MOVING IN

Aletha was watching TV when she heard sounds of footsteps coming from outside. Not expecting any guests, she wondered who it was, so she stood up and peeked. Two men dressed in suits, along with a young couple, were walking around their home. Thinking that they were from the Pinkertons, Aletha opened the door and greeted them.

"Good day ma'am," one of the man in suits responded. "We are from the real estate, and these two, the young couple, is our client. They are the new owners of this home."

"New owners of this home? What are you talking about?" she could not help but show her shock.

"The house, this house. Are you Mrs Noels, ma'am?"

"Yes I am," she snapped.

"Then I would assume that you know that this house was sold and paid for in cash. This couple here now owns his place."

"Impossible!" Aletha cried out.

"You may need to call your husband, ma'am."

With shaking hands, Aletha dialed Travis' number, and he answered. She asked him what was going on about the house being sold. She seriously believed that there was an error, yet to her shock, her husband confirmed it by saying,

"I'm sorry but I was going to tell you."

Aletha could not believe it. It was in broad daylight, yet she saw a bit of darkness and her knees almost gave in.

"You were not aware of this, ma'am?"

She shook her head. Why Travis, why? The house was in his name, so it was very possible for him to just sell it without informing his wife. But it was their house! Their home; their first and only house!

"We came here a few days back to view the house. You were not around when we came, but Mr Noels showed us around," the man from the real estate explained.

Aletha did not need to hear anything more. She just moved back in the house, sat on the sofa and started to cry.

***.

The evening of the day saw the Noels arriving at the Pinkerton mansion, with everything of theirs. After having explained their dilemma to the Pinkertons, the later said they could assist by booking the couple in a hotel for a few days, while they looked for a new house to buy.

"What made you sell the house?" Vine's grandfather asked Travis.

"We had serious financial problems, and when we couldn't pay our debts, that was the only way out." He lied.

Aletha was seriously enraged. Considering that she was not aware of why the house had been sold, and where the proceeds from the sale were, she felt cheated and let down, and she hated Travis for it.

"For today, I think you can spend the night here. It's a good time for us to chat and get to know each other better. You can check into the hotel tomorrow," Vine's grandmother said.

Having no energy to argue or even to talk at all, Aletha just nodded her head. She was itching for the time when she and Travis would be alone, so that she would curse him to her heat's satisfaction.

Kiara was also shocked at the way things had turned out for her parents. Her parents were shown into the suite which they were going to use, and Kiara went in there to talk with them. She asked her father why he decided to sell the house, without even telling his mother, and the man said he needed to cover some debts.

"What debts, dad? Mum knows nothing about the said debts."

Travis did not respond but instead asked to carry his grandson.

Kiara would not have anything of it. She did not hand over the child but asked,

"Dad you will have to tell me why you sold the house, and moreso without mum's knowledge and consent."

"I urgently needed the money, Kiara! And I was going to tell her."

"You needed money for what, Travis? Now here we are, acting like homeless beggars, because of you! And what pains me most, Travis, is that you are not even apologetic. You speak of it as if you have just sold a bag of rice, which won't mean much to anyone. This is a house we are talking about here, Travis. Why can't you see that what you have done is wrong, and for once please own up to your errors?" Aletha finally spoke up.

"Ok, if you want me to apologise, then I am sorry."

"Travis, that is not an apology. An apology should come from your heart, and you must mean it."

Aletha turned to face her daughter and she said, "Do you know that in addition to selling the house, your dad also wiped off our savings account. There is nothing in that account as we speak now. If it wasn't for the Pinkertons, we would not be able to book ourselves in a hotel for just one night. God, I don't know what I did to end up in this mess. This is very embarrassing, now we have to bother people coming here and inconveniencing everyone. Travis, what have you done?" she started to cry again.

Travis, unmoved by his wife's tears, simply shrugged and decided to say anything anymore.

The situation was very tense, so Kiara decided to leave her parents alone.

"Good night mum," she kissed her mum and acted as if her father was not even in the room.

"Let me talk to you for a short while," Aletha held her daughter's hand and led her into the next room.

"I'm very sorry that we ended up here. We do have some places where we could have gone to, but trust me, it appears like your dad had everything planned. While I was still in shock and struggling to accept the reality, he already had a movers truck and they were given the instruction to come here. I have never been this embarrassed before."

"Where would you have gone to, mum? Here in this town we don't have any relatives. So where are the things? The furniture that you brought?"

"It was packed in the basement. Oh, I have never been this embarrassed in my entire life."

"It has already happened mum, don't be too hard on yourself."

"And now the Pinkertons want to buy us a house? What did Travis do! Jesus Christ!"

"Don't cry, mum. Everything shall be well. Do you know why he needed the money? Don't you have access to his account? Check and see where he had transferred the money to. You two have a joint account, don't you?"

"We do, but when the house was paid for, he must have had the money transferred to his personal bank account. All I can see from our joint account is that he transferred everything to his personal account."

"Oh! When did he do this?"

"On the 29th of December, the day when Vincent was born. Can you believe it, that while we were all celebrating the new bundle, someone was busy doing that?"

"Is it possible for you to sue him? Take him to court?"

"My child, I don't even know if I have the strength to do that."

"We could ask for a lawyer and hear how best to handle this."

"And who will be paying for the layer, my child? I don't want to take any more money from the Pinkertons. It's best that we just leave it as it is, for now. I'm also still under a lot of shock, so I need time to recover and regain myself, then I will map a good way forward."

"I'm really sorry that you have to go through this, mum."

The two ladies hugged each other and assured each other that everything was going to be fine.

Back in her own room, Kiara entered to see Vine waiting for her. Sitting on the table, he was scrolling through his phone when Kiara opened the door, and he silently stood up and took Vincent. Kiara's stomach instantly knotted up, for she was not sure what Vine was going to say, but she was certain that whatever it was, it was going to be nasty. She was right, because he said,

"The drawback of having any relations with the financially disadvantaged is that they will always run to you and expect you to take care of them, literally."

She did not respond but went to sit on a chair, praying in her heart that Vine would not say anything more.

"I need you to tell me this; if you had not found a way to be in this mansion, and your parents were to become homeless, as they are now, where would they have gone to? Trust me I never knew that there was anyone by the name of Travis Noels, before you came here. We hardly know each other, and you have the guts to invite them here?"

"I did not invite them, Vine. My parents will be out tomorrow, I'm sorry that their presence has inconvenienced you."

"They will be physically out tomorrow, but when it comes to finances, they shall always draw from the Pinkerton pocket."

Vine stood up and walked towards the door.

"I'll be in my room playing with my son. Come and take him after twenty or so minutes." He said before closing the door.

***

Dear Kimmy

My new Kimmy, my new diary, I am happy to have you. My very best friend, the one I can pour out my heart to, welcome to my world. For the entire year, you and I shall be inseparable.

And today, the day that I meet you for the first time, I must confess that from what life has shown me so far, I can conclude that both my mother and I are not blessed in marriages. We endure them instead of enjoying them.

I have been in it for a few weeks, but it is painful. I dread to imagine what contents will fill your pages, dear Kimmy. As we move from January to February, to March and so on until we reach December, what will I have filled in these pages?

Will you still be intact, my dear Kimmy, or your pages will be all torn from the tears.

I don't want any more tears, Kimmy, yet from the way I see it, I would say we're still a long way from saying goodbye to tears.

Dear Kimmy, sometimes I really wish you could talk back to me.