Ijeoma's POV
I smoothened out my gown with my fingers as I stared at my reflection in the mirror. It was a navy blue gown made with a heavily embroidered chord lace material. The gown hugged my body, accentuating whatever curves I had, then flared out from my knee and pooled around my feet.
Noah and I were hosting a church thanksgiving. There was so much to be thankful for, one of them being, getting Zozo back in our lives.
After we had gotten the bribery transaction documents from the PI, Aunt Chisom took over. She sent the documents over to the court of appeal, that they revoke the previous verdict on the grounds of a misconduct.
Once we sent the documents, we got a response a day after. We had no idea as to why the court was so quick to respond. It was probably out of the fear that we could go public with our case against a 'reputable' Judge which we weren't. I loved my small, private life just as it was.
Like a quick passing gust of wind, the new court date approached and we were back at the dreaded courthouse. It was safe to say that I had developed an aversion for anything concerning courts. Unlike the other times I had been to court, I was more confident this time around because we had the upper hand.
At the end of the day, we were given back custody of Zozo and the judge along with Kunle's mother were given community service and were asked to pay a large sum of money as punishment. The punishments were nowhere near befitting but what can we say, this is Nigeria where the rich get off with a pat on the back for their wrongdoings and ordinary people suffer larger consequences.
Noah and I didn't care much for the punishments they got. As long as we had our daughter back and Kunle's family didn't have visitation rights to see her, we were good. Surprisingly, after Zozo had finally returned to her home with us, Kunle's mother contacted me.
She apologized for taking Zozo away through malicious means and tried to persuade me to allow her visit Zozo from time to time. From the looks of it, she was the one who wanted to be In Zozo's life because Kunle didn't seem to care.
I obviously refused her. I didn't want my child anywhere near that family. If Zozo wanted to know more about her biological father's family when she's older, I wouldn't hold her back. By that time, she would be old enough to decide for herself.
That aside, I was thankful for the opportunity to get my life back on track. When I got the news of the JAMB result being out, I developed a sudden sense of panic. I knew that I had done quite well in the exam and I didn't find it hard but I was still nervous to check.
I made Noah check the result on my behalf because I just didn't have it in me to check. I stayed upstairs with Zozo in her room, slowly losing my mind. Zozo was oblivious of my slightly panicked and anxious state as she went on play with her teddy bears without a care in the world.
Noah walked in on me pacing mindlessly around the room. He held a blank expression and somehow, I felt both relieved and panicked at the same time.
"How was it?" I asked bracing myself
He broke into a wide smile. "You passed"
"Oh my God! Are you serious?" I squealed
"Yeah" he nodded as he walked towards me arms wide spread.
"Oh my God" I squealed excitedly and jumped into his arms
"What did I score?" I asked
"295" he said grinning
"Issa lie" I gasped. "You're joking"
"I'm not. I wouldn't joke with something like that" He was completely serious. There were no traces of mischief in his eyes.
The Jamb total score was 400 with a general cut-off of 180 and I scored a 295 amidst the whole court issue.
"Thank you, Jesus" I said against my clasped palms.
"Yesss" I shouted excitedly and gave Noah another hug
"I'm so proud of you" he said
"What happen, mummy?" Zozo tapped on my thigh
I pulled away from Noah and picked Zozo up. "Mummy's going back to school"
She had a look of initial confusion but then a wide grin appeared on her face. I could imagine her thinking 'why is this woman excited to go to school but imma be happy for her regardless'.
I placed her back on the ground and happily skipped out of the room to see my result for myself.
I caught myself smiling in the mirror at that memory. A knock on the door came through before it opened to reveal Noah.
He was also dressed in a native navy blue attire. It was a long sleeved shirt like top, it wasn't a complete shirt because it didn't have a collar or lapel but it had two buttons going down from the neck and then it flowed down like a t-short would. The top was adorned with moderately elaborate silver cuff links at the neck and wrist and it came down to his knee having open slits at each side. He had his left hand stuffed in the pocket of his matching trousers and the right had an expensive silver Rolex watch on it.
"Are you ready to go?" He asked as he stepped in.
"Almost" I gestured to my matching Gele (fashionable head scarf) on the bed.
I already had a light makeup done and my accessories were on their respective positions on my body. I was just missing my head scarf and shoes.
I ran my eyes over him. He looked dashing in the native attire even without shoes on. He just had black ankle socks on his feet.
