Gladys was stung by the condescension and retorted quickly. “I didn‘t know your names but Edward told me all about you. We share everything.”
“Of course you would say that, aren‘t you marrying him for his money? What does an impressionable young girl like you know about anything? Gold-digger!”
As if just noticing Edward‘s harsh glare, his former foster mother turned fully to him, “We hoped that by now, you would be repentant. It‘s been almost twenty years and you should pay Chief back his money, and with interest too. You can afford it...”
Edward reiterated by pointing directly at her, “Don‘t you dare insult my fiancée. And you must be joking! You know you set me up.”
Mrs. Okrika shook her head with a snicker but it was her husband who spoke. “My wife is right. The police persuaded me to let you go without ever going to court. Don‘t aggravate me or I might be tempted to resurrect the charges. You owe me Edward.”
“I owe you nothing; do your worst. Gladys let‘s go.”
She was relieved that Edward was ending the altercation. As the minutes ticked by, more and more people were trickling out of the venue. This was definitely not the best time to thrash out these issues. She would have to talk to Edward later for a way to seek a resolution with his foster parents.
“You will regret this. I will see that you do…”
“If you have anything further to say, speak with my lawyers. I‘ll reply you then.”
“You‘ll definitely hear from us, bastard.”
Two things prevented Edward from jumping on the older man there and then and pounding him into the ground. One, a time had been when he had called Chief Okrika “father”, when the man had done for him all a father would do for a son; and two, the love of his life was standing right beside him. He felt tempted to say something hurtful, but resisted. This was not how he had envisioned bumping into the people he had borne a grudge against for almost two decades. They should be apologizing, dammit!
The Okrikas were still standing where they left them when he got into the back seat with Gladys. As she leaned over to talk to her friend, he resolved to put it all out of his mind.
**********
They were in Edward‘s office and she‘d taken an extra hour for lunch so they could discuss their wedding plans. The tentative date for July meant they only had about five months to put everything together. When she‘d tried talking about his foster parents, he insisted he wasn‘t ready to talk about them.