Some seconds later, her husband Dr. Abayomi Da-Silva like he fondly loved to be addressed at occasions suddenly woke when a high-pitched scream penetrated through his sleepy mind.
He jumped up from the bed and panicked when he didn't see his wife lying beside him.
"Regina!?" He called her name sharply. When he didn't hear her answer, he picked his phone and started dialing the estate security. Then he changes his mind and quickly canceled the call before it connected.
'What will I tell them made me call?... That I heard my wife screamed!?... You better don't make a fool of yourself when you know Regina could scream down the whole estate at the sight of even an ordinary spider.' He told himself
But just in case she didn't scream because of a spider, Abayomi opened the drawer by his side of the bed and brought out his fully loaded Glock 19. Quietly, he opened the bedroom door and first peeked outside before stepping into the hallway.
His wife was nowhere around. 'Where could she have been?... How could she just go silent after a scream like that?... This certainly wasn't a scream caused by the sight of a spider. The spider scream was always non-stop until somebody could get rid of the darn creature for her.
He tiptoed down the hall, training his gun right, and then left like it was done in the movies, as he walked down till he got to the stairwell. He was about tiptoeing down the stairs when he heard the familiar voice of his mother
"Yomi please hurry down here when you're done playing James Bond! How much longer can you people delayed my beauty sleep and make me wait for?"
Abayomi smiled and then let his outstretched hands fell to his side with relief
"I should have guessed it was you mami... Good morning ma!" He said as he walked past his wife who was still standing by the foot of the stairs, obviously frightened out of her wits. He moved over to where Mama Silver was sitting and kissed her on her cheek.
Her mother-in-law is a good woman but the way she sometimes appears when you least expected at an odd time of the day just frightened and creeps her out. Regina looked at the grand elderly woman with white hair who was also dressed in white and couldn't help but compare her to an angel. All she needed to complete the look was a pair of wings.
"Go bring your wife over here to sit she looks pretty shaken." Mama Silver told her son
"I'm sure she's fine mami..." He said nonchalantly before snapping "Regina please don't be dramatic! As you can see that it's my mom that came to visit, so please snap out of it and come sit down!"
"Regina dear, please come sit. I'm sorry I came in unannounced. I never mean to scare you in your own home. I had no choice since it is hard to get you both during the day and the only time that you actually come to visit me is during festive periods."
Regina finally moved from where she was standing to take a seat near her husband.
"And you, since you're not hunting bush meat then I would suggest you put that away right now before you mistakenly shoot somebody's foot off with it!" Mama Silver said to her son who immediately went back upstairs to keep the gun before he came back to his seat.
"So I'll go straight to the point in order not to waste any more of our time... I came here five years ago and asked both of you to carry out some rituals on behalf of Ayinke, did you do it?" Mama Silver looked at the faces of the couple before her, eager to hear what their excuses would be.
"Yeah, we did! I bought everything on the list you gave us, but since I was about to go on a business trip when you came and we don't really need the two of us to deliver the items to the orphanages, I left that to her mother to carry out." He said looking at his wife
Mama Silver then looked from her son to his wife to hear what she has to say for herself.
"Yes ma, he's right, we did it!"That was the only thing she said.
"Okay, but which orphanages did you take the items to?"
"I didn't take them by myself, I sent..." Regina was saying before she was interrupted by her husband
"What!?... You didn't deliver them yourself?..." Abayomi looked towards his wife with surprise. "I don't understand... I could remember I called you when I got to the State to ask how you were managing and you told me you were at St. Saviour orphanage home... Right!?" He asked his wife with a frown on his face.
"Regina isn't that right!?..." He snapped when she didn't answer and couldn't look him in the face.
'Yes! But that was where they told me they took the items to... I-I sent Saheed and Remi and then I-I..."
"Saheed and Remi... Who are those again?..." He asked with confusion, cutting her short mid-sentence
"My driver and the house help we had then..."
"Regina! How could you!?... You clearly heard when mom said we should handle these by ourselves!... Since I bought everything by myself without sending my secretary, I expected you to..."
"Enough, please!... I didn't come to watch an argument play out between the two of you, so please spare me the drama!... Birds of a feather!...
"Birds of a feather!?... But mami I did my part, why are you blaming me for her mistake?...
"Mistake!?..." Mama Silver looked at Abayomi like he just uttered the stupidest word ever.
"How could you called what you both did a mistake!?... Do you know how much chaos you brought into her life by that said MISTAKE!?...
The unnecessary hatred you felt for her was because of that MISTAKE!
"We didn't hate her mami..." Abayomi said But Mama Silver continued talking like she didn't hear him speak.
"The bad behaviors and expulsion from school were because of that MISTAKE!"
"The partying, smoking and drinking were caused by that MISTAKE!"
A good mother would prophesy good things into her unborn child's life when she conceives... Not you Regina! You hated her from the first day you conceived... You grumbled! You cried! You hissed and wished all sort of bad things on her... You would have aborted her if I did not offer to take care of her!
"It was just a bad time for me to be pregnant Mami!... I had a lot going for me then that taking care of a child would have ruined! My hard work would have gone down the drain."
"Really!?..." Mama Silver looked at Regina and scoffed. "Okay, what about birthdays?... Did it ever occur to you at any time in your life to send your child, even a doll on any of her birthdays!?...
Let's give it to him..." Mama Silver looked towards her son and said sarcastically "At least he paid her school fees and... That's it! Apart from her school fees that he paid, he never cared for her one bit "
"You both are her parents! Don't you feel some kind of love towards her!?... What a stupid question!... Of course, I know you don't!... YOU ALL DON'T!..." Mama Silver spoke louder so her grandson who has been listening in on their conversation would know she knew he was there all along
"Do you know why you don't feel any connection towards her?... It was because of that single act of MISTAKE that you both made, five years ago...
Anyways, I just came to inform you both that your daughter is getting married before you hear it on the news... And before you start wondering, she's not pregnant out of wedlock. Unlike you both, that got each other pregnant while in high school!" Mama Silver said the last part spitefully before rising from her seat.
"According to tradition, you as the parents will receive the wine that confirms MY daughter's husband met her as a virgin... I just hope you will not choke on it" She said finally and suddenly disappear from their presence just like she came