Chapter 101 - Spirit Of Girlfriend Past

Chapter 101: spirit of girlfriend past

Jason stood in front of the address that kept playing in his head ever since he had his conversation with Tammy. 

He knew that immediately he stepped down from his car that his life would change forever.

Jason longed for a glass of scotch or maybe two, he was too sober to sever the bond between a parent and a child.

Jason's quivering breath was evidence that he needed alcohol and he needed it fast.

And so, he drove off to the nearest bar. He sat on the stool closest to the television, he needed the noise from the television to drown the voices in his head.

"A bottle of Johnnie walker, please" Jason gestured to the bar keep.

The older man stared at him like he may have spoken by mistake.

"Do you mean a glass of Johnnie walker?" The bar keeper corrected him.

"I just found out that I have a nine year old daughter, man. Give me a break, if I say I need a bottle of Johnnie walker….then I need a bottle of Johnnie walker" Jason told him with a straight face.

"Alright…you got it" the bar keeper placed a bottle of Johnnie walker in front of him two minutes later with a clean glass cup.

Jason poured himself a drink. When he raised the glass to his lips, he didn't take a sip. He gulped it and swallowed it at once. 

Good! There was nothing like a full glass of ordinary scotch to make everything look better.

Jason heard someone pull up a seat beside him and he turned around to ask for some privacy. He didn't choose the worst stool in the bar, a place he knew people avoided just have someone sit beside him.

"I don't need company…oh, it's just you" He turned his attention to his glass once he saw the identity of his companion.

"How did you find me?" Jason asked him.

"I tracked your phone" Chike replied and gestured for the bartender to come closer.

"I need a clean glass cup" he told the bartender, three seconds later he had one in front of him.

"Did you hear what I said?" Chike asked him when Jason refused to talk "I said I tracked your phone…. like I invaded your privacy" Chike repeated himself.

Jason ignored him again and poured a drink for himself.

Chike took the bottle and helped himself to a full glass.

"Did you hear…" 

"Stop repeating yourself dude…I heard you, you violated my privacy and broke a few stupid laws, big deal! My mother has a tracking chip embedded on my left shoulder that we both pretend that I don't know about, you don't see me complaining. So, stop whining already!" Jason stared at him the whole time he spoke to him.

Chike raised both hands slightly in the air as a gesture of surrender.

"But are you really serious about the tracking chip?" Chike asked him.

"Yes. I am not joking. It was the only way she found Kara and I before I bled to death when Kane shot me. Chike, if you don't know this by now then maybe I should tell you. My family is bat-shit Crazy. We are all cuckoo in the head"

Chike took a sip and kept quiet. He knew he could pry out the truth from Jason or wait until he was ready to talk to him. But he wasn't a patient man.

"Do you want to talk about Tamara or your daughter?" Chike asked after minutes of waiting.

The mere mention of the daughter that showed up out of nowhere made Jason take another drink.

"My daughter…. it's strange, isn't it? I have another daughter and she is nine years old. Do you know she is not supposed to be alive?" Jason told him.

"Talk to me, man. Don't keep it bottled up" Chike encouraged him.

Jason was almost drunk by now.

"I am going to tell you a secret…shush!" Jason leaned in closer to Chike after he looked around to be sure no one was listening in.

"Elixir Yagazie is not my biological mother. Do you know what that means, Chike?" Jason asked him.

"That you are adopted? I know that already. You are James' biological son with his mistress, Miranda. It took you only eight years of friendship for you to finally confide in me and for me to stop pretending that I had no freaking idea that you were adopted"

Jason stared at him with wide eyes. The only person that knew about his adoption was his wife and sister. He never told any soul about it but somehow, Chike knew about it. He wondered who told him. Was he a magnet for bloody Judas's?

"How…" Jason asked him

"I found out everything about you just before I agreed to hang out with you that day we first met on a plane. I am sorry" Chike apologized.

"Nothing shocks me anymore, I guess" Jason waved it aside. He could always deal with Chike later but he was relieved that nobody else he loved betrayed his secret.

"Tell me what happened with Tammy Jones?" Chike urged him.

"It's actually a very short story but I guess it's worth telling since I spent a decade searching for it. Do you know how I thought she disappeared into thin air?" Jason asked his best friend.

"Yeah…"

He told Chike everything.

After they were caught making love to each other drunk and in his bed, Tamara's family quickly moved her to the village to get her away from Jason and his powerful mother.

According to Tamara, the decision was made after Elixir made a visit to his former nanny's house two hours after they left the mansion. An hour later and they were packing up their bags and running back to the village.

A few weeks after the highschool dance, she found out that she was pregnant and she wanted to keep the baby despite the disappointing look from her father and the angry glares and beating she received from her mother.

Deep down she knew if she had any chance of raising the child in a better world than she was raised in then she had to get Jason involved.

Tammy stole money from her mother and she made the trip to Abuja to tell Jason.

When she got to the mansion, she was told that Jason had been shipped out to Harvard business school but he would be back in a week for his mother's birthday.

Tammy was hurt and dejected. She was nineteen and pregnant and she had no future whatsoever and worst her best friend didn't care. She was angry that Jason moved on with his life as if her life wasn't ruined and on hold.

She convinced a classmate to allow her to stay with her for a week while she waited for Jason.

A week later, she went back and she left a letter for Jason, telling him that she was carrying their baby and that she was broke. She penned down the address of the classmates she was staying with and expressed her joy at the prospect of seeing him in the nearest future.

Two days later, Clara, the classmate she was staying with, told her that she had a visitor out waiting for her in a black jeep.

Tammy was overjoyed. At last, she could see a familiar face and have a real conversation.

When she came outside and knocked on the window of the car, the door opened but it wasn't who she was expecting.

The familiar face came with an ultimatum, either she has an abortion and take the 7 million naira that was being offered to her and make a better life for herself or she disappears all together without a trace.

When she asked to see Jason to explain ,a letter was handed over to her.

It was all Jason's idea in the first place.

Tammy was told that he was not ready to jeopardize his future in Harvard business school to raise a child with her.

She accepted the first option and took the money. If Jason wanted no part of her then she didn't want any part of him with her too. 

She went back home with the check and she confessed everything to her mother. It took two more days for Tammy to talk herself out of the illegal abortion she wanted to do, opting to travel out of the country with her family to make her life better.

"The end of story"

Jason told his best friend.

"Who paid her off?" Chike asked him

"Was it your mother or your father, Jason?" Jason took a sip of scotch.

"I think you mean who tried to kill my child! You mean who cost me nine years of watching her grow up?! I think you mean who made my kid destitute for years. Don't you mean the person that told a woman I really intensely care about even after a decade that I wanted nothing to do with her?!" Jason grabbed the glass cup and he threw it at the wall and stood up to walk out.

The bar keeper and a couple of bouncers came closer but Chike took out a wad of cash and left more than plenty on the table.

Jason grabbed the bottle of Johnnie walker and he walked out with Chike following him right behind.