HER GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT

Chapter 12: Three types of friends

It was Dave's chance to address the crowd. Tania had taken him through how to maintain stage fright. He explained the social media platforms created under ATHEWI and what information they could access from the organization's websites. The legit phone numbers and accounts and how donors could send their donations both material and financial from anywhere in the world. Ruth came back and brought the meeting to an end. There was drama and play staging about gender imbalance and ways of curbing it followed by refreshments dance challenge. Then one by one the guests started leaving. As they left they were given ATHEWI flyers and posters to hang on their notice boards. Ruth was happy. Finally she was going to do what she always wanted. People should always work for what they want even if they don’t think they may get it.

Quitting her job wasn't that bad after all. But the hardest part of it was just around the corner. Because humans are insatiable. No matter what you do there will always be someone to lag you behind. And those who are around you can easily be grouped into three with first group constituting of those who will support you wholeheartedly the second one those who will not. And they will say it openly. They will laugh at how crazy your ideas are and the third and worst group is comprised of those who will pretend to support you. Some will go in and support you but sabotage your plans from within. The final group are the fence sitters. One minute they support you and the next you're crazy. Ruth was lucky to have all of them in that crowd. And soon their allegiance was going to come to light. Did she have room for disappointments?? It was now in the hands of fate and time. One of the hardest tests of new beginnings is the test of time. We all fail terribly.

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"He is a coward I've always known", Johnson said a waitress pouring wine in his glass.

He was seated at the comfort of his house watching the evening news. The ATHEWI groundbreaking ceremony was all over social media and major Television stations even those that had made it clear they were not going to air it followed the wind. Together with the boys club they were trolling Ben for going along with his wife's crazy idea. Some members were even plotting to re-negotiate his membership. Why be in a high caliber club of rich men when you can't control your wife?

Their motto was based on dominion in business around the city and dominion for them began in the home. Only men who could have their homes under Control could sit at their table headed by Johnson himself as the head being the richest among them. Judging others was easy yet they couldn't see the speck of dust in their own eyes. Not all of them had their homes under their twisted idea of control and dominion. Mr. Watson for instance could not get his son Nick to marry a rich girl despite having a handful of them at his disposal. Some had even offered to pay the bride price. But he was the first one to propose Ben was to be chased away. In his defense Nick was his son. Watson expected him to have a defiant gene. The urge to do things his way. If it were a daughter he could have excluded himself from the club.

"Tell him the deal is off the table", Watson instigated.

"No he is one of us am sure he has a reason let's wait until he gets here. He is dropping his father and children home", Johnson defended his longtime friend from the angry pack of wolves.

"Okay let's go with that”, another gentleman said.

Johnson could not sell him out that quickly. Ruth’s job was still secure for as long as he needed to make her fall in line. He was hoping he had a plan to break the spirit of his unyielding brave woman. He had not told him the reason he badly wanted her back at Tess international and he did not care if Ben believed the push was all about dominion and tough times. The real reason was her skills and competence. Honesty and leadership capabilities. In his thirty plus years of generating wealth he has never met a dedicated and hardworking employee like her an employee who was ready to go an extra mile to achieve the objectives of the organization contrary to the expectation that she could have underperformed because of job security.

Ben and Johnson were friends. There was no way he could have fired his best friend and business partner’s wife. To some extent he resented Ben. What had he given God that the creator of all life decided to bless him with something more than a wife? His wife was doing well too. Pretty, hardworking and caring but she was no way near Ruth. Before she quit he was a planning to offer her a prestigious managerial position in the organization. He had even informed Ben who wanted it to be a surprise. The move was a great way of upgrading his male ego and their financial status. One house with two C_suite parents. Had she stayed Ruth was going to be the chief operations officer of Tess international. If only she knew what was at stake.

The battler opened the door wide open with Ben following him closely. He looked famished. Dressed in a black suit. White shirt red tie. All his friends shifted their attention to look at him. He could smell their anger and confusion. Johnson snapped his fingers and quickly a half-naked waitress brought Ben a glass of champagne. He drank it one gulp belched and exhaled sharply.

"Why are you all looking gloomy?” He asked spreading his arms on the coach. His legs made a figure four.

"You have some explaining to do Ben", Watson said.

"Yeah you do", Johnson and the third man agreed.

