Mark is usually very pretentious of his own good, so, naturally, and as usual, he would deny something as such but he couldn't - He only Coughed! -
"Just came to check up on you as you couldn't came to check up on your mother... And yea, I understand why. You care for her much more than you do for me!" Flora again broke the silence. As she walked all over the room.
"I'm sorry mum, she is going through alot and I need to be by her side.... Her ex-husband has just legally taken her Triplets away from her..." Mark explained and then seized the opportunity to backlash his mum for abandoning him.
"She cares for them... Unlike some people I know...." He added as he leaned over to Diana who was changing her sleeping posture. He thought something had gone wrong with her or unsettled her - that explains how deep he cares for her -
Flora was sensitive and she knew Mark was getting at her with what he said. It was indeed wrong for her to have left him all alone.. she failed. Even his dad failed.
"I'm sorry.... I'll make it up to you. I wish to, I'm back now and I will, most definitely...." She heard herself stammered. She really wished nothing more but to bond with her children, but life hasn't given her the opportunity due to her nature and line of work.
"Why didn't you tell me I had a step brother?" Mark questioned, ignoring her plea.
"You can sit down!" Mark gestured for her to sit on the couch as she was dumbstruck with the sudden JAMB question she is faced with.
"Well... No valid excuse.... And besides, you've already found out...." She explained bitterly...
"There is alot I really don't know about our family right?" Mark questioned tentatively.
Flora was about to give Mark the full details when the yawning of Diana waking up disrupted her.
"Oh.. she is awake. I'll give you time to make her feel well. Talk to you later!" Flora said and then stood to leave.
Mark only said "okay" , he was already alarmed when Diana woke up that he rushed to get her water. The doctor had advised she is given water immediately she wakes up.
Then Flora left... immediately she exited the room, she felt her heart go sour, like a hell fire was burning inside of her heart. She is being manipulated to blackmail her own son... and Otani would die if she doesn't do as her superiors commanded her.
Either ways, she was going to lose a son. Someone she carried for nine months.... She would rather die than be a reason any of her child die.... but she didn't have such an option. She must try to balance both!
********
"So, you're finally awake," said a dry voice. I'm eased and pleased now. We all thought you'd probably die in your sleep." Mark said as he handed her the glass cup filled with water to the brim.
"Sorry to disappoint you!" Diana responded as she gingerly grabbed for the glass cup and gingerly took a sip.
"How are you doing?"
The question jolted Diana to her full self that she shuddered and clutched the glass cup more tightly. "I guess I am...." of a truth, she didn't even know...
"The bathroom's through there, and I hung some clothes on the towel rack in case you want to change."
Savoring the look on Diana's face, Mark explained further.
"I got them from your wardrobe! A pant inclusive!"
Diana went to take another sip from the cup as her face flushed bright with embarrassment, Alas she found that it was empty. She no longer felt thirsty or light-headed either, which was a relief. She set the glass cup down and hugged the blanket around herself. "What happened to my clothes?" it was at this point she realized she was just on her underwear.
"They were too thick and a bit dirty. I had to take them to the laundry..."
"Damn! That's even more embarrassing!"
"Oh, and there's soap in the bathroom," Mark added. "You might want to clean up a little. You smell."
Diana glared at him, kind of to gesture him to leave so she could step down from the bed with her half nakedness.
"Go away!" She said when she realized he was not leaving anytime soon...
"No.. I'll wait... I had been waiting for six hours now for you to open your eyes..." Mark responded.
Diana got perplexed and heaved a sigh of relief as he got down from the bed with the blanket wrapped around her body like a Nigerian wrapper... She felt a need to cover up her body, she was on her menstrual circle and her pants were stained, she could feel it.
She wondered if Mark was the one who removed her clothes. She tried to convince herself it was not, since a relationship Subsist between them but it didn't matter.
The clothes Mark picked for her looked ridiculous. She had to roll the legs on the jeans up several times before she stopped tripping on them, and the plunging neckline of the blue tank top only emphasized her lack of what her children would have called a "rack."
She cleaned up in the small bathroom, using a bar of hard Premiere soap. Drying herself with a white hand towel. It left her damp hair straggling around her face in fragrant tangles. She squinted at her reflection in the mirror. There was a purpling bruise high up on her left cheek, and her lips were dry and swollen.
I have to call Otani, she thought. But, her phone was not with her... Surely Mark knows where her cellphone would be.
She found her a sketchpad that was Marked with SLJ placed neatly at the foot of the bedroom, it obviously belonged to her son, Legacy. That was his initial. How did it get here? She picked it up and saw a fine art work drafted on it. Who else if not by Legacy?
The drawing was so realistic like a photo. It was that of Mark. Maybe Mark had managed to get hold of it somehow or maybe Legacy specifically drew it and gave it to him. He was overly capable of that.
Diana took a deep breathe and she slide into her shoes and exited the room to find Mark. Mark left few minutes ago, an urgency called him out.