Chapter Two.
Mrs Ajape had never thought that the child she had always cared for and loved would turn out to be some other rich family's daughter. At first she couldn"t accept it and fought a lot with her husband before finally letting go. Sola was the apple of their eyes, as the youngest daughter of the family of five they all doted on her. She decided to see her original daughter before ultimately removing all thoughts of Sola from her heart.
"So you are saying, Tope is a primary school teacher." Mrs Ajape said to Mrs Shina.
"Yes, Tope is a teacher." the latter replied while frowning.
"And you let her?" There was some slight irritation in her voice. Everyone knows teachers are at the bottom of the food chain in the country, they earn the lowest income and don"t command enough respect in the society.
"Aren't you a teacher yourself, so what's wrong with being a teacher?" A male voice said. Nuga was disgusted by the tone she used, although he wouldn"t let any his children become teachers but to downgrade a profession was hypocrisy especially if you are in said profession.
Mrs Ajape was stunned she didn"t expect someone to point that out. "You think i am proud of my job? Please, who the hell is happy taking care of dumb kids while getting some shitty salary".
Tope heard the remark just as she was about to enter the living room and retorted,
"Well i am actually glad to be a teacher. If you think it"s some shitty profession, you should change your profession. Perhaps selling pepper at Agege general market might suit you best." she eyed the person saying bad stuff about her job while feeling unhappy. Although being a teacher was a lazy choice she made because the course seems simple to study while filling university form back then. Nonetheless, no one was allowed to say shit about her job or wouldn't that mean she is a shitty person herself.
That instant Mrs Ajape was fuming mad at what she just heard. "Calm down Layo, rest your anger". The husband was trying to calm her wife.
"What did you say? I should calm down how the hell do these people raise their children. Just listen to what she just said, I should be a pepper seller." She screamed at her husband.
"Yes you definitely should calm down because your behavior right now perfectly suits a market place". Tope chipped in joyfully enjoying herself. "Making people mad with anger is so fun". She thought to herself.
"Yes Tope you are right, the market place is just right for her." Mrs Shina said with a calm voice but her eyes didn't look so calm. She gently picked up her cup of juice and sipped a little.
"Else would any normal mother question another family"s method of parenting? She felt quite smug with her comeback.
Tope side-eyed her former mother, dissing other members of the family was a thing they did together in the past but stopped doing years ago.
"She might actually be right to question your parenting method, after all aren't i talking back to my elders right now and you are not correcting me." She said sarcastically. The room fell silent, the Shinas were thinking that Tope seemed strange today, she was an extremely lazy person who thinks talking to others was a waste of strength. They were equally surprised when she decided to become a teacher too. Talking was a hard chore to Tope of the past.
"Why are you so active today, who riled you up." The eldest son of the house said.
"What, I am leaving this place today anyway so I might as well misbehave." Tope replied with some mischief dancing in her eyes. "So where are my poor parents". She pretended not to see the stunned faces of everyone.
"Enough all of you." Mr Shina said while pointing to Tope "you, these are your parents and you have to accord them with the respect they deserve. I heard you agreed to sell the company to your uncle". He questioned.
"Yes I did, running a company is troublesome anyway i might as well get rid of it". She replied getting bored.
"You made a wise choice". He said satisfied. Although the company wasn't much to him, he really did not want to give it to an outsider. Tope snickered. That company almost took her life ten years ago, they were selfish to have given it to her.
"From what I can observe, you guys don't seem to care about Tope and already knew about the switch a long time ago". Mrs Ajape suddenly said eyes narrowed and calculative. "Let me guess, you used her as a foil to deceive some people while protecting your original daughter."
"What nonsense are you saying, no one will take you for a mute if you keep quiet". Right now they have decided to shed all cordial ties with these people. It's true they've known about the switch for a long time, maybe far longer than others thought but decided not to reveal it because it was a crucial time for them which allows them to have no weaknesses the enemies could grasp. It won't matter if an unrelated person got hurt.
"Turns out my suspicion back then was right too, for so many years I got kidnapped so often I was beginning to think the president of the country was my father." Tope said solemnly. The worst happened around five years ago. She was kidnapped by some people who were demanding for some file, they placed a phone call to the mansion and the reply given was heartbreaking that even the kidnappers would have pitied her had they been the regular type.
