Part 53
I LOVE YOU, BUT….
Opeyemi Akintunde

Beauty could hear the noise of jubilation in Lara’s house as she sat in what appeared to be their living room. Yewande held her hand.

“They are happy!” Yewande said to Beauty.
“I can tell, I hope I get the same response when I get to my grandmother’s place. You know I ran away from home.”

“I remember the story we were told at our school fellowship. The title is the prodigal son. The son had left home and squandered all his money, but when he returned home, his father accepted him. I believe your grandmother will still accept you” Yewande said.

Beauty’s heart wanted to explode. That touched her deep down.
“When it’s morning, I will want to be on my way.” Beauty announced ” But where would you go to?”

“We don’t know, my mother said she can’t remember the name or house of any relative in Nigeria. Like I told you, all her family members do not stay here, they live in Wisconsin.”

“Then we go together, my grandmother is a very accommodating person.

“Thank you!” Yewande’s mother spoke finally . She had been weeping ever since they got out of the compound.
***
Baba Shagba could feel his heart palpitation. He felt his heart was going to burst out of his body…
“My Power house of over 20 years cannot burn down just like that!” He kept encouraging himself.He had been calling Chigozie but she wasn’t picking up the call.
When the number eventually stopped ringing, he knew there was really fire
on the mountain.
***
Winter had slept off and the left earpiece had fallen off her ear. She could hear heavy footsteps approaching her room…

“Who is that?” She said jumping up from the bed.
” Baba Shagba…Baba Shagba…Is that you?” Winter rushed to the door to lock herself in, but it was too late.

A very strong hand pushed the door back.
Winter fell to the floor and as she looked up she saw three fierce looking military men with Pamilerin.

Winter was too shocked to think…
” Pam…pam…” She stuttered.
***
Baba Shagba got to his house at 5am.
He saw the ruins of his house, there was nothing left in his compound.
Everything had been brought down to ruins. What he saw was smoke and ashes.

He walked into the compound hoping it was all a dream. He went straight to his power room and nothing was left. Everything got destroyed. He however saw, a burnt human shape. On looking closely, he could tell it was Chigozie.
No one helped Chigozie. She had died in the fire….

Baba Shagba’s heart could not bear it, his heart failed and he fell to the ground like a pack of cards…
***
Aina had insisted Ajoke stay till around 7am, before she left for the city.
As Ajoke was leaving the church compound, some of the women who had gone to the stream to get water very early came rushing in…

“Mama Church! Iya Rolake is dead. Her body was dropped by the stream…”
One of the woman shouted.
“Ha!” Mama Church exclaimed . Ajoke saw the look of pain in Aina’s face.
She knew Aina wished Iya Rolake had repented instead of dying.

“She eventually made it to Kiniun’s place. Something terrible must have happened there. They dumped her by the stream we all share so that her family would see her…” One of the women Lamented.

Ajoke dropped her bag and walked back to Aina.
“Mama Church, I know you wished she repented, but like you know, there
are unrelenting enemies who are not ready for repentance.

I am sure it was our prayer that saved my daughter and I overnight. Iya Rolake went to Kiniun to have me killed. I heard you preaching last sunday that God will
give men for our lives. That body by the stream could have been me if Iya Rolake had succeeded at Kiniun’s place.” Ajoke said.

“Hmm, you are right. I am sorry for looking unhappy. I am just passionate about souls. It’s not God’s will for a sinner to die without repentance, but the Bible says we should suffer no witch to live. It is the unrelenting kind of witches like Iya Rolake that the Bible was referring to.”

“May her soul rest in peace.” Ajoke said.
“That can only happen if she had given her life to Christ, which I doubt.
When a sinner dies, they don’t rest in peace, they gnash their teeth in hell.”

“Hmm….”

“Go on, go and meet your daughter. God’s protection goes with you.” Mama Church said praying for Ajoke.
***
“I will talk, I promise.” Winter had been put under serious torture for over an hour. The military kind of torture.

