WHEN LOVE JUST HAPPENS : EPISODE 11 – 20
EPISODE 18
TWENTY YEARS EARLIER
Little Jane was five years old and was helping her matron to set up a baby’s cot for their newest intake at the orphanage.
“Mother how long is the baby going to stay here with us?”
“Until she is all grown up and able to take care of herself my dear”
“But why is that; doesn’t she have parents, won’t they be looking for her?”
“Well her parents are dead, so we are her family now”
“Is that how I came to live here too?”
“Yes darling”
“But Margret said I’m an unwanted child, she also said my mother didn’t want me so she threw me away”
Margret was the first child at the orphanage, she was seven years when Jane was brought in, so she knew a little about Jane’s story. The matron made a mental note to reprimand her not to say such things to Jane.
“No dear, that’s not true you are wanted my darling”
“Why then did my mother throw me away? She said I was found in a dust bin”
“You my dear, are a very precious child don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise okay?”
“Yes mother”
“Good girl, now come give me a hug”
The matron enveloped little Jane in a hug. From the first day she set her eyes on little Jane, when the police brought her to the orphanage, she fell in love with the little baby.
She still remembers vividly that very day the police brought her in, she was barely three months old wrapped in a baby’s blanket, when she peeked into the blanket; the baby was gnawing on her fist, she was kicking her two tiny feet in the air. When she carried her, the baby didn’t cry as expected instead she smiled at the matron.
“She is adorable, who in her right senses will abandon such a beautiful baby?”
“A girl who might have gotten pregnant out of wedlock” one of the police officers offered.
“Mother can I go and play games outside?”
Jane’s voice snapped the matron back to present, she didn’t realize she was still hugging her.
“Yes my darling you can go ahead and play some games but be careful not to injure yourself okay?”
The matron loves all the children at her orphanage like they were her own, although she has a soft spot for Jane; she is always by her side offering to assist in whatever she was doing, asking several questions wanting to know the answer to every question asked.
After being married for fifteen years without a child, and fifteen failed IVFs; her husband couldn’t stand not having a child and he couldn’t bring himself to consider adoption so he went and got himself a second wife and sent the matron packing.
Thankfully she had a thriving business of her own, so when her marriage was dissolved; she bought a ten bedroom duplex and decided to start a little orphanage with the hope of expansion in the future. Now she has 8 children under her care. They helped to take her mind off her failed marriage and her inability to have children.
WHEN LOVE JUST HAPPENS : EPISODE 11 – 20
_____
THE PRESENT
“So while you were at the orphanage what happened?”
“Well the matron only accepted two more children at the orphanage making it a total of ten children, she didn’t want to accept too many children and not being able to take care of them. She was everything a mother could ever be, never for once did she make any of us feel the absence of our parents, or we didn’t until tragedy struck”
“What happened?”
Jeffery handed her tissue to wipe her tears, before she started her story he had excused himself to go get a box of tissue because he knew she would definitely be needing them.
“When I was about to write my SSCE exams, She had a cardiac arrest and died apparently she had been diagnosed of cancer of blood and none of us knew about it, she died of it’s complications. It’s a wonder how I was able to go through with my exams ”
“You are really strong dear”
“It’s not like I had a choice, I had to make sure I passed, it was her wish for me to pass and gain admission into the university”
“So after she died what happened?”
“That was the beginning of our ordeal, her younger brother who always had eyes on her properties started putting them up for sale including the orphanage, he aunctioned we the older children off to people who were in need of house girls and house boys or sales girls, while the younger ones were sold to those who wanted to adopt them”
“Are you serious, did he at least do a background check on any of these people?”
“You wish, he did no such thing, he didn’t care what became of us all he cared about was the money he made from our sales and that which he was going to make from selling the orphanage after we were gone”
“How come no one ever noticed this?”
“Well a few people noticed but they couldn’t do much because he had strong connection and had insiders at the police force so if anyone reported to the police they ended up putting themselves and their families at risk so everyone minded their business”
“What the he.ll! So who were you sold off to?”
“I was sold off to a rich business man who had several supermarkets and businesses he was running then”
“Okay?”
