Romola would've slapped Yetunde if Olumide was not quick enough to grab her by her waist and pull her to himself. He locked his hands around her torso until her back touched his chest. He tightened his hold as he rested against the chair, keeping her bound while Yetunde ran behind her father's back.

"Words, Romy. Use your words." Olumide said.

"Fine. Yetunde you are a conniving sick, lower than the belly-of-the-snake liar. You are a manipulative woman with no self control or empathy and you'd rather destroy your daughter than tell the truth. I won't let you do that to save face."

'If you know who the father is, why don't you tell us?" Ajoke akimbo, glared down at Romola.

"Oh gladly." Romola glared at Yetunde's father since she couldn't see Yetunde. "It's your driver."

"I don't have a driver."

"You see. I told you that she would just lie. She—"

Romola understood now why Yetunde's father did not let his daughter finish her words. Cutting Yetunde mid-lies was the only way for truth to prevail.

"I'm not done. You used to have a driver. He left the house sometime before Yetunde discovered she was pregnant."

"No." Yetunde's father shook his head furiously, then paused. "No. Baba Tayo. No. He wouldn't. He was a married man with kids."

"Didn't stop him. Didn't stop Yetunde either."

"No!" Yetunde's father turned to his daughter, red in the face and roaring. "Tell me she's lying."

Romola folded her hands. "Of course. She'll tell you I'm lying. Those are her favourite words. But think of it. When she knew Heritage wasn't the father, why didn't she say anything? When I asked for the father from the beginning, why did she keep shut? When you practically begged, she didn't say a thing. She would rather lie than let such a shameful secret out."

"Yetunde!" Her father bellowed in such a way that she felt Olumide flinch behind her.

"Mummy?" Yetunde ran to her mother.

Her mother pushed her away. "Shebi, I asked you."

"I'm sorry, Mummy. Daddy, please. I didn't know how to tell you." She shrunk from her father's gaze.

"You didn't know how to tell me? But you couldn't open your mouth for Modupe's sake. Is that how much you hate her?" Her father yelled.

"I don't hate her." Yetunde said.

"You should shut up now, Yetunde. At this point, I doubt any sane person would believe a word that comes out of your stinking mouth because when it was important you did not speak. You did not think it was important that a young man was festering away in prison for a crime he didn't commit and that it would follow him for the rest of his life." Romola said.

"Heritage is not innocent!" Yetunde's father said.

"On whose words? By whose account? By the same voice that refused to identify the father? Okay, dey dull." Romola said.

"But why? Why would you lie about something so serious? If that man downstairs is innocent, you've ruined his life." Doctor Sammy asked.

"It's the same reason she told lies about me. Easy target. No one would question it. After all, it's gentle fragile Yetunde's words over the words of a street kid or a boyfriend her father doesn't even like. To her, it's a game to get whatever she wants no matter the cost to others. I swear, even if she told me the sky was blue, I would not believe it simply because she said it."

"Even if what you are saying is true, and I am not saying it is," Ajoke shifted from one foot to the other. "Where is the evidence? You can't prove it."

"I don't need to prove anything. She has admitted by her own words to her father. And if that is not enough for you, you are free to find the driver and test his blood against Modupe's. I am willing to go to jail on the fact that Modupe is that driver's child and Yetunde will not tell the truth even at the threat of death. I am as sure as I have blood in my body that the man from the prison is innocent. His only crime was getting in Yetunde's way. And that was mine too."

"Getting in the way of what?" Yetunde's father questioned.

"He spurned her. Told her he wasn't interested in pushing a relationship with her sexually and went for someone else. You see how that made him an easy target. And because she wanted Olumide when Olumide wanted me, I became the new target. She wasn't satisfied with just taking me out of his life. She wanted to ruin me forever. Like she did Heritage." Romola allowed herself to take a deep breath before she continued at a slower pace as her eyes started to water again. "And I have to congratulate her because she succeeded. My sister is dead now."

The entire room was silent for a couple of seconds until Yetunde's dad turned to Doctor Sammy. "What of my granddaughter?"

Doctor Sammy smiled. "Well, for that I have to thank this young woman again. She already donated two pints and right now the nurse is watching to see how it reacts with Modupe's body but so far, everything looks good."

"Why didn't you just tell us this since?" Yetunde's mom asked. "I've been so worried."