Dearest Dad was best friends with a Colonel. He had asked his friend for the favour that midnight and immediately he had sent some of his junior officers to his house. Together, with Pamilerin and Dearest Dad, they had gone to Winter’s place.

“So are you ready to tell us who you are.?” Said one of the military officers Winter nodded…

“My name is Winter, but my birth name is Salome. My mother was a drug addict. My mother gave birth to me on the streets.

I was raised on the street, by the street and I had to learn to survive on the street. I had started living on my own at the age of 15 years old. Life was hard for me, I decided to travel to Italy for pr0stitution.

On getting to Italy, things turned out hard Italy pr0stitution was not lucrative, so one of my friends advised me I
should go with her to Jamaica. She told me, we could change our identity, get married to rich men, kill the men and inherit their money.
My friend and I went to Jamaica.

On getting to Jamaica, we didn’t find single rich men, so we decided to go for married rich men. We knew the only way to kill the man was to first kill his wife. So, I killed the wife of my husband.

“How?”

“Charm… I contacted a friend in Nigeria who introduced me to Baba Shagba…”

“How did she die?” One of the fearful looking soldiers questioned.

“By… by….accident, which was caused by Baba Shagba, afterwards I married the man and killed him too.”

Winter confessed everything she had done, and they had it recorded. The fear of the Soldiers made her blurt out everything.
Pamilerin heard everything as she sat in the next room. She wept sorely.

“God! Is that how I would have died…” Pamilerin said.
Winter said everything about Beauty and how Beauty was at Baba Shagba’s place.

The Colonel directed his soldiers to take Winter directly to the Inspector of police who was his friend. Dearest Dad had forwarded the audio recording to him.
He was so angry, he called the Inspector of police, telling him they had an international criminal. He also sent the audio recording to the Inspector of Police.
Winter was already at the Police headquarters by 6 am…

She couldn’t believe what was going on. Everything was happening so fast and unpredictable, she thought she was the master of scheming, but she could tell an Invisible hand was the one playing the present game of her being caught and ridiculed.

Her statement was taken. Immediately, investigation commenced and all her claims were ascertained.
In 24 hours, They had contacted the police department in Jamaica and it was verified that indeed she was married to a man who died six months after their marriage…

Same investigation was done for Canada.
They contacted her present husband who verified everything she had confessed including how his wife had died…

The police however could not charge her to court based on killing people diabolically; instead they worked hard to find what could be used to nail her. They succeeded by finding different cases of fraud related to her bank
accounts.

She confessed to duping a lot of people.
Her story was released by several media houses.
Through this, Beauty who had moved in with her grandmother heard about her arrest.

Beauty came out testifying against her on TV. Beauty said her side of the story, without exonerating herself, she said the areas she was guilty and further corroborated the fraudulent claim by proving Winter emptied her account.

Winter was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment with hard labour.

Pamilerin on the other hand returned home that same day after Winter was arrested.
It wasn’t easy for Freeman, he thought he had forgiven her, but on seeing her when Dearest Mom brought her back home, the memories of the video he had seen plagued him.

It took them two months of healing before they came back together as husband and Wife.
Beauty on the other hand started adjusting to being blind, however when she came out to testify against Winter, Timothy got to see her. He traced her and the day he saw her, the meeting was a delightful one.

Beauty had returned to her grandmother‟s with Yewande and her family were living with them.

Timothy had come to the house and his greeting of “Peace be unto this
house” woke Beauty from her sleep.
Beauty rushed to the entrance.
” Preacher…My preacher…Is that you?

Timothy broke down in tears as Beauty hugged him tightly…
” Thank you my Preacher, thank you…” She kept saying over and over.
” I will like you to speak with someone who we were interceding together on your behalf”

“Really?” Beauty said

“Yes..” Timothy did a video call to Mathew…
Mathew saw Beauty via the video call and the Word that God had been impressing in his heart for months made meaning ..

