08:26 pm, September 15,
Nsukka, Enugu State.
China Okenwa was a busy woman. Sometimes she herself thought it was a miracle she had time at all to take motherly care of Kanayo.
She glanced at the back seat where the said baby was strapped into his baby car seat. He had his little pudgy hands fisted and was staring right back at her, his large, black eyes innocent and expressive.
'Come on, smile,' she said to him while she herself broke into one. The baby continued to stare blankly at her.
She turned back to the steering wheel. 'Of course, you idiot, he can't understand you.'
Back to her thoughts. Okay, she herself admitted she was getting too busy for her own good nowadays. Her main occupation was lecturing; she lectured in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
She also managed a large poultry, a branch of Okenwa Farm, owned by her and her husband. It included a poultry,
She almost died with relief when on reaching the front she saw the boy still on his feet, albeit the bonnet of her car was less than two centimeters away from his body.'Oh my God, why did you do that, kid? Do you have a death wish or what? If you want to die, why choose me? Are you . . .'She trailed off, opening and closing her mouth like a tilapia out of water on seeing the boy's face.Tears made fresh tracks down his cheeks and they kept flowing without pause. He had such a look of pain, despair and horror on his face that China's heart pulled. Had she hit him after all? But then . . .?Then she noticed he kept pointing to the side of the road, opening and shutting his mouth, trying to form words but his vocal cords refused to make any connection to his brain.She moved closer to him. 'Son, are you okay?'He started to shake his head and then finally said, 'No!' 'Why? Wha—?''My sister!' he shouted, still pointing to the side of the road. 'She's unconscious. Please, help her! She's
She almost died with relief when on reaching the front she saw the boy still on his feet, albeit the bonnet of her car was less than two centimeters away from his body.'Oh my God, why did you do that, kid? Do you have a death wish or what? If you want to die, why choose me? Are you . . .'She trailed off, opening and closing her mouth like a tilapia out of water on seeing the boy's face.Tears made fresh tracks down his cheeks and they kept flowing without pause. He had such a look of pain, despair and horror on his face that China's heart pulled. Had she hit him after all? But then . . .?Then she noticed he kept pointing to the side of the road, opening and shutting his mouth, trying to form words but his vocal cords refused to make any connection to his brain.She moved closer to him. 'Son, are you okay?'He started to shake his head and then finally said, 'No!''Why? Wha—?''My sister!' he shouted, still pointing to the side of the
07:31 am, September 18,Nsukka, Enugu State.Everywhere was so bright. She was surrounded by glary, white light. It seemed to envelope her vision. Some people in white were moving around in the background. Her forehead creased slightly, where was she? Was she in heaven? And if she was, did that mean she was already dead?If this was heaven it was disappointing. Apart from the people in white, everything else was plain. The room was now less bright and was sparsely furnished with contraptions with trailing cords and ugly displays.And then there was the pain, it was all over her body. Even her throat was raw and her mouth dry. Why was she in heaven?Her eyelids started to feel weighted and she felt exhausted all of a sudden. She wanted to keep her eyes open and fully access her surroundings but her body had different thoughts. She wondered where her mommy was in all this. She really missed seeing her.A dwarf in dark clothing started to
02:32 pm, September 19.'You're almost fully recovered now, Enyi, you just have to spend one more day here to fully recover and you'll be discharged by the weekend.' The doctor straightened up from examining her eyes and turned off the beam of the light.Eniiyi smiled at him and shook her head. 'It is Eniiyi, not Enyi, sir.'The doctor laughed at this. 'Of course, Enyi.'She puckered her lips and frowned at him not finding it funny.'Kedu?' the doctor asked, confused as to why she was angry.The girl remained silent, her frown deepening.'Okay, okay, I'm sorry, Eniiyi.''Better,' said Eniiyi. She now smiled at him and pushed herself up on the hospital bed. 'When are they coming?' she asked the question that had been on the tip of her tongue since she'd been told Lastborn and the woman who helped them were around.'They are just outside, I'll tell them that they can see you now.'Eniiyi smiled again, exc
'Good afternoon,' the male officer said as he stepped in.Eniiyi looked up at the female officer expectantly. She had come in the morning but with a different partner. Had they found her parents already?'I'm Detective Oji Omenka, I'm assigned to your case along with Detective Egwu.' He pointed to the woman police.'My case? Why do I have a case? Some people already came in the morning to ask me—' Eniiyi started to say.'Your cousin here told us about what happened on your way here and the pictures you took. We are trying to—''Good God, Menk, try to be nice. She's just a child and you sound like you're grilling her.' The woman chided her partner then turned to the girl.Eniiyi tried to remember what she had called her name earlier in the day. Was it Ebibo? Melimo? She couldn't even remember, but she remembered that it sounded strange to her ears.'Yes, we came earlier in the day to get your statement on what happened to you and L
