(Continued from Rachel III)
Agnes is furious when she sees the photos. Her anger is twofold. First, she is furious at Calistus. How could he be so stupid? She has been making moves at him for the longest time ever, but he has been resisting her. Only to end up in bed with a twenty-four year old and get photographed while at it. Second, she is furious at Rachel. She knows the girl quite well, because everyone at Kingdom Oasis Chapel knows Rachel. She cannot believe that a silly twenty-four-year-old is succeeding where she is failing: in catching Calistus’ attention. Agnes is not old, she is thirty four, just ten years older than Rachel and five younger than Calistus. She is still as stunningly beautiful as she was when she got pregnant at nineteen. But why would the girl take nudes and release them on social media. Agnes has always considered Rachel to be a mature girl, but she was clearly mistaken.
Agnes loves Calistus. He is intelligent, decisive, kind, charismatic and above all, Godly. All the qualities that her late baby daddy lacked. But loving Calistus is not the primary reason she wants to marry him. She wants access to the church’s coffers. But unlike Nixon, Agnes does not want to steal the church’s finances. In any case, she is probably the largest giver in the church, although nobody knows this because she gives anonymously.
Agnes is very wealthy, thanks to a criminal empire that her late baby daddy founded, and which she grew. Job, the baby daddy, was a drug dealer. He used to purchase drugs from the established families in Mombasa and peddle it to the wealthy in Nairobi. Agnes started out as his employee soon after finishing form four and quickly established herself as a very competent drug peddler. She not only established a vast retail network in Nairobi and Eldoret, she also helped Job establish his own supply network from South America, thereby cutting out the Mombasa cartel families altogether.
Like he did to all his female employees, Job used to rape Agnes regularly, knowing that there was nothing she could do. She couldn’t report him to the police. But then she became pregnant. He demanded that she aborts the baby like all the other girls did, but she refused. That was unheard of. Nobody defied Job. Usually, he would have shot her dead and buried her body in a shallow grave.
But Agnes knew he wouldn’t, hence her boldness. She was too intelligent and talented for him to lose. His business would suffer. So he gave in and allowed her to keep the baby. To her surprise, even though he was still sleeping with other girls (and raping others) out there, he made a passable effort at being a loving husband and father. But Agnes refused to move in with him. That would have ruined her future plans. Besides, she hated him as much as she had hated him that first day when he forced himself into her. Perhaps even more.
But she played sweet wife, and was available whenever he visited her house looking for food or sex. But all while she was building her own connections in the drug underworld. Job was a brute and survived in the business because of his sheer ability to instill obedience through fear. But he was a dimwit, and Agnes knew that. When it came to brainpower, he was no match for her. So as she quietly established herself in the business, he had no idea.
When Job was gunned down in Italy, everyone assumed it was a rival gang. Nobody would have imagined that the sweet girl that he visited occasionally was the one who planned for his assassination. As Job’s lieutenants fought amongst themselves for the control of the trade, Agnes outmaneuvered all of them and established herself as the boss lady. Now they all pay homage to her. Those who rebelled were brutally murdered.
Agnes has diversified the business. She has expanded to arms trade, and for the last few years has been supplying weapons to the warlords in Somalia and South Sudan. War has become her friend.
*
While everyone knew that Job was a drug dealer, nobody even remotely suspects that Agnes is into illegal business. She is regarded as a respectable businesswoman and a female role model.
Agnes is very religious, and claims to be born again. She is one of the founding members of the Kingdom Oasis Chapel and is currently serving as the chairlady of the Ladies Fellowship, a position she got with the blessing of Samantha, the late wife of Calistus. It is unfortunate that she had to kill Samantha. The latter was such a sweet woman. But Agnes wanted Calistus even then, and Samantha was standing in the way. So she planned the accident and got her killed. It is a shame that she, Agnes, has been unable to seduce the pastor four years after she killed his wife. Since Samantha’s death, Asenath has tried several times to oust Agnes from the leadership of the Ladies Fellowship but has failed each single time.
Agnes speaks regularly in business forums and is often interviewed by journalists of both broadcast and print media. Her story about how she established her real estate business with initial capital of only twenty thousand shillings, which she had saved while working as a house help has inspired millions of young Kenyans. She speaks about hard work, resilience, patience and unwavering faith in God as the ingredients of her success.
She now has many businesses, ranging from real estate to hotels. The problem is that KRA is now tightening the noose and it is becoming more and more difficult to launder her dirty money through her businesses. That is why she needs to marry Calistus. She figures that laundering money through the church will be very easy because churches are largely unregulated.
