The Risk Game

Chapter 12

Trigger warning: This chapter contains sensitive mentions of death and loss and also touches on mental health issues. Please read with caution.

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He was here. The man who I assumed, but now felt almost sure was my father. There was no way he wasn't. As I helped my mom carry finger foods from the kitchen to the dining table, I watched him and saw much resemblance between he and my sisters and I. Sure, all three of us had favoured our mom in terms of looks, but there were little details in us that you could see in the tall man seated nervously on the couch in front of the TV.

He had Nella's dimples and his skin was littered with random beauty spots like mine was, so far I'd counted three. His eyes were undoubtedly Ketura's.

"Mommy," I whispered to my nervous mom in the kitchen. She'd been struggling to make eye contact with me from the moment I entered the house, acting like she was too busy to even spare me a glance. "He's our dad, isn't he?"

My mom gasped and dropped the wooden spoon she was holding for no particular reason onto the tiled floor. It fell with a cluttering sound and I saw a piece of it break off. I bent down to pick it up and when I looked back up, my mom had tears in her eyes. She was frozen in place, causing stress to bud inside of me. I'd never seen my mom so flustered.

"Hey," I whispered, hugging her and rubbing her back. "It's not me you have to worry about. It's Nella. You know she'll be pissed off when she sees him again."

"What have I done, Aisha?" My mom asked, her voice breaking. "What am I doing?"

I wondered why she was so distraught. Yes, meeting our dad who'd abandoned us nineteen years ago was insane, but he's the one who'd left. He needed to give us answers, so if anyone needed to be shaking in their boots right now, it was him.

"Why don't you go upstairs to freshen up?" I suggested. "I'll finish laying the table."

Once my mom left, I just stood there in the kitchen staring straight ahead at him. My father, whose name I didn't even fully remember.

I guess my ogling made him uncomfortable because he suddenly turned his head in my direction, his eyes landing on me and refusing to look away again. I cleared my throat and broke eye contact, busying myself with my phone to avoid another awkward staring contest.

I was grateful to see a wide-eyed Nella walk into the door, followed closely behind by Hasani, who I was shocked to see.

The three of us greeted each other awkwardly in the kitchen, all of us worried about what today's meeting might be about.

"Did you bring Sani for moral support?" I asked Nella as I watched her casually snake her arm around Hasani's waist and nestle close to him as he threw an arm over her shoulder.

"No, actually. Mommy asked me to extend the invite to him. She says his presence is needed." Nella clarified with a confused look on her face.

Ketura soon arrived and made a beeline straight for the kitchen where she saw us huddled up. Our potential dad must've thought we were a strange bunch. I kept observing Nella to see if she'd visibly react to his presence in our childhood home but she was avoiding eye contact, never once looking in the man's direction.