'I . . .''Eniiyi, now! Please, say yes! You'll totally love it. I've been to her house before and it's really big and nice.' He stressed heavily on the 'really' as though to underline his point.'Please, please, okay? You're not going to like that hospital place; it's boring and smells like a hospital a little.''Okay, okay. I'd love to, ma. Thank you,' Eniiyi agreed.'Yes!' hollered Lastborn.'You're screaming,' the girl snapped.'That's good. Now all I have to do is apply for your custody, I hope it goes alright.''What if it doesn't?' Eniiyi asked. 'I don't wanna stay in a hospital house, too.''It should, I hope, since it's temporary custody.''Why does it sound so hard?' Eniiyi asked. 'How does it work, anyways?''After I fill the form, I have to give good reasons why I think you should stay with me and then they'll do research on me to find out how responsible I am and my capability to take care of you. Th
11:46 am, September 20,Tokyo, Japan.'I wish I could speak more than three languages,' Mide suddenly said.'Shh, what did you say?' Eartha whispered, not taking her eyes away from the screen.'I wish I could speak more languages,' Mide reiterated, rolling his eyes. 'I wasn't being loud now.''You were,' Eartha argued, still not taking her eyes away from the big screen. Then she leaned against her husband's arm and continued to watch the subtitled movie.That they had been able to take time off work to come to the movies was a miracle in its self and she wished to savour every moment, like fine wine, to the last drop. She couldn't even remember the last time they'd gone out together like this. Maybe during their courtship.If they hadn't been moved they probably wouldn't have had time to come here. Their host company had had their residence moved to a new location today and they had had the day off.Okamoto, a bus
08:51am, September 24Nsukka, Enugu State.It was a bright Tuesday morning when Mrs Okenwa took Eniiyi back to the hospital for check up. Lastborn, afraid he'd get bored if he went, had opted to play over at a neighbour's.Now they were in the doctor's (specialist, said the nurse) waiting room, doing what people did in waiting rooms; waiting.Eniiyi wiped her palms on her jeans and tried to sit straighter. It was strange that she was nervous about what she wasn't even sure of. They had said the doctor specialized in cases like hers so he could look into her alacrimia. But what if she was really more diseased than was obvious? She knew that alacrimia was accompanied by two other syndromes but she didn't have any, which she had thought weird. What if the doctor discovered she now had them all? What was going to happen to her now?'Eniiyi, are you alright? You're fidgeting.' China placed a
Other Books by the Author . . . 1. Baby's Daddy — Pregnancy-Romance/Mystery 2. The Third Side of the Coin — Horror/Suspense 3. Her Dilemma — Pregnancy-Romance/Billionaire 4. The Rancher's Heart — Romance/Single-Father 5. A Week of Batching — Mystery/Suspense . 6. Chronicles of an Amnesiac — SciFi/Mystery/Short Story 7. On Air — Billionaire/Pregnancy-Romance/Mystery Coming Soon . . . 1. The Arranged! Series — Romance/Arranged Marriage 2. Double Me — Horror 3. Public-City — Humour 4. The Halloween Files Series — Horror — I'd really, really, really appreciate if you guys could check out my other books. It'd mean a whole lot to me. I promise that y'all won't be disappointed 👉🏽👈🏽 Pretty please 🥺 The first seven are available on the site and the remaining are WIPs And when you do check them out, please comment what you think in the chapters and leave a review of what you think. Thanks in advance ❤❤❤
Other Books by the Author . . . 1. Baby's Daddy — Pregnancy-Romance/Mystery 2. The Third Side of the Coin — Horror/Suspense 3. Her Dilemma — Pregnancy-Romance/Billionaire 4. The Rancher's Heart — Romance/Single-Father 5. A Week of Batching — Mystery/Suspense . 6. Chronicles of an Amnesiac — SciFi/Mystery/Short Story 7. On Air — Billionaire/Pregnancy-Romance/Mystery Coming Soon . . . 1. The Arranged! Series — Romance/Arranged Marriage 2. Double Me — Horror 3. Public-City — Humour 4. The Halloween Files Series — Horror — I'd really, really, really appreciate if you guys could check out my other books. It'd mean a whole lot to me. I promise that y'all won't be disappointed 👉🏽👈🏽 Pretty please 🥺 The first seven are available on the site and the remaining are WIPs And when you do check them out, please comment what you think in the chapters and leave a review of what you think. Thanks in advance ❤❤❤
PLEASE READ 🙃 ♟️ *clears her throat and smiles* Mmkay . . I'm sorry if this is too long, but it's necessary. This is my only author's note in this book . . . you've got to give me credit for refraining from writing one since all this months na 😐 🍒 Hola! I see you made it to the end of this book 😊 Aww, thanks soo much for reading 💓 I'm really happy to finish this book sef, when I started on the twelfth of November last year, I had no idea it was going to take meone seven five days to finish writing the book (minus the hiatus, that i
