The other side

"Thank you, Mabel, for always being there for me; you are truly a friend indeed," Mary said to her friend Mabel, who sat beside her on the bed in her room.

"It's okay, Mary; you know I will do anything and everything for you. You are my best friend, and we've been together for a long period," Mabel replied with a smile.

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Mary and Mabel had been friends since their days at the university. Many people refer to them as twins because they go everywhere together. Some wish and want to emulate their bond. A few weeks earlier, Mary was down with a fever, and Mabel tried as much to visit her every day despite her tight schedule. During the years, their bond grew stronger, and they enjoyed each other's company.

A few days later, Mary was perfectly fine and back to doing her activities. She is a businesswoman in a big supermarket; her shop is well equipped with human daily needs such as foodstuffs and beverages, while Mabel is an accountant in a company in the city where they reside. Once in a while, Mabel does stop at Mary's shop when coming from work just to greet her before heading to her house. These two ladies were fond of each other; they seemed so inseparable, and they were loved by everyone around due to their kind nature.

Mary trusted Mabel with all her heart, but unfortunately, Mabel had another intention; she had been envious of Mary since their school days. She always wants everything that's Mary's to be hers, and this is unknown to Mary.

"See how her shop is filled with goods, and here I am working for just a little amount of money monthly. I'm sure she would make thousands of naira here every day," Mabel thought to herself one afternoon when she stopped at Mary's shop to greet her.

Mary was attending to her customers and instructing her sales reps to do the needful while she asked her friend Mabel to have her seat and give her a few minutes to attend to her customers.

"What a very stingy fellow; she can't give me the capital to start up something like this also. She only wants to be rich; what a very selfish lady," Mabel continues to soliloquize.

"My darling friend, sorry to keep you waiting; I had to attend to the customers because those my reps will be acting sluggishly," Mary said as she tapped Mabel on her back.

"It's fine, bestie, how are sales? I can see you are making more than enough money here," Mabel said.

"Enough money, where? There is inflation in the country, prices are rising daily, and the people do not want to understand, but I believe everything will be fine," Mary replied with a smile.

"I was coming from work, and I decided to say hello to you before heading home, and now that I see you are fine, let me be on my way home. I'm tired; I had a stressful day today," Mabel said as she stood up to leave.

"So soon, sorry, dear, I'll come and warn your boss to stop stressing you. He should not bother my twin so much," Mary said jokingly as they both laughed.

"Let me be on my way; see you soon," Mabel said as she left.

"You can imagine the selfish act; you will come to warn my boss. If you truly love me and don't want me to stress, you should have helped me to set up something a lot better like yours," Mabel thought to herself and hissed.

This continues for several months until Mabel decides to stir up trouble for Mary. As usual, Mabel went to Mary's supermarket to greet her, and on getting there, she didn't meet Mary; her sales reps told her Mary just left to attend to something very urgent.

"This is the right time to execute my plan," Mabel thought.

"Is her office open? I want to sleep for a while; I will wait for her or give her a call now to know when she will be back," Mabel asked one of the reps.

"Yes, ma, her office is open. Do you need anything else, ma?" the rep asked.

"Not at all, thank you. I hope you make enough sales today. Don't stress, my friend," Mabel said with a smile as she headed to Mary's office in her supermarket.

Mabel had come with a white powder in nylon, which was later discovered to be a hard drug. She placed it in the corner of Mary's office, and after a while, she stepped out of the office, telling the rep she couldn't sleep and wanted to be on her way as Mary said it would take a longer time before she came back.

Mabel has planted a hard drug in Mary's office just to stir up trouble for her, which might lead to the closing down of her business, but neither did she know that there is a hidden camera in Mary's office. Mary had placed a hidden camera there to monitor her rep's activities when she realized they used to steal from her office.

"Welcome, ma. Aunt Mabel came around, but she left not too long ago," the rep reported to Mary.

"Okay, thank you; I will give her a call," Mary replied to the rep.

A few days later, the drug law enforcement agency came to the mall where Mary's supermarket is situated to check their shops because they received an alert that there was a drug in the mall. They searched all the shops before Mary's and found nothing. When it was Mary's turn, they were asked to stay back as the officials searched her shop thoroughly. After almost 40 minutes of searching, two of the officials went to Mary's office to search, and they found the white powder that Mabel had kept a few days earlier.

"Madam, you are under arrest for the possession of hard drugs; this was found in your office. You would have to follow us to our office for investigation," the officer in charge of the search said.

"Excuse me, sir; there is a mistake somewhere; I've never even seen one before; how can I have one in my possession? I don't know what this is," Mary said shockingly.

"You will explain better when you get to our office, madam; please don't waste our time," the officer said.

Mary was taken with the officers, and this stirred up questions and confusion in the mall. Everyone was surprised to hear the sad story. The investigation began, and Mary requested her lawyer, to which she was given access. Due to her recent tight schedule, she hadn't checked her phone to see if there were any activities of her reps in her office that the camera captured. After Mary's lawyer arrived, she requested her phone; she explained to the officers that a hidden camera was in her office so she could easily get to know how the hard drug got to her office.
With the help of her lawyer, her request was granted. She checked her phone. Surprisingly, she saw Mabel planting the hard drug in her office. At that point, she was destabilized and shocked to see her most trusted person do this to her.

"Who was that caught in the camera?" Mary's lawyer asked.

"That's my best friend, Mabel; on this day, I was told she came to my supermarket, but I wasn't around, and she had access to my office because my reps knew her to be my friend, more or less my sister. But why would Mabel do this to me? I've never wronged her in any way," Mary lamented.

In no time, the officers collected Mabel's home and work address from Mary and immediately went there for her arrest. Mabel's office was visited first because it's a Wednesday morning and she will certainly be at work. On getting there, she was arrested and brought to their office. She was shown the footage, and she was shocked to see herself captured in it, as she had no idea that Mary had a hidden camera in her office.

After the investigation was completed, Mary was released, while Mabel had to face the penalty for her actions. To Mary, Mabel is an angel and her best friend until Mabel proves otherwise, which separates them for life.

Thanks for your time, and your comments will be appreciated.