Melissa.
She twirled in one of her pretty dresses.
She was waiting for Maxwell to get here with the rest of her family.
Her mother was been mean again so she was not in any way eager to meet the woman again. She didn't know any place where children rejected their parents.
"Maxwell!" She exclaimed with a smile when she saw him enter the house and nearly lost it to a frown when she saw who followed him right after.
Karen. A very big meanie.
Karen was just a few years older than her and few years older than Maxwell. But she loved to pick on them.
Like her mother, Auntie Tessy, she was a very big meanie. She ignored the adults yelling and pulled Maxwell away.
"Where are you people going?" Karen's mean voice came.
"None of your business!" She answered dragging Maxwell by his hands.
"It's so!" Karen argued.
"It's not!" She retorted, stomping very loudly but still dragging Maxwell alongside her.
She sighed and looked at Maxwell who looked very amused.
"What?" She mouthed to him so Karen won't hear. Maxwell raised an eyebrow at her
It was then she remembered- she'd agreed with Maxwell to ignore Karen and her nasty behaviour especially when she turned whiny.
He said she'd walk off if they pretended not go see, or near her.
So she just nodded inconspicuously before turning her gaze to where she walked. She came to an abrupt halt when Karen stood in front of her.
She held back a sigh and just closed her eyes and sat on the very floor she'd stood.
She ignored Karen's voice till her eyes hurt. When she finally opened it, Karen was walking off.
She turned beaming at Maxwell who was looking at her weirdly.
"I did it!" She exclaimed in excitement. Maxwell laughed a bit
"Let's play hide and seek here- your great-grandmother and great-grandfather would come back- I'd count and you hide" Maxwell said.
She nodded eagerly at the game to take off her mind from the yelling that was resounding in the whole room.
She could fit in her Papa Arni's shelf in his office. She was quite happy that her father and mother and all the other grown ups weren't in the office.
It was grandma Ebube that showed her the hiding spot. She'd been living in this place for almost nine months now. And in a month's time she'd be eight years old.
She ran as fast as her legs could carry her to her father's office and tucked herself in the shelf.
It wasn't up to ten seconds she'd been hiding when she heard the door to her father's office open and close.
She held her breath because she knew that it wasn't Maxwell who entered the room but another person.
She peeped from a small hole in the shelf to see her great-grandfather remove some files and opened a photo of his and his wife, great-grandmother, Agnes.
After he'd placed it, he put the picture back where it's sat on his desk just a second later, the door burst open and in walked Clarisse screeching.
"He's mine!!! That company is mine!!!"
She held her breathe.
"Why are you so suspicious?" Papa Arni asked.
She was still wedged between those racks in the hide and seek game she was playing with Maxwell.
"Because I've been demanding for it for almost two months now and you keep telling me that it's a property of the family! She's a bastard child anyways, she's not supposed to be entitled to such a fortune" Clarisse said pragmatically.
"She's my granddaughter" Her great-grandfather said annoyance in her face.
"I am your daughter first!! Mother was your wife before she died before you got married to this one who came with her baggage. How come she gets it?" Clarisse asked.
"Clarisse, you've finally gotten the very man Susanna wanted. The very man, he's rich, why do you still want the inheritance of Susanna, aren't you satisfied with the business you started? I remember asking if you wanted any part of the company and you denied. Why is it that till Susanna had it was when you wanted it? You know your half siblings will not stand by and watch you fight Susanna" Her grandfather warned.
Clarisse snorted.
"That is what you're for, daddy. She doesn't deserve it and I will take everything that life gives her."
"Calm down sweetie! The company's not yours because you aren't my first child. Not to mention you have no knowledge of business" Papa Arny tried to explain.
"Yeah? So? As long as they get to have it, I want it" Clarisse stomped with a pout.
"But you don't need it" Papa Arny stated.
"It's either you give me the easy way, or the hard way" Clarisse murmured.
"What hard way?" Papa Anri muttered but he couldn't question further when be broke out into sweat.
"Ah, daddy, what's wrong?" Clarisse asked when she realised something was wrong. She held unto his shoulders and assisted him to a chair.
"I- I don't-" He didn't finish when the door opened startling all of them. Her game of hide and seek long forgotten.
And in walked Karen's mother- Tessy.
"What did you do?" Papa Arny asked almost like he knew that whatever was wrong with him was because of her.
"Why would you think I did anything?" Tessy asked breezily.
"Why are you here then? I thought Thomas have gotten to his sense about you and divorced you?" Papa Arny asked.
"And it's all your fault! I don't know why you'd be putting eyes in my marriage!" Tessy yelled then calmed almost immediately because the next moment, she smoothened her dress.
"But if something should happen to you, let's say- you just happened to die, I can get back with Thomas because he'd have no other choice but to seek comfort in my arms" Tessy said dreamily.
"Die?! That's not the deal! What did you do, Theresa?!" Clarisse whispered the yell in fear of someone yelling.
She exhaled sharply but not loudly perhaps because the two women were caught up in what they were doing.
But Papa Arni heard her quiet inhale.
He staggered to his feet and to where she hid.
"We need to take you to the hospital" She whispered. Papa Arni shook his head in pity
"I've ingested it for long. I just realised- I won't make it pass the gates. I'd protect you from them because you're proof. Close your eyes" Papa Arni whispered back. She didn't listen because she couldn't believe her greatgrandpa was going to die before her very eyes.
She wasn't too young to not know about death.
"I am very disappointed in you Clarisse, I expected it from Tessy but not you." He said loudly not putting his enter weight on the shelf.
"Always stubborn my sweet. Tell her to find peace and to forgive herself" Papa Arni whispered.
"I love you, Papa Arni" She whispered choking a sob as he smiled gently and went limp with the sad smile on his face. Because of his weight, the shelf toppled backwards and fell, him on top her.
The duo in the room quietened and soon scurried off leaving just in time before her quiet sobs filled the room.
***
And with that, her memories came flooding in.
a/n
Oml, this has got to be the saddest chapter in the entire book 😭
But *sniffs* that's how Papa Arni died-
...The book is coming to an endddd! Oml- Merry Christmas!!