💔BENEATH THE CROWN💔
(AMANDA’S TALE)
WRITTENBY:RuchinaBlog
Chapter 35
Everyone gasped in shock as Michael walked to Amanda and Ikenna with smiles on his face and hugged his brother Ikenna.
“No! No! This isn’t possible; how can he survive? It is a lie!” Abigail yelled.
Michael turned to face her. “Well, let me be the one to answer that question. I didn’t die as you expected. I was picked by a kind-hearted couple from a neighboring village who came for vacation and was taken to the city, where they trained me as their biological son. They didn’t have children of their own, so they invested all their resources in me. I found out that I wasn’t their son after their death, making them will everything to me. I wasn’t interested in finding my biological parents because I believed they dumped me in the forest until I met Amanda, who started a whirlpool of events in my life, causing me to look for my origin.”
Queen Chiamaka looked at Michael with tears flowing down her face. She slowly approached and stretched her hands to touch his face. She smiled and turned back without saying a word, slowly approaching Abigail.
SLAP!!
“You are evil, Abigail, really evil. I did nothing but love you as my own sister, but what did you pay me back with, separating a mother from her own child? I must have been really blind to trust you so much,” Queen Chiamaka said.
Abigail burst into laughter while looking at Queen Chiamaka. “You are really blind and will always be blind. Like I said, I don’t regret what I did one bit. Why can’t you open your eyes for once? Can you really trust the words of this witch you call a daughter-in-law?”
“I have a way to prove he is my son; I may have been blind, but not anymore,” Chiamaka said as she walked towards Michael, lifting up his T-shirt to reveal a mark on his belly.
“As you can see, the mark is proof of his lineage; this mark is present on every child in my husband’s family,” Chiamaka said, shocking Abigail.
Amanda smiled at her mother-in-law; at least, she wouldn’t have to convince her. She just made things easier. Amanda walked up to Abigail, who was still in a state of shock.
“You really messed with the wrong couple. I know you are curious about how I found out, right? Well, I will tell you—”
“You are a liar; you think I will believe you. You can fool everyone here but not me. I am sure someone caught me that night. If not, how will you know? All my hard work is going down before my eyes just because of you, this witch,” Abigail yelled, cutting Amanda off.
Amanda smiled and stood up. “Abigail, the truth is I am a seer; it was one of the gifts that the gods blessed me with. But do you know what is more shocking? My dear husband Ikenna is a seer too. He was the one who saw the past and knew exactly what happened. You, of all people, should know you killed the two women present at the queen’s delivery.”
“Woman! Do you know what you are saying? There is no record of any king that was a seer. How do you expect us to believe that?” Elder Ejike said.
Ikenna stepped closer to Amanda with a smile on his face. “Everything my lovely wife said is true, Elder Ejike. On the night I deflowered my wife Amanda, the gods blessed me with the gift of seeing the past, and because of this gift, I can categorically state that Elder Amadi here killed my father, the late king, and his elder brother, all because of the throne.”
“WHAT!!”
“What do you mean by that? We all know how generous Elder Amadi is, and we also know how he loved the late king. You just want to cook up lies to stop his coronation. Just accept you are not fit to be king,” Nonso yelled.
His words sparked outrage within the villagers. Some believed Ikenna and supported him, while others were against him. Amanda sighed and stepped forward.
“What he said is nothing but the pure truth, and Amadi knows that,” Amanda said.
“You are a liar; you and your husband are liars. You cooked up lies just to stop this coronation. How will I kill my beloved brother and the king? What do I stand to gain from that?” Amadi snapped as he struggled to get up on his feet.
Amanda smirked without looking at him. “I can see you haven’t learned your lesson yet; well, that isn’t a problem. I have the perfect gift that will teach you that. Amadi, if you are responsible for the death of the king and your brother, you will see their ghosts, and they will torment you.
“Haha! You think you have some powers. What do you take us for—”
“AHHHH! Please don’t come near me; please don’t come near me! Ah!” Amadi yelled, pointing in a direction.
