Incompatible…

AARON ANSAH-AGYEMAN

INCOMPATIBLE

A ChrisEffe Thriller

CHAPTER 5

“He’s not my son!” Lois screamed. “I disown him! Arrest him, Abdul!”

The giant pointed his gun at Chris.

“Get down on your knees with your hands on your head! Do it now!” Abdul said menacingly, and his voice was coldly professional.

“I’m not kneeling,” Chris said in an equally cold voice. “So go ahead and shoot.”

Chris was walking toward Abdul, and his defiant words suddenly halted everybody and shocked them into sudden uneasiness. It was quite evident he was not cowed, and it was evident that his hot temper had taken over any trace of fear, it there had been any in the first place.

Lois Yeboah gasped with sudden trepidation, quite taken aback by Chris’ disdain in the face of the gun pointing at him. That was not in the game plan at all! She had expected him to cower in the face of a gun pointing his way, and expected to see the traces of fear replacing the arrogant haughtiness in his eyes, but she was rudely shocked to realize that the baby she had abandoned so many years ago had become a man, proud and incapable of fearing any other human.

Stan Yeboah, aware that the situation could easily escalate into unpleasantness, held out his hand to his daughter as his eyes bored into the back of Chris’ head.

“Lois, my dear, please, call off your guard!” Stan said with genuine fear as he envisaged bullets flying and Chris getting hit. He knew the spirit in the boy was wild and untamed, kindled by his perceived injustice against his father, and nothing – not even a gun-wielding giant – would be able to halt the rampaging fire of Chris’ fury.

Abdul, still pointing the gun at Chris, saw the defiance and fury in Chris’ eyes, and suddenly he was confused. He had not expected that reaction.

Ato McBaiden’s face looked slack with shock and horror as he reached out and touched his wife’s arm with a blood-streaked hand.

“No, no, Lois, stop your man!” he whispered urgently.

But Chris had noticed something no one else had: the safety catch on the gun the bodyguard was holding was still on!

The man was just bluffing!

Lois Yeboah opened her mouth to speak to the guard, and that was the exact time Chris Bawa slammed a hard and brutal fist into the confused bodyguard’s jaw, flinging him toward the left.

Chris snatched the gun from the falling man’s hand with one deft movement, and then he smashed the barrel brutally across the man’s face, and as the bodyguard crashed to the floor Chris kicked him in the head, rendering him unconscious immediately.

“Oh, dear Lord!” Lois Bawa whispered, aghast, as she took a stunned step backward to stare at the handsome profile of her son.

Chris turned and faced the stunned faces across the room.

He moved forward with the gun in his hand, and his family members moved away from him with quite ridiculous fear on their faces. His mother was staring at him with horror. She saw the gun in Chris’ hand, and suddenly took steps back with fear.

“Chris!” Stan Yeboah shouted, but his voice was unsteady. “Put down the gun! Don’t let us lose our heads here! You made your point, Chris! Don’t do anything stupid!”

Brand Bawa turned to his son.

“Chris!” he said tremulously, trembling with fear. “You’re all I have, my son. Please, don’t do anything to let them take you away, I beg of you! If you get sent to prison, I’ll surely die, my son!”

Chris looked at his father tenderly, and then his eyes came up and fixed his mother with a deadly stare.

“This is the last you ever lay your hand on my father,” he said coldly and put the gun down on a glass-topped table near his thigh. “The very last time.”

He turned away and smiled at his stunned father.

“Let’s roll, Pops,” he said tenderly.

When the two of them moved toward the front door, Stan Yeboah suddenly spoke.

“Chris Yeboah!” his grandfather shouted in a severe voice, and Chris whirled angrily on him.

“I’m not a Yeboah!” he hissed furiously. “I’m a Bawa now, the name of my grandfather and of my father and of my children!”

“Stop your impudence!” Stan screamed. “You were named after me, and that makes you a Yeboah!”

“I don’t want to be named after you!” Chris hissed right back. “Your contempt of my father irks me beyond any love I might have had to bear your name! I’m not a Yeboah! I’m a Bawa!”

“Then you leave me no choice,” Brand Yeboah said, angry and bitter, not understanding why this boy was so stubborn. “If you continue to deny your name, and still choose to go by your father’s surname, then I’m going to cut you out of my Will. You will have no inheritance from me. If you step out of that door without agreeing to change your name or apologizing for the atrocities you have caused here today, consider yourself without any Yeboah inheritance!”

There was stunned silence in the room again.

Brand put a hand on his son’s arm, his eyes imploring, his face sad.

“My son,” he said hollowly. “I’ve swallowed all the hurt and bitterness they give me just to ensure your inheritance! In great strife, I have humbled and humiliated myself to these people, because I’ve nothing to give you. Please, I beg of you, don’t let your grandfather cut you off!”

Chris smiled darkly.

He turned from his father and faced his grandfather and all his family members. His eyes were bitter as he looked at his grandparents.

“Because my father is a Northerner, you people never accepted him as part of this family, and despised your own daughter until she divorced him, and married a man of your choice!” he said coldly. “You’ve insulted my father, smeared his name, and held him in total contempt. You cut me off completely when I was just five years old. I’ve survived till now without you, and I’ll certainly survive another hundred years without you. Keep your damn inheritance because I want none of it! I’ll make my own inheritance. My name remains Chris Bawa!”

He turned away again, and Brand Bawa saw the stunned incredulity on the faces of these people who had always been so hard on him. These were people who lived in mortal fear of Stan Yeboah, always licking his boots because of his inheritance, and as he listened and watched his son spurning this man who thought he was a god, Brand was suddenly filled with great pride, the pride of a father whose son was now a man.

The way Chris had handled himself today had shocked even Brand.

He had never known he was so competent, so wonderful. He had a man now, and he knew Chris was going to do just fine.

“Chris!” Stan Yeboah screamed. “Don’t force me to do this! I will, the moment you step out of that door!”

“Do your worse,” Chris said coldly over his shoulder.

He put his arm around his father’s shoulder, and they left the conference room.

For several minutes the people in the room stood speechless as they gazed at the closed door.

Lois Yeboah was still shaking with fear as she slowly lowered herself into a chair.

She fought it, but deep down, as she looked at her father, and saw the stunned incredulity on Stan’s face, Lois felt not hatred, but a mother’s pride that her son had done what none of them had ever dared to do: stand up to the mighty Stan Yeboah.

“Chris,” Lois whispered quaveringly, and for the very first time since she walked out of the life of the little boy who had, in a way, just humbled all of them, she felt a sharp twinge of remorse in her bosom and the sudden emotional pain of being outside the love circle of her son!

He had pushed her, yes!

And yet, as horrible as he had been, as fearsomely terrible as he had meted out violence and retribution, each time he looked at Brand the boy’s eyes had held respect, and love, and devotion!

It dawned on Lois suddenly…yes, her son adored his father and hated her with venom.

And Lois knew a strange feeling of jealousy as she admitted to herself that she had just lost a good son.

And as Stan Yeboah sat down slowly, his mind was in a turmoil. Such fire, such passion, such bravery! That boy had the fury of a volcano sizzling through him, Stan thought darkly, the spirit of the Yeboahs that always made them rise up against all odds!

The boy had stepped on all of them and had not been cowed by the prospect of losing a part of his inheritance.

Stan Yeboah’s gaze was thoughtful as he raised trembling fingers to his lips.

He’s strong, bold and fearless, not ruled by the fear of losing money or the expectation of inheriting money! That boy was a man needed in every family!

Stan Yeboah sighed, and his soul was troubled from that very moment.