I wheeled around and walked straight to the kitchen. My heart was thumping so loud I thought it would burst out of my chest. I pushed open the kitchen doors and walked straight to the counter where Pope was frying ripe plantains. I could see Mrs Hammond marching towards me out of the corner of my eye. One of the kitchen staff was washing dishes, a second was chopping onions and trying not to cry. Paa Willie was whisking eggs.

“You’ve gone and asked for her hand. When were you going to tell me?”

Pope lifted his head from the skillet. The kitchen went quiet. Mrs Hammond halted in her tracks. The tap was turned off. The chopping and whisking sounds ceased. The only sound in the kitchen was the popping of oil while the plantains fried.

“Who told you?”

“Does it matter?”

“Come on. Let’s talk outside.”

I followed him as he led the way to the beach.

The sun’s rays on his head made it glint even more. We walked away from the guests, some of whom were playing beach volley and others who were preparing to go on the jet skis. A group of fishermen had just hauled in their canoe. One of them held up a barracuda for Pope to see. Pope asked him to send it to the kitchen. We kept walking until we got to a deserted section of the beach. My blood was boiling. I felt it was going to erupt out of my nose and ears any second.

Pope rubbed his forehead, looked out at the ocean, at the coconut trees swaying in the breeze, at the sand, at his feet and finally at me.

“Your hair looks nice.”

I glared at him.

He sighed. “It wasn’t a ‘knocking ceremony’.”

I heaved a sigh of relief.

“It was an engagement ceremony.”

My heart dropped into my stomach. I looked at him in disbelief. “You’ve done the ‘knocking’ and the engagement? When? Why? When were you going to tell me? You’re planning to marry her and you didn’t tell me anything about it. I’m your daughter and I know nothing. Even the hairdresser at the corner knows you’re getting married! How could you?”

He sighed again. I could tell he was searching for the right words but I didn’t think there were enough words to excuse what he had done.

“This is so awkward. After we got the flowers for your mom and you went back to school I thought about what you said about brightening the place up. I went to Eden and met her. She needed to see the place before she could offer suggestions so I invited her over.”

He looked down at his feet again, ran his hand over his bald head. “This is really awkward.” He took a deep breath and said everything in a rush. “We clicked instantly. She came over a couple of times. I ended up in her bed one night. We didn’t mean for it to happen. It just happened. A month later she told me she was pregnant. I thought about it and realised I loved her and I wanted us to spend the rest of our lives together. She felt the same way. So we had a quiet ceremony two months ago. People talk and we didn’t want them saying we had the child out of wedlock. We were waiting for you to come home so we could plan the wedding. We were hoping you could both take the time to get to know each other before we told you.”

He looked at me. I looked at him. Betrayals were not always sealed with a kiss. Sometimes they came in the form of bald-headed men and women with beards.

They were actually going to have a baby together. Dear God, please let her miscarry. I promise to spend more time with Nyewayo and to be a model granddaughter.

“Believe me, this was not how I wanted you to find out. I know this is a little too much for you to handle at once.”

A little too much? Seriously?

“She’ll never be my mother.” I took off my apron and flung it to the ground. “I quit.”