“My king, forgive me! Brother, forgive me! Yes, I will confess,” Amadi continued yelling as he danced around, scratching his body as if being flogged, much to the delight of Amanda.
“What did you do to my father, you this witch?” Adaku snapped.
SLAP!
“I have always told you to watch the way you speak to me; we are not of the same level. Moreover, it will get to your turn soon. So calm down,” Amanda smirked as she slapped Adaku.
Adaku kept silent and slowly backed away and hid behind her mother. Amanda walked to Amadi with a cruel smile. “Are you ready to confess?”
“Yes, I will confess. I paid Ogechi, the palace cook, to slowly poison the king and made sure to implicate Elder Chibuzor before using diabolical means to kill him. I used diabolical means to kill my brother because he refused to do what I needed him to do,” Amadi snapped, breathing heavily, causing the villagers to gasp in shock.
Ikenna sighed and looked at Amadi. “You killed my father for the throne that isn’t yours. Your great-grandfather handed the throne to my great-grandfather and made a vow to not collect the throne for generations to come, but your greed for power got the better of you.”
“That is a lie; your great-grandfather snatched the throne from us. Why would my great-grandfather do such a thing if not force? Tell me,” Amadi yelled.
“My great-grandfather never forced yours to give up the throne, and I know this for a fact because of my gift of seeing. I have always found you suspicious since the day you smuggled your way into my father’s cabinet members in a bid to replace your dead brother, but my suspicions were finally confirmed the night of my wedding, making me confide in my wife.”
Flashback
The next day after the wedding between Ikenna and Amanda, Ikenna placed Amanda after their long shower. Amanda immediately turned her back to Ikenna.
“Please close the door when leaving. I am really sleepy,” Amanda said tiredly.
“Okay! But before I go, I need to tell you something,” Ikenna whispered.
“Okay! Go on.”
“First of all, I believe you. I now know you are a virgin,” Ikenna said.
“What exactly changed your mind? You don’t expect me to believe that out of the blue, you suddenly believe me,” Amanda snapped.
Ikenna sighed and held her hands. “I understand how you feel, and I am really sorry for all I made you go through today. Something strange happened yesterday night, and I was able to see the past.”
“What!!”
“Yes! Our kingdom is in trouble, and calamity is coming our way. Take read this first,” Ikenna whispered, handing a letter over to Amanda.
Amanda slowly took the letter and read it. She gasped in shock at what she saw.
“SINCE YOU REFUSE TO LISTEN. AMANDA MUST DIE” – it read.
“What is going on here? Who is after my life?” she cried.
“Calm down, my love. Let me explain. Yesterday night, I met that letter on my bed. I was still mad at you and didn’t read meaning into it until this morning. The gods revealed to me that Elder Amadi’s great-grandfather handed the throne to my great-grand, and now Elder Amadi is fighting to claim it back. His wife also took my twin brother to the forest to die.”
“What! You are a twin?” Amanda asked in shock.
“Yes! I just found out yesterday, and I am sure that Elder Amadi is responsible for this letter. The problem is I don’t know what the future brings,” Ikenna said sadly.
“I can see the future, and I am seeing extreme suffering and darkness. I didn’t understand before, but everything is clear now,” Amanda replied.
“Maybe I should step down and hand over for peace to reign,” Ikenna muttered.
Amanda sat quietly lost in thoughts before an idea struck her. “They want to play a dangerous game; then, we would play along.”
“What do you mean? You actually mean we should—”
“Yes! We are going to be fools to get what we want.” Amanda and Ikenna smirked at each other.
End of Flashback
“AHH!” the villagers yelled in confusion.
“Son! What do you mean? Do you mean this whole thing was a charade, and you knew from the beginning, and you allowed me to maltreat her?” Queen Chiamaka asked in shock.
“Yes, Mother! It was all a plan to get the culprits in a tight corner and expose them. But you really disappointed me because I expected you to treat her better. But no, you connive with Adaku to frustrate her until she leaves this palace by herself. You even wanted to turn her into your maid. That was when I realized that you were heartless. At some point, you were even going to kill her if she refused to leave,” Ikenna snapped.
