Gloria Kuma sat behind the centre table like all the others in the room. Just 33 years of age, she worked as a National Security cleaner at the office of the Vice-President on the recommendation of the Vice-President.
A semi-illiterate, she was the younger sister of an old time friend of Vice-President Gertrude Mensah. When she became Vice-President, the friend, Lucy Kumah, who sold plantain at the main market and from whom she always buys whenever she goes to the market came to congratulate her and pleaded with her to employ her younger sister, Gloria, as a cleaner in her office.
Lucy had dropped out of primary school, never to continue again after her parents passed away. She took to selling in the market to make ends meet to enable her to take care of her only sibling, Lucy. When Lucy was in class three, she too dropped out of school to help her elder sister in the market to sell. Things had gone on well for a while until fire razed down their store at the market. All their savings, which they kept hidden in the store, burnt in the process. They had to start all over again and it had not been easy.
Vice-President Gertrude Mensah recommended Gloria as a cleaner at her office. National Security conducted background checks on her. They found her clean; she had no criminal records, did not do drugs and was clean. With that, she came to the Office of the Vice-President who made sure she gave her extra salary at the end of every month when the state paid her.
Vice-President Getrude Mensah was fond of Gloria. During some of her official trips abroad, she had Gloria included on her trip. As a result, the cleaner’s passport showed she had travelled to the US, Japan, South Africa, Nigeria, Brazil and Australia.
On her 33rd birthday, the Vice-President surprised her with a car as her birthday present. When the Deputy National Security Coordinator, Rex Yamoah, decided to have the Vice-President assassinated, his first recruit was Gloria, who was oblivious to the real reason why he started secretly dating her.
He started by being friendly with her. Then he began to give her monetary gifts. Then he started dating her. She fell madly in love with him. On a few occasions, they spent the weekend together. However, he told her to keep their relationship a secret.
She really did not mind it being a secret. What matters for her was what she saw as their love for each other. One afternoon, he surprised her by buying her a two-bedroom house; as far as Rex Yamoah was concerned, the cost of the house was nothing compared to his ultimate ambition of having the Vice-President assassinated.
She fell hopelessly in love with him so much that when she found out that he was dating another person secretly, she fell sick. Then she threatened to commit suicide over his affair with the other woman. What she was not aware of was that he deliberately decided to make her jealous hence his affair with the other woman and deliberately making her find this out.
As part of his plan to get rid of the other woman after Gloria’s threats and intensified his steaming secret affair with her. He sometimes flew her secretly out of the country for holidays. Often, if they want to travel, Gloria will feign sickness and take a one-week’s leave. Then she and Rex Yamoah will fly out of the country but will make sure no one sees them together at the airport nor sit together in the plane they will fly.
Soon, he began to tell her negative stories about the Vice-President. He told her checks they had made indicated the Vice-President was a member of a dangerous cult that wanted to kill the President so she would take over, effectively meaning the cult taking over the Presidency of the country. With more of such stories, Gloria’s love and respect for Vice-President began to diminish. She began to dislike her and only put up appearances because of the need for her to keep her job. Then Rex Yamoah told her their investigations have also established that Vice-President Gertrude Mensah was secretly involved in the illicit drugs trade. He told her other countries had found this up and the story may soon hit the front page of some newspapers. By this time, Gloria was convinced that the Vice-President was evil. Then one day, Rex Yamoah told her that the decision is already on course at the highest level that the Vice-President must die.