"Is that the last one?"

Angela let out a weak breath as she approached the door, her hands folded under her breasts while she watched the man whisk away with the huge bag of kitchen pots and pans. She still hadn't gotten over seeing him covered in blood the day before and how he suddenly started talking about them leaving for lagos first thing in the morning.

At first, she thought it was just small talk but she realized how serious he might have actually been the moment he had to wake her so early in the morning to put the bags he had already prepared by himself into the taxi waiting outside to take them to the park.

This was not the man she knew, it was not the man she was going to marry. Ever since he had gotten his job, he had become very unrecognizable and she just couldn't place her hand around it. She was scared for him, scared for them, she was worried about him and still had a hard time recognizing the state he was in.

It was a miracle how he managed to walk in the state he was in. His eyes were barely open from being so swollen and he kept limping even as he dragged the bags with him. The bruises on his arm were barely covered even though he had tried to hide them under his long sleeves, and he winced every time he walked faster than one step per three seconds.

"I'm not comfortable with this." She told him as she walked behind him, holding on to what she could. "I don't like the fact that we are leaving like this, without saying goodbye to everyone. It's almost like we are fugitives."

He exhaled.

"What is going on?" She asked him, finally coming to a stop right in front of the door, hoping he stopped to. she shrugged.

Randal froze.

It took a minute but he slowly found himself turning back to her again.

"Don't I deserve some kind of an explanation? Why did you come back home beaten to a pulp last night? Who are we running from?"

He exhaled, how was she supposed to understand his situation even if he explained it to her? How was she ever going to forgive him if she found out that he was running away from them, from the Ezebuikes because he did something she should never have done? Because he broke his promise to her. He was abandoning one family to be with one, one child for the other and it was the best decision to him. To Randal, leaving was the right decision. Sommadina was going to be okay, she had to be, she had her father, Obinna, who was a scary conglomerate. If there was one person that was going to take care of her and the baby more than anyone in the world, it had to be him, but Angela, she had no one, he was her everything, all she had ever known. They were going to spend the rest of their lives together, they were going to be a family, how on earth was he supposed to abandon everything they had planned to do what Nathaniel wanted him to do? He was never going to live with himself.

Randal let out an exasperated sigh and limped as fast as his legs couldn't take him towards her, he reached for her arm as gently as he could, the bruises on his face becoming less visible as he stepped back into the house, away from the sunlight. She had only managed to clean him up and give him pain killers but it was a wonder how he was still able to walk and talk with all that pain.

"I already told you didn't I? We can't stay here anymore. It's a long story and I promise you, I would let you know everything as soon as we get to Lagos. I just need you to trust me."

"It's easier said than done." She said almost in the most frustrated tone he had ever heard her in. She was getting extremely frustrated and hated being left in the dark. "What is going on?" She tilted her head to look at him closely. "Did you hurt somebody? Is someone trying to hurt you? Hurt us? Is it a debt?"

He shook his head.

"It's none of those things."

"Then what? Why won't you let me even call my mother? My friends? I didn't even get to see my doctor yet."

"There are hundreds of doctors in Lagos."

She let out a weak breath. He did too.
He wanted to explain it to her, to tell her everything but he didn't even know where to start. He knew her, he knew Angela and how important family was to her. For someone who was abandoned by his family, by his father at birth, and by a mother that had dropped him beside a suck-away a day after he was born, she expected him to know better, to never have to choose to abandon any of his children. If she ever found out, she was never going to let him take a walk, she was never going to understand. She was going to make sure he took responsibility for his action, but she wasn't going to stay with him either, she wasn't going to ever forgive him. Nothing was ever going to remain the same if she knew and it scared him.

He just needed her to listen and trust him. He just needed to be out of that place, to be out of that town before Randy caught up with him. He couldn't stand it, he wasn't going to let anyone force him into getting married to someone he didn't love, to be unhappy his whole life. The woman in front of him meant everything to him, she was the only one he cared to spend his life with. He wasn't going to let one mistake ruin everything.

He didn't care, for as long as he was concerned, he didn't care what happened to Sommadina and her ruthless father. As long as he had Angela, and she and the baby were safe, he knew he was going to be fine with starting over.

"I did something really wrong and stupid." He started to give her the most basic explanation he could think of. "And some people are not happy with the choices I have made. They are forcing me to do something I do not want to do and I could die if I refuse to. I could lose you too."

