Sooner or later, p.1
Sooner or Later, page 1
SOONER OR LATER
FROM THIS DAY FORWARD
BOOK 2
DARA GIRARD
CONTENTS
About the Book
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Epilogue
Also Available
About the Author
ABOUT THE BOOK
Dara Girard
Published by ILORI PRESS BOOKS LLC
www.iloripressbooks.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Author.
About the book
One bouquet
Three sisters
And a wedding day that will change their lives forever
Sweet and obedient Ava Kayode takes pride in following the rules. So she senses disaster when her flower hating sister, Maya, dodges the wedding bouquet thrown at her
But Ava never imagined her two sisters’ actions would alter her carefully constructed plan. Within weeks she loses her fiancé and starts lying to cover the truth from her meddling mother.
Soon one lie leads to another and eventually leads her into the arms of her best friend Dai.
The one man who could turn her organized world upside down in the most amazing and tantalizing ways.
1
The weapon was ready.
The target in sight.
Ava Kayode felt as if she were in the middle of one of the Spaghetti Westerns her great-grandfather used to like. Except this time the adversaries didn’t face each other. One even had their back turned.
But it was still a showdown.
To Ava’s left stood her older sister, Gwen, dressed in a beautiful beaded white wedding dress, the spring sun warming the steps of the concrete stairs of the church and, as if on cue, highlighting her brown skin, masterfully applied makeup, and artistically arranged black hair. No one would see her as dangerous.
That was her power. Her gift. But Ava held her breath as she saw Gwen grip the bouquet in her hands and a soft smile touch her full lips.
Ava shifted her gaze to Gwen’s rival: The target.
Ava’s half-sister, Maya, had always been an easy target. Ever since she’d come to live with them as a fourteen year old after her grandmother had died, she’d been deemed the outsider. The result of a relationship their mother refused to discuss, Maya was a short, chubby little firecracker of a woman who most people didn’t understand. A flower hating, rule breaking (she didn’t even try to get the richly laced, golden and red colored aso ebi that Gwen expected the family to wear to the wedding. Instead choosing an ankhara styled dress, in the same color scheme, an outfit she’d worn to a recent naming ceremony, a definite ‘no-no’ in their Nigerian-American community) unemployed, single woman dangerously close to middle age at thirty-seven, and two years older than Gwen.
Their mother despaired of her ever being anything more than a constant disappointment. But there was still a lingering hope that her acceptably pretty face would encourage someone—anyone!— to take her off their hands. As if Maya were a used car they wanted to shift and not someone who had been supporting herself since she’d been driven out of the family house at nineteen only to return recently due to unfortunate circumstances.
Ava noticed the defiant look on Maya’s face and the equally proud, arrogant grin on Gwen’s face and knew the day was headed for disaster.
To the exquisitely dressed onlookers, standing tall with their heads covered in bright geles and caps, the bouquet toss was a show of sisterly optimism, on Gwen’s part, that poor Maya’s life wasn’t the complete mess that everyone deemed it to be.
But Ava knew Maya and Maya didn’t believe in superstitious optimism. She wasn’t going to have it.
When Gwen tossed the bouquet in the air, Ava wanted to cry out, terror gripping her heart as if the bouquet had turned into a grenade.
It was too late to stop her. She knew that throwing the bouquet was as an act to humiliate Maya. Ava had overheard Maya more than once beg Gwen not to toss the bouquet at her.
But Gwen always did what Gwen wanted to.
Today would be no different.
Ava closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see what would happen next. She gripped her hands together and silently prayed that Maya would do something uncharacteristic and follow the rules.
Please just catch the bouquet, Ava silently begged her. I know you’ll hate it. I know you hate flowers. I know Gwen’s being a jerk, but please, just this once, please catch it. Please catch it.
If Maya caught the bouquet, accepted the humiliation that came with it, then all would be well.
The collective gasp and the loud squeal of tires were the first ominous sounds of impending doom.
Then she heard the thud.
Ava gripped her hands tighter too afraid to open her eyes. She didn’t want to face what had happened.
She felt people rushing past her and knew it wasn’t good.
She slowly opened her eyes and saw the crowd racing to the parking lot.
“She tried to kill him,” she heard one guest mutter.
