Chapter 15 — What You Didn't Say
The yard was still, the breeze no longer carrying whispers but tension. After the police drove off with Akoto, quiet filled the house—heavy, unspoken, loud.
Inside, Esi sat on the edge of a wooden chair, still in her slippers, her fingers locked tightly around themselves. Kwabena stood nearby, hands resting on his waist, face unreadable.
His words came slowly, but they pressed hard.
"Why did you meet him?"
Esi didn't answer.
He stepped forward. "Why, Esi? What did he tell you?"
She looked at him. "You really want to ask me questions now?"
"I need to understand—why him? Why go behind my back in the middle of the night?"
Esi blinked slowly, voice low but steady. "Because you wouldn't talk."
Kwabena's jaw tightened.
"I asked you just yesterday, remember?" she continued. "I mentioned Ama. I asked you directly. And you said, 'She's complicated.' Like that was supposed to be enough."
"Because it is complicated."
"No, Kwabena," she said sharply. "What's complicated is the silence in this house. What's complicated is how the room with her diary was locked after I found it. What's complicated is the look on that maid's face when I said Ama's name. She looked like she'd seen a ghost. She didn't even answer me. She just walked off."
Kwabena shifted. "That still doesn't explain why you—"
"Of course it does!" she snapped. "You think I'm foolish? You think I'd sit here quietly, knowing something is wrong, feeling it every day, and just move on like nothing happened?"
She stood now. Her voice cracked slightly, but she held her posture. "I wanted to know. I needed to know why no one talks about Ama. Why her name tastes like smoke in this house."
Kwabena lowered his gaze.
"She disappeared. And everyone just... moved on," Esi said bitterly. "Like she never mattered. No photo on the wall. No stories. Nothing."
He finally spoke. "We didn't move on. We buried her in the night. No funeral. No ceremony."
Esi froze.
"She ran out. she was going to meet her love " Kwabena said slowly.That she snuck out. And then... she got hit.. we can't be embarrassed . Just silence. So the family decided to bury it quietly."
Esi stared at him. "So it's true."
"She loved someone else. They think she was trying to leave to see him. It didn't make sense to anyone. It brought shame. So they said she was chasing dreams. They made it look like that. Clean. Safe. Simple."
Esi scoffed. "Safe? That's what you call this?"
He said nothing.
She turned away from him for a moment, breathing deeply.
Then, almost under her breath, she said, "Sɛ wopere wo ho a, na ɛsono wo yareɛ."