No Love Lost: Lust, Love, Divorce, Fury, and Sex Make the World Go Round

2013 by Ime Albert. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 04/04/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-8434-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-8435-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-8436-8 (e)

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Readers’ Reactions

Chapter 1.   The Grace Of Love

Chapter 2.   The Dining Room

Chapter 3.   The Beautiful Parlour

Chapter 4.   Life Gambler

Chapter 5.   The Green Parlour

Chapter 6.   Losing Grip

Chapter 7.   Lovebirds

Chapter 8.   Real Love: Rachael And Richmond?

Chapter 9.   Love Or Lust?

Chapter 10.   Holiday Time By Cruise

Chapter 11.   Arister Clarkson’s Birthday

Chapter 12.   Milan’s Failed Bid

Chapter 13.   Space World 2009

Chapter 14.   Richmond’s Trip To London

Chapter 15.   Fred Allison’s Wedding

Chapter 16.   Richmond’s Marital Woes

Chapter 17.   The Bird Flies To London

Chapter 18.   Mickey Fassy House Completed

Chapter 19.   The Trip To The Bahamas

Chapter 20.   Mickey And Brenda’s Anniversary

To God Almighty, and to the love of my life, Patricia. I sincerely love you. And to the memory of my late son, Richmond. Rest in perfect peace.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A very big thank you to my family: my lovely wife, Patricia; my son, Roland; and my daughters, Rachael and Rhema, for your lifetime support and love.

It is amazing that I have read a number of intriguing and sensational books which have remained in my mind. I have found most of the writers totally compelling. But in all, there is nothing that amazes me more than my wife’s and children’s assurance that I will write books better than those I have read. My family have, on many occasions, expressed their faith in my ability to write world-class books. My dear, this is a result of your abiding faith in my writing abilities.

To my young and amazing friend, Cornerstone Godwin: it is worth knowing you. You took time out to go through the manuscript and make notable corrections. Your contributions to this work have embellished it so nicely that my family and I are grateful to you. Thank you for those sleepless nights, those hours sacrificed in love.

To my brothers, I thank you all for being there for me. Most especially, I thank Atai, Bassey, and Princewill for always encouraging me to write. And to your wives, I say you are all amazing gifts to my brothers. Remain blessed.

To my sister, Blessing: it is gratifying to know you care. I say to you and your husband, thank you for being there for me.

To Godfrey Udegbe, my young and brilliant secretary: I don’t know what I would have done without you. You dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s. Your work has helped me in presenting a worthy book to my team of publishers.

Let me extend my thanks to Rey August, Jeric Romano, Eugene Hopkins, Denis Spenser, Vanessa Sims, Janine Carry, and Ann Minoza, just to mention a few from AuthorHouse. It’s been nice working with you.

READERS’ REACTIONS

Sensational, compelling, and beautiful. You have done a great job. I am proud of you.

Rachael Ime

King’s College, London

This is very humorous and a must-read. You are indeed an inspiring writer.

Olubee

California

This is unique. You are splendid and captivating.

Bassey Albert

Uyo, Nigeria

This must be a bestselling write-up; everybody has to read this.

Roland I.

University of Lancashire,

United Kingdom

This is compelling and enticing, very rich and very graceful. Classic writing.

Pat Albert

London

Great writing, good thinking, and lovely ending.

Vernice Carson

London

A true blend of society. Keep up the good work.

Koko A.

New Jersey

Wonderful language and beautiful prose; congrats.

Edozie Madu

Abuja, Nigeria

From the blues; sensible food for the eye.

Princewill A.

Lagos, Nigeria

Wonderful prose. Wild, rich, and compelling language. Keep on writing; the sky is your limit.

Godfrey Udegbe

Abuja, Nigeria

Man was created to create. This is a mind-boggling creation of a very rich, imaginative intellect. Keep up the good work.

Cornerstone Godwin

Abuja, Nigeria

Chapter 1

The Grace of Love

The night was full of gales—both from the wind and people’s laughter—but the groove was heavy. The music, loud but pleasant, had lifted the ambience in the bar, but the two lovers, Mickey and Brenda, the celebrants, were nowhere to be found.

The barman was busy serving drinks and snacks.

No one noticed when a dark, slender woman sneaked into the party with a dish of ice cream in her hands. She floated round the party as if engaged in a spiritual ritual of some sort.

Suddenly, thick, dark smoke came out of the woman’s mouth. Everyone panicked and ran for safety.

That was the end of the party.

Richmond Worsley Cassidy was in his hotel room thinking of what to do.

His pregnant wife lay on the expansive hotel bed sleeping deeply.

Mike Downing, the steward that helped Richmond’s granny with household chores, had just told Richmond that his granny had suffered a stroke.

Richmond had tried to reach his family on phone, but

none of his calls had gone through. To worsen his trepidation, Mike Downing’s phone went straight to voicemail after he broke the sad news.

Richmond helplessly crossed from one corner of his room to the other and back, lost in troubled thoughts.

His well-furnished hotel room had a royal blue theme. The gold around the edges of the dark blue window blinds shone like the star in the famous Christmas tale.

The paint colours on the walls did extra aesthetic justice to the room, as each wall radiated a different shade of blue, and the rotating golden chandelier from Brazil reflected the hybrid of blues.

