203 I Demand To Be Respected


    Leon felt something very cold and at the same time, extremely hot, wash over him. He slowly turned away from his mum and faced E squarely with a dangerous spark in his eyes. All the veins in his body expanded and blood that felt likeva flowed in and out of his drumming-poisoned heart.


    Instantly, all the crying ceased in the room and every pair of eyes was focused on Leon and E. For a moment, it felt as though the dead rose and started watching the unfolding drama.


    “What did you just say!” Leon stressed each word between clenched jaw. Each stressed word was lined with anger and bitterness.


    “Yes!” Yvonne celebrated inwardly as she happily envisioned the downfall of E.


    E swallowed hard and breathed in to control her pounding heart.


    “Be tough, be strong, look him back in the eyes, and tell him that he’s going to be a father.”


    E thought she heard a voice whisper into her ears. She looked around weirdly before focusing all her attention on Leon.


    She felt an unusual force envelop and emboldened her. Feeling fearless, she stared at Leon right back in the eyes.


    “I am currently two months pregnant for you and you’re going to be a...”


    .....


    “Don’t you dare use that word! Don’t!” Leon boomed in an ominous tone, causing everyone in the room to tremble, except Maxwell and an emboldened E.


    This was the first time Leon had shouted at E since they got married and it hurt her deeply. She shut her eyes momentarily and opened them while gazing at Leon with an unquenchable fire in her eyes.


    “Leon Treshvire, you’re going to be a father,” E said defiantly between tightened jaw before storming out of the room to her bedroom.


    “E!” Leon followed after her like a wounded lion trying to regain its honor.


    Maxwell quickly reached out to the funeral director and told him to quicklye over with an ambnce, to pick up his dead mother and brother’s body. The bodies were to be preserved in the crematorium until the day of the funeral ceremony and cremation.


    Then he walked over to their corpses, ced them properly on the bed, and kissed both of them on their forehead before covering them up with a white bed sheet.


    All the while Maxwell attended to his dead brother and mother, Marissa just stood helplessly, staring at him. Her emotions were all over the ce.


    “Two months pregnant!” Marissa mused inaudibly. She took weak steps backward and sat down on a seat close by. “She is two months pregnant and has sessfully kept it away from Leon! How?”


    She remembered how Nana Esther hadvished her with so much love the first time she found out that she was pregnant with Yvonne. It even got to the point that she became the envy of her own family and friends due to the excessive pampering she got from Nana Esther.


    “No wonder Nana Esther had been glued to E.” Marissa nodded her head in realization. “She must have known that E was pregnant. Could it be that Rex also knew? Because he always wanted a child from Leon? Hmm! Although I love children, I still hate that girl for all the trouble she had caused my family.”


    Maxwell stared at Marissa and Yvonne. He shook his head from side to side in disappointment and said; “I hope the both of you are happy with the trouble you’ve just instigated for the young couple.”


    Marissa raised her head and stared at him quizzically but didn’t reply.


    “Uncle Max, E attacked mest night. She pped me thrice.”


    “And as usual, you did nothing to provoke her, right?” Maxwell asked irritably.


    “No, I didn’t! I just found out she was pregnant and hiding it from Leon. So I confronted her and she ended up attacking me. She almost fought mum when mum came to my rescue.”


    “That’s so not true!” Ivory shouted from where she was standing in E’s defense.


    “Shut your mouth, you little backstabbing sister.”


    “Call me any name you like but I won’t keep shut and watch you destroy E. You kept pushing Est night until she had no choice but to fight back.”


    “You are lying, Ivory. You are such a despicable liar!”


    “Enough with the name-calling!” Maxwell’s face contoured in displeasure. “You all can leave this room if you have nothing to do but fight. Don’t any of you have respect for the dead?”


    Marissa started crying all over again. She stood up and left the room, with Yvonne tagging along.


    “I’m so sorry, uncle Max. I’m sorry dad and Nana.” Ivory sobbed quietly.


    She walked up to her uncle holding a white envelope in her hands. She handed the envelope over to him and was about to leave when Maxwell gently pulled her into his arms and soothed her. Then he led her out of the room, to allow the dead to rest in peace.


    “It’s okay Ivory. Thank you for looking out for E. You are a great sister-inw and your dad and Nana are proud of you.”


    “Thank you, uncle Max. I just pray Leon and E wouldn’t separate over this.”


    “Don’t worry about that. E is tougher than you can ever imagine.” Maxwell grinned as he thought about her feisty response to Leon’s threat. “She is the only person that can tame your brother.”


    ———


    When E stormed into her bedroom, she mmed the door shut fiercely and started pacing up and down to calm her raging hormones.


    It didn’t take up to five seconds before Leon barged into the room and shut the door angrily causing the door to vibrate.


    He clenched and unclenched his fist in other to control his rampaging emotions before walking up to E.


    “E, sit down so that we can talk.” He said in an icy tone. The chillness of his tone could freeze ake but surprisingly, it had no effect on E.


    On the contrary, E’s enraged mood was stifling his very soul; taking away his leftover peace of mind.


    E stopped pacing and red at him.


    “I will not sit down until you apologize to me for raising your voice at me in the presence of your family. I’m your wife and I demand to be respected.”