Born Bad…

AARON ANSAH-AGYEMAN

BORN BAD

A ChrisEffe Thriller

CHAPTER 11

Chris Bawa stands there, lost.

His whole frame is shaking with uncontrollable pain.

His heart is bleeding.

It is a pain he has never felt before, because no woman has ever dared to leave him. All his life he has left women, and this is the very first time he has been dumped.

The searing pain almost freezes his heart.

He turns away and walks unsteadily to the room.

He shuts the door, and then he collapses on his knees on the floor, shuts his eyes tightly, and then, for the very first time in his life, ever, Chris cries over a woman.

“Oh, Elly, Elly, Elly! Please come back to me! How am I supposed to live without you?”

Chris Bawa, alone and in absolute pain, weeps bitterly!

And then, about half an hour later, he stands up and cleans his face.

He takes off his clothes and puts on shorts, canvas shoes and a muscle-T shirt.

He emerges from his room, and then he begins to run along the road, as fast as his injured arm will allow him, welcoming the pain and the hot air on his face, embracing the sweat, and allowing the unbearable pain in his heart to flow through him!

***

Effe opens her eyes slowly.

She is lying on a very comfortable bed, and as she turns her head to the side she realizes that she is still in Jon’s office, and she is lying on his office bed.

He has a little relaxation room within his luxurious office, for those times he needs to spend long hours in the hospital.

Yes, long hours indeed!

The pain returns with relentless intensity when her mind’s eye suddenly sees him again, standing behind the huge mounds of Baaba’s back and having sex with her.

With a little pained sigh, she turns her head, and sees him sitting on a chair almost at the foot of the bed.

He is fully dressed now, but his tie is loose, and the top buttons of his shirt are open.

He is leaning forward, his forehead on the crook of his left thumb and forefinger, his elbow on his knee.

He looks absolutely shattered, to be true, and he is a picture of dejection.

Suddenly, the terrible picture of Jon making love to Baaba right on this bed intrudes on her mind’s imagination page.

Yes, if they can make love in the office, what shows that they have not been making love right here, in this room right here, on this very bed?

Suddenly, a lot of things begin to appear clearer to Effe.

She now understands Baaba’s instant animosity towards her.

With a little cry Effe gets up from the bed and sits up.

She feels dizzy, and has to close her eyes for several seconds for the dizziness to pass.

Jonathan Afful gets to his feet with a little cry of concern, his expression shattered.

He reaches out to touch her.

“My love, what is it? Are you alright?”

Effe moves away from his hands sharply, and as she looks into his face silent tears of pain drop down her cheeks.

“Don’t touch me!”

Instantly Jonathan Afful drops to his knees in front of her and wraps his arms around her legs, burying his face in the pit of her stomach, and then his whole body begins to shake violently as he weeps from his soul. He is shattered.

“Ef, Ef, Ef! My darling, my precious, my sweet! I’m so, so, so, sorry! I know I’ve hurt you beyond reasoning, but I really beg you, my dear, dear, love! Please, please, please find it in your heart to forgive me! I can’t live without you, Effe!”

The pain is like a searing blazing iron in Effe’s chest.

The tears choke behind her throat as she pushes back away from him, freeing herself.

“No, no, Jon! Not now! I don’t want to listen to anything!”

“Effe, my love! Don’t let us –”

Effe screams with pain then.

“NOT NOW, JON!”

She tears out of the room blindly and enters the office.

She runs out to the reception.

The secretary is standing in a corner, her face distraught, her eyes large and weepy behind her spectacles.

“Oh, Doctor! I’m so, so, so, sorry!” Sylvia wails.

Effe only nods as she tries to stem the flow of her tears.

She cannot stay in the hospital now…that is for sure.

She is too shattered, and she cannot control herself.

She goes out of the building to the staff garage.

She gets into the BMW car that has been allocated to her, and drives out of the office blindly.

She just follows the roads, trying to keep in the lanes, driving slowly to avoid any accident because her tears keep on blinding her.

She soon knows she has driven too far, and finds herself in a different portion of the village, and she is quite convinced that she is lost.

The buildings here are mostly clay, and not well-arranged.

The environment is dirtier, the people looking more impoverished.

Soon she finds herself on a rutted, narrow, untarred road bordered by some low shrubbery and coconut trees.

The people she sees here are mostly women with baskets, old buckets or earthenware on their heads.

She wipes tears from her eyes and tells herself that she has to turn back.

She is looking for a spot in the bad road to make a quick U-turn when she sees him.

He is wearing shorts and trainers and shirt with the hands cut off deeply to make it look almost like a singlet.

He is jogging ahead, and she can see that he is really tired. His body is covered with sweat, and his shorts and top are very wet.

What bothers Effe most is the patch of blood on the bandage around his shoulder.

She can see that he can barely jog now, and after a while he stops jogging and takes a sudden branch to the right.

Effe drives slowly to the spot and sees that there is a downhill path there.

The area is wide and a bit grassy.

She parks the car and gets out, wondering briefly if she is not exposing herself to danger.