"You look rather ravishing in this outfit" I said as I walked over to him.
"I don't think I've ever seen you in a native wear before" I said and placed my hands on his shoulders and made to smoothen out invisible creases.
"I don't really wear them" he said as he wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me closer.
"My mom had so many of them sewn but I never had the opportunity to wear them till today" he said. "You were going native so I decided to match you" he said
"I like it" I pointed out. "You look nice"
My eyes trailed over his smooth beautiful face, from his somewhat full eyebrows down to his lovely shaped lips. My eyes lingered on his lips for a while before returning to his alluring light grey eyes. He had a mischievous glint in his eyes as soon as he noticed the little lingering action.
"Do I?" he teased
"You do" I placed a chaste kiss on his lips, then quickly wiped off the imprint of my lip gloss on his lips.
"Damn" he smiled. "If I knew wearing native wears got you this way, I would've done that a long time ago"
I chuckled and playfully hit his shoulder before pulling away.
"So, you're not even going to compliment my dress" I said jocosely, placing my hands on my hips.
"I was going to but then you started looking at me like I was a tall glass of water in the middle of the desert" he said
I was going to deny it and turn away blushing but I decided against it.
"I'm sorry, it's not my fault that you in that outfit does things to me" I boldly stated.
I smirked at his stunned expression, he clearly didn't expect my reply. Although, his shocked expression didn't last 30 seconds before changing into a heated one. After a minute of contemplating his next action towards me, he shook his head as if shaking off an imagery from his mind.
"You know what, we're going to revisit this. I wouldn't want us to be late" he turned to leave.
"Revisit what? We're not revisiting anything" I called after him with a cheeky smile on my face.
"Fear God" I teased
"I'm fearing him, that's why we're still going to church right now" he threw back before shutting the door behind him.
I burst out laughing as I walked over to my bed and grabbed my readymade Gele.
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Nigerian church thanksgivings included following things; money, gift items and if you wanted, food. Some people choose to dance to the altar along with their family members carrying gift items or an envelope with cash or even both.
It wasn't only friends and family members who could come out to dance with you. Church members who knew you and wanted to join in on your thanksgiving could go along with you.
Noah and I invited our little friend groups and then some church members joined in as well, both known and unknown. We also organized a little get together for just close friends back at our house. It still felt surreal referring to the house as ours.
It was actually Noah's idea to have a little get together with friends since it's been awhile that I got to hang out with them. I went along with it because it made sense, I hadn't really spoken much to anybody while we were going through the whole court issue.
Two hours into the get together, Noah suggested we play the 'what's in the box' game which was totally out of the blue. We had already eaten the pizza, chicken, chips and ice cream that we ordered for the purpose of the get together and we were all just casually chatting with a random movie playing on the TV when he suggested it and they all agreed.
I found it weird that Noah would suggest we play a game, it was just something he wouldn't do but I brushed it off. After all, we were surrounded by friends. He got an old fancy gift box and made a hole in the cover for our hands to go through. He declared his self the referee and took up the duty of getting random objects that would be placed in the box.
The game started with Fisola pulling out Zozo's rubber lizard toy after a couple of wrong guesses. Pulling out the rubber lizard put everyone in a frenzy when it got to their turn to guess. Noah had a bag filled with random objects that he would place into the box with our backs turned against the wall.
It was finally my turn to dip my hand into the box. Zozo who standing beside me ran over to stand with Noah while I walked over to the center of the living room.
"I'm scared" I said with my hand at the entrance of the box.
I dipped my hand into the box and pulled it out once I was halfway in. I chuckled with excitement and fear before repeating my previous action a couple more times.
"You didn't put anything creepy inside here, right?" I looked at Noah
He smiled and moved closer. "I don't know, you have to guess what's in the box?"
"Stop" I tilted my head to the side and pouted. "There's nothing scary inside here, right?"
"Put your hand inside now" Nkechi spoke up.
I chuckled at her frustrated expression before finally summoning the courage to guess what was in the box. My finger lightly grazed a Suede hard object. I initially pulled back a little but curiosity got the best of me and I felt around the object to guess what it was. I felt a cold metal object on my finger and I felt on it to inspect, a gasp escaped my lips. I pulled it out and it was a silver ring encrusted with tiny diamonds and then a larger one sitting at the center.
