Different Worlds

Chapter Forty-seven

Ijeoma's POV

It was 8:30 in the morning and we were already at the courthouse. Noah and I were standing in the parking lot waiting for his aunt to arrive, the court session was to begin by 9 am. Although, from the looks of the number of people present I had a feeling the session would not begin for another hour.

Nigerians and late coming are like 5 and 6.

A silver Toyota Camry pulled up beside where Noah and I stood by his dad's car. We needed a car to commute from place to place and his father had a fleet of cars packed up in their Lagos residence, so he took one.

Aunt Chisom got out of the car and walked over to us. She looked sharp in her navy blue pantsuit and blazers. 'Good morning' greetings were exchanged between us along with side hugs.

"How are you holding up?" she said to me

I shakily nodded my head unsure of what to say.

She rubbed my arm in a comforting manner. "Don't worry, nothing too strenuous is going to happen today. I'll just be giving an opening statement."

I released a shaky breath and nodded. "Okay"

The last few days, aunt Chisom kept us updated on everything that was been done behind the scenes. She had a letter sent to the court refuting the basis of the custody suit but gave us a chance to read through before she sent it. The next step was what she called the discovery process, where both parties discovered relevant information about the case and exchanged them with each other. The relevant information included financial statements, list of witnesses, evidential documents and so on.

We didn't have a mediation done because there was no way I was going give Kunle any access whatsoever to Zozo. Mediation was a process where a mediator (a neutral person) helps both parties try to come to an agreement that would benefit the two parties.

She briefly glanced at her wristwatch. "Let's head in"

For some reason, I felt so anxious and nervous just heading towards the entrance of the huge courthouse building. Noah took my hand in his and entwined them together as we walked into the courtroom.

There were a couple of people scattered around the courtroom, some in groups talking in hushed tones, some already seated and others moving about. I tried not to make eye contact with anyone as my level of nervousness was skyrocketing.

"What in God's name is she doing here?" Aunt Chisom said more to herself than us.

I followed her line of sight to a woman who was standing at the other side of the courtroom, on the plaintiff's side of the room. From the looks of the woman and the number of men dressed in suits around her, she must be an important person.

"Who is she?" I muttered out as we slowly walked up to our side of the courtroom.

"Give me a second" Aunt Chisom said before walking ahead of us to talk to some people who were huddled in a corner.

"What's going on?" I asked once she returned.

"That's Mrs Funmilayo Ayorinde. She's a well-known politician, even ran for the last governorship election in Oyo state" she started.

"Okay. What's she doing here?" Noah spoke up.

"Turns out she's Kunle's mother. Did you know about her?" She turned to me.

My eyes widened with shock. "No... I never met any of his family members. He said that there was bad blood between him and the members of his family for some reason he never mentioned. I never bothered asking him more about it"