But she is a doctor, and she cannot ignore the fact that he is bleeding in his stitches, meaning his wound might need new stitches or a dressing otherwise he stood a chance of being infected.

She cleans her face, locks the car with the remote, and begins to walk down the path he has taken.

The path is a gentle descent, and very soon it enters a cluster of coconut trees.

She meets other women who greet her politely, and she responds with a smile as she sees the surprise in their eyes.

She looks overdressed, she knows, and she is not someone they expect to see here.

She sees Chris Bawa’s broad back way ahead of her, and soon the ground levels out and opens into the most spectacular lake she has ever seen!

It spreads out beyond, huge, shiny and clear, bubbling with life!

There are people here too!

Most of them are fishermen.

She sees the moored canoes, of different sizes and paintings, with proverbial writings on them!

She sees the fishermen selling their cat fishes, prawns and crabs, and the women buying them.

Effe is so enchanted by the sight!

She has lived a sheltered life, and has never been close to such vibrant life.

She follows the broad back of Chris, and wonders why his head is down.

Obviously, he is well-known, because most of the fishermen and women call to him, but he barely acknowledges them.

There is something about him that intrigues her.

His proud air is gone, and he walks as if putting one foot in front of the other is a great torture.

Finally, he leaves the bustle of the people behind and arrives at a more secluded area of the lake front.

There is sparse vegetation a little way up from the shore, and a cluster of coconut trees that give shade.

He heads for that cluster and then he slowly sits down on the floor and leans his back against one coconut tree.

Effe approaches him slowly, and then she comes to a stop in front of him.

He raises his head wearily, and she suppresses a gasp when she sees his face.

She sees the deep agony in his eyes, the raw edge of a pain so poignant that it reminds her sharply of her own pain.

He breathes shallowly, and as her eyes meet his she half expects him to say something coarse and terrible, but he does not.

The animosity she has seen in his eyes at the hospital is no longer there. Instead it is the look of a man who is hurting terribly.

She wonders if it is because of the stress he is going through because of his mother.

Without a word Effe sits down by his side.

She is aware that he is a dangerous man, a thief, a rebel and a rogue, but somehow, in that instant, she is not scared of him.

“You’re bleeding, Chris. I need to take a look at that shoulder.”

He sighs heavily and looks down.

“I’m fine.”

“You might be fine, but your shoulder is not. You might get infected. I need to have a look at it, but not here. I left my first aid box in the car, so you’ll have to come with me.”

“Said I’m fine, Doc.”

Without realizing she is doing it, without being aware of what she is doing, she reaches out and puts a hand on his shoulder.

He raises his head slowly and looks at her.

And in that moment, she sees his unguarded expression, and sees the agony tormenting his soul.

In that moment, without his pride and hard shell, he looks so vulnerable, so in need of care, and so absolutely incredibly handsome!

He looks at her, noting her clear tender skin, the fine moulds of her face, her elegance, her indescribable beauty.

She is so familiar, and yet so different!

She is both the woman he has made love to at Cherensua village, and yet she is not the one.

The one at Cherensua has the same body, the same voice, and yet she had sounded different. Her choice of words, the depth of her tone… she had been coarse, but this woman looking at him is refined, so innocent!

But how can it be so?

It is so maddening!

And looking at her now, so fine, so indescribably beautiful, he knows she is dangerous.

She speaks gently.

“Listen, Chris. It is clear I don’t like you. Both you and I know you were that robber in the lion mask. You came and saved my life. I just want you to know, now, that I didn’t have anything to do with Doctor Afful returning the money back to chest.”

He looks across the lake, and he swallows, and then he speaks softly.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me! I want you to know that I had no part in it! The first time I heard of it was from you, when I walked in on you and Norvisi discussing it!”

He looks at her again.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do you want me to believe you so much? I thought you didn’t care about my opinion.”

“I still don’t care about your opinion of me, Chris Bawa! I haven’t reached the point where the opinions of thieves mattered to me. But I just want you to believe that! I don’t want your mother thinking I had anything to do with it!”

“Okay. I believe you.”

She nods, and she cannot explain why she feels so relieved inwardly.

“Alright. Thanks. So, here’s the deal. I have some money saved. I can spare you six thousand cedis, so that your mother’s surgery can go through without further delay.”

He turns his head sharply and scowls at her. He looks shocked.

“What?”

“You heard me, Chris. I’ll give you the balance needed for your mom’s surgery.”

He just stares at her for a very long time, and she can see the grudging gratitude in the depths of his eyes.

“You will do this… for me?”

She scowls darkly at him.

“Oh, don’t flatter yourself, thief! You’re not that important. I’m just doing it for your mother, that poor woman who is suffering so much, but remember it is not a gift, Chris. I’m just advancing it to you at no interest. You will pay back, and I don’t mean go and steal and pay back. You will pay back honestly! Do you hear me?”

He stares at her for a long time, his eyes soft, and then he reaches over and takes her hand in his.

She feels the jolt sear through her as their hands touch, and for one wild moment she almost snatches her hand away.