Ava tried to politely make her way through the crowd, not bold enough to barrel her way through the way her younger sister Catherine, better known as Cat, was. But then Cat was as skinny as a reed and people barely noticed her so it was easy. Ava, although of similar medium height, wasn’t as slenderly built, and her sweet features, caramel colored skin and the thirty year habit of pleasing others, made it hard to push her way through without apologizing for her existence if she unintentionally bumped into anyone. So it took her awhile to find a vantage point that allowed her to see what had happened.
But when she finally did...
She gasped and covered her mouth.
A man lay motionless on the ground.
Not just any man. An Adesina. They were a prominent, well respected family that had ties to the Kayodes that stretched back for centuries. This was bad.
Capulets and Montagues, Hatfields and McCoys or the Taira and the Minamoto bad, if not handled well. Family-tribe relationships were always a delicate balance.
Soon Maya’s voice rose above the rest and started barking orders, which was no surprise, that’s what she did well. Something she’d likely learned working with college students as a former art professor.
Ava saw Keeden grab Maya’s wrist and say something to her. Ava took a deep breath, feeling her pulse slow. He was speaking. That was a good sign. Although the frown on Maya’s face wasn’t. Ava didn’t doubt that Keeden would make her sister pay for whatever had happened.
The Kayodes would have to find a way to smooth this over.
Ava glanced at her sister, Cat, and gasped again. She raced over to her.
“What is wrong with you?” Ava said in a low whisper.
“Why?”
“You’re smiling like you’re enjoying this.”
Cat shrugged unfazed. “I am.”
“This is a disaster.”
“Serves Gwen right.”
“But poor Keeden. Stop smiling.”
“No one notices me except you.”
The statement was depressingly true. Born without classically attractive features most people dismissed her. “Doesn’t matter,” Ava scolded. “Stop smiling. We’re lucky his best friend Bryant isn’t here. She would have been humiliated.” Everyone knew their sister Maya had a big crush on him to Keeden’s annoyance.
Cat schooled her features and said, “Might do them both good.”
“You have a sick way of looking at things.”
She wagged her finger. “Different. Not sick. And instead of worrying about me, you should worry about him.” She nodded to something behind Ava.
Ava turned and saw her fiancé Folu Adeigbo standing motionless. If she didn’t know he was human she would have thought he was a handsome statue. That a skilled artisan had taken dark oak and carved a man with a sharp jaw, tender lips and wide eyes.
Wide, terrified eyes.
“You’d better catch him before he faints,” Cat murmured.
Ava spun back to her sister annoyed. “It was one time.” Folu had been helping them clean out some boxes in the garage and a frog had jumped out of one of them. He had screamed and shoved Ava in front of him as if the little amphibian had turned into a man-eating crocodile.
It hadn’t been a very good moment for either of them. Cat wouldn’t let h
“I’m hardly fearless,” Cat said, “but I won’t use you as a shield either. I know Dai wouldn’t have.”
The mention of her best friend almost made her laugh. If a frog had jumped out of a box, Dai would have probably caught it; made up a little victory dance, wiggling his wide shoulders, then taken a picture so he could show his son Donovan before letting the frog go. “Folu is not Dai.”
“I know.”
“He was hugging me for support.”
Cat rolled her eyes. “He was hiding behind you like a—”
Ava held up her hand, stopping her words. “That’s enough. Let me go check on him.”
“Don’t forget the smelling salts.”
Ava pretended not to hear her sister’s words as she hurried over to Folu. Cat was an anomaly. Everyone else liked Folu. He was attractive, smart, kind. People continued to applaud her at “the excellent catch” she’d made and she cared about him. He was a good man and she planned to raise a family and spend the rest of her life with him. She would not let her sister’s criticisms let her not see all his good traits just because he had a couple of bad ones.
When Ava reached him she lightly touched his shoulder.
He jumped as if she’d administered an electric shock.
“Are you okay?” she asked, keeping her voice gentle.
He blinked quickly. “Did you see that?”
She made a noncommittal sound.
“It was awful.”
“Yes.”
He covered his eyes and shook his head. “Just awful.”
“Yes.” She didn’t know what else to say. He looked devastated. “He’ll be okay. At least he can move and speak and there are plenty of doctors and nurses to assess him.”
“I’ll never forget the sound of the thud.” He started to shake.
She motioned to the church steps. “Come and sit down.”
“I can’t.”
“At least let’s head to the reception. We can...” Her words fell away when he shook his head again.
“I can’t. I’m sorry. I’m too shaken to go and pretend...” His voice fell away and he hung his head. “I’m sorry.”
Then he looked at her.
