Trafficked

20. Family Reunion

WHITE LIGHT WAS all Chinyere saw when she opened her eyes.

"Ugh," she groaned as she used her arm to block out as much light as she could from her eyes.

"Sorry," she heard a deep voice say before the lights were turned off.

Chinyere lowered her arm and she studied the room where she was.

With the beeping heart monitor next to her bed and the intravenous tubes connected to her arm, Chinyere concluded that she was in a hospital room.

"What am I doing here?" she asked no one in particular.

"You were shot and you've been down for two days now," the deep, manly voice said again and Chinyere looked at the person who spoke.

"Daddy!" She yelled and tried to jump off her bed but the pain that flowed through her left arm restricted her from doing so.

Her father sat beside her on the hospital bed and looked into her eyes before giving her a tight hug, one that was tight but not tight enough to suffocate her.

Happy tears pooled out of Chinyere's eyes, "I missed you so much. I love you."

Her father pulled away from the hug with a smile on his face, "I missed you too and I love you even more, that's why I'm going to tell you the truth."

Chinyere sighed and prepared herself for the verbal lesson that her father was about to give her.

"I consider your actions very stupid," her father said with a serious face. "To leave home without your parent's permission is one thing, but to leave home at night without your parent's permission is another thing. That was a very irresponsible action, Chinyere."

"I know," Chinyere sighed and looked down. "I'm sorry."

"Saying sorry won't reverse everything that happened," Adimchimpka said. "Do you know how worried everyone was? Do you know what it's like to lose someone you love? We weren't even sure if you were dead or alive until we received that phone call, telling us that you were in Ebonyi state?"

Chinyere kept her eyes down. She was most definitely embarassed and dissapointed in herself but her father was right; apologising would not reverse everything that had already happened.

"The good thing is that we've found you and I hope you've learned your lesson," Adimchimpka concluded with a smlie as he enveloped his daughter's hand into his.

Chinyere gave him a small smile, "I have most definitely learned my lesson. Even though I do wish that I learned it without having to go through all of this. How did you even find me?"

"Well, the night before you were found, the police officer working on your case received a phone call from a receptionist at a hotel," he said. "She said that her name was Jemima and that three kids were trying to book a hotel room, giving the excuse that they got lost in town. She said that their names were Tina, Chinyere and the other one was just a baby. I wanted to check it out but it was late at night and the police officers were tired from the day's work."

"What made you so tired?"

"We actually followed Amanda all the way from Abia state to Ebonyi state," he said with a yawn.

Chinyere's ears perked up at this, "You did what? Why?"

"After we received the the phone call about this 'Amanda'," Adimchimpka did air quotes as he said her name, "I went to see Mr. Alade, specifically his son. When both Mr. Alade and I heard that Amanda was present or, somehow, mentioned when both our daughters went missing, we decided to keep an eye on her. Mr. Alade's son knew where she lived so it wasn't hard to figure it out. One night, we saw her get into a car after another girl did and we followed the car, she surprisingly didn't notice the car that we were in, following her."