Immediately I pulled out the ring, screams and whoops of excitements filled the living room. I stared wide eyed at the ring, my mind completely jumbled. Turning around slowly, I found Noah on one knee smiling widely and my mouth hung agape.
"What's happening?" I muttered dumbfounded.
Noah cleared his throat as a signal for everyone to quiet down.
"I don't want to make a long speech because there's nothing I would profess now that you don't already know" he said and my eyes began to water.
My heart was beating rapidly in my chest and my entire body was filled with an unexplainable feeling. I was literally fighting to keep standing on my feet, my legs were a wobbly mess.
"Oh my God. I can't believe this happening" I whispered as I wiped away a stray tear.
"You see... I actually got this ring a couple of months ago, on my way back from volunteering in that remote village to be exact. I was so sure that I wanted to be with you for the rest of our lives after spending those weeks away from Zozo and you." He continued
"Unfortunately, when I got back life had other plans that put this moment on a hold but I'm glad all of that is over. Which is why I decided to do this now because I couldn't wait another day not seeing this ring on your finger. All that being said, would you do me the honour of becoming my MRS" he concluded
I nodded rapidly with tears on my face. "Yes"
He took the ring from my hand and gently slid the ring unto my finger before rising and engulfing me in a tight hug.
The screaming and cheering resumed accompanied by disharmonized applause and flashes of different phone cameras went off. I felt a hand tug on my gown which made me break away from Noah. Zozo handed me a small brown envelope grinning from ear to ear.
I wiped my face and sniffed. "What's this?"
Zozo didn't reply, she just giggled excitedly and moved to the stand by Noah. This action made me know that they both planned it, especially with the way she kept glancing up at him and smiling. I pulled open the sealed flap of the envelope and pulled out a neatly folded white paper.
I raised an eyebrow at the duo as I unfolded the paper. The whole room had quietened as they all anticipated to know the contents of the paper. I let out a nervous laugh before focusing my attention on the contents of the paper.
My legs threatened to give way once I read the header of the letter and I found myself coming down to a squatting position. My free hand over my opened mouth and my eyes widened in disbelief and shock.
They were adoption papers. Noah wanted to adopt Zozo as his legal daughter.
Zozo ran to me and wrapped her arms around me. Noah joined in next and helped pull me up.
"If you would allow it, I'd love to make her my daughter" he said
"Of course, yes" I threw my hands over his shoulder, hugging him.
My reply could barely be heard over the screams of surprise and excitement. They had finally gotten the gist of the whole thing and everyone was surprised. Once we pulled apart, everyone came around to congratulate us one after the other. There were exchanges of hugs and all.
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The little get together was already over and we were in the middle of seeing everyone off to their rides. All of my work colleagues had already left, leaving just Noah's colleagues and Fisola.
We were all standing outside of the house, Fisola and I waiting for her Uber ride whilst Noah and his colleagues discussed amongst their selves. His colleagues actually brought their cars along so they could talk for as much as they wanted.
Zozo had fallen asleep half an hour ago and had been placed in her room. I used that opportunity to take off all my jewelry and my head scarf before returning to the living room. The ride Fisola ordered finally pulled up in our driveway.
"Thank you so much for coming" I gave her a hug once more.
"Of course" she replied, returning the hug. "I'm so happy for you"
"Thank you. We'll talk soon" I said as she stepped into the car.
"Sure. Bye" she waved as the car began to pull away.
"Take care" I called out, waving back.
My phone vibrated in my left hand before the ringtone begun to play. Noah's sister, Adaobi's ID appeared on the screen. I imagined she was calling to congratulate me because I knew Noah was closest to her so she would've known.
I picked up the call and begun to walk back into the house, leaving Noah and his friends outside.
"Hello"
"Hey, Ijeoma" She said
Her voice was a little high pitched and it wasn't the excited kind, more like the nervous kind of high pitched tone.
"What's going on? Are you okay?" I asked worriedly.
"Uhm... Is Noah there with you?" she asked
"No" I glanced back at Noah who was engrossed in his conversation with his friends. "Do you want me to get him?"
"No" she rushed out quickly.
"Oh okay..." I stepped into the house and closed the door behind me. "Is everything okay?"
The next words she blurted out made stop in my tracks with surprise and a drop of confusion.
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This chapter took me way too long to write, I apologize.
Epilogue's next
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