Angela slowly dropped her hands to her thighs and swallowed hard, now she was scared. She wished she had never asked.

"But you don't have anything to worry about." He grabbed her hands to assure her. "Where we are going now, it's safe. They are never going to find us there at least until this whole thing blows over. I still have some money left from my first pay at the company, enough for sustain us for another month. Once we leave, I'd get another job and save up more money for your maternity fee and birthing. You and the baby have nothing to worry about. I just need you to trust me and come with me, that's the only way I can protect you."

She looked him straight in his eyes and could see how sincere he was. He was worried and looked so terrified, and she had a feeling that he was more scared for her than himself. A part of her wished he just told her what it was, maybe that way, she would understand better and help him. She hated that he was keeping a lot of secrets from her but she knew the man in front of her, he wasn't going to do any of that if it wasn't important, if it wasn't as dire as he said it was.

"Okay." She nodded.

It was better for her to trust him and go with him then ask questions later, she trusted him.

"Okay?" He asked her. She nodded again.

"Okay." He nodded too, relieved by the assurance in her voice.

"Good." He said. "Let's go." He grabbed her hand quickly and led her outside the door, grabbing the small suitcase by the door with him till they got out.

"I'd lock the door." She pulled her hand away from him and turned to the door while he scurried as fast as he could to the small gate where the taxi was parked outside, looking around to make sure that there was no one watching them.

"Na the last bag be this." He told the man who had rushed to him to get the bag, turning back to the gate as Angela found her way to it, while she tried to fix the key to the house in her bag as fast as she could.

He let out a relief exhale as she found her way to him. That was it, he was leaving, getting away from all the mess he had found himself in and the best part was, he was leaving with the love of his life.

"Go on." He told her. "Get in the car." He encouraged her to get into the Peugeot parked behind them. She nodded and was about to get in when-

"Randy Okonkwo?"

They both turned immediately they heard a voice call Randy's name from in front of them. A car slowly approached them and there was a man in it. Randal couldn't see him so well but the first thing he noticed when the car got closer was his pitch black suit.  He wasn't a familiar face, quite scary as a matter of fact and had the longest scar that cut across his face. Randal squinted his eyes for a second.

"Get inside the car baby." He said to Angela calmly but it was like she didn't care to listen. She was just as curious as he was to know who the man was and how he knew his name. Why did such a scary man call out his name like that? How did he know him? Was he part of the people Randal had gotten in trouble with? What did he want?

Angela wanted to know, she wanted to see what the problem was, if Randal wasn't going to come clean to her, then she was just going to find out herself, maybe if she could get to talk to him, she could get to convince him to leave her fiancé alone.

"I have a message for you from the chairman."

Randy squinted his eyes for a moment like he did not hear or understand him until the man brought out what looked like a gun from the other seat.

"You can run, but you can never hide from the Godfather."

He watched how the man moved the gun from pointing at him, to where Angela was standing and before Randy register what was going on and pull her away, gunshots were fired, three times. The first on her stomach, another on her stomach and the last one in her chest.

Static.

It was like his ears were suddenly going deaf from the loud noise and static that had followed just as the driver took to his heels in fright. He went into instant shock the moment he had felt blood splash on his face and onto his shirt.

The car drove off with speed and he didn't even care to stop it. Randy could feel his hands go cold as she fell into his arms, blood filling her floral dress from the holes the bullets had made through her skin, she was bleeding from her mouth too.

She was trying to speak to him but she couldn't.

"Oh." Randy fell to the ground with her while tears filled his eyes. His hands trembled at the sight of her dress and the blood that had filled them from her swollen belly.

"No," he cried in a whisper. "Please, don't leave me." He begged her. "You can't leave me." She was taking loud gasps and coughing like she was chocking on her own blood. Randy placed his hand firmly on the bullet wound on her belly to stop the bleeding but he couldn't. There were too many holes for his hands.

He was crying over and over again, his trembling hands putting pressure on the wounds they could find while he left his eyes on her.

"Please, I beg you." Tears dropped from his face and on her dress just as people had started to run out of their houses to the scene. It was just 6AM in the morning and the loud noise had woken the entire neighborhood up. It was too late, he couldn't explain it but he could feel her, like the last ray of sun that brought the night, he could feel her slip away from him. It was at that moment, that she drew what happened to be her last breath. She closed her eyes and went cold immediately.

She was dead.