Chapter 15: Chapter 15

"Who is your father?" He asked, looking at her with disdain as the girl looked at her feet in embarrassment.

"Olakunle Inumidun Hassan, don't bother denying it and you know what, you should have never been named that because you have never been a source of joy to me, all you have been is a source of sadness." My mom said.

"No ooh, I can explain. It's not like that." He tried to defend himself.

"What do you have to explain?” She asked, rhetorically. “That it was a mistake? Don’t bother, even a fool will know it is not. Sometimes I wonder why I even married you, you keep on dating different ladies and embarrassing me all over the community. You even gave birth to three children. Three!" She said, clearing her throat to prevent her from crying.

"Don't turn the tables on me at all, when I kept asking you to give birth to a male child, you didn't. You never gave me an heir. Did you? All you did was gave birth to these girls." He said, looking at me like I disgust him and I wanted to slap him, really bad but I reigned myself in. I noticed the woman looking uncomfortable.

"I could see that my mom was close to breaking down but I was proud that not even a tear left her eyes even though I was sure she would cry buckets later.

"And whose fault was that? It was your egg not my fault. Anyways, I guess you got what you wanted right? You got a male child." She said, looking at the little boy on the woman’s waist.

“Mrs. Hassan...” The lady started. "I have no problem with you or your children and I do hope they become successful in life because I don't know you and I am very sure that if this man, this man here..." She said shaking her head and pointing at my dad as my mom cut her off.

"If this man here hadn't asked you out, you wouldn't be the mother of three of his kids today but I am also very sure that you knew he had a wife. Anyways, if you think you are moving here, you can forget it because this is my house and you aren't welcomed here." She said stiffly.

"What is it sef. Shebi, I am also in my husband's house." She said, speaking up for the first time since she arrived while my mom laughed loudly and my dad looked at his feet.

"I don't know the lies he has been feeding you but this is my house, built with my money and sweat, not a drop of his. So, if you want to live in your husband's house, maybe you should ask him to take you there." She said as, I gasped. I never knew that our house belonged to my mom and as I looked around the house, I saw it in a new light as a tear finally drop from my eyes.

"What?!! "The lady screamed as if she just registered what my mom said.

"But…, but you told me you owned this house and you told me that I could come live with you, you told me your wife had no choice than to accept me." She said, crying and I would have felt sorry for her if I hadn’t realized that she had been pretending all along. She knew my father was married.

"Well…, I didn't really lie. This is practically still my house." He said, slightly stuttering.

"Where do you want me to go now, where do you want me to go with three children, Daddy Ayo three!!" She lamented as her lastborn, sensing her agitation, started crying.

"An old adage says "She who doesn't enjoy her husband will surely enjoy her children.” Thank you for giving me a guarantee that I will reap the fruit of my labor and remember, all these you are doing is just to make the story more interesting at the end of it all." She said to my dad as she stood up. “Anyways, when you are done with of all this drama, please leave and close the door behind you.” She added.

"Let's go Enitan." She said, her voice cracking and I could tell she was seconds from breaking down as I rushed after her, closing the door to her room as she sat on her bed and cried her heart out.

As I walked out of mom's room, everywhere was quiet signalling they had all left but I knew the day was already ruined as I picked up my phone to call sister Ife to tell her about what happened, she promised to call my other sisters and come home as soon as she can.

I sighed as I walked to my room with my phone and charger, I plugged it and brought out the bag of junk I had gotten for my birthday the previous day. I started to munch on a chocolate as I played kissing booth on my phone to watch it again.

Dad didn't come home that night and neither did I see the woman again but that day, I realized I wasn't my father's last child and I had step siblings.

The next day was Monday and it was time to get back to work. I woke up as early as 5.00 am to prepare for school but, was moody the whole morning before leaving home due to the previous day event.

As I walked to school at a slow pace, I thought about the girl and how she had rushed to him once he arrived, jealousy coursed through my veins because I knew I had never rushed to meet him like that throughout my lifetime. I couldn't help but wonder if the reason he never dropped any money for me and my sisters whenever we needed it either at school or for personal reason was because he was giving it all to them but then, I shook my head to clear the unnecessary thought as I realized he was too stingy to give his money to anybody.

As at a young age of five, I didn't need a diviner to tell me that my dad didn't love my mom or maybe he did, just not anymore. However, now that I was grown up, I needed a diviner. It was not to ask if my dad loves my mom, it was to ask why he didn't or doesn’t anymore. Ever since, it had always been obvious to us that my mum loved my dad. She always refused to acknowledge the thousands of mistakes he makes, mistakes he would never have made if he truly cares for her and I was certain, that this mistake will soon be forgotten too.

