He was rushed to one of the wards to be revived. When he was better, he asked of his son. “He is in a coma Dad. The doctor said when he fell, he hit his head very hard on the ground. Robert sat up on the hospital bed and asked Sarah if she was sure of what she just said. Sarah nodded and tears began to fill her eyes. Geraldine sat quietly on the chair close to his bed, she didn’t have the strength to speak. Robert held her hand trying to console her, but it only made her cry. She got up angrily and went out of the ward, she needed to see Lisa for more answers. Sarah followed her, she feared she would do something crazy. Lisa was still waiting at the reception with Vanessa. “Lisa! Geraldine called angrily. Lisa was scared to respond. “Ma’am please I know you are upset, we are all very worried about Samuel but it really wasn’t Lisa’s fault. They happened to be in the same bank at the same time.” “Vanessa I didn’t come to speak to you, I mentioned Lisa’s name. She is the one I want to speak to.” Geraldine said angrily. “Now Lisa tell me what exactly happened. How come only my son was injured? Did you plan with these robbers to kill my baby?!” Lisa was surprised at the question. It hurt her that Geraldine hated her so much. She knew she never liked her but she never expected it to grow into hate. Lisa didn’t know what to say, she started to stammer, ”We..we ..I..I didn…didn’t know he was even in the bank. He came….he came from no..no..nowhere.” She was still talking to Geraldine when Greg arrived at the hospital with Serena and Abeiku. Lisa was relieved to see them at least she had someone who would protect her if Geraldine tried to attack her again. She hugged Greg and began to cry in his arms. “It is fine! I am here honey. Don’t cry. Don’t cry.” Greg said. Geraldine was disgusted by them and went back with Sarah into Robert’s ward. “What happened? Do you know I was just with Samuel a couple of hours ago? I was surprised to see him on the news that he was shot.” Greg said to Vanessa and Lisa. “Why were you with him? I thought you guys were no longer friends?” Lisa asked. “We actually meet once each week at his office or mine to design our house. I am so worried, are you sure he is going to come out of this? This is really bad.” Greg said sadly. They all sighed and consoled each other. Serena was tired, bored and hungry. “I am hungry mummy, she said to her mother. Lisa looked at Greg sadly. “Come here baby, mummy is not feeling fine. Let’s go get some snacks. Serena nodded and left with Greg, Abeiku joined them to get something for Vanessa. Lisa and Vanessa looked at them as they left, they were still looking at them when they saw two familiar faces. Philip and Gloria, their school mates. Lisa couldn’t believe her eyes. Vanessa began to laugh, she was too tired to wear a frown. Philip’s heart skipped a beat when he saw them, but Gloria was very happy to see them. “Lisa and Vanessa? My God! I’m I seeing right? Where have you been?” Gloria said excitedly and hugged them both. “I can see you heard the sad news about Samuel, Lisa you must be devastated. I really hope he survives this” Gloria added. Lisa and Vanessa nodded in agreement. Philip was still quiet with Jason in his hand. Vanessa saw Jason and was a little confused as to why Philip had Samuel’s son. “I can see you brought Samuel’s son. Don’t you think he is too young to understand what his father is going through?” Vanessa asked. Gloria laughed. “Who Jason? He is our son. Philip and I. Why, what did Samuel tell you?” Gloria asked. Vanessa was shocked, so was Lisa. “Is that the child you were pregnant with at school?” Lisa asked. Gloria nodded. They didn’t say another word they just smiled.
Lisa was a little relieved to find out Samuel didn’t have a son. Gloria was surprised Philip hasn’t said a word to Lisa, and she knew they used to be very close back in school. “Ah! Philip haven’t you see your sweetheart Lisa?” Gloria said jokingly. Lisa turned to look at Vanessa’s face, they were both surprised. It was very obvious Philip never told Gloria what happened between him and Lisa way back in school, so to quickly change the subject, Lisa asked Gloria what she was doing with her life after school. Gloria was just about to answer when she saw Geraldine walking up to her. “You made it, when did you get here? Geraldine asked Gloria as she gave her a hug. “About 10 minutes ago, I was just saying hello to Lisa and Vanessa.” Gloria answered. Geraldine acted as if she didn’t hear Gloria and went straight to Philip and took Jason into her arms. He gave Philip a peck and started talking to him about Samuel’s condition. Greg, Abeiku and Serena arrived few minutes after with some snacks. They greeted Philip and Geraldine but they didn’t respond. Greg walked to Lisa and gave her snacks to her, he smiled when he saw Gloria. “Hello I am Greg, Lisa’s husband.” “Beautiful! I am Gloria an old friend of Lisa and Vanessa and that’s my husband Philip and son Jason” Gloria said pointing at Philip. Greg was confused because he knew Jason to be Samuel’s son. “Wow? And who is this pretty Angel? She looks just like you Lisa. Oh my God! Don’t tell me she’s yours?” Gloria said excitedly. Lisa nodded and smiled. She suddenly remembered that Gloria knew her from the beginning and judging from the fact that Philip never told her about the big fight, Gloria was clueless and was likely to spill the beans right in front of Greg. Vanessa tried pulling Gloria aside so she wouldn’t say anything crazy, but Gloria was filled with so much excitement and didn’t actually get what Vanessa was up to. She reached out to take Serena from Greg. “Wow! She is very pretty Lisa. I am really happy for you both. She actually has Samuel’s eyes but she has your lovely nose.” Gloria said as she touched Serena’s little nose. The whole place became very quiet. Lisa covered her mouth in shock with her heart beating fast. She completely forgot Gloria was such a big mouth. “What did you just say?! Samuel’s eyes?” Geraldine asked surprisingly. “I think she meant to say Greg, with all that’s going on with Samuel, that’s the first name she could think of.” Lisa said quickly and took Serena from Gloria. Gloria was confused. Philip quickly pulled her away from Lisa and took her