Chapter 1 A lifelong family secret

"Ryker, I can't take your shits any longer! I'm leaving this marriage, I'm leaving you!" Vanessa cried profusely as she moved her clothes off the closet.

Standing close to the windows of the spacious bedroom, was Ryker, dressed handsomely in a white pair of long sleeve top and black pants.

"And where do you think you're going? Hmm, my beloved wife?" He smirked and scoffed with pleasure.

"I don't care, Ryker! As long as I'm free from being your wife!" She snapped, turning back to the closet.

"You know, Essa," he called her name in short, moving slowly to her. "You have no family, no place to call home. This is the only home you know. Essa, you can't live without me," he whispered with a mocking smile as he stood in front of her.

She stopped and began to cry profusely.

"I gave up my family just to be with you! I gave you my all, Ryker! And what did you pay me for all these years of loyalty?! You paid me with nothing but distrust, cheating and this!" She cried, showing him the scar on her chest while he smiled unconcerned.

"But you know, Ryker! This is the height of it. I'm done, and when I say I'm done, I mean it this time," she finalized and turned back to the bed.

"Come over here, now!" He snarled, twisting her body back to himself.

She landed on his chest forcefully and he kissed her voraciously. A heavy slap landed on his face that made him staggered backwards.

"You think I'm a joke to you? I spent years being a fool for you and your family, Ryker! But you know what, I'm wiser now! You and your goddamn family can go to hell!!" She screamed.

"How dare you,.. Essa! How dare you speak about me and my family in such a manner! You're forgetting the ground on which you're standing," he smirked sinisterly as he wiped his lips.

"Mother!! Mother!!" He called aloud, his voice quaking the four corners of the room.

Vanessa began to fidget as the door opened and the pretty, average heightened fair woman in black dress walked into the room elegantly.

"And what's all this bickering about?" She asked, throwing her hands in the air nonchalantly.

"The bastard wants to leave," Ryker replied mockingly.

"Oh,..I see," Mrs Clyde spoke with pride as she looked at Vanessa with so much disgust and disdain.

"And you think you can survive out there without my family?" She asked with pride.

"Mother..," Vanessa tried to speak.

"How dare you, Essa?! How dare you?! For all the years of care and support the Clyde's family have shown you, this is how you choose to repay us?" Mrs Clyde asked, walking closer to her.

"Do you even think you fit in here in the first place?" She asked Vanessa whose face was glued to the floor.

"No, you don't. Ryker married you, believing you could give him an heir. But what's the result of all these years with you? Nothing! It's been five good years of emptiness, barrenness! nothing to show for it!" She continued as she hovered around Vanessa who was glued to a spot. "Come on, pack your bags and get out of the mansion. This is the last I wanna see of you." she added with a stern look on her face.

"And so you should know, mother, it's not my sole responsibility to get pregnant. Your son has failed in his responsibility to get me pregnant. You should channel all your mortification on him, not me. I'm done with you, I'm done with your son! Your whole family sucks!" Vanessa fired, her voice gaining back confidence.

The whole room was thrown into a suspenseful silence and Ryker walked towards Vanessa in utter disbelief.

"Did you just speak to my mother in such a manner?!" He asked, looking dismayed.

"Oh, yes. Gone are the days when she could play god in front of me!" Vanessa fired, her finger pointing at his face.

A heavy slap landed on her face that sent her flying to the bed.

"Let her be, son," Mrs Clyde spoke calmly to Ryker who was raging before Vanessa.

"Go to hell, Ryker! You're a monster! The whole of Clyde's family are monsters!!" Vanessa cried from the bed.

"And I'll show you what a monster can do," Ryker smirked as he pounced on the bed, hitting her vehemently.

Mrs Clyde walked over to the sofa opposite the bed and she sat comfortably, watching the show, with Vanessa's scream all over the room.

The door opened and two slender fair-skinned ladies rushed in.

"What's going on, mother?" They cried in unison.

"Oh, no! Stop it, Ryker!" One of the girls screamed.

"Let him be, Sophie. He's making her eat back her words," Mrs Clyde said to her daughter, Sophia, who was rushing over to the bed to grab hold of Ryker.

"What has she done this time around?" The other girl asked, looking puzzled.

"She said we're monsters, and she wants to leave," Mrs Clyde laughed hysterically.

"Oh, really? Then she can keep dancing to the tone of monsters," the girl laughed as she sat beside her mother.

"Stop it now, Ryker," Sophia spoke to her brother, pulling him away from Vanessa who was panting heavily on the bed.

"If she wants to leave, let her leave. You don't have to kill her before she leaves," Sophia said to him.

"She needs to taste what a monster can do!" Ryker barked, pulling his hand away from his sister. He jumped on the bed and tried to pounce on Vanessa.

Seeing Ryker coming for her once more, Vanessa charged up from the bed and grabbed the lamp- stand beside the bed and sent it flying towards him. The lamp hit his head so badly and he staggered away as he felt blood on his head.