My heart clenched as I remembered the day my mom told us that one of the older women in the community had called her aside and asked her if she didn't know that her husband was having an affair outside marriage. My mom knew but of course she denied knowing about it.

The older woman had advised her to do something about it because he was being open about it hence, almost everyone in the society knew about it. I remembered how my mom had told us that she was so embarrassed that for days, she always hid whenever she saw the woman but, she also said. “What these people do not know is that I am still the mother of his children, no matter what.”

Now, I wondered how she will feel knowing there were other children as I also recalled the day I had went to a charging spot to charge my phone and there, I met some ladies around the age group 35 - 40 talking about their man friends and I couldn't do anything but watch as a very slim lady with bleached skin bragged about dating my father.

I kept on checking her out and wondered what my father had saw in the lady whose whole body was bleached that her knuckles were a deep contrast to her skin. She was putting on a fake piece of clothing, those ones that always had a brand name spelled incorrectly hoping to mislead people to buy it. She had on long fixed lashes and ridiculous long nails. I just had to stand up and leave when she started an irritating discussion of how good my father was in bed.

As I neared the school, I recalled so many things. From him calling us useless children's and other names a father shouldn't call his children, not paying attention to us, always making us cry by not giving us money for important things like school fee even when we were being sent back home, he always said he would rather spend it on alcohol because we were female and we would never be successful.

I thought about how hard mum always worked to get money for us whenever we needed it because she knew he will never pay, how she always closed the door of the toilet and cried her heart out just because she didn't want us to see her in tears. How she finally got a job at the cement company and things became a bit easier. I came to a conclusion as I thought of those memories.

"We have indulged him for too long, it has always been us fending for ourselves. We have always excluded him, not that he was interested anyways.”

Maybe, it is time to start seeing him as our father because maybe if we did, we would be able to talk some sense into him to stop embarrassing us everywhere. It might be too late to stop all he had done but it's not to late to stop future disasters." I muttered to myself with a tone of finality as I walked into the school.

The first person I saw on entering the school was John. "Good morning." I greeted him as he smiled at me.

"Morning, happy birthday." He said, I was a bit taken aback as I wondered how he found out.

As if he read my thought, he blurted out. "Faith posted some pictures on Facebook." He said as I realized Faith must have added him up on Facebook since she was very active on social media and therefore never wasted time in adding new friends.

"Ooh okay, thank you very much." I said.

"You are welcome and since I wasn't able to go to your small birthday party which was because you didn't invite me." He accused me as I smiled shyly. "How about I get you ice cream later as your birthday gift. I would have loved to take you out but, since it's revision week. We will be so busy preparing." He said as I thanked him, we talked about a few meaningless things before I bade him goodbye.

It wasn't until I was walking to the class before my mind registered a word John said. "Revision week!!" My mind screamed at me as I stopped and panicked.

"Revisions meant examination was around the corner and the worst thing about Focus high school was its exams. Everyone knew that and I haven't even opened my book to read anything. I calculated how I would read all my notes as I walked to class, Revision week was always two weeks before exam and that gave me just two weeks to prepare for the exam. I felt depressed as it sorts of added to my bad mood.

I walked into the class which was not empty because I was late yet, the only person that has arrived among my group of friends was Tayo, he was sitting on his desk, head bent down as he cleaned his sandal with a rag.

"Good morning Enitan." He said, all smiles as my heart skipped a beat on hearing him call me my full name.

"Morning." I said as he moved to Faith's seat beside me.

"What's wrong?" He asked, moving closer to look at me as I bent down my head to hide my face a little. He used both his hands to support my face as he lifted up my face so I was looking straight into his eyes.

"What's wrong?" He asked again and I might have been wrong but I felt hypnotized. I also felt like his voice had taken a much deeper and lower tone but of course It could have been just my thinking so, I moved back to create a little space between us and cleared my throat.

"Nothing." I said, my voice strained and cracked as I felt very conscious under his stare but thankfully, he freed me at the moment but still didn’t moving back.

"You suck." He said so silently, I wouldn’t have heard him if I hadn’t been paying attention.

"Excuse me?" I asked, confused

"You suck at lying.” He said leaning back, as he finally gave me the space I have been craving. I heaved a sigh of relief.

"Okay, I know you don't really feel comfortable enough with me to share but I want you to know I am always here for you. Always." He added as he smiled at me.

