They invited Boris to an upscale, trendy bar downtown, claiming they wanted to throw a party to celebrate the second anniversary of Elegance Kafui.
Boris, possessing a heart completely devoid of malice, was deeply touched by the gesture. He accepted the invitation with genuine, naive pleasure, eager to spend time with the men he still considered his closest friends.
The bar was crowded, loud, and pulsating with heavy music. They ordered drinks, laughed loudly, and reminisced about their early, struggling days in the city.
“To our eternal brotherhood!” Jean shouted over the music, standing up and raising his glass, a perfectly practiced, treacherous smile plastered across his face. “May we all rise to the top together!”
“To brotherhood!” Boris beamed, clinking his glass against theirs.
Without a single shred of suspicion, Boris raised his glass of fresh fruit juice and drank deeply. He didn’t see Simon’s hand hovering over the glass moments before. He didn’t taste the lethal, fast-acting, untraceable chemical toxin they had slipped into his drink.
The deadly plan was set in motion.
Less than thirty minutes later, the poison began to violently attack Boris’s nervous system. A wave of intense, crippling nausea washed over him. His vision blurred, and a cold sweat broke out across his forehead.
“Guys, I’m so sorry,” Boris slurred, holding his stomach, his face turning a sickly, pale shade of gray. “I suddenly feel incredibly sick. Must have been something I ate earlier. I need to go home and lie down.”
“Oh, no problem, brother. Let me get you a taxi,” Lucas offered with sickening, fake concern, escorting the dying man out the door.
When Boris finally stumbled through the front door of his beautiful villa, he could barely stand. The room was spinning violently. His legs felt like lead.
“Mama!” Boris called out weakly, his voice barely a whisper as he braced himself against the wall. “Mama… I don’t feel well.”
Kafui, who had been sitting in the living room watching the evening news, instantly dropped her tea and rushed to him, her maternal instincts screaming that something was horribly wrong.
“My son! Good God, what is happening?!” she cried, wrapping her arms around him to keep him from collapsing onto the tile floor.
Boris stumbled toward the plush sofa and collapsed onto it. He curled up, resting his heavy, sweating head gently onto his mother’s lap, exactly as he used to do when he was a little boy frightened by a thunderstorm.
“Just… just a little bit of rest, Mama,” Boris whispered, his breathing becoming shallow and ragged. “I just need to close my eyes for a minute.”
Kafui frantically stroked his damp hair, panic rising in her chest like a tidal wave as she felt the terrifying, unnatural heat radiating from his skin.
“Hold on, my baby, I am calling the doctor right now!” she said, reaching for the phone on the side table.
But it was too late. The poison had reached his heart.
Boris closed his eyes, let out one final, soft sigh, and his chest stopped moving. He never woke up.
In that agonizing, devastating moment, Mama Kafui was completely, irreparably broken. The cruel, unforgiving world had taken her husband, and now, it had maliciously stolen her only son—her absolute sole reason for existing on this earth.
Chapter 6: The Mother’s Broom
The funeral of Boris Koda was a massive, heartbreaking event. The entire commercial district shut down for the day. Hundreds of people—clients, suppliers, and neighboring shop owners—came to pay their respects to the brilliant, kind young man who had been taken far too soon. Even old Papa Kwame had made the long, arduous journey from the provincial village, weeping openly for the boy he had given a broom to years ago.
And standing right at the front of the crowd, wearing black suits and wiping away fake, crocodile tears, were Jean, Lucas, and Simon.
That afternoon, Mama Kafui lost her mind to grief. She wept with a violence that was terrifying to behold. She threw herself onto the freshly dug earth of her son’s grave, her agonizing, guttural screams echoing through the silent cemetery, tearing at the souls of everyone present.
“My son! My only reason for living! Why?!” she shrieked, her fingernails frantically, desperately clawing at the wet, freshly turned dirt, as if she could physically dig him out and bring him back to life.
When the sun finally began to set, the mourners slowly dispersed, leaving Kafui entirely alone.
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