Doctor Sammy placed her stethoscope around her neck. "It never hurts to stay in the safe zone. Romola's blood alone may not have been enough but another donor donated and just in case, there is an adverse reaction to that blood, another donor would be needed. It's just a safety precaution but the chance is really slim."

"All this time, you had already given blood?" Yetunde asked in a low tone as like a predator unwilling to take chances with a cautious prey.

"I'm not like you. I refuse to let innocent people suffer."

"Why did you now put on all of this drama? To humiliate my daughter?" Yetunde mother asked, putting her hand around her daughter's shoulder.

"I didn't do anything that she didn't bring upon herself. When she accused me the first time, I never got a chance to defend myself. If not for this situation, you would still believe all the lies she told about me. Heritage would still be in prison. This has been my only chance to clear my name to just a few ears. Do you know how many people saw the video she posted of me on social media? Videos she made me record. Some of them that she recorded by herself. That were meant only for her own eyes."

Romola felt heat flash through her as she neared the end of her speech. It was all over now and she was spent in every way. Tear drops rolled down her cheeks as her body laxed in Olumide's hands. Her muscles were bags of formless jelly. Her tongue– her whole mouth was parched. A steady aching pain began at the base of her neck and began to spread all over her head, even as the throbbing of her nose worsened.

"What of the one Olumide posted? How are you blaming only me?" Yetunde asked.

"Don't you have any shame Yetunde? I already got the answer to my question. It's you. You are the one who posted the video." Olumide said. "My fault was taking that picture in the first place."

Romola drew on the last of her strength to tug Olumide's hand apart so she could free herself. She doubted she even had the physical strength to keep herself alive for longer than a few minutes. If she was going to collapse, she would rather do it in front of her own family than give Yetunde any more joy of seeing her at her weakest.

"I wish Modupe a quick recovery and I hope for her sake, Yetunde, that you become a much better person." Romola faced them as she walked backwards to the door. "And honestly, Olumide doesn't have a heart as dark as yours. You don't deserve him."

She stopped by the door, holding the handle as she said her final farewell. "Goodbye Olumide"

# # #

"Olumide—" Yetunde began with a shaking voice.

"No. No. I don't even want to hear it." He shook his head as he rose.

Romola was leaving him again. After all the trouble he had gone through to find her, he would be a fool to just let her walk off like that.

"You have to understand why I did what I did. Nobody would've believed me if I said it was the driver. He ran away." Yetunde sobbed, clutching him with shaking hands.

He tossed her hands away. "Don't even dare. From this moment, you can forget about our engagement. See what you did to your boyfriend. And if that wasn't bad enough see what you did to your best friend. The same Romola that was willing to drop everything just to make sure you were okay. God, how much I wish she was wrong when she said that man downstairs wasn't the father of the child. I'm done."

"Olumide. Please, don't do this. I love you."

"If you love me, why didn't you tell me the truth?"

"I was scared." She knelt at his feet, sobbing and staining his trousers with her pitiful tears. "I didn't want to lose us."

"That's the funny thing. There was never an us. I never saw you as anything more than Dami's little sister and I would be a fool to continue a relationship with you after seeing the way you treat the ones you love."

"Mide, please I gave everything up for you. Don't embarrass me like this. I've told all my friends. I've posted this everywhere."

He turned towards the door and was only stopped by Ajoke blocking his path. "After all the work that mom and I have done?"

"If you're so desperate to have her bear the family name, maybe you should marry or adopt her but as for me. I'm done and I'm not going to change my mind."

"Olumide," Yetunde shrieked. "Even if you want to leave me. Please, don't go to Romola. Go for any other girl but not—"

"You want me to bring another unsuspecting victim into this so you can trick me and get rid of her the way you did Romola? I'm not stupid." Olumide grabbed the door handle to walk out. "I'd rather go with the woman who knows how your mind works."

"Olumide Makinde Joseph, if you walk out that door, you can forget that you are my son." His mother said.

He turned to his parents with a sneer. "How many times will you threaten to disown me? I am not Muyiwa. I am not the son you love."

With those words he left the room. He had to catch Romola before she would leave. He'd sensed it in the paediatrician's room that she was just waiting for all of this to be over.

He hurried down the hallway without so much of a thought of the noise his shoes made or caution as he turned. He nearly hit a cart and swerved just in time, ignoring the raised voice of a nurse who swore at him.

He pushed open the door to the room where she had been and announced as the doors gave him entrance. "Don't leave me. I love you."

But all that greeted him was the empty room and the properly made bed.

She was gone again.