'Mide,' she said in reply, resisting the urge to break down and run into his arms, crying her apologies.She cleared her throat and made a serious face. 'What do you want here?'Mide smiled sadly and held her gaze again. 'Can I come in first?''Yes, Daddy!' Eniiyi picked up the bouquet and then took her father's hand and dragged him over the threshold.Eartha almost panicked. Why had Adekunbi done that? Now she'd have to fight the strong will to walk into his arms!She blinked again and firmed her lips. 'Mide, I told you -'Before she could finish speaking Mide deftly covered the space in between them.She sucked in a breath and tried to step back but then he touched her arm and she froze to the spot.'What do you want?' she croaked out. It took her all not to fall into his arms now. She could feel the heat radiating
Eartha and Eniiyi were still seated on the couch, long after the movie had ended. Eniiyi didn't think this was because the movie was that interesting. Her mommy had gone into one of her trances again. The girl was still trying to get used to it already since all these days.So, she waited patiently, still snuggled into her and watched the credits roll in on the TV screen.But as she stared on silently she couldn't help wondering all over when all this would stop. When she'd let them go back to Daddy, instead of sitting here all day and feeling sad.It was rather unnecessary, if somebody asked the girl.Thankfully, her mommy came out of her reverie quicker today. She sighed and pat Eniiyi's head.'Interesting movie, huh?' She stood up from beside her daughter and stretched.Even though she was smiling, Eniiyi could still see the slight worry lines that were be
~~••••~~Eartha sniffed back tears and wiped at her cheeks to check if she'd been crying. She smiled sadly and placed a hand over her tummy.It should be about thirty one days old, if she guessed right.Little one, we're going to be just fine, she said to her tummy. You'll see.As if her parents had suspected something, they had called just this morning when she was barely out of bed.She had tried to mask her miserable look and put on a bright face.They'd only called to ask about her and the family and she had lied. Had lied that she was doing just great, that her husband was fine and was not around, that their granddaughter was still as vibrant as ever and that she didn't want to wake her up from her sleep.She had long made up her mind that her parents weren't going to get
05:37pm, October15,Ikeja, Lagos State.Slowly, she stretched her hand and picked up the white stick on the wash basin. Then slouched back on the toilet seat lid and turned the stick to face her. Swallowing saliva, she continued to stare at the two bold lines stained on it.She later broke her stare and clutched the stick to her chest with both hands. By then worry had settled on her face.She stared into the unseen distance and poked the inner of her cheeks with her tongue.Well, am I not damned.She stared at it again and lowered her head. There was no denying it, pregnancy tests were true ninety-nine percent of the time.Well, I'm damned, she said to herself again.She couldn't even start to think of telling him about it. The idea just couldn't be stomached. It would open a new can of worms she'd rather keep closed.
It was almost seven O'clock when the gates buzzed open and Olumide pulled the silver-grey Pengine Ionia into their driveway.He immediately realized that the porch lights weren't on yet, same as any other outdoor light and he thought it was strange, since he could clearly see that the inside was lit.Why hadn't nobody turned the lights on? God, it was getting dark here.He suddenly became aware that someone was banging on the glass. It was Eniiyi, she must have been the one that buzzed him in. She was shouting something at him but he couldn't hear a thing, the car was still soundproof.He rolled down the glass so he could hear what she was saying.'. . . Why?' was all he caught.'What's wrong, Pumpkin Pie?'The girl pouted when she realized when she realized he hadn't heard anything she had said.'Daddy,' she whined i
To his astonishment, Baba only patted his head and slapped him lightly on the cheek.He gave a squeak of surprise. What was happening here? Had Baba hit his head? Had he taken the wrong kind of liquor today?'Thanks once again for understanding,' Mide said, still all smiles. He had watched the whole episode and had seen the shock on the little boy's face.He chuckled to himself. Nothing a little money and story couldn't do. He had just had to talk with the right amount of morose and regret in his voice to convince the man that his son had been childish to run away was truly sorry and eager to come back home to him. And of course, a little token of money for all his worries over the disappeared boy. Fourty thousand naira did the job just fine.He remembered Eartha punching him in the arm last night after he ended the call, for being a smooth operator.'No problem o. In fact, I sho