I loved my dad so much, but he loved her too much to listen. (Final Ep)

I stopped. Paul. My dad's name. I had heard people call him Daddy Chidera for as long as I could remember. I couldn't remember the last time I had heard anyone call him Paul. I moved closer to the house. “You think you could just dump me?” she shouted. “You think you can use me and walk away?” My dad said something I couldn't make out. “You came to me first, Paul,” she continued. “You told me you loved me.” I moved closer to the window. “You said we were building something beautiful together.” “That was before.” My father's voice came through. “Before what?” “Before I met her properly.” “She came back from America and everything changed.” I could hear the change in my stepmother's voice. “You were already mine,” she continued. “Then she came back and you suddenly wanted to play husband. Did you forget? I was supposed to be your wife, Paul.” My dad said something, but it wasn't very clear. He sounded like he was murmuring. “You were married to her,” she kept talking. “And you still came to me.” She laughed again. “Do you want me to remind you?” “Where were you the day she was supposed to put to bed?” My dad didn't answer. “Were you not with me?” My heart started beating faster. I found my way closer to the window. “Were you not in your matrimonial bed with me, while your pregnant wife was somewhere else?” “Stop.” That was all I had heard from my dad in a while. It bothered me because I didn't hear him correct her, like she was saying the truth. “You don't want Chidera to hear this?” “Leave her out of it.” I swear I had never heard my dad speak that angrily before. “I should leave her out of it? She is the reason you have spent all these years pretending you don't know me.” I heard her say it through sobs. “You told me you loved me, Paul. You told me we were going to have a life together.” “I was wrong.” “No. You changed your mind.” “I fell in love with her.” “And I was supposed to disappear?” My stepmother's voice rang through my head. “You married her, and I kept quiet.” “Enough,” my father said, cutting her off. I couldn't believe all I had heard. I couldn't even understand it. I just knew whatever this was, I needed to seek help, but I didn't know where to start from. “I could have exposed you.” My stepmother's voice cut through my thoughts. “I wasn't pregnant. I just knew I had a thing on you and yes, I tried it and it worked. Even after she died, you were always in my bosom.” I could hear her sigh loudly. “I need access.” “Your wife trusted me. She told me things. She told me what she wanted to leave for her child. She told me what belonged to Chidera.” My dad said something, but I couldn't hear it. “I knew exactly where everything was.” My eyes moved towards the corridor that led upstairs as memories ran through my mind. “The girl found the key,” she continued. “She found the picture too.” “She was looking in my things like her mother. Curious. Always asking questions, yet they were stupid!” she spat agressively. “Don't call her that.”I heard my father's voice. “She was stupid enough to think the key was the whole story.” I couldn't move. “I already have access, Paul.” She laughed softly. “I have everything I need.” “What do you want?” “You know what I want.” “The house?” “The house. The documents. Everything you kept from me.” My father's voice came again. “Those things are for Chidera.” “Exactly.” I heard something hit the table. “And you think you can just leave me with nothing?” “I didn't say that.” “You don't have to. You were supposed to be with me. Instead, you married her, took what you could, and now you're sitting on everything she left for that girl.” My dad said nothing. “And don't pretend you stayed because you cared about Chidera.” “Don't.” “You didn't even want to be a father.” “Stop.” “You were going to walk away from all of it, and come to me.” I moved towards the window. I needed to see what was going on inside, so I peered closer, straining one eye open while the other was closed, trying to see through the small opening in the window I had noticed earlier. My stepmother was holding something. At first, I couldn't tell what it was. Then I saw it. A gun. I needed answers, and my dad couldn't die now. I didn't think. I just ran and pushed the door open. “Leave my father!” They both turned. My stepmother's face changed. “Chidera?” I ran towards my dad, but before I could get to him, she reached me. Her arm went around me and pulled me back. “Stay there, Paul.” My dad froze. “Let her go.” The gun was against me now. My whole body went cold. “If you call the police,” she said, “she dies first.” “Please,” my dad said. “Don't do this.” I couldn't understand how the woman who had bought me ice cream, fixed my hair and sometimes asked about school was holding a gun against me. Or maybe I saw everything, but I tried convincing myself it was nothing. “You should have told her,” she said. My dad looked at me. I looked at him. “Daddy?” His eyes filled with something I had never seen before. Fear. Not long after, we started hearing sirens outside.My stepmother turned towards the sound. It was getting closer. “You think you're getting away from me?” my stepmother said, turning towards my dad while the gun was still pressed against my head. “Put the gun down.” "If we can't do it the easy way, we'd take it the hard way" my stepmother said, as she tightened her grip on me. Then everything happened too quickly. A loud sound filled the room. My dad's body jerked. I screamed, closing my eyes and trying to cover my ears. Another loud sound followed, My stepmother stumbled backwards as her grip on me loosened. Then she fell. For a few seconds, I couldn't understand what I was seeing. My dad was on the floor. My stepmother was on the floor. And I was standing between them. I moved away from her and ran to my dad. “Daddy?” He didn't answer. I grabbed his blood stained shirt. “Daddy, wake up.” Nothing. “Daddy, open your eyes they're coming to save us from her” I shook him harder. “Daddy, please she's dead she won't disturb us again.” The sirens outside were getting louder. The front door burst open. Several policemen rushed inside. One of them pulled me away from my dad. “Come here, young girl.” “No! My dad!” I tried to get back to him, but the officer held me. Another officer moved towards my stepmother. A few minutes later, more people came in. Everything became noise. Questions. Footsteps. People talking over one another. Someone covered my stepmother's body. Another person bent down beside my dad. I watched as they lifted him from the floor. A man carried him over his shoulder and took him outside. “Daddy!” He didn't turn. I stood there watching them take him away. The house that had always been ours suddenly felt like somewhere I had never lived. I thought about the morning. About my dad waiting for me downstairs. About the family get-together. About all the things I had wanted to ask him. I never got to ask. I never got to hear his answers. And maybe that was the worst part. I loved my dad so much, but he loved her too much to listen.

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