The Long Con

He was in the university when his father died

It was almost a hush thing

He saw the poster at the faculty of law

The man looked familiar

His name was also very familiar

He left campus immediately

When he got to his mother's office

He saw his two elder sisters with her

Plotting!

Have you heard? Asked his mother

'Yes ma". Was all he could say

The plotting went on for a while and a final decision was made

They would all go in a bus

To pay their last respect and stake their claim

It would be tough but this had always been the end game

The last Hurrah!

His mother was a choleric

A supreme ruler and commander

She was the only parent he had ever known

He remembered meeting his father

He was sure he met him

He remembered an office setting

He was in his mother's arms

And his father was standing right across the room

Looking upset...

His Father was a judge

He was also happily married to a Judge

They had six children

He was 55, when his mother 30, was posted by the ministry to be his secretary

His mother saw wealth, status

She saw her future

She worked on him

Within a year

She delivered her first child

A girl

Nobody knew who the father of her daughter was

He didn't have to tell her to keep it a secret

Her plan depends on it

Should his wife know what she was up to

She would be in the eye of the storm

Judges were known to be diabolical

She might not survive the wrath of his wife

Their children were all schooling abroad

His wife goes to the UK twice a year to spend some time with her children

That was always her window

If she didn't maximize it

She would have to wait until the following year

A son would guarantee her the standing she wanted

She got to it

She got pregnant again

Another girl

He was 58 then and growing weary of her

But he had a soft conscience and a few tears would often disarm him

"I am not asking you for anything, i have never disturbed your marriage, I love you, is it fair that I live like a hermit?"

He would do

He was 60 when she got what she wanted

She walked away

He was very generous

He bought her a house, deposited a fortune in fixed deposit towards his children's education

He told her neither she nor her children would be in his will

He had settled them

She was grateful

He didn't write a will

According to his lawyer, he kept on postponing it until he died

They arrived at the wake keeping ceremony like peacocks

She was determined to cause a stir

Within minutes the drummers were singing "Arole ti de" meaning the 'Crown Prince" had arrived

Everybody paid attention

The Judge's legal wife was 83

She wasn't up for the fight but her daughters were

Within three months they were in court

It was a dirty war

He was right at the center of it, a golden pawn in his mother's long con game

What could he do?

He towed the line

Her mother had done her homework over the years

She was a secretary within the ministry of justice and had forged the right bonds with several people

Most of the witnesses were on her side

After months of serious back and forth

The judge gave a date to render her judgement

Two days to the date

As he returned home from school

Two unknown gun men jumped down from a car and shot him 34 times

He died on the spot!

Immediately his mother heard, she had  a stroke

Her long con game backfired

Two days later, the judge ruled in favour of the legal wife!

PS:

She recovered from the stroke and tells the story often as a lesson to others.

The young man in the story died as a student of University of Ibadan in 2002.

A young lady whom he impregnated while in school delivered a son a few months after he died