“He had a wife and a son who was my senior with two years, I got there to discover he had two other girls like myself under his care”
WHEN LOVE JUST HAPPENS : EPISODE 11 – 20
_____
TEN YEARS EARLIER
“Jane this is your room, drop your bags and come join me in the sitting room so I can show you to the rest of the house” Mr Okafor said as he showed her the bedroom.
Jane dropped her bag and quickly scanned the room, it was clean and large; larger than the one she shared with Chioma at the orphanage. If she was going to be having a room of her own, then probably this man was kind after all, who knows he might even enroll her in a Jamb class and maybe send her to the university.
Jane joined Mr Okafor in the sitting room where his wife and son were sitting.
“Jane you will be following me to the supermarket every morning, I leave the house by six in the morning, so I advise you wake up earlier before then so you can help your madam here to prepare breakfast. On no account should you be found wanting. Any mistake from you attracts punishment from me; trust me you don’t want to be punished by me”
“Alright sir, will I be following you to the supermarket every day?”
“Yes everyday; Sundays inclusive You leave by six in the morning and close by nine in the evening.
“Sir what of school?”
“What about school?”
“I just wrote my SSCE exams, I was wondering if I could enroll in Jamb classes so I can start preparing for my jamb next year”
Jane couldn’t fathom if it was what she said or something they were watching on TV that was funny because Mr Okafor’s wife and son started laughing. Mr Okafor said nothing he just stood up and $lapped Jane hard on her left cheek.
“That was a mild warning, don’t you ever ask me such stupid question next time, so you think I spent so much money in buying you so I can send you to school? You have another thing coming, you had better wipe any idea of school off that stupid brain of yours”
Jane stood with tear filled eyes, wondering what she had done wrong and why Mrs Okafor sat there without saying anything instead she just kept laughing like her husband was cracking some award winning joke.
“Why are you still standing there? Go and join your mates in the kitchen and prepare dinner”.
Jane went to the kitchen and joined the two other girls. They were both older than her; they introduced themselves as Peace and Dami. They were both friendly and welcomed Jane. She later found out Peace has been living with the Okafor’s for five years while Dami joined her two years later.
They prepared dinner together and when it was time to eat, Mrs Okafor came to the kitchen and gave them each their portion of food, Jane noticed hers was bigger so she waited till they were alone before asking.
Peace smiled when Jane asked why her food was bigger than theirs.
“Dami do you want to do the honours?”
“My dear I would advise you eat up as you will be needing all the energy you can get”
“What are you talking about Dami, are we going to the supermarket this night?”
“No we are not”
“So what are you talking about?”
“You will find out in few hours”
WHEN LOVE JUST HAPPENS : EPISODE 11 – 20
THE PRESENT
“So what was it you needed the extra energy for?”
“I needed it for….”
Jane broke down in tears, this time she was crying and shaking controllably, she fell from the couch to the floor and was still crying. Jeffery tried holding her to console her but she wouldn’t be consoled. After what seemed like a very long time; her sobbing was reduced to sniffs. Jeffery held her as they sat together on the floor.
They stayed in that position for another thirty minutes, none saying anything. Jeffery couldn’t imagine what it must have been for her while growing up. All the pains she must have been put through.
One thing was certain he is going to search for every single dmn person who caused her pain and he is going to make sure to inflict on them twice the pain they made his Jane go through.
“Baby it’s okay, I’m here now no one is ever going to hurt you again I will make sure of that”
“Oh Jeffery, what if they found out where I have been hiding, oh God”
Jane started crying again.
“Hey, look at me”
Jeffery held her face in his hands so he had her attention.
“No one, I repeat no one is going to take you away under my watch, alright?”
Jane nodded.
“Good, now I think that’s enough for today; we should put you to bed”
“But I’m not done with the story yet”
“Yeah I know, we can continue tomorrow you look stressed out as it is, come-on let’s get you to bed”
Jeffery wanted badly to hear the remaining part of the story but seeing Jane cry the way she just did; broke his heart and he couldn’t stand to see her cry.
WHEN LOVE JUST HAPPENS : EPISODE 11 – 20
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