Episode 4
Her Father’s Daughter
I learnt that dad had a serious fight with honorable in his house the next day. After which he got him arrested.
I starved myself for 2 days without coming out of my room. I knew that was the only way I could get my dad do my biddings and it worked. Honorable was released on the third day.
But Laura did not give up. She kept coming into my room every night to beg me.
“Sister, please, don’t marry honorable, just give birth to the baby here, daddy will take care of it”
When it became obvious I wasn’t going to listen to her, she had to call our aunt, Mary(dad’s only sister).
I was busy making my wedding plans.
Aunt Mary came to the house on Sunday afternoon with our mother… yes, our mother.
That made it the third time in three years she had sneaked mom into the house while dad was away.We didn’t talk to her the first time, but on her second visit, we did. But that was because Charles was around then.
Laura led them into my room.
“My dear, Gina, this is not nice.. you are still very young with a bright future ahead of you.. what happened to that young man you introduced to me the other time?, why have you chosen to settle for less?….Mom was crying.
Her lecture was boring and lengthy
….Regina, I know how you feel right now, but you cannot marry a man just because you’re pregnant for him, my dear. There is more to marriage than just childbearing….
Even if I was going to take advice from anyone, it definitely not mom. What does she know about relationships?, who taught her how to love?, if she so much believe in our future, why did she leave us at a very delicate stage of our lives?… bloody cheat!.
…. Regina, you don’t have to be like your father, he doesn’t listen to anyone, and as a result, he has made a lot of wrong decisions in the past because of ego… She continued
….he had done…”
“Enough!… I screamed
… enough, you are free to say whatever you wish to say to me, but please, leave dad out of this”.
I could see the fear in her eyes at my outburst and that gave me inward joy.
“Regina, dear, please, listen to your mother. We know it won’t be easy for you but we would advise that you have that baby for us here. Don’t marry that old man, please”. That was aunt Mary.
One thing I forgot to mention earlier is that, once my mind is made up, no one… absolutely no one will talk me out of it.
After all said and done, my wedding still held.
Married to honorable Ferdinand, with Charles’ seed.
After the wedding, I called Laura on phone and warned her never to call my line in her life.
“Who then should I call, we’re sibling, have you forgotten?”. She had cried.
“We’re not, we cease to be sisters from the very day you started going out with my man.You can go ahead and have him, I have left him for you, You should be happy now”. I finalized and ended the call.
Marriage to honorable was not milk and honey. It was even worse when his daughter came back from overseas to see us.
It pained me that I have chosen to be a step mom to my age mate… and she doesn’t even like me.
To add to the injury, dad calls every time he had issue with anyone to remind me of how he had so much believed in me and how I let him down.
I gave birth to my boy eight months later and called his name Charles.
I received a call from my dad one morning..Laura will be getting married too, to… Charles.
Is that girl mad?.
Well, I didn’t attend their wedding, but I watched their wedding clips on their social media pages with tears in my eyes.
They looked so happy together and I hated Laura even more for that.
Dad called that night to remind me of how disappointed he was at me.
“You just tarnished my political image”
But just as mom had said earlier, apples do not fall very far from the tree… I am my father’s daughter.
Final episode tomorrow
Story by ⛔ Joy Ifunanya