Unlike some, Ava didn’t really believe in omens. But if she did, she would conclude that it was rarely a good omen when one’s fiancé takes their hand and bursts into tears.
2
“I’m sorry,” Folu said, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. “I don’t think I can marry you. It wouldn’t be fair.”
They’d already been officially engaged for two years and didn’t plan to marry for another two. If she were honest she’d admit she felt as if she’d been in a holding cell. Not quite a girlfriend or fiancée, but rather a handy accessory when it suited him. She’d been patient. She’d continue to be so. She’d dealt with his moments of panic before.
“Marriage is a long way off,” Ava said gently. “We agreed to continue as we are right now.”
He sniffed. “But it’s not the future I want.” He bit his lip. “When I saw Adesina on the ground my life flashed before my eyes. I imagined that it was me. What if I got hit by a car and I didn’t make it? What would my regrets be? What are the things I wanted to do and didn’t? I’ve been scared all my life and I don’t want to be scared anymore.”
“I understand. I won’t stop you if you want to travel or move somewhere else, but we don’t have to break off the engagement because of that. A relationship takes commitment and adjustment. I’ll adjust.”
He met her gaze. “The truth is I love you, but I don’t want to marry you.”
Ava took a deep breath determined to stay composed. “Are you actually dumping me at my sister’s wedding?”
“I’m sorry.”
“But why?”
He pointed at her. “Because of that.”
She blinked. “What?”
“That look on your face. I find it terrifying.”
“You just broke my heart and you call me terrifying?”
He nodded. “You should be angry or in tears or confused but you look so...serene. I don’t know what you’re thinking. I can’t read you. To everyone else you’re sweet and naïve and unassuming but to me...”
“To you...what?”
“You’re stronger than I am and we both know it. I’m a weak man and you make me feel weaker. You make me feel ashamed of myself. Not because of anything you’ve done or said,” he rushed to clarify. “But just because of who you are.”
“Is what happened just an excuse?”
He frowned. “An excuse?”
“Did you meet someone else?”
“No,” Folu said in a quiet voice filled with misery. “And part of me feels like I’m making a huge mistake by saying this to you. But another part of me feels relieved.”
“I didn’t know being with me has been so difficult,” Ava said determined to keep her voice gentle and soothing. “I’m sorry you’ve suffered and not told me sooner.” She covered his hand.
He pulled his hand away. “You’re making it worse. Stop being so understanding. Tell me what you think. Slap me.”
“We both know that won’t solve anything. Our families are invested in this relationship too, remember?”
He sighed. “I know.”
“We can’t just do what we want without thinking about the consequences.”
“Don’t you feel suffocated sometimes? Don’t you sometimes resent carrying the weight of your family’s expectations?”
She’d never really allowed herself to think any other way. She felt honored that her parents had put so much faith in her. It gave her pleasure to make them happy. She didn’t need to be a rule breaker like Maya. Toeing the line had worked so far. She’d never imagined it not working.
“Why don’t we have a breather,” she suggested. If she remained rational and reasonable, he’d see the folly of his ways. “Let’s not make any rash decisions.”
“I’m not marrying you, Ava. I can’t give you what you need or deserve.”
She prided herself on not being a violent woman. She didn’t watch the bloody action movies her sister Cat couldn’t get enough of. She never pictured herself physically hurting anyone.
But she knew there were other ways to administer pain.
Subtle, careful ways. Ways that would linger.
She may not believe in violence but she did believe in revenge. And at that moment, as she stared at Folu’s red rimmed eyes, she thought of the years she’d devoted to him. The life she’d planned to have with him. The life he was taking away, suddenly she felt the burning, stirring need for revenge.
Of course she could force him to marry her. He was a weak man and she had learned how to manipulate him when necessary. Their engagement had been an idea she’d put into his head not something he’d thought of on his own.
He was trying to be defiant but she saw the fear in his eyes. With patience she could win him back.
She would be very patient.
But coming back to her, changing his mind, had to be his idea. She would have to play his silly game while making up her own rules.
Folu swallowed hard. “Please, Ava. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”
“Okay.”
“Really?”
The relief on his face almost made her laugh. “Yes,” she said, hiding every hint of her anger. “How are we going to do this?”
Folu gave her a plan of action that she found ludicrous. No surprise, she did most of the planning for them.
They hadn’t even gotten married yet but he had them divvying things up like they were in the middle of a divorce. “You take the blame and I’ll take the pity.”