A large TV adorned the room. It directly faced the massive bed that looked like one meant for a Roman emperor.

Bright bedside lamps flanked the well-dressed bed, and the light beaming from them perfectly highlighted the large paintings on the walls and the dotted blue wall-to-wall Italian rug.

The sweet fragrance of exotic South American perfume filled the air.

The goldfishes in the aquarium which sat very close to a six-legged dining table near a gold-plated reading table jumped intermittently with careless abandon, as if they were appreciating their host for his tastily furnished abode.

The atmosphere of Richmond’s room could make any sorrowful heart beam with joy, but not Richmond’s, at least not at that moment.

A bang on the door broke Richmond’s reflex.

He paused and quickly gathered himself, thinking it was one of the hotel staff here for a routine room check or clean-up.

He walked sluggishly to the door. When he opened it, he was shocked at the sight of his cousin, Pearl, being carried by a Good Samaritan into his room from the elevator directly across the corridor. The Good Samaritan talked briefly with Richmond as the victim reeled in excruciating pains.

She had been raped.

Who… who did this to you? he asked angrily.

He rushed down to the hotel lobby and quickly called for an ambulance.

While waiting for it to arrive, Richmond noticed a smallish, slender, dangerous-looking man creeping down the hotel’s lonely stairway clutching a brown envelope.

Everyone was asleep.

He peeped twice at the strange man but was unable to figure out his mission or identity. He looked away and drifted into thought about his grandma’s ill health and his cousin being torn apart by an unknown rapist.

The ambulance arrived in good time, in response to Richmond’s distress call.

As the woes bedevilling his beloved relatives further agitated his befuddled mind, his phone rang.

He quickly glanced behind the reception desk to check the local time from the collection of clocks showing the time in major cities around the world.

The time was 3.20 a.m.

Who could be calling me at this hour? Richmond asked, surprised.

He was worried that the call could be more bad news.

As he pulled out his cell phone, his hand jerked in fear. A deep chill pierced through his spine, and his entire digestive system yearned for the restroom.

The cold weather was catching up with him.

Before he could check the caller ID, his phone went dead. The battery had been drained.

With his busy schedule and troubled mind, he had forgotten to charge it.

His thoughts roamed back to his cousin who by now was being examined by the nurses and doctors in the accident and emergency ward of a nearby hospital.

For the first time that night, Richmond thought about his pregnant wife, whose estimated delivery date was just a few days away.

Mickey and Brenda, the celebrant were no were to be found. This was actually their wedding night party, they were found missing, lost into the night, the party had been going on for about five hours, till the early hours of the morning, but the couple had disappeared, probably into one of the room to make love and rest, it was a night of fun. Fun for the love birds, the time was 3.10am it was already Sunday morning.

His thought of returning to his very comfortable room to catch some rest and find solace from his many troubles met stiff opposition from his conscience. Overwhelming guilt weighed him down. Why should he be able to rest when his two precious relatives were in serious danger?

He felt a serious sense of responsibility to find out about his granny’s health or to find the rapist that had torn his little cousin to pieces.

His thoughts jumped to the man he had seen in the stairs.

No car had left the hotel premises except the ambulance that conveyed his cousin to the hospital. He thought of the evil-looking man and reasoned that the man could be the rapist and was probably still there.

He quickly lit a stick of cigarette to console himself but when the tobacco stick couldn’t sooth his troubled soul, he dumped it inside the ash stand at the lobby of the hotel.

Richmond had become so enraged and wanted to avenge his releative so desperately that he defied the dangers of the night and took a lone walk into the dark, through the car park.

Richmond second-guessed himself, thinking he was chasing shadows and so he should not continue this uncertain expedition. But then he summoned the courage to move on.

He needed to vent his anger somewhere, anywhere, on anyone unlucky enough to be caught in his path.

His fierce anger prodded him on through the car park, which was so poorly lit that he could barely see where he was going.

The street lights were not on; the only light came from the small lawn surrounding the lot.

His heart told him he was doing the right thing as he strolled on.

Suddenly, palpable fear gripped him as he thought of what would happen to him if his cousin’s assailant, which he sensed was still lurking around, approached him from behind, overpowered him, and dealt him a deadly blow.

What will I tell my wife if I’m wounded in this adventure? he asked himself. No answer came.

The thought of his unborn baby crept into his vengeful but fear-ridden heart, and for the first time since leaving the lobby, he stopped and looked about frantically. He saw no one.

He recalled how, a week or so before, he had talked to his little baby in the womb as he placed his hands on his pregnant wife’s stomach.

Richmond and his wife, Blonda, had been in their expansive bedroom at home.

Blonda had been half naked, wearing only a white towel round her well-shaped waist, which always made Richmond desire her, even after years of marriage. She had just returned from the bathroom.

In terms of the elegance of the finishes, his hotel room was a reflection of his bedroom at home. There, the room was tastily furnished, with a Turkish rug as the centrepiece. The only difference between his hotel room and his home bedroom was that his bedroom at home had a gold theme.

The window blinds of his bedroom were decorated with light green pebbles made of costly wool, and the settees by the bedside were made of high-quality Italian leather, which gave the room the air