I stood still, looking at the basket wondering what to do next. She looked calm and smiled at me so innocently. Natasha, my girlfriend for over five months now, had just left for her vacation and things had begun taking a new toll on me.

Barely a day before Natasha’s departure, I had received a strange text message from an unknown number. A message that scared me to my wits. A message that gave me chills and froze my nerves. Natasha noticed some changes in my behavior but she thought her expected absence from my side was the main contributor.

My head raced with uncontrollable thoughts that came with severe insomnia. I loved Natasha unconditionally and even promised her marriage. She meant a lot to me and to cement the bond, she was expecting out baby.

” Hello Jared?” Began the message. ” I surely know that you can’t remember me and it is good if we kept it that way. The thing is, we met a few years ago while you were in Kigali, Rwanda for a vacation and if the memory serves me right, you made me have a moment to recall.” Continued the text. ” It’s been two and half years now, I haven’t heard from you. You went silent at the moment when I needed you the most. You came into my life, fed me with too much joy and love. You made me feel different, loved and treated me like I was the only thing you had. What I didn’t know is that the feeling wasn’t going to last long. You left for Nairobi a few days later and promised to come back but you never did.” As I read through the message, I rushed back to my thoughts’ history with an attempt to try and uncover the experiences I had had back in Kigali.

I couldn’t pull off any substantial memories of this strange lady. What I only remembered is that back then I was a total party animal. I had made out with lots of women and done all kinds of filth I came across. I took no chances because one day, I would disappear from the face of this earth. I was young, strong and good looking. I had money, a good job, an expensive car and a comfortable lifestyle. What was there to worry about? Why shouldn’t I have fun to the fullest?

Road trips were served onto my table like my daily bread. I matched the qualities of every beautiful girl. My dressing always on point, my sense of humor so glamouring, my state of being so enchanting. My sapiophile nature dictated my taste of the kind of ladies I wanted to relate with and it never disappointed.

One thing was evident though, with all the wealth and riches, the flashy cars and the extremely expensive lifestyle, I still maintained my cool. Down to earth I was and very humble. This is something that I had worked extremely hard for and now that I was finally here, I saw no reason in being outrageously proud. This humble nature played a vital role in capturing the attention of the ladies I got attracted to.

” To be honest, I thought we would reconnect and have a thing between us or even end up becoming a family.” The message continued. ” Two weeks after you left, I began experiencing some conditions so I opted for a checkup and it turned out that I was expectant with your child. I played it cool and hoped that you would call or text back but you went missing. I tried contacting you but in vain because your number wasn’t going through. I had to face the reality that you were no longer in my life and so all that was left was for me to move on.”

“I never lost the will to find you and in one way or another, I managed to find your address. I have gone through hell and as much as I wanted to keep our child, my state couldn’t allow me so I thought it was good if you got to know your child. She’s the best and the worst thing that ever happened to me. I hope that we will reunite someday and become one family again. Take good care of our daughter and how I hope that you will be the best father she needs. I named her Natalie.”

“Natalie…Natalie…Natalie.” I kept thinking about this name because it was such a coincidence that it was the same name that I had planned to give to our daughter. Total confusion dawned and at this point I began sweating. The temperatures became unbearable, I didn’t sleep that night and neither did Natasha because she was too anxious to handle the thought of her vacation that would come with a job promotion………

Stay tuned for the next chapter……