Selangkah Berjejak

Rose moved to the Benue state after her little stunt with Christopher Allen. The son of the renowned Mr. Allen in Nigeria. It's been four years after she took his money and left Lagos only to discover she was pregnant a few weeks later.

She didn't want to abort so, she had the child and justified her action as taking money for the upkeep of his child.

~ROSE~

"Mom!!!",

That's my princess and I dare not answer her, "what is is my love?" I ask My three years old daughter.

"I don't want to go to school today!" She said giving me a very sad look.

"Why honey? What happened?" I ask while moving my chair close to her.

"The kids at school call me fatherless every time." She complnejj 4,ained.

95y. .4y.7 Mo ii

"Don't let them get to you my love, you are not fatherless... I have told you a lot of times that your dad traveled... You have a father! Ok?" I said to her. I wonder how parents train their kids these days. How can such little kids always y

themselves like that?

"How old am I mum?" Princess asked me.

I was confused as to why she would ask me such a question. "Why are you asking me that?"

"In case you don't know, am three years old mum! I want to see my dad!" She answered and whined.

I have been dreading this moment ever since I found out I was pregnant four years ago. I didn't know what to say to her. How do I tell my daughter that her dad doesn't even know she exists? I can't even bring myself to go back to Lagos.

"Look at me my princess," I said and carried her on my lap "Your dad is very a very busy person. He travels a lot and he will come to see you soon. Don't let your classmates tell you that you don't have a father ok?" I tried to convince her.

"But mum, why hasn't he come to see me even once? Better still, show me a picture of him. Chidi told me to bring a picture if I want them to believe that I have a father!" She said to me.

Seeing her like this breaks my heart a lot "why don't we talk about this when you get back from school? I need to go to the shop and you need to get to school early." I said to her.

She nods her head and goes inside her room to pick her school bag. She came back out after a few minutes and we left the house. I drove her to school and it was obvious from the frown on her face that she wasn't happy. I tried to cheer her up but she didn't give me her usual happy vibe.

We got to her school which is a private school very close to my shop. I run a grocery store and it's doing better than I expect. "Baby, won't you smile for mummy?" I try to coax her when she was about to leave the car without hugging me.

"I love you, mum..." She said and opened the car and walked into her school without even looking back. How did she grow up so fast?

I drove off after she has gone into the building and headed to my store. I have sales girls and branches around but, I don't like staying home all day.

I got into the store and Ada who happens to be the most sensible among all of my workers in this branch came up to me to take my bag.

"Good morning ma," she greeted me with a smile.

"Good morning Ada, how are you?" I replied as we walked towards office.

"An fine ma... Ehm... Ma!" She stuttered.

I looked at her and wondered what it was with her, "What is it? Did something happen?"

"No ma. It's just that, you have a visitor. They came in very early and insisted they wanted to wait for you." she said.

"What did they want?" I asked her. She handles the store in my absence and she hardly allows people to wait for me.

"Ma, you will be shocked to know who is waiting for you, It..."

"Good morning miss Rose Sanders!" Someone interrupted what Ada was saying.

I turned to look at the owner of the voice and It was like I was slapped by God. It's the one person that I have tried all possible means to hide from for the last four years, "Good morning Mr. Christopher Allen, to what do I owe the pleasure of having you in my store so early in the morning?" I managed to sound professional.

"I have waited and looked for you for four years! What a warm welcome!" He said and walked too close to me.

"What do you mean you looked... You looked for me?" I managed to say without running away.

"Haha, Rose... Do you want to talk in front of your employee or, do you want to talk privately?" He laughed and asked. From the look in his eyes, one could tell he was enjoying himself.

"I don't know what you want to talk about or why you seem to know me but, let's go into my office," I said and led the way in.

Ada was just looking at us like she has was watching a movie. Even I will look confused If I were her. "Go and do other things, Ada," I said to her.

She looked from me to Christopher then ran off.

"I see you used my money wisely," Christopher said immediately the door was locked behind us.

"Please, Mr. Christopher Allen... I don't know why you are here but I am sure am not the person you are looking for." I said to him. How he managed to find me is a mystery but I have been expecting this. I know one day, he will find me but, I never expected it to be so soon.

"You haven't changed you know, you still have this innocent face that fooled me, you left with my money and something much more important Rose..." He said to me.

I wanted to deny knowing him but I also know it will be useless trying to. If he is in my office then, am sure he would know everything about me by now. "It's not what you think, I didn't do anything wrong to you... Please leave me alone!"

"Haha, you didn't do anything wrong?" He said and moved to stand at my front. "You lied to me and then stole my money! You ran away from Lagos! You made sure I wouldn't be able to find you... Isn't that wicked?" He asked me.

My best option was to try to convince him not to have me arrested. I know what I did that day was wrong but, I needed the money and besides, I ended up with his child so, we could say I used it to make life comfortable for his child. "What I did that night was wrong and am sorry but, the situation called for it. You are the son of a billionaire so I didn't think that little amount will affect you!"

"The situation called for it? You lied about so many things... Your name, your address, am sore you did all those because of the money you wanted from me... I was new to Lagos and you, my beautiful Rose, showed me how serious Lagos could get!" He said. With the way his voice kept going higher, I know he is angry.

Just when I was thinking it could be a bit ok, I remembered his child. What if he already knows about Princess and wants to take her away? What do I do? "It wasn't intentional!" I said to him.

"You make me laugh, I am here for what belongs to me and I think you know what that is," he said.

My heart dropped to my feet immediately after he said that. I know he would want his money and I hope that is what he is talking about. "What do you want, your money?" I asked hoping he will say yes.

"You are very funny... I want what belongs to me and you know very well what that is, yes, you took my money but, that's not what I am talking about... I WANT MY DAUGHTER!"

I felt my legs go weak immediately he uttered the last four words. Princess is my all. I know he is rich and can take everything away from me but, I was hoping he wouldn't find out about my daughter. What do I do? How do I make him understand that he can't take my daughter away?