Dear Kulsum✅

19.

KULSUM'S POV.

"You said you always wanted to see me happy right?" I asked the woman that gave birth to me. "Have you ever cared about anything that will make me happy?" I asked her and almost immediately she answered.

"Of course I did" she replied, "Everything I did before was for you"

I looked away and scoffed. I looked down brushing my fingers over my knuckles whilst shaking my head before I looked at her, "How can you even say that?" I asked calmly though internally I'm anything but calm.

I'm fuming.

"Because it's true"

"Then can you tell me one time you ever did anything that I actually cared about and not something you want me to do?" I asked trying my possible best not to let my voice raise. She and I both know the answer to that so I wonder why she's trying to pretend it's otherwise.

Her mouth moved like she is going to say something but then she shut it. She couldn't think of just one time...one time! That she was actually a mother to me and did what I wanted not what she wanted. She couldn't think of one time she put my mental health first before her reputation.

But I...I can remember times without number when she puts herself first and didn't care about my mental health.

"Well my daughter can cook all sorts of dishes that children her age can't cook nowadays" I heard my mother said to her friends just as I was making my way back up to my room after she had me greet them. That wasn't wrong.

What was wrong however was being the fact that the nine-year-old me lost my maternal grandmother that I was closest to just two hours ago. I had been closer to her than anyone on my life, I was basically grandma's pet if you'd call me that. I locked myself in my room and cried my heart out while my mother, who lost her own mother didn't even bother to attend her funeral.

Her excuse is that she has a meeting with 'Important people'. Those important people just happened to be wives of some senators my father work with and one woman that was supposedly the wife of a governor. Imagine, meeting these women and talking about life and whatnot is more important to her than going to her own mother's funeral.

Just how heartless can she be?

Even when my grandma was alive, she had been terminally sick for two years. And I could swear I can count how many times she visited her in those years, with the fingers of one of my hands when we actually all live in the city. The drive from my parent's house to my grandma's is just about half an hour but no, she couldn't visit her.

You're probably thinking of excuses that will justify her actions right? Well, don't. I know my mother; all her excuses revolve around going out with these women of 'high class' in the society. All for the sake of my father and her reputation.

This only made me cry more as I leaned on the door of my room with my legs pulled up to my chest. I don't know what to say about my mother honestly, she'd always been like this I guess I should say I was used to that but this is just too much, even for her.

I didn't know how long I sat there crying but it seemed like a few minutes until a knock came on the door of my room when the person twisted the knob and found it locked. I tried to keep my sobs down and pretend like I was sleeping but of course, she knew otherwise.

"Kulsum dress up and come down in five minutes, we're going to Senator Garba's daughter's wedding" she said as if it's the most important event of the year.

Just imagine. Her mother died three hours ago yet she didn't care but now that it's a wedding, she's all excited for it.

I didn't know what got into me but at the moment all I knew was that I hated this woman immensely with everything I got. I stood up angrily and unlocked door and there stood my very own mother all dressed up chicly.