But the only way she can gain access to the church’s accounting system is if she is married to the Church’s founder and CEO: lead pastor Calistus. But now these photos are threatening to destroy her plans. She needs to act quickly. First, she needs to do some clean up. She will bully, bribe and blackmail bloggers to have the photos removed from the net. Then she will pay other bloggers to sanitize the pastor’s name and claim that the photos were Photoshop work.
She will have to get Rachel killed, just like she did Samantha, because that woman is a bigger threat to her plans than the photos. Rachel is probably the reason Calistus has been resisting her, and for as long as she (Rachel) is alive, then she, Agnes, stands no chance of winning Calistus’ heart.
*
The biggest fight in the boardroom is not whether Calistus should be fired or not. That has already been agreed upon. The question is whether he should be evicted from his house, which the church built for him. Asenath is a member of the board by virtue of her position as the wife of a pastor. Her husband is also a member of the board. But they stay out of the discussion leaving their proxies to fight for them.
Calistus had not even wanted the house in the first place. He had assured the board that he was capable of saving and building his own house like many other employees in the country do. But the board had persuaded him to take it as a one-time gift. So the church bought a piece of land in Witeithie and built him the house. The piece of land is registered in the name of the church, again at Calistus’ insistence.
Nixon and his henchmen are arguing that the house does not belong to Calistus as a person but rather to the lead pastor. And since Leonard is the new lead pastor he and his wife should occupy the house.
Simeon argues, correctly, that the house belongs to Calistus and the title deed should in fact be transferred to him. But he is a lone voice in that boardroom. He loses the motion, just as he lost his bid to save Pastor Calistus’ leadership. The board votes to evict Calistus.
But it is agreed that Nixon would issue a notice of a Special General Meeting to give the members a chance to ratify the decision of the Board of Deacons to remove the Calistus as the Senior Pastor.
*
Rachel has spent the whole day in her house, crying. Her father called and told her how disappointed he was in her. That hurt, but it did not hurt as much as the fact that her mother is ignoring her. Rachel’s mother has not called, and when Rachel called, she did not pick.
Her friends have been calling but she has refused to pick any calls after her conversation with her father. She has been reading text messages though. Some have expressed their confidence in her innocence. Others have told her that she just made a mistake, and that “our God is a forgiving God if only we repent.”
She has received some insults from Nazi Christians, the puritans, the Chief Defenders of Kingdom Affairs. She has been called names for “seducing a man of God.”
The worst insults are on Facebook and Twitter. The most amazing thing she has noticed is that first, most of the insults are coming from people purporting to be Christians. Second, while Pastor Calistus is receiving his share of insults, most of the insults are being reserved for her.
She knows Pastor Calistus is suffering too. He has called several times to apologize, even though she has assured him that he is not at fault. He has already told her about his impeding eviction from his house. Even though the deacons agreed to keep mum until Sunday, Simeon called Calistus to warn him.
Rachel knows she should log out of social media because the insults are really hurting her. But it is as though she is addicted. She keeps checking, hoping to see her friends come out and defend her. Nothing.
In the evening she drags herself out of the house to go and buy vegetables. She hasn’t eaten all day, and still doesn’t have appetite but she is tired of doing nothing. Cooking will be a welcome distraction.
She buys spinach and avocado, then passes by the butchery and buys liver. She is getting strange stares everywhere she goes, but she ignores them. When she gets back, she switches on the lights in the sitting room and draws the curtains. Then she goes to the kitchen, switches on the lights and places the meat and vegetables on the working table. She then decides to go to the bedroom and change. She is still in the red dress she had worn to the office in anticipation of the valentine dinner. She didn’t have the energy to change when she arrived home after getting fired.
She is just about to start removing clothes, after switching on the lights, when a strong hand grabs her from behind. She tries to scream but the aggressor places his paw over her mouth. She can see him through her dressing mirror. He is a giant of a man. He is holding her with his left hand, and in his right hand he is holding a gun. He is wearing sun glasses and a hat that is covering most of his forehead so she cannot see his face clearly. But his wide nose and overgrown beard are hard to miss.
He throws the gun on the bed, and while still covering her mouth with his left hand, he wraps his massive right hand around her neck and starts to strangle her. Rachel fights him desperately but she is no match for his gigantic frame. He doesn’t even seem to notice her feeble efforts.
[End of the free part of the story. To read the whole story and find out what became of Rachel, follow the instructions below to purchase your copy of the novella.]
Image source: https://pixabay.com/photos/woman-african-daylight-sexy-erotic-4475155/
*
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The first May story begins on Tuesday. See you all then.
Warmly,
Edward.
