𝟑𝟎 𝐃𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐥

~~ 67. ~~

Well, that leaves Lola speechless for a slight second.

She was shocked to hear him describe his father as a mere sperm donor.

"Do you mind telling me what he did to deserve so much hatred?" Lola asked.

For the second time, he looked down at her. He heaved a sigh and he started.

"My so-called father is the popular Lawrence Ninalowo."

Lola opened her eyes wide in amazement and surprise. His father was the famous ex-chief judge. And Demilade had grown up as a poor kid! That was overwhelming. She thought.

"I know what you are thinking. He is a powerful man and also rich and I still grow up being a poor kid. How?" He snorted. "It doesn't actually matter to me. I grew up fine without him. I never needed him anyway. I am here without his damn money."

"Actually, what he did to me doesn't really matter. He didn't hurt me as much as he hurt the woman that meant everything to me. And I can't just forgive him for what he did to her." He shakes his head. And he paused, staring ahead.

He can never forget those painful tears that poured down his mother's face when she was telling him how she met his father and still birthed him alone with a lot of childish hope.

He could still remember everything he did to her. How much he hurt her. Grams had told him some of the parts she knew about what happened. His mother also reluctantly told him about it. And he witnessed some of it with his own eyes. And it was still in his mind like it happened yesterday.

Lola waited calmly for him, without saying anything, just watching him.

Then he started. "Her only fault was believing and falling in love. My mother... that was just it." He paused. "Before I was born, grams work as a house cleaner for people in an estate where I grew up in. My granddad was a gateman in one of the houses in the estate. There shared a room with my mom, their only daughter, where he work. Mom meet Lawrence when she was fifteen and he was eighteen. They both shared the same interest in books and that had been what brought them together. They both started as friends. He became friends with her. Even if she wasn't someone from his class. He was one of the sons of the richest family in the estate. And Mom was nothing more than a girl who loves reading and a daughter of mere house help and gateman on the estate. But he was totally fine with it. He was humble and kind. According to what Mom said. She fell in love with him and she thought he did too. Or he was probably able to convince her that he do. And they started dating."

"They began a relationship and he lead her on and gave her hopes, made promises he would never fulfill. A year after they started a relationship, he left to study abroad. He made another yet false promise that he was going to come back and that he will finally introduce her to his family. She realized she was pregnant shortly after he left. She tried to hide it from her parents for long as she could but they finally knew about it. Then teen pregnancy was a very big deal. It was a big humiliation. She told me that she remembered her mother saying horrible words to her. And because of it, her father lost his job. His employers taught he was irresponsible for his teenage daughter to be pregnant. They finally send them away from the house they lived in because they thought it was a humiliation to keep an irresponsible family who couldn't train their daughter properly. She told me that it was during that period that her mother was the coldest to her. She let her deal with it all alone. She reminded her of her foolishness every day coupled with the humiliation she faced from the community. She even had thoughts of aborting the pregnancy. But non of the pills she took ever work, so she gave up."

He stopped, closed his eyes for a slight second, and took a deep breath before opening them again. Then he continued.

"All the while, Lawrence never replied to any of her letters. He sent letters in the first three months he left but never replied to hers except the first letter. And the last letter she wrote telling him about her pregnancy was the last she heard of him. He never replied and he didn't send any more letters after then. She was all alone with shame and a false hope thinking things will be better when he returned. And she was left to have me all alone at seventeen. I remembered when I was three, she got a job as a house help in one of the houses on the estate. I thought mom just got a job to help the household. It was later on when I get to understand things that I learned that she had gone to work at Lawrence's family house. According to her, they needed money and things were so hard then."