“I am giving you Beauty for your Ashes”
Mathew knew the blind lady was the woman God wanted to give him as a wife in replacement of his long time fiancee who left him to marry a wealthy sailor.

“Hello, Sis Beauty!” Mathew said.
Beauty’s heart skipped… She loved the texture of his voice…

Part 54 ‘Epilogue’
I LOVE YOU, BUT….
Opeyemi Akintunde

Pamilerin and Freeman were returning from Beauty’s wedding.Beauty had reached out to them after Winter was sentenced to prison…
She had asked for their forgiveness…

” I am sorry for all your family went through. My selfishness started this. If I had been mindful of you, I won’t have dated your husband… Emotions are real and we can’t help but feel it, but we must be wise and mindful of others.

I paid for my selfishness too, I can’t make use of my eyes but I am thankful for life” Beauty had said to Pamilerin and Freeman

“I am sorry for also leading you on, if I had stood my ground to be faithful to my family, all that won’t have happened. Remember, it takes two to tangle…I know the statement that started the whole fire was when I told you “I LOVE YOU, BUT my wife had to be dead before I could marry you”. If I never gave you the possibility of that opening, you would never have fallen for Winter’s Wiles.

Freeman’s business had been restored, Pamilerin gave it her all in prayer for restoration and that evidently happened.

After a year of them coming back together, Chief resurfaced and signed the investment partnership with Freeman…

Ajoke joined Aina in her ministry. She decided to serve the Lord all her life.

Remi gained admission to study Mass Communication. She made a promise to Pamilerin to write her first Novel on the event that happened in their lives.

Venita, Juanita and Theresa got a little brother, after their parents came back together. He was named Emmanuel ( God with us).

Yewande contacted her Mother’s family online. Her Mother’s family was so happy to hear from her after 15 years. The family ensured they relocated to Wisconsin.

Baba Shagba became paralyzed for 1 year and 6 months before he eventually died after giving his life to Christ.

Lara returned to school. She became devoted to God.

In between those two years, Timothy got married to his Fiancee, Justina and Mathew and Beauty became close.
Their wedding was a beautiful love story, they courted for two years of which Mathew visited her four times in Nigeria during the two years.

As Pamilerin and Freeman rode back home from Beauty’s wedding, Freeman said, “Any kind of Love that has a BUT to it never ends well…Love should be… ” I LOVE YOU AND I am ready to stay with you forever.. ”

“Yes, Even when God spoke about the Love He had for humans, it states…
FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON…Love statements like…I LOVE YOU, BUT I FEEL LIKE
WE SHOULDN’T BE MARRIED is writing one‟s suicide note… ” Pamilerin said laughing

“OR I LOVE YOU, BUT I AM SCARED” Freeman said

” Or I LOVE YOU, BUT MY PARENTS HATE YOU…”

“Or I LOVE YOU, BUT OUR GENOTYPE SAYS OTHERWISE”

” or I LOVE YOU, BUT WE HAVE DIFFERENT RELIGIONS always have its issues…

“Yes…and that’s why I am happy we scaled through all we went through….
Imagine! Beauty would have lost this great man. She never knew God was preparing a wonderful man like Mathew for her, but she was bent on killing herself on a love that had its But….” Freeman said

After a long silence, Freeman held Pamilerin’s hand in the car…
“Pamilerin, I LOVE YOU AND I AM GRATEFUL TO HAVE YOU…”

“Freeman, I LOVE YOU AND I WILL ALWAYS DO…”

The End….

ALL GLORY TO GOD FOR THE LOVE HE HAS FOR US THAT HAS NO “BUT….”

If this story has blessed and touched your life, remember to say a Word of Prayer for the Author, Mrs Opeyemi Akintunde née Ojerinde, the writer of this story as INSPIRED by the HOLY SPIRIT… that God never departs from her Life and Home…

And for your free gift of Love to her and the ministry in other to publish or produce more of these lifechanging stories and movies, your gifts are welcomed in cash and Kind…

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