A woman's dilemma - Episode 54

 

Francesca;

 A crashing sound has my head snapping up from the little baby I'm cradling in my arms. The baby doesn't rouse from sleep and so does her mother lying peacefully on the bed. I imagine it's probably Simi being clumsy with something as usual but then the quiet is pierced by a guttural groan. I stiffen.
"Let me go! Where's my wife?! You guys hid her didn't you?!" I hear a man scream at the top of his lungs . A patient? I drop the baby in it's cradle and rush out to find out what's wrong. I nearly walk into Simi as I come out of the maternity ward.
"What was that?" She asks me.
"I was wondering the same thing." I crane my head towards the source of the noise and I catch Gideon's form grabbing someone and pulling the livid man with force.
"Gideon!" I call out to him as I round the corner. He looks shocked but he maneuvers the man he's with into the room behind him and slams the door shut before I reach him.
"Francesca." He says without really looking at me. I notice his left eye twitching​ like crazy as sweat bead on his upper lip.
"Get off me! You guys are going to pay! I'm the son of a senator of this country!" Gideon's face go white as sheet at the strangled yelling coming from inside the room he just pushed the man into. For some reason, our eyes lock and I battle with what to say.
"Gideon! What was that?!" Simi comes to my side and breaks the hold Gideon's eyes has on me

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. Gideon seems to find his mind as well.
"I don't want any one on this part of the property. Go about doing your normal job." He says and pushes his way back into the room with another slamming of the door. I stare at the locked door minutes after he's gone.
"That was weird." Simi muses besides me and I find myself nodding. The screaming from the other side of the door seem to stop and I let Simi pull me away.
"Let's get back to work." She says and I nod again. What was that feeling creeping up my neck whenever I heard the screaming from the other side of the door. Like I should bolt away from the door and not look back.

****

Gideon:

"He's down." My friend says like I don't see it. I take several steps away from the limp body of the governor and release a shaky breath. I rake a hand through my already high hair and rub the back of my neck. The look in Francesca's eyes. I very nearly got an heart attack when I saw the governor being dragged through my clinic's doors. The very man I pray to God every morning to never meet again. Now I know fate is putting a time frame on my time with Francesca.
"I know I should have told you that the patient I told you about is the governor but this issue is one that requires discretion​. You're the third person who knows of this." He says and I shake my head.
"I can't have him here." I say till my back hit the door and I look up at my friend who's frowning.
"You said you can help." I can see that he's trying to control his anger.
"That was before I knew it was the governor! The f*cking governor of this state! I don't want any part of whatever this is. No." I shake my head again. It seems to be the only thing my shocked body can do.
"You'll be paid double. Hell triple!"
"I don't want any part of this! To hell with the money."
"Gideon!" He spits my name out and I cringe.
"I thought you were a doctor who wanted to save live. No matter whose. That is why you worked day and night to build this practice of your own. Look at him. Remove the position from him and he's just a sick man. A really sick one." I groan and cover my eyes from the sight but I've seen enough. Francis is definitely not the man he used to be. He's been away from the media's eyes for a while and looking at his depreciating body like this, It's obvious now.
"Please, brother." My hands slips from over my eyes and I meet the pleading eyes of the man I used to share a dormitory with in the University before he dropped out from lack of funds.
"You are not to leave this room. I don't want anyone seeing you." I say as I walk towards the motionless man on the bed and put my stethoscope against his heart to read his heartbeat. It's slow which might just be from the anaesthetic I injected him with minutes ago.
"You're going to treat him? Man you don't know how this is going to help you and me!" My friend slaps my shoulder good-naturedly but I can't find it in me to smile at his open joy. I remove the stethoscope from my ears and turn to face him.
"Don't leave this room. I'll bring you food and whatever you want." I tell him firmly. I can't have him recognizing Francesca or the other way around.
"I'm leaving him here with you man, don't worry about people recognizing me as the governor's person. I'll just call you for updates. I have to go back or people will get suspicious." He says and I don't ask what he's talking about. I don't want to know. I'm only treating Francis because that's what a doctor should do.
"Better. Take the back door." I instruct him. Francesca should be in the front ward which is the maternity ward. She's been obsessed with the new baby birthed days again and I can't blame her. I feel horrible for a lot of things but mostly for coming between a mother and her son. I know deep down, Frances misses her baby boy even though she can't remember him.
"Come I'll walk you out." I tell him. He doesn't say anything more. I lead him out the door and without waiting to be seen, I take him through the back of the building and wait at the backdoor till his car drives out before I relax. I sag against the door and feel the start of an headache coming. I let my eyes shut for a few seconds and try to calm my erratic heartbeat. Everything is going to be fine, I tell myself. It will. It has to be. For my mind's sake.
"Is he gone?" I jump at Simi's voice behind me as my eyes open.
"What are you doing sneaking up on me!" I shout at her as I rub my sore eyes. This is going to be the death of me.
"What are you hiding, Gideon?" She narrows her eyes at me. Of course she'll suspect something. She's my sister.
"Nothing." I grunt and start on my way back into the clinic.
"This is about Francesca right? You know something about her family right? You can't not know." She says. I stop in my steps. I turn back to level a hard look at her. She doesn't even bulge and my eyes soften.
"Don't go around saying nonsense to her." I tell her.
"Is that man her family? A brother?"
"Simi!" I snap to shut her up. She must see how angry I am now because she shuts up.
"Where's she right now?" I ask after a few heated seconds.
"With the baby at the maternity ward." She says. I nod and turn to continue on my way to her.
"One word of advice big brother?" I don't want to hear what I already know but my steps falter.
"Tell her the truth. I can see how the secrets are eating you up.

Read " To Hate Emmanuel Johnsons " by the same author ( Ameh juliet )

. If you think she will leave when she finds out, maybe you should just let her go." She says and I have to brace myself on the the wall to stop from swaying to the floor. I grind hard on my teeth.
"If they love you, they'll always come back to you. A love that leaves and returns is true love. That's what you told me when our mother dropped the both of us at the orphanage all those years ago." She says.
"She never came back." I find myself saying softly. I sniff back the tears choking me. My throat feels hot as coal.
"But you did. When you got adopted before me. You said you'll find me. You did. That's true love." I feel small hands come around me from behind and I let my sister give me warmth.
 I know that my time is going to be up soon and I'll rather it be me telling her the truth than anyone else. I just hope she doesn't hate me when she finds out.