimy,evil, disgusting husband had something to do with it..
brb
Why am I not feeling sorry for Naa?she had it coming mehn,I really do hope this is her wake up call that is if she ever wakes up!silly geh,who loves blindly like that?*rolling my eyes!
N’way Malaka my respect for u has gone 10 notches up.yikes: I have been trying to finish a ten page assignment that has all the information on the internet for the past one week and I haven’t got even 4pages!see I have stopped hustling u for re instalment,its not easy oo,’writers block’ is a terrible disease!hehehe.no more threats of Haka.
PS: errh but that doesn’t mean u shd delay oo.*smiles*
Eheee!! Abena have you seen how it is? That’s why I haven’t been minding your threats to “haka mi”. 😉 There won’t be a delay though. We are winding down.
It’s funny how some people feel sorry for Naa and others don’t. Just proves that women react differently to situations that most would assume we would have a homogenous response to!
Poor Naa, I hope her baby is ok. I had hoped that her husband would give her the worst beating, that would land her in Hospital and would hopefully, finally wake her up to the fact that he will never stop beating her. To that, I could have said “otwia!” And gone on about my business. Now, with her fighting for her and her baby’s lives, yes, I feel sorry for her, but I don’t have all my pent up rage directed and Ian. Yes his maltreatment of her overtime has led to this, but unless he ran her off the road….
Mark offered Afosua partnership, good for her! Now I just need her to drop this berlin wall and let Tony in. He has proved himself btoh by saving her from Boakye and sticking with her inspite of the tundra she has been blowin his way. He is definately a keeper. If you’re gonna love, love all the way, with your whole being, no halves.
Now let’s go sink Mr Prah! Get some hefty alimony while we’re at it.
I don’t want Annette to take Sophia back. She has a mean streak thar came out when her husband was arround and Annette was at her most vulnerable. How many years have they been together yet Sophia. Never mentioned him. And yeah, yeah, I know she brought Afosua and hence Lydia into the picture about the arrest. That just grants her forgiveness, not a second chance.
Did I just wind up the series for myself? Malaka see what long droughts do to me? Can’t wait! 🙂
Ine – now I understand why you said ‘brb’ earlier. You had a lot to say!
Chale, I think I did too good of a job making Naa an unsympathetic figure. Ironically, a blogger called Temitope Olowu blogged about domestic violence today and talked about some of the reasons women stay, one of them being the fear of having a “failed marriage”. Her best friend had gone thru an abusive relationship but it took her a long time to get out.
I’ll try not to keep the droughts too long. I am soooo loving this feedback from the hardcore ATS crew!
lol I DO tend to ramble don’t I? ATS for life!!! (Picture my fingers in the air, rocker style).
A lady told me about her cousin who was trying to hook her up with a man, inspite of the fact that she was being beaten to a pulp on a regular, even ending up in hospital a number of times. She says she at least is married, and actually pities her cousin who is single. I was amazed to sa the least.
Maybe it is because I have such a low theshold for pain. Even roughhousing with the hubby (he is 6.4, I’m almost 5.2), I will end up yelling “oh, you are hurting me ah!”. But I can’t imagine him not stopping and just pumelling. What would be left of me? The terror they must go through. We need to stop being so worried about what others think and just act to save ourselves first. Whether , you walk away alive,continue to get beatings or are carried to the mortuary, people will talk about it.
I really don’t understand why people are being so hard on Sophia. She didn’t tell Annette about her marriage because she (Sophia) is trying to block out the memory of that marriage – and live her life like she is not married. Her husband is blackmailing her, and bullying her emotionally. Plus I am sure a part of Sophia was trying to keep a little bit of a wall between herself and Annette. What’s the point of falling too hard for Annette when they cannot have a long term relationship together?
So Malaka since everybody is adding their own spice as to how they would want the story to end let me add my 2 pesewas…Annette gets a hefty alimony from Mr Prah. Sophia’s husband is killed whilst in the Niger Delta trying to cash in on an oil deal, and Sophia and Annette are reunited. Because they live in Ghana, they cannot be in a civil partnership but they live together, and their close friends are open minded and supportive of their relationship.