"Toun, is this really you?" Tobi, Nancy's mother said to her long time best friend.
Toun nodded as tears begins to form a path down her cheeks.
"It's me Oluwatobiloba. I am really the one." Toun answered.
Tobi quickly embrace her and the two women weep at their reunion. They were like that crying in each other arms for what seems like an hour.
They told the children who were perplexed to know their mothers knew each other and the emotional moments between them about their past relationships.
Toun had to use her drugs and had to return to bed because of her symptoms.
"I'm sorry." Tobi said to Toun who was sitting on the bed. She is now weak and more pale than she was hour ago.
"You don't have to be sorry. It's not your fault. It's not anyone fault. I should be sorry that you have to me like this." Toun said.
Tobi shakes her head. "Of course not. You never wanted it this way. No one does. But don't worry I'm here now."
"You always have been. I have never for once forget all those things you did for me in the past."
"Me too." Tobi said. "I've missed you terribly."
Toun smile weakly. "Me too." Her eyes were now becoming deem because of the drug which had begin to have effect.
Tobi notice it. "You should rest now Toun. I will wait till you wake up."
"It might take long. The drug makes me sleep for a long time so i could rest." Toun said.
Tobi smile sadly. "I know. If you didn't wake up on time, i will come back tomorrow. Very early tomorrow."
She nods. "We have a lot of catching up to do. It's been so long."
"Yes it is." Tobi said smiling with her eyes glassy with tears. "I have a lot of things to tell you and i know you also do. Just rest and we will talk tomorrow."
"Alright." She agreed. She begins to lay down on the bed. Tobi stood up to help her and she tugs her in, covering her with the white wrapper on the bed.
It didn't take long before she close her eyes and sleep.
Tobi sat on the small chair beside her bed looking at her. Tears roll down her face as she look at how lean her friend had become.
She remember the Toun that was her best friend, a beautiful young mother and a lawyer. The healthy and glowing Toun and to the Toun laying peacefully on the bed in front of her. She is so pitiful. The once beautiful and ever smiling Toun. The cancer had done alot to weakened her.
She wiped the tears in her eyes away and she leave the room taking one last look at her friend before closing the door quietly behind her.
****
Toun wakes up the next day looking stronger and radiant than the other day. She wake up early to cook breakfast for her husband and children. They were surprised to see her moving round the house, ordering the house help on what to do with so much energy.
"Mom are you okay?" Dammy asked looking at her like she is mad.
"I am more than okay." She answered.
"You should be in bed resting mom." Isabella said concernly.
"I have been resting. I feel happy and full of energy today. So let me use it." She said.
"If you say so. But be careful." Japheth said to her. And she nodded with a broad smile.
"Nancy and her mom will be coming today." Hope said smiling inwardly to himself as they settle to eat.
He enjoyed his time with Nancy the previous day. They talk for a long time about different things. He saw how sincerely she was concern about his mother and he was grateful and happy to have her around.
" Yes, i know." Toun said. They look at her. She was asleep when Tobi left with her daughter promising to visit again the next day. "You people should stop looking at me like i am insane. She told me she will be coming."
They all nodded.
"Sorry." Isabella and Dammy apologize.
"It's fine."
"I see you are excited to see your friend today." Japheth said.
She smile. "Of course. She might have the answer to my questions." Japheth look at her and nodded understanding what she meant.
"I will wait to meet her. It will be nice to meet people that were close to you before we got married or when you were still younger."
"Yes. "
"It's kind of amazing that moms best friends is the mother of brother Hope best friend." Isabella said.
And they nodded smiling.
*****
Tobi came as she promised that day. She bought cup cakes and doughnuts which she made by herself for her and the kids. They glady take it from her.
She was introduced to Japheth, and the two talk for a good period of time before he took the kids out. He is a nice and caring man. She see how he take care of Toun and how he look at her with so much love. He wasn't bad at all so she like him.
Toun and Tobi was left in the house. The two friends talk about old times and all that had happened in the years they had past.
Their stories bring tears and laughter as they cry at the bad times of their past and laugh at the good and memorable times.
"....so Hope is Nathaniel son?" Tobi asked her friend after she finished telling her how she was taken hostage by her father.
She nods "Yes. I noticed i was pregnant months after i was taken to Australia. He had barely survived the drugs i was injected. He is a strong child. "
"That's terrible. Your father is so cruel."
"He never wanted me to keep him. But i refused. I made a deal he can't refused so he accepts the boy even if he never likes him till date."
"That's his problem. The good thing is he is alive. I knew Hope through my daughter and i like him so much. He is talented just like Nathaniel. And now i know why i had said i knew him before when i first saw him. It was because he look like Nathaniel." Tobi said.
" Yes. I see Nathan in him every time i look at him. That's why i gave him Hope. "She said smiling at the memory. She remembered holding the small child in her hands at birth and when she look at his eyes, Hope was what she said. And she named him Hope.
Tobi smile sadly." You went through a lot Toun. Your parents went too far. "
" All thanks to Japheth that i am here and free. He is been a very very good man. I owe him a lot." Toun said sincerely.
"I like him too. I see he loves you. So the twins are his children?"
"Yes. Dammy and Isabella are the children i gave birth to for him." Toun replied. "Tobi."
"Yes."
"Do you happen to know the whereabouts of Nathaniel and our daughter Annabella?" Toun asked hoping her friend knows how to find her family.
Tobi gave a weak smile. She had been waiting for her to ask about them.
