I absolutely didn’t answer him verbally right away. I just violently slammed the crumpled paper down onto the white table and aggressively pushed it directly toward his hands.
“Read it for yourself,” I ordered in a highly harsh, unyielding voice, although deep inside I was an absolute, terrified emotional mess.
Kunle slowly picked up the paper. His wide eyes frantically scanned the scribbled words. I clearly watched all the color aggressively drain from his handsome face until he was entirely pale. His large hands began to tremble very slightly.
“What exactly does this mean?” he asked in a totally stunned, breathy whisper. He looked frantically at me, and then down at terrified Namdi, exactly as if he were desperately searching my face for a totally logical, harmless explanation for the note.
Shade, looking absolutely dazzling in her expensive wedding dress, confidently approached our table. She was deeply frowning with a highly practiced, perfectly feigned look of utter surprise.
“What on earth is all of this about? Is this some kind of sick, bad joke?” she asked in a perfectly pitched, soft, confused voice. But I sharply noticed a very quick, undeniable flash of raw, genuine panic aggressively dancing in her dark eyes.
I looked directly into her eyes, my old heart completely gripped by a violent, swirling storm of pure anger and terrible fear. “My grandson is severely, deathly allergic to shrimp,” I announced loudly, my voice trembling violently with absolute indignation. “This is absolutely not a bad joke. This is a calculated, deliberate attempt at murder.”
My heavy words violently dropped onto the crowd exactly like a loud clap of thunder. They instantly plunged the massive, crowded event hall into a truly deathly, suffocating silence. Dozens of guests’ mouths literally dropped wide open in pure, unadulterated astonishment. Others immediately began to whisper frantically to each other, their shocked, wide eyes aggressively darting back and forth between my furious face and Shade’s pale one.
Shade confidently let out a highly forced, dismissive laugh. It was a flimsy mask desperately put on to maintain her public composure. “Excuse me, Mrs. Okonkwo. But there is absolutely no name signed on that little piece of paper. Are you honestly, publicly going to believe a wild, fabricated story that a little child simply made up because he found trash on the floor?” she challenged. She used a highly condescending, mocking tone, clearly trying her absolute best to aggressively make me look exactly like a crazy, paranoid old woman.
A few uncertain guests nearby actually began to comment doubtfully. “Maybe it really is just a massive misunderstanding? I mean, who would seriously do something horrible like that at a wedding?” one murmured.
The blood violently boiled over in my veins. Shade’s sheer, unadulterated audacity left me almost completely speechless. I desperately wanted to scream at her. I wanted to violently tear off that beautiful, pure white wedding dress to forcefully reveal the ugly, dark truth underneath. But I knew I absolutely had to remain visibly calm and perfectly collected for Namdi’s sake, and to protect the true honor of my family.
Suddenly, before I could speak, Chioma abruptly stood up. She was still fiercely hugging Namdi incredibly tightly. Her eyes were totally reddened with unshed tears and locked completely, aggressively on Shade’s face.
“That is absolutely enough, Shade.”
Chioma’s voice sounded incredibly cold, yet it was absolutely overflowing with years of suppressed, agonizing pain. It sounded exactly as if she physically couldn’t contain her rage for even a single second longer. She violently stepped forward and fiercely slapped Shade directly across her perfect face. The loud smack aggressively echoed loudly throughout the entire, silent event hall.
The incredibly dry, violently resounding sound entirely broke the heavy silence and shattered the thick layer of falsehood. Absolutely everyone in the room violently froze in place, completely including myself. Shade quickly threw a manicured hand up to her rapidly reddening cheek. Her wide eyes were totally filled with absolute, genuine shock. She then quickly turned to Kunle, loudly sobbing fake tears.
“Do you see this?! She is completely crazy with jealousy over us, and that is exactly why she is violently attacking me! What on earth have I ever done to deserve this abuse?!” she wailed, playing the total victim.