"What have you done?!" The ladies cried in unison as they all rushed towards Ryker.

Vanessa pulled backwards, trying to move closer to the door as she watched the ladies gather around Ryker.

She raced towards the door in an attempt to flee; But Ryker's strong arms pulled her back as he charged towards her. With the strength of a bull, he flung her against the wall beside him and she hit her head vehemently against the wall.

"How dare you!" He roared like a lion as he charged towards her.

"Ryker, it's enough!" Mrs Clyde called, seeing her son walking towards Vanessa who was now lying on the floor.

"Get up, you pig!" He thundered, kicking her on the floor but she made little or no body movement.

"I say, get up!" He thundered, kicking her non-stop.

"Ryker, stop it!" Sophia cried, pulling him away from Vanessa's body which was still lying motionlessly on the floor.

"Mom..I..I don't think she's moving. Blood!" Claris exclaimed with fear as her eyes fell on the blood gushing out of Vanessa's head.

"What are you talking about?!" Mrs Clyde frowned and walked towards where the body was lying. She took a good look at the body and fear gripped her.

"What's going on, mother?" Sophia panicked, rushing towards them.

She knelt before Vanessa on the floor and placed a palm over her neck.

"I can't feel her heartbeat!" She exclaimed.

"What!!" They all screamed.

"What are you talking about, she can't die," Ryker scoffed as he pushed Sophia away from Vanessa's body and knelt on the floor beside her.

"Wake up!" He screamed, shaking her with so much force.

"Stop it, Ryker! She's dead!!" Sophia declared.

"No!!" No!!" Mrs Clyde and Claris screamed in unison.

"Vanessa is not dead, wake up!!" Ryker cried, slapping her face which had grown cold.

"No..this is not happening to us! She can't die on us! What would people say? What would the media say? Oh, our reputation is about to go down! Murder? Oh, no!" Mrs Clyde panicked around the room.

"Vanessa!" Ryker screamed, still trying to revive her but Sophia pushed him away.

"I warned you, I told you to let her be!" She screamed.

"Lower your voices!" Mrs Clyde hushed.

"Oh, you guys do something about this..I can't stand this.. this..this is murder," Claris cried with fear, recoiling behind her mom.

"Shut up!" Her mom yelled.

They all kept silent, staring at their mother.

"No one should know about this..," she warned sternly, looking at their faces one after the other.

"How..," Ryker tried to speak.

"Keep shut!" She shut him and he remained silent.

"We'll sneak the body out during night time and bury her far away. No one should hear about anything that happened here today," she continued as she stood up from Vanessa's body.

"What if..what if people ask about her, somehow they're gonna find out!" Claris cried with fear.

"We'll report her missing and then anonymously give the police a clue on how to find her body. They'll trace her body to where it's buried and then recover the body and finally declare her dead," Mrs Clyde said thoughtfully.

"And..what about autopsy? Postmortem would point to us!" Ryker cried.

"What us?!" Sophia yelled at him.

"Keep calm, everyone. Vanessa has no family and therefore, no one would be interested in an autopsy. We'll give her a befitting burial and the case would be closed. The public might gossip for a while, but after sometime , everyone would move on.

Life will go on without anyone finding out, and it would be a lifelong family secret," Mrs Clyde assured with a smile.

"Count me out of this shit," Sophia disagreed and stormed out of the room.

"Sophie..," Mrs Clyde tried to call but she was gone.

"Me too.. I'm not a murderer," Claris said fearfully and ran out.

"Mother.., mother..," Ryker cried fearfully.

"Be calm, my son. I've got you covered," Mrs Clyde assured, placing a hand around his shoulder.

"Now, let's think of how to get this out," she said with her eyes on Vanessa's lifeless body.

Months passed. After a long search for the missing Vanessa by the police, they finally discovered her body in a shallow grave. She was declared dead and the Clyde's family gave her a befitting burial. There was gossip in the city about the mysterious disappearance and the death of Vanessa. But no one dared question the most powerful family in the whole of Avena city;The Clyde's family.

As Mrs Clyde foretold, the gossip soon died, the police withdrew from the case, and everyone moved on. No one would pick up Vanessa's case, she had no family; so the Clyde's family had thought.

**

CHARLTON CITY.

Elegantly seated on the swivel chair, the lady in black suit, typed swiftly on the laptop before the table. Her eyes darted to the door where she could see a middle-aged man walking in, dressed smartly in black long jacket and jeans pants.

"Any news?" She asked, her eyes darting back to her laptop.

"Yes..," he muttered with a sigh as he stood before the table.

She raised her eyes in anticipation as she took a quick glance at the man.

"Then let me hear it," she urged, leaning back on her seat.

"But.. it's a sad one," he muttered again.

Her countenance changed and she sat up right.

"She's dead," the man spilled.

"No..no..! No!!!" She screamed, her voice trembling all over the building.