"Yes, i do. I have been in touch with them ever since."
Toun sigh with relief and she look at her friend curiously.
"How are they?" She asked as her eyes swell with tears.
"They are perfectly okay." Tobi said. And she told her friend that had happened in the past eighteen years.
She told her how Nathaniel becone broken when she was taken away, how he got the big job two years after and when he finally move to the state with his mother and daughter three years later. She told her Nathaniel remained single for a long time and when he finally decides to move on and get married to an American woman.
She also talk about Annabella who has now grown up to be a beautiful young woman.
"...... She is also like her brother but much more talented. Remember you told me she wants to be multi instrumentalist?" Toun nodded. "Well her dreams came true. She can play different type of instrument. She is also a private invesigator. Here" Tobi said giving Toun her iPad.
Toun took it with her shaking hands and she stare at the picture of the lady sitting on a bench with her guitar hang around her neck in front of her with a cute smile who happen to be her first child and daughter.
She weep with her hands covering her mouth as she look at the different pictures of Annabella.
"I asked them to send every picture of her as she grows because i know a day like this will come." Tobi said.
"Anna....bell."Toun cried." I miss my daughter growing up. I didn't see her graduate. "
" It's not your fault Toun. And she understands. "Tobi comforted and she pull her into a hug." It's okay. She understands. They all understand."
Toun shake her head still crying." No, it's not. It's not. My poor daughter. I miss her. "
Tobi soothed her with words.
***
Tobi left in the evening after helping Toun who had insisted on cooking for her family than going to rest. She complained she might not have the type of energy to do the cooking the next day so she helped her in the kitchen.
And it was like old time.
Just as Toun said, she was more than tired the next day. She slept almost all through the day except to wake up to eat lunch.
The day after was the same. But she tried to tell Japheth everything her friend told her about Nathaniel and their daughter Annabella.
So he didn't need to find Nathaniel anymore because she knows where he is. Although she told Tobi she is going to talk to Nathaniel and Annabella, when else she come but she had been too weak to talk and leave the bed since then.
She went for an x-ray at the hospital and the result wasn't so good but she refuse adamantly to have chemotherapy despite it make Japheth sad because he thought it might help a little.
A week after Toun met her friend and two days after visiting the doctor, Toun called her son Hope to the garden where she sit on her wheel chair under the shade of trees. Dammy and Isabella had gone to their new school.
"Mom, you called me." He said looking at her face. She wasn't fine but he has gotten used to seeing his mother condition constantly changing sometimes from better to worst or worst to better. He wasn't going to ask how she was because she had begin to hate that question and even if she isn't okay, her reply always remain 'I'm fine'.
"Yes dear." She replied and he took a seat opposite her. "What were you doing?"
"I am trying to compose my own song to kill time." He said with a smile.
She smile back. "Never give up. I know you can do it okay?
He reply with a nod.
"Hope,i have something to tell you. You won't like it but i want you to listen. I am going to tell you things about my past even those i never tell your father. I want to tell you now because i might not get another chance. And know that i love you and your siblings no matter what happens. "
" Mom, please stop talking like that. You are scaring the hell out of me. "
She smile weakly." I'm not going to die yet. Okay? "
He said nothing but stare at her. He was trying so hard not to tear up.
" Listen, i love you and i will never hurt you. "
"I know mom." He said truthfully.
"Your father is not the first man i got married to." She started. " I loved another man when i was younger and i married him before i was forcefully taken from him......"
She told him everything without keeping a single truth from him.
"My dad is not my father.....and i have another sister that is older than me with my biological father." Hope said after his mother finished telling him her story.
He is confused and don't know how to take it. His mother lied to him but she also doesn't know what to do. And his father....his step father knows about it too.
"I don't mean to hurt you, so does your father. Even Nathaniel, your biological father does not even know about you because i had you when i was taken from him. You knew Japheth as your father as you grow up, i didn't want to ruin that. You are too young to be hurt. I didn't plan for this Hope. But anytime from now, I might meet Nathaniel. And i won't lie to him about his son. "
" You should have told me. "
" How will you feel if i did? I didn't even have hope of ever seeing him then. My father watch everything i did. That's why he planted fear in your father that he had to do what he said by allowing him to keep me hostage in the house. My father hate Nathaniel because he was poor. He was ready to do anything to separate me from him forever. You knew he nevers like you like the way he likes Dammy and Isabella because you are Nathaniel son. But nevertheless, Japheth is always and will always be your father because He loves you more than you ever know. "
" That's why he hated me. He never want to look at me. "Hope said as the tears that he had been trying hard to hold back begin to pour.
" I'm sorry. " She said to him.
He didn't replied but keep crying. Toun let him be. She just watch painfully as he weep.
He is not sad just because she lied to him. He is sad because non of it was her fault. She suffered a lot from her own so called family because she fell in love. She live a long time lock in a house. He is sad because she had to suffer it alone. He always knew there was something bordering her. And he knew she wasn't on a good term with her father. They always argued or quarrel.
He's hurt because he wasn't able to help her and he had grow admiring the man that had cause her so much pain.
After watching him for a while and she couldn't take it anymore, she move closer to him and embrace him.
"I am so sorry." She apologized.
"You don't have to. I'm sorry i couldn't help you." He said in her arms. She wad touched by his concern.
"You don't have to worry about me." She told him.
"I'm so sorry mom. I'm sorry." He apologized. She nodded rubbing his back to comfort him.