But Chioma absolutely didn’t back down an inch. Her hands were curled into tight fists, and her voice was entirely broken with pure, righteous rage. “The absolute only incredibly wicked, evil person standing in this room right now is you! You actively, deliberately wanted to severely harm an innocent little child, and you tried to do it at your very own wedding!”
Her furious words were exactly like a sharp, serrated knife that aggressively cut right through the incredibly heavy, tense air of the massive event hall. The previous looks of doubt from the crowd rapidly began to aggressively center entirely on Shade. I clearly saw her physically freeze in panic. Her fake, perfectly crafted smile totally faded entirely.
Kunle was completely motionless. His frantic, devastated gaze rapidly darted back and forth from my face, to Chioma, and then to his sobbing bride, Shade. He looked exactly as if he were entirely trapped in a nightmare between two completely different worlds.
“Chioma, please, just calm down,” he pleaded in a terribly trembling, weak voice. But I intuitively knew right then that he was absolutely no longer entirely sure exactly who to believe in this nightmare.
The loud, frantic murmurs of the hundreds of shocked guests aggressively grew into a massive tide. The sound completely carried absolutely all eyes in the room directly toward me, aggressively toward Shade, and finally toward little Namdi, my precious, terrified grandson who was violently trembling in Chioma’s protective arms.
Shade desperately tried her absolute best to effectively maintain her highly false, innocent calm. But I clearly saw exactly how her perfectly manicured hands shook violently when she finally spoke again. “This is absolute, disgusting slander! I am completely sure someone else maliciously put that paper there simply to ruin our beautiful wedding day!”
Her voice was incredibly sharp and defensive. But I very clearly noticed the sheer, undeniable panic dancing wildly in her dark eyes. It looked exactly as if her perfect, carefully constructed mask was finally, rapidly starting to crack into a million pieces.
I absolutely couldn’t physically stand her disgusting audacity anymore. The massive, boiling anger deep inside me violently exploded exactly like a massive fire that aggressively consumed all my remaining patience. I violently hit the wooden table with my fist, slamming it so hard that the crystal glasses loudly shook and nearly fell over.
“That is enough!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. My voice was so incredibly cold and furious that it completely silenced even the lingering, soft music of the hired live band. “Segun! Come here right now!”
The terrified young waiter, Segun, slowly approached the table from a dark corner. His young face was completely, shockingly pale with absolute, raw fear. His wide eyes frantically darted from side to side, looking exactly as if he were entirely trapped between telling the dangerous truth and facing the massive, destructive storm that was rapidly coming for him.
I aggressively held the crumpled paper right up in his face. My voice was violently trembling, but it remained incredibly firm and demanding. “Confirm it right now. Is this the exact paper you received?”
Segun nervously nodded his head repeatedly, aggressively stammering his words. “Yes, Ma’am! Yes, it absolutely is. A woman from the other side of the room forcefully gave it directly to me, and I must have accidentally dropped it when I was rushing to carry the heavy tray to your table.” He quickly lowered his head, looking exactly as if he desperately wanted to entirely avoid my furious, burning gaze.
I felt my blood violently boil, but I forcefully commanded myself to stay physically calm because I knew absolutely everyone in the entire event hall was closely watching my every move.
Shade quickly hurried to aggressively interrupt him. She spoke in a highly sharp, almost entirely desperate, panicked voice. “You are completely mistaken! I absolutely don’t know a single thing about that note!”
But right before she could angrily respond further, a very weak, highly trembling voice full of genuine pain was clearly heard coming directly from the back of the room. Folake, Shade’s very own younger sister, violently burst into heavy tears and slowly stood up from her chair.
“It absolutely wasn’t my sister Shade who personally handed me that paper,” the young woman cried out. She was violently trembling as heavy, dark mascara-stained tears ran rapidly down her cheeks. “She specifically ordered me to walk over and give it directly to the waiter. I swear to God I absolutely didn’t know what the note inside said!”