Bound to Ransom by Kiru Taye

Author:Kiru Taye
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romantic suspense, multicultural, mental health, contemporary romance, african authors, african fiction, mental health issues, multicultural and interracial romance
Publisher: Love Africa Press

Chapter Twenty-One

Henry sat in his office going though the paperwork for a bid to build two hundred new homes for a low-cost housing project in Katsina. Ike led the architectural team that designed the estates and Henry’s company would undertake the construction. The two friends had worked together on many projects in the past, and they found that their businesses complimented each other as well as their friendship.

However, this particular project had him conflicted. Not because of anything contractual or even his business link with his friend.

No. This one would be a little too close to home. Well, if he still considered Katsina his home. He hadn’t referred to the place as home since his pregnant mother had smuggled him out of the house they’d lived in and put him on a crowded night bus travelling south as she’d fled from a violent husband.

He’d been almost six years old at the time, and perhaps too young to remember everything. But he remembered seeing his father hit his mother. He remembered her tear-streaked bruised face. Remembered his fear at seeing his mother so hurt.

Next week, he'd have to visit the city as they had to present the bid to the state governor and housing commissioner. He and Ike and the rest of the bid team, which included Lara. It amazed him how well Lara worked with Ike. Their relationship had grown stronger with each year they’d been together, and their love for each other was unquestionable. Henry admired his friend and the love he shared with his wife. The fact that they could live together and work together was even more admirable.

He’d never envied his friend anything before. Not his wealthy background when Henry had been a broke student working as a labourer to earn enough to pay his way through University. Not the strong relationship Ike had had with his father when Henry’s own father had disowned him.

But he envied the relationship Ike had with Lara. He craved the intense love, the loyal companionship, the unbreakable bond the two of them shared.

He could’ve had the same thing with Gloria, if she’d chosen him instead of his brother.

He would’ve forgiven her affair with Jibril, if she’d confessed it like he’d yearned for in the weeks after he’d discovered it and she’d still lived with him.

Now, she’d gone to Jibril. He wasn’t about to get into a tug of war with his brother over a woman, and not for one who didn’t want him, anyway.

The muscles on his neck tightened. His hands clenched and the paper in his hand crumpled. He growled and unclenched his fists.

No. Gloria was dead to him. He'd just cut his losses and move on.

A sharp tap on the door had him lifting his head.

“Come in,” he said in a voice gruff from annoyance.

It swung open and James hurried across the floor, his expression flustered.

“Jibril is here,” his brother said, glancing behind him as if Jibril was there.

Henry stiffened. “What? Where?”

“Downstairs in reception. Mike called me to say that Jibril Danladi was here, and I checked the monitors.

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