outside. “Are you insane?! What stupid thing did you just say in there?” Philip said angrily. “Is that not Samuel and Lisa’s baby? Gloria asked. “No! And try to stay quiet in there. You are such a talkative!” Philip said angrily to his wife and went back inside. Gloria watched him as he walked back inside, she was confused and was surprised Philip was acting that way towards her. She noticed when she got married to him, he stopped talking about Lisa and got upset any time she brought her name up but she had no idea Philip hated her this much. She didn’t understand what was going on but decided to stay quiet. Greg on the other hand understood everything and the name Samuel rang a bell when Gloria mentioned it. He remembered the first time he met Lisa, she told him Samuel was the name of Serena Vanessa’s father. He was hoping it would be another Samuel and not this Samuel. He pulled Lisa aside and asked her what was really going on. Lisa was trying very hard to choose her words well so she doesn’t upset Greg but she couldn’t find any. She just stayed quiet and that annoyed Greg even more. “Who is this Samuel your friend just mentioned?! Is it the same Samuel fighting for his life in this hospital?” At that moment, Lisa wanted to just say no but she felt she had hidden the truth way to long and she was hurting a lot of people. She just nodded and Greg closed his eyes, he couldn’t bear the pain he was feeling inside. He opened his eyes and looked at Lisa for a while and walked away without saying a word. Abeiku saw as Greg stomped out of the hospital and followed him out. “Hey..slow down what happened?” he asked. Greg was not in the mood to talk, he just got into his car and drove off. Abeiku has never seen his friend this upset, he was very confused. Lisa went to sit by Vanessa, she didn’t say a word but Vanessa understood her perfectly and held her hand. Geraldine looked closely at Serena as she sat on her mother’s laps, she tried to deny it but Serena looked a little like her daughter Melissa when she was about five. She got closer to Lisa and asked her if Serena was really Samuel’s child? Lisa was shocked by the question she looked at Vanessa and Abeiku and back at Geraldine. “Yes please Serena is Samuel’s daughter. I didn’t have an abortion. I had her when she was 7months because I nearly lost her when I fell down a stairs in school. She was in an incubator for months. I never told Samuel because I didn’t want to trouble him, I wanted to wait for him to come back to Ghana so he saw her for himself but when he came down his mind had already been poisoned by his best friend and he was furious. All he wanted was to break up so I broke up with him.” Vanessa was upset by the way Lisa was telling the story, she knew Lisa was trying to hide some very important details. She rudely interrupted Lisa. “Lisa you need to let everything out and be completely free we both know you are not saying the entire truth.” Vanessa said angrily and looked at Philip “What are you saying Vanessa?” Geraldine asked. Philip started to feel uneasy and tried to interrupt Vanessa. “Don’t you dare say a word Philip, I am not as calm and good as Lisa. If it wasn’t for Lisa you would be rotting in jail by now.” Gloria wasn’t happy with the way Vanessa spoke to her husband. “Vanessa I won’t have you speaking to my husband like that. What has gotten into you?” Geraldine wanted to hear what Vanessa had to say. “Vanessa, what is happening here why would Philip be in jail, what did he do?” “Ma’am…Philip tried to kill Lisa and the baby. That night when she fell off the stairs, it was Philip who pushed her down the stairs. He was in love with her and couldn’t bear to see her pregnant with Samuel’s baby and constantly told Lisa to have an abortion. He left her when she was bleeding, thinking she had lost the baby. I was in the room and was wondering why Lisa had kept long in escorting Philip, so I went to check on her only to find Lisa unconscious. I called for help and we rushed her to the hospital, she could have died. I was bent on arresting Philip but Lisa said she didn’t want to press any charges because she knew Gloria was also pregnant and would need Philip around. She also didn’t want to waste her time at the police station, all she wanted to do was to take care of Serena and focus on completing school. I was angry with Lisa for months but I eventually understood her and let everything go.” Tears filled Geraldine’s eyes, she couldn’t believe she had hated Lisa for no reason. She went to Lisa and hugged her. Greg heard everything from the door, he regretted walking out on Lisa and returned to apologise. He got angry and went straight to Philip, he hit his chest and pushed him to the ground. Abeiku quickly went to pull him aside. “Greg, he is not worth it. Relax.” “I will have you locked up Philip, you mark my words.” Greg said angrily. Sarah came out from Robert’s room to see what was going on at the reception. “What is going on here?” she asked looking at Gloria. The nurses angrily asked everybody to leave the hospital. “This is a hospital not a boxing ring. I am afraid I will have to ask you all to wait outside.” Philip angrily stomped out and Gloria quickly carried Jason and followed her husband. Greg knew he wanted to escape arrest so he quickly followed him and took a photograph of Philip’s license plate with his phone and called his friend the Inspector General
of Police to have Philip arrested immediately. Lisa felt a sense of relief, she had been carrying that burden too long. She hugged her best friend and thanked her. “I couldn’t have done this without you Vanessa.” Vanessa smiled. “What did I do? Haven’t you seen your husband being all macho fighting for your honour and all? I didn’t know Greg could fight like that.” Vanessa said jokingly. Lisa laughed and went to her husband. “I am very sorry I didn’t tell you who Samuel really was to me. Everything happened so fast and you became fast friends with him, I guess I was looking for the right time.” Greg smiled. “I understand Lisa, everything happens for a very good reason. I am not angry with you, at least now the truth is out.” I will make sure that scoundrel Philip stays in jail for hurting you my beautiful princess” Greg said and kissed his wife.