Five years ago.
Seventeen years old Tope was on her way home after taking a rare stroll around their area when she got waylaid by some tough looking guy. That day she regretted leaving the comfort of her room to take a stupid stroll. The guys bundled her up and threw into a van, she wasn't even given the chance to scream. Her eyes were blindfolded and the van was driven to God knows where. They got to the destination and the tough guys dragged her down from the van.
"Do you guys have no compassion for the fairer sex, you should be gentle you know." She had said to the people then. Having gotten used to getting kidnapped, she wasn't very afraid until three days later. These people showed her that they really have no compassion for the fairer sex. They didn't feed her for three days straight and none of them came in to even hold the normal kidnappers conversation with her. The place was quiet like a graveyard, she hadn't heard a single noise for the past three days as if she was the only one there. But she kept quiet.
This lasted until the fourth day when their supposed leader barged in with what looked like a cell phone in hand. There was someone whose voice sounded familiar on the other side of the phone.
"Your daughter is going to starve to death if you don't give him the file." He said coldly. "We will send her cold corpse back to you."
"I don't care about the girl in your custody, go ahead and kill her if you want but I won't give the file to your person." The other side replied, "You've made a mistake, that girl with you is not our child so anything you do to her is none of our business." He concluded and hung up the call.
Although she was already losing consciousness and was very tired, Tope heard the conversation and tears ran down her face. She hadn't cried since she was kidnapped but right then she just felt like letting go of the tears she's been trying to hold back. They didn't keep the fact that she wasn't their daughter a secret from her, but then subconsciously she did not believe them until now.
Probably because the reply the kidnappers got wasn't to their satisfaction, she was given a light beating and then released a few hours later. They dropped her three streets away from the mansion and made to walk back home battered and hungry. Throughout her ordeal, the tough guys never said a word to her.
"They are even more professional than those from the past." She had thought to herself. Through sheer will power she made it home in one piece. Well maybe her intestines weren't in one piece due to hunger and her eyes stung due to a long time of sleeplessness. Upon getting home Tope fainted, whatever happened after that she wasn't aware. But after eavesdropping on some maids gossip sometimes after that day, she discovered that the other family members did nothing to rescue her. Whether calling the police or running a helter -skelter for her sake, they even thought those guys wouldn't let her live so they were actually relaxed and just waiting to receive her dead body. They all pretended that ordeal never happened and went on with their lives including herself.
Now back to the current time, perhaps due to the solemnity in the room Sola felt a chill down her spine, "living in this house wouldn't be as easy as i thought." She thought to herself, getting kidnapped! Perhaps being a pauper is better at least she wouldn't have to always fear being carried into a car while walking on the road.
"What has happened has happened, no need to dwell in the past. You should leave with your parents and start a new life with them." Someone said blankly without remorse. Tope knew the speaker after all; they have lived together for more than twenty years and she's called her big sis for as long.
"Baby let's go, you don't have to say more to them if you don't want to." Mrs Ajape said she realized the tough acting girl might have lived a hard life and felt angry with herself for engaging in a banter with her without understanding the poor girl.
"We might not have the best to give you but the little we have is enough for the four of us in the family." She walked to stand before Tope at the doorstep and hugged her tears brimming in her eyes. Tope didn't know what to do, this kind of emotion display is not something she's used to but she liked it.
"Mom don't you want me anymore," a choked voice interrupted the emotional moment, it was Sola. "Please don't leave me here, I don't want to stay here."
"Back then when you heard that your real parents are wealthy and influential people, you were so happy that the word mom hasn't been said by you for the past few weeks. You don't care, we will be sad. I don't dare call you my daughter after all I am but a poor teacher." Mrs Ajape said coldly, still hugging Tope like a mother hen.
"Let's just leave." Tope said with helplessness. "And the company, you guys don't have to pay a dime for it after all it was never transferred to me officially. You knew I would eventually sell it back to you and that kind of hypocrisy is something I don't dare accept from your family. " There was nothing more to say so both families went their separate ways hoping that from then on nothing will ever bring them to meet again. Well that will have to be up to Fate. Things are back to where they are supposed to be and everyone can begin anew as for Tope maybe the pink bubbles and roses will be found in the new place she's going. Or maybe not, who knows.