“Thank you, Doctor. I’m very grateful, and yes, I’ll repay it through honest means. I promise, Doctor.”

Once again, she feels the secret pleasure moving warmly through her at his gratitude.

“You can call me Effe.”

He nods then.

“Thank you very much, Effe.”

She gets up and dusts sand from her skirt.

“That’s done, then. Come on, I’m going to take a look at that shoulder.”

She walks off and realizes he is not following.

She stops and looks at him.

“Told you I’m okay, Effe.”

“Get off your butt and come along, Chris Bawa,” she says frostily. “I’m going to have a look at that wound whether you like it or not, so come on!”

Chris stares at her for a while, and then he reluctantly gets to his feet.

As he falls into step with her and they begin to retrace their steps, it dawns on Effe that for a very brief moment as she spoke to Chris, she had not taught of the pain Jon’s betrayal has inflicted on her soul.

And he too thinks that for a brief moment, a very brief moment, his heart had not beat with the pain of Elaine’s desertion.

***

Effe cleans his wound.

It is bleeding, but thankfully the stitches are holding.

She puts on new dressing.

He has brought her to the house he shares with his mother and the other people he has taken in.

Effe notices that most of them are very young indeed, and her heart goes out to them.

They fawn around him, and it is evident that they do love him a lot.

Effe is quite taken in by the children.

She speaks to them as she dresses Chris’ shoulder wound, and she is thankful they are around because suddenly she is finding his near-naked proximity quite disturbing.

They are sitting outside on the veranda.

The kids are grouped around them, asking all sorts of questions, and she is doing her best to answer them, and then Crankson arrives with Kuntu.

They walk up to Chris, and Crankson nods at Effe.

“Hello, Doc.”

“Good evening, doctor.”

“Hello. Good evening. Call me Effe, please.”

Crankson puts a hand on Chris’ shoulder.

“You okay, little brother? Heard Elaine left you. Heard she left town with that new rich dude.”

Effe sees how Chris freezes, and how he suddenly looks away. She sees the look of acute pain that crosses his handsome face.

Quickly, she understands why he had been running even though he appeared so tired. She understands the lost look in his eyes, and she understands the veiled pain in his eyes.

It is simply incredible that both of them should experience betrayal and relationship pains on the same day.

“Not now, bro,” Chris says with evident pain.

“I understand, bro,” Crankson replies sadly.

Kuntu shuffles forward, his face morose.

“Sorry, Chris.”

Chris smiles wanly and nods.

“You done, Doc?”

“Yes, I’m done.”

“Thank you.”

He stands up then, huge and foreboding.

Effe nods and begins to put her kits back into the neat First Aid box.

She is aware that the three men have retreated a little way to converse, and she casts surreptitious glances at that handsome rogue, and she can see the pain etched on his face even though he is trying hard not to show it.

She wonders if her face is also that torn, showing the turmoil and the agony from that sight of Jon having sex with Baaba.

She closes the box, locks it and heaves it up.

One little girl called Amina, beautiful and radiant, steps up and puts her hands on Effe’s knees.

“Oh, are you leaving, Auntie? Will you come and visit us again?”

Effe smiles and leans down and hugs her.

“Oh, yes, Amina! I’ll come back and take you to church on Sunday, okay?”

A little boy called Teye scowls at Effe.

“Will you take all of us or only her?” he asks.

Effe giggles.

“We’ll all go, my friends!”

They accompany her eagerly towards her car.

Chris sees her and jogs towards her.

He takes the First Aid kit from her, and their hands brush. They look at each other, startled, and she quickly steps back.

When they get to the car, she opens the back door and he puts the kit on the seat.

She opens the driver’s door, and suddenly he reaches out and holds her hand.

She turns, startled, and looks at him.

He is still shirtless, and she sees each lovely hair on his chest, and each tiny bit of skin space.

He steps forward quite suddenly, his eyes dark, and his hands drop to hold her waist.

This time Effe gasps audibly, and she trembles as she sees him that close.

She suddenly can’t breathe.

She suddenly feels like throwing her arms around his neck, like drawing him close, like wanting those sensuous lips on hers.

Effe utters a startled cry and pushes him back hard.

His hands fall from her waist, and she quickly enters the car and slams the door.

She does not look at him as she starts the engine and reverses quickly.

She executes the turn and speeds away, and she cannot resist looking into her rear-view mirror.

She sees that he is still standing, surrounded by the children, and gazing after her car.

She turns a corner, covers a little distance, and then she stops.

She is shaking.

Her hands are not steady.

Her breath comes in small wheezes!

How had that happened?

Why had she been so affected by his sheer masculinity?

She tells herself Chris Bawa is a bad dangerous man she needs to keep away from him.

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About The Author

Aaron Ansah-Agyeman is an award-winning Ghanaian writer whose novels have enthralled audiences on the internet for quite some time now all across the globe.

A master cross-genre writer, his stories – whether romance, thriller, drama, action, horror or supernatural – would hold you spellbound and craving for more.

The ChrisEffe Suspense Romance Series include: