Goldfish Bowl

Chapter 16

There's no do over in the game of life.

The wall was covered in posters of quotes and wildlife, a majestic lion at the left end was perhaps the second largest poster on the wall, some of the quotes were from the richest men in Africa and other influential people, there were several polaroid photographs on the wall too but the center of it all was the poster of a shirtless Fireboy DML, who gazed with melancholy at the camera with one hand on the hem of the jeans that hung low on his hips and the other hand running through his dreads.

Alisha woke up to that poster everyday, it was the only exciting aspect of every morning, when she woke up, she thanked her lucky stars that her roommate was in love with the Jealous crooner like her. It was the other posters or quotes that she didn't like, it was easy to fall prey to the so called wise words of millionaires and billionaires who had nothing to worry about but today that particular one stuck with her and she packed her clothes into her suitcase.

As usual, life found a way to fuck her life over. Three years ago she had left and buried seventeen years worth of memory and had never looked back. Today, life was making her face that grief again.

When Alisha had first made the decision to leave, she had been scared, tired and at the same time eager for a life outside the one she had come to know, so she steeled her spine, called Hector and asked him if she could come to stay with him for the rest of the summer before she left for the university, he hadn't hesitated and neither had she.

She had kissed her siblings goodbye and made it clear to her mother and her husband that she was done with them and every dirty thing about them. Then Festus had kicked her out of the house, disowning her and forbidding her never to return, she had left, but not before making it clear that if he ever laid a finger on her siblings or hurt them the way he had hurt her for most of her life, then she would tarnish that reputation he so loved and fought for.

It had been settled, she had never thought that she would return or even think of it, until she had received that phone call just a week ago.

"Hello?" She remembered mumbling hesitantly into her phone's speaker, wondering who the hell was on the line, the first thing she had done after leaving was getting a new sim card and destroying the old one, it was only a few people who had her new one; Hector, Yasmin, Oghenekaro, Rhema and Asher — who she had made swear that he wouldn't give anyone else.

"Am I speaking with Alisha Boye?" The voice had said, she had wanted to correct him, that she wasn't really a Boye.

"Yes, who am I speaking with?"

"Barrister Mohammed Ado, your father's lawyer."

It had taken a few seconds for her to realize he was talking about Festus, it was then she harshly corrected him.

"I am not his biological daughter, and I don't want to know anything to do with that man."

She had almost hung up, her finger hovering above the screen when the barrister's next words came hurriedly.

"Festus Boye is dead, and your presence at the funeral was one of his last wishes before he died, I believe he's left you quite an hefty inheritance."

Alisha had mulled his words over, at first she had been shocked then surprised at the sadness that filled her chest later. Festus might have been a monster to her in the latter years of her life, he might have labelled her a bastard and undeserving of his love but he had been a man once, and a part of him had once loved her.

However, she was determined not to show her face at his funeral, she would not let herself grant him the last respect he did not deserve like he had found her undeserving of his love.