“Son! Please, I am sorry; I didn’t know. I thought I was doing it for your own good,” Queen Chiamaka pleaded, already in tears. She turned towards Amanda, with tears flowing freely from her eyes.
“Please forgive me. You are right; you will make a better queen than me. I allowed the evil into my life, and I foolishly let it destroy me. But please give me another chance to change my ways.”
Amanda ignored and faced Elder Amadi. “You always knew I was the one that will end it all; that is why you tried to kill me so I won’t stop you from achieving your aim. Sorry, your plan failed.”
She faced the crowd with a smile. “I endured all the humiliation, the shame, the reproach that was thrown my way just to eradicate the evil from this land, but it wasn’t appreciated. I was seen as evil and cursed while the real evil roamed freely. You humiliated me for a calamity that had nothing to do with me, the same calamity that was brought upon you by your newly elected king – Amadi. He planned with his daughter and had her sleep with a guard despite knowing it was a taboo. He didn’t stop there; he had me implicated and sent out of the palace for a crime I didn’t commit. He didn’t still stop there; he still sent Nonso and some youths to take my life. But I knew ahead of time and had my husband plan with his brother the very day they met, to take me out of the village to a more secure location. As if that wasn’t enough, he diabolically manipulated the calamity to increase and afflict the people just to get Ikenna to step down from the throne.
“You said you planned all this, but you still couldn’t stop your dear husband from marrying and deflowering me despite knowing I came to help my father penetrate and destroy the royal family and also get you out of the way. You really know how to cook up lies,” Adaku smirked, stepping forward from behind her mother’s back.
Ikenna stepped forward too and stood beside Amanda. “Adaku, let me burst your bubbles; I literally never slept with you. I would never stoop so low to cheat on my wife.”
“Then why did you do it because I know for a fact that you took my vîrginity that very night?”
“Yes, I technically took your vîrginity with an adult toy. If you remember well when you came into the room, I gave you something to drink; the drink is to make you hazy and unstable, and I purposely turned off the light so you won’t see what I was doing. Then I made use of an ádûlt tóy to déflówer you,” Ikenna smirked.
“No! That is a lie!” Adaku shouted as she stumbled and fell to the ground.
“You forgot I am a nurse. Well, it wasn’t hard to get the right drugs for that, and also there is a video we made with UV lights. Would you like to watch? I can have it set up right now. Let’s all watch it,” Amanda smiled cruelly.
“You are evil.”
“I learned from the very best. One more thing; I know you actually drûgged my husband to râpé him, but sorry to inform you, he never took it. You only pushed him to me because he was ángry with me for wanting to proceed with the plan even after knowing how serious the dangers were. Even the morning after, when you thought he was insûlting me for allowing him to sleep over, he actually said that because we knew you were at the door, just to push you to hasten your plan,” Amanda smirked.
Adaku looked at Amanda in shock and slowly stood up. “I won’t beg for forgiveness if that’s what you want. Do your worst.”
“Amadi! What do you have to say for yourself?” Amanda asked calmly.
“Like she said, do your worst!”
Amanda smiled and faced the villagers. “People of Egonna, since they refuse to admit their fault and apologize, here is my verdict: Elder Amadi, you will never see the sun again but will always see the ghôßts of people you kîlled and those you caused their deáth, and they are permitted to do what they want with you until the day you dîe. The same goes for you, Abigail. Adaku, you will suffer the hûmiliátion I went through and will be a sláve to everyone in this kingdom until you die, and you will live the remainder of your life by the outskirts of this village. Nonso, you will remain misérable all the days of your life and will struggle to feed yourself. You will dîe, and there will be no one to moûrn you, and you are hereby exiled from these lands. Elder Ejike, you are hereby dismissed from the council of elders.
“You can’t do that; you are no queen, and your husband is no longer the king,” Elder Ejike yelled.
“Oh yes, she can! Her words are law, and for your information, I never stepped down as king. The original bead and crown are still with me, meaning I am still, and she is the queen, and her words are final.”
TBC
SHARE YOUR OPINION