Anamika picked up her handbag, dug her hands inside but couldn't find the contract box.
Her eyes opened widely. "This was not happening right?"
She dug her hands inside again, this time more calmly and she searched every corner of the bag and even over turned it, still, the contract box was not found. It was not a seed of rice that could hide somewhere in the handbag. It was a box, big enough like a wedding box ring, thus it was tangible enough to be seen and brought out easily.
Anamika dropped into panic. What happened to the box? She questioned. How did it disappear? She questioned further in her confused state.
Still, she checked every ounce of the bedroom carefully, not to wake Derrick up from his deep sleep.
Despite being a soldier, he lost his guard today and was very much fast asleep.
Anamika searched the room, hoping she dropped it somewhere but she couldn't find it.
"No no no!" She held her right hand to her forehead and started to rack her brain as she paced forth and back in the bedroom.
Her plan was to pin Derrick on his thumb with a needle and it'll cause blood to flow out, and then she will use it to thumb on the contract. With that, he already signed the contract. The moment she does that, she would sign her part and their marriage becomes legal and official.
She had added an inducing sleeping drug to the wine Derrick took during their dinner, thus, Derrick wouldn't even know anything was happening. He would only wake up married! And he won't be able to revoke it. Gradually, he will accept the reality.
Now, Derrick was fast asleep and she can't find the contract box to get the contract, for her plans to be carried out.
"Did I drop it on my way here?" A thought sprang up in her mind. She had come in a tipsy state, if not the palmwine she took to reduce the effect of the vodka, she would by now be drunk and fast asleep.
Anamika speedily searched her mind for an answer.
Frantically she searched for the box again inside the room, tearing through the wastebasket to see if she had mistakenly dropped it inside. She then again started searching every inch of the room while Derrick slept peacefully on. She combed through the corners, the bedclothes, checking the nightstand drawers to be sure.
Focus, she told herself. Focus.
Maybe the box had fallen from her handbag somewhere else in the mansion. Probably when she entered and was climbing upstair, there were small chance she could find it if that was the case but every chance had to be explored.
She rose to her feet and went as soundlessly as she could out into the hallway. She moved toward adjutant general Richard's room, and hesitated. She couldn't imagine why the box would be in there, and waking him up would only be counterproductive. She turned around and made her way down the stairs instead, walking carefully to mask the sound of her foot as she carefully scrutinized the stair case.
Her mind was racing. Without the contract form, what was she going to do? All her plans boiled down to that. She was very corny, still she was kind of feeling hopeless now.
She would not give up.
Her mind was so occupied with thoughts of what to do next that at first she didn't see Diana. Fortunately, she had her back to her. She sat inside the living room, grinding some herbs.
Clearly, the herbs to treat her mother, Anamika discerned. It ought to relieve her but it didn't.
Already at the bottom of the staircase, Anamika froze, then darted across the floor and flattened herself against the half wall that separated the kitchen from the larger room. There was no reason to panic, she told herself. She lived here and this was her fiancé's villa. If Diana saw her, she could say she had come downstairs for a glass of water.
But the chance to observe her without her knowledge was too tempting. She turned her body slightly, peering over and around the kitchen counter.
Diana still had her back to her. She had changed her clothes since the day was over. The army jacket was gone; she wore a night gown.
Anamika closed her eyes. It felt like fabric snagging on a hook, the jerk inside her heart when the thoughts of Derrick recognizing her reminded her that she can't let It happen.
She opened her eyes again, in time to see a doorway form in front of Diana. She reached for a scarf that hung on a peg on the wall, and stepped out into darkness.
Anamika had a split second to decide. Stay and search the room for her box, or follow Diana and see where she was going, she needed to know everything about her. Her feet however made the choice before her mind did. Spinning away from the wall, she darted back upstairs. The contract box was more important now!
Meantime, John and his siblings were in their room doing their investigations.
They had detailed their sister what the box was for. Evidently, Anamika wants Derrick to sign it by whatever means.
"What was her main aim?"
John was furiously navigating through the webpage on the display screen. Every of the articles and pages containing informations about Anamika was blank and kept on showing errors.
However, John had managed to scrap out the family she is from already. The Scott family. She has an elder brother, Harvey who runs the Scott's conglomerate that is getting bankrupt now and of course her mum, Eddy. The kids knew that already.
"Since we can't find any information on Anamika, why not we start with the big shot by her side.. Mr Harvey!" James suggested.
"You're right!" John responded and cleared the page and typed out "Harvey Scott"
On clicking the search button, his page appeared.
Scrolling through his information they found out he was once married to Diana David. Divorced three years later due to wife's infidelity and now married to Juliete Jones, his old time lover.
"Diana David?" Chioma blurted out.
"Isn't that mum's real name?" She added,
Her siblings healing from the shock.
Connecting their mothers biography to this piece of information, they understood the situation perfectly now.
Anamika and Eddy are the sister-in-law and mother-in-law respectively who hurt their mum seven years ago. Could Harvey be their father???
"He can't be our father. Such irrational man who dumped our mum for his old lover! He didn't even give mum the chance to explain it was a trap that led to her losing her fidelity to him!" Chioma chirped in,
"And he has big nose!"Chioma was quick to point out. "I hate him already!" She added again, gradually getting pissed.
"If he is not our daddy. Then it must be the gigolo!" James' gave out his observation.
"Then who is the gigolo?" Chioma inquired,
"Wait wait.... Why would mum keep all of these truths away from us? Why would she lie to us about our Daddy?"