"First of all your son Nick was there too", He said referring to Watson, "Apparently his girlfriend is a staunch disciple of my wife", He added smiling at him.

That was a shocker. The rest of the team turned to look at Watson. He mumbled and chewed something invisible before Johnson came to his aid. Ben had some strange friends.

"He will explain later let's start with you. Do you have a plan?" He inquired with concern.

"Am the smartest in this group", Ben teased the rest of the team groaned to show disapproval.

"Blowing your own horn... Typical Ben", another gentleman said coming from the washroom.

"How long has chilwall been in there?” Ben asked creating a diversion.

"Two three hours", Watson said.

"Anyway my plan is in action already. Johnson my kids will be crushing at your penthouse for a few days. She is supposed to pick them up next week. For the record none of you know where they are ", He dropped the punch line of his earlier_ being the smartest statement and sipped on his champagne.

Even the dumbest of them if there was knew that the plot was going to work. To show him respect he deserved they didn't say anything instead Johnson called for a toast to "Ben the smart one". They knew it was wrong. Ben's move was like k********g his own children and forcing their own mother to pay a ransom. An easy one. She had to go back to her job and get promoted to a COO, chief operations officer position. Double salary, company car and loads of allowances were waiting for her. Who doesn't want that? All their scheming was not just to get Ruth back. At least Johnson wanted that. The rest of them were worried about the movement she had started.

The reverend Tom White and the police commander Noah Price were the only ones who had not attended that day. Tom called in to notify the club he had some important church matters to take care of. They all knew the man of God was against the movement. He had to be. Among all of them he had the worst record of covered up s****l offences. Some were not even discovered yet. The ones he had in conjunction with Noah. Chilwall even joked that they might have been trafficking girls again and pretended to be busy.

"What if she decides to use the legal way to get them back", Chilwall asked.

The whole room went dead quite. Their attention turned to Ben who was relaxing like he didn't get the question. It was because he had everything figured out or else they wouldn’t be looking at him for answers. And yeah, he was the smartest of them all.

"The children are both ours we are not divorced and am I not the male of the house? All decisions are made by me", He bragged.

"Don’t forget she has Stewart's daughter in her corner. I heard some rumours she is a smart ass lawyer", Watson shared his concern in a polite way to scratch Ben's ego.

"Then I will have to ask my dad to step in. He is my other leverage", Ben said confidently. He had the answers to all their questions and it give him bliss. He felt like Neil Armstrong on the surface of the moon.

"What does your old man have to do with this Ben?" The silent one decide to speak.

He was most dangerous of them all. As a matter of fact the level of danger that man possessed could not be compared to any of them. It was something close to an angry Russian man with a c****d M16 in his hands. He was the cleaner. Former army officer and well decorated soldier who owned a security consultant company as its CEO. But behind the cover he was a cold blooded murderer. A big scar across his face. He was also In charge of their security. All of them. And that of their property parallel to the security they were entitled to by the government. The cleaner or Mr. Urdinof_ which sounded better when he said it out loud since he could speak five different languages fluently Russian being one of them and his favorite_ was the guy they called if they wanted someone to disappear. He could obliterate anyone from the surface of the earth.

"He lend her the office space for ATHEWI", Ben said.

Even the cleaner was impressed. Ben had a tactical plan that had looked at all loopholes. As the rest of the boys praised him Ben put on a smiley face. Yet something kept nagging him. His conscience kept reminding him what he was doing was wrong and his instincts were telling him he was right. It was for the benefit of all of them. Ben was under the idea that one day Ruth would have thanked him for doing what he was doing. All the plotting and lies were going to bear fruits someday. He had come from far with it and broken every rule of humanity there was to break. There was no going back. Not when he was that close to tasting victory. Coincidentally Ruth's text came in. She was going to pick the kids the next day and she was hoping he moved back in. Ben did not reply. She texted again.

A thin line between love and madness. This time thanking him for talking to his father to lend them an office space. Key word them. Ruth believed they were together in the path she had chosen. Showing up to support her made it all clear. But she was wrong. In fact very wrong not even close to eight. Perhaps she forgot he subordinate duties. All the decisions were made by the husband. The wind dictated that and everyone else knew it. Ben did not answer. She texted again. Asking for forgiveness and hoping he was all in with her new path. She finished with a goodnight text. Ben read the text and switched off his phone.