"So cheesy." I complained, intentionally sounding bored as he laughed.

"Really, and you haven't even seen the cheesy part of me ooh." He boasts.

"Hmm, are you sure?" I challenged.

"Very sure." He said

"Okay, introduce me to your cheesy side then." I teased.

"Okay, here goes nothing. I promise to make you smile a lot today and probably laugh a few times." He said as I smiled brightly, in spite of my mood.

"Whatever, get to it. Too much hyping isn't good." I said, laughing.

"I am not hyping jare, I am dead serious." He said as he started.

"You are my back bone. You are the water in my bottle, without you I will die of dehydration, you are the gas in my gas cooker and without you I won't be able to cook therefore dying of hunger." He said as I burst into laughter.

"Bro, has anyone ever told you that your punchlines are terrible.” I said. “That is no where cheesy, I admit I was wrong. You are so creepy." I added as the bell for assembly was rung and for the first time since I had known Tayo, we walked together to the assembly grounds.

He sat on Faith's seat the entire day, sharing his cheesy jokes and hilarious stories of when he and Bode were younger. It was revision week hence, only two teachers attended class and by long break, I was laughing away from his silly jokes and hilarious stories. I smiled as I remembered his promise. "He really did make me smile.” I thought.

Tayo, Goriola, Bode, Faith and I all left school together but today I and Tayo were lagging behind as the trio went ahead. All of a sudden, he held my hand and I felt some kind of butterfly erupt in my tummy as I tried to control myself from hyperventilating.

I looked up at him to find him already staring at me. He looked into my eyes to confirm if it was okay to hold hands and since I didn't complain, he rubbed my hands with his in a soothing manner and I soon felt comfortable holding hands as we walked the rest of the road swinging hands.

"Good night." Bode and Tayo said as they got to their stop where they both boarded a bike and we walked on.

"I go love ooh." My bestie sang in a sing song manner as I glared at her, pretending to be annoyed.

"I am not in love with anybody." I denied even though I knew I felt otherwise, I was just scared of him rejecting me.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that. It is until Grace steal him away before you know." She said as my ear perked at the name Grace.

"Which Grace?" I asked.

"Same Grace, in A science." She said smiling while I wondered if she was crazy. Grace was our set's biggest girl; at least for now and unlike the movies she didn't have minion. She had friends instead and she was also very brilliant. Everyone knew they were friends because they all had a say and sometimes Grace had no say at all.

What bothered me most about her was how beautiful she was and her perfect figure. She was a bit tall but not too tall, she had a full round pink lips that I always envied and a good stature that was popular referred to as figure eight.

She was very brilliant and to top it all, she was awarded the most beautiful girl of our set in junior year. I started panicking and comparing myself as I imagined a thousand scenarios in my head where Tayo picked her over me.

"Look at her, yeye girl." Faith said, breaking through my train of thought.

"Kini (What is it?)" I asked in Yoruba, irritated.

"Mumu (idiot), I can see the wheels turning in your heads. I was just kidding, I just said that to make you jealous and I should have captured your expression. It was so epic." She said, laughing as she made fun of me.

"Grace won't snatch your boyfriend, I am very sure of that. She is too busy trying to stay with John because of his influence in the school." She said as she waked up the spirit of gossip in me.

"Eehn eehn (really!)" I exclaimed.

"Yes ooh, in fact I heard she keeps going to his class at long break to see him. She is so desperate about being our set's head girl and you know they start the record from year one." She said as I nodded.

"But how do you know all of this, you barely stand up from your seat?" I asked, curiously.

"The walls have ears darling." Was her only reply as we got to her house.

"Goodnight." I said as she waved her hands at me and all of a sudden, she turned back and said.

"Enitan, you are perfect and lovely the way you are. I am very sure Tayo loves your baby look to Grace’s matured look. I can already see you stressing your brain at night." She said laughing. "Don't sweat it, he loves you." She added, turning to leave and I smiled.

As I walked the remaining few distance home, I was so lost in the day’s events as I recalled how Tayo's laughter made my heart skipped, how his little gestures like holding my hands, touching my cheek had all made me feel like the luckiest girl on earth.

I told myself there was no reason to deny my feelings anymore since I knew he felt the same. I just didn’t know if he wanted to act on them but, even if he doesn’t, I realized it doesn’t matter and I will just enjoy our moments of friendship.

I was still day dreaming as I walked into the house, not even wondering why the door wasn’t locked and it wasn't until I saw my mom on the chair did, I jerk back to reality.