My Sister, the Serial Killer - oyinkan braithwaite Page 0,26

the roses pale in comparison to the ones that Tade sent her. “Let me take you out.”

“Okay, I’ll need to get changed. Korede, will you keep Gboye company?” She has already dashed back upstairs before I can say no. Still, I set out to ignore her request and follow her up.

“So, you’re a nurse?” he says to my retreating back. I stop and sigh.

“And you’re married,” I reply.

“What?”

“Your ring finger, the part where your ring would sit is lighter than the rest.”

He shakes his head and smiles. “Ayoola knows.”

“Yeah. I’m sure she does.”

“I care about her. I want her to have the best of everything,” he tells me. “I gave her the capital for her fashion business, you know, and paid for her course.”

I’m surprised. She had told me that she paid for it herself—from the revenue from her YouTube videos. She had even piously lectured me for my lack of business sense. The more he talks, the more I realize that I am a maga—a fool who has been taken advantage of. Gboyega is not the problem, he is just another man, another person being used by Ayoola. If anything, he should be pitied. I want to tell him how much we have in common, though he boasts of the things he has done for her while I begin to resent the things that I have done. In solidarity, and to get him to be quiet, I offer him some cake.

“Sure, I love cake. Do you have tea?”

I nod. As I pass him, he winks at me.

“Korede.” He pauses. “ Ẹ j ọ o, don’t spit in my tea.”

I give the house girl the necessary instructions and then cut through the kitchen and charge up the back stairs to interrogate Ayoola. She is applying eyeliner to her lower lids.

“What the hell is going on here?”

“This is why I didn’t tell you. You are so judgmental.”

“Are you serious? He tells me he paid for your fashion course. You said you raised the funds.”

“I found a sponsor. Same difference.”

“What about your…what about Tade?”

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Besides, can you blame me for wanting a little excitement in my life? Tade can be so boring. And he is needy. Abeg, I need a break.”

“What is wrong with you? When are you going to stop?!”

“Stop what?”

“Ayoola, you better send this man on his way, or I swear I’ll—”

“You’ll what?” She raises her chin and stares at me.

I don’t do anything. I want to threaten her, to tell her that if she doesn’t listen to me, she will have to deal with the consequences of her actions by herself for once. I want to shout and scream, but I would be screaming at a wall. I storm off to my bedroom. Thirty minutes later, she leaves the house with Gboyega.

She doesn’t return till 1 a.m.

I don’t sleep till 1 a.m.

FATHER

He often came home late. But I remember this night, because he wasn’t alone. There was a yellow woman on his arm. We came out of my room because Mum was screaming, and there they were on the landing. My mother was wearing a camisole and her wrapper, her usual nightwear.

She never raised her voice to him. But that night, she was like a banshee; her fro was free of its bands and restraints, adding to the illusion of madness. She was Medusa and they were statues before her. She went to wrench the woman off his arm.

“ Ẹ gbà mí o! Ṣ ’o fẹ́ b’alé mi jẹ́? Ṣ ’o fẹ́ yí mi lọ́rí ni? Olúwa k’ ọjú sí mi!” She wasn’t even screaming at her husband—it was the interloper whom she was mad at. I remember hissing at my mother, even though there were tears in my eyes. I remember thinking how silly she looked, so worked up as he stood tall and impassive before her.

He looked at his wife with indifference. “If you don’t shut up now, I will deal with you,” he informed her firmly.

Beside me, Ayoola held her breath. He always carried out his threats. But this time my mother was oblivious, she was embroiled in a tug of war with the woman, who, though she looked like an adult to me then, I now know couldn’t have been older than twenty. I understand now, too, that though my mother must have been aware of his indiscretions, having them take place in her home was more than she could bear.

“Free me!” the girl cried, trying to retrieve her