DANIELLA✔

Chapter thirty-two

"You mean Caro and her family did all that to you?" Mama asked once I was done with narrating all that I went through in the city to her. Mama and I were in the kitchen at the backyard roasting corn. Papa had gone to the farm.

"Yes o mama. Lagos wasn't all fun and games. It was more like hell for me. To even think uncle Henry was nice when he used to come to the village! Such a pretender!" I said and bent forward on the stool I was sitting on to reposition the corn on the firewood. "But mama, don't tell them I told you this o."

"Why shouldn't I, eh? Is it until they kill you that I'd begin to take action?" Mama raised the tone of her voice as she asked.

"No. But mama, if you tell them, the suffering will get worse. They'll torture me the more." I tried to convince her.

"That's if they see you in their house again."

"But mama, you know I have to continue with my education?"

"I know. You'd continue it in the village. As long as your papa and I are still alive, we'd struggle to take you to school. But for you to go back to Caro and her husband's house, take your mind off it o." Mama said, as though she was warning me.

I felt relieved telling mama about my struggles in the city, but what I wasn't so comfortable about was the fact that she didn't want me to go back to the city. Although I was going through a lot in the city, deep down I wanted to go back there. Not because of anything but the wonderful friends I made, especially Peter. I was beginning to feel a sense of void without him. What could I tell mama that would convince her about me wanting to go back to the city?

"Mama—" As I broke the silence, mama spoke up too.

"I had the feeling Caro was going to treat you like her housemaid, that's why I wasn't so comfortable with you moving to the city with her."

I scrunched my brows quizzically. "But why? Why did you think aunt Caro was going to treat me like an housemaid?"

Mama took an heavy breath and curved her lips downward. "It's a long story my child."

My curiosity had the best of me now. I turned my stool, such that I was facing her squarely. "Mama tell me please."

"The fire is going out. Blow it." She said, gesturing at the corn on the firewood.

With the fan in my hand, I blew air on the firewood so that the fire can burn more strongly. When it did, I returned to facing mama. "So mama, tell me."

"I love Caro so much. I always have and always will. But while she was growing up, she thought I loved your father, Nonso, more. I haven't told you before, I had six children and out of those six, Nonso and Caro were the only ones that grew up to their adulthood before Nonso eventually died. Nonso happened to be the last born and the only male child that I gave birth to. Because of that, I showed him more attention so I wouldn't lose him like I lost the other girls. So Caro thought I loved him more than her and because of that she loathed Nonso."

I placed my elbows on my laps and rested my chin on my hands as I listened raptly.

"I noticed she was always making him cry while they were both growing up. Whenever I gave him anything and I didn't give her, she would hide somewhere to cry. She grew up with this bitterness and anger for her brother. Everyday, they'd fight. As a mother, I noticed there was no love between my children, so I called them and told them that I loved them both equally and that there shouldn't be strife between the both of them. Ah, check the corn o!" Her story telling voice was replaced with an exclaiming one as she pointed to the corn on the firewood.

That brought me back to the moment and I knelt down before the firewood, took down the corns and extinguished the fire.

I had my seat on the stool and handed mama one of the hot corn which I had wrapped in a newspaper.