"Who is the presiding officer of this village?" Debby asked.
"Me, her highness" A middle aged man with a protuding belly came forth from the the crowd.
"I want you to keep reporting every kind of child abuse into my office from now on and if I ever hear about anything like this ever again in this village, I will imprison you for ten years." Debby ordered and the man agreed with a bow. "For that of the mistress who is the main cause to all this pain, I want her out of this village empty handed, only the clothes she's in will she go with. All her properties will be equally shared to both families she oppressed."
The lady who Fiona's and Paul's dad's had been fighting for threw herself on the ground wailing pityfully for her long earned money and achievements but nobody; not even fellow villagers pitied her.
"For you, misters, I Deborah Garuga will arrest you in military jail for the time I will please and I will make sure that you serve the rightful purnishments for whatever you did to your own kids and granddaughter." Debby said then ordered to her soldiers, "Throw them in the car"
The soldiers captured the two accused male parents and locked them in one of the military vehicles.
"Now you ladies, I want you to..."
"Would you allow me give the purnishment to my dear aunty, your highness?" Fiona said cutting off Debby midway.
"Go ahead" Debby said.
"Dear aunty Florence, I want you and all your children from the youngest to oldest to clean wells, dig around the roads and clean them from morning to evening without eating and drinking anything for three months. I want you to see your children hungry and thirsty in a scorching sunshine just like you did to my baby. If you fail, I will come back here and take your youngest child to work for me as a house maid without payments and education for five years." Fiona said without batting an eye to see her aunt carrying her hands on her head___crying bitterly.
"Granted, she will do per your command." Debby said with full authority "For you, abusive and careless mothers of both sides, you will be jailed for three months in the local cell." She finished talking and stood up to go.
Fiona and Paul had finished cleaning and dressing up their baby and they were all ready to go. They got inside the car and the drivers set off in a few minutes later. Fiona gave the little girl everything she had brought for her to eat.
Debby took the couple to the hospital for Paulina's medical check-up then sent Fiona back at her place of residence as Paul had to start working on his passport already.
Anna warmly welcomed her and Paulina, she served the two lunch and the little girl took a tired nap the next few minutes. Fiona narrated everything that had happened to Anna. They talked more about other things, Anna later told her to also shower and rest a little bit from the tiresome journey of seven hours they had taken; as they had a small birthday party to attend.
In the evening, all neighbours around and children from outside the rental perimeters had gathered to celebrate Josh's birthday. Liam had played with all Anna's little buddies almost all day, making them sing and dance in competition and had ended up buying a big cake for the party in reward for their satisfying entertainment. Paulina was the happiest person to get to eat the cake for the first time in her life to which pleased her mother greatly. Everyone was cheering the little boy with much wishes and gifts till someone pulled a brand new Toyota harrier at the main entrance of the rentals circle.
It was Nancy!
When she got out of the car, she ran with all her might towards where people were gathering at and jumped at Liam and wrapped her arms and legs around him; sobbing and chanting two words repeatedly. "Thank you"
Everyone; including Anna and Liam were shocked and confused of her action. They stood frozen for seconds till she disengaged from the crazy embrace and started jumping around, screaming like a mad woman; showing a ring on her fingers.
"He proposed, Eric proposed y'all. He proposed for marriage" Nancy said spinning around, shedding tears of much joy.
Anna gasped loudly with wide eyes, she knelt down and lifted her hands up. Her immediate tears that she didn't have to beg for to come was already pooling.
"Thank you Lord, thank you Jesus for taking the pain and the shame away." Anna cried, "How much can I thank you, God of heavens? For you're a hearing God."
Nancy joined her on the ground and hugged her tightly, sobbing together for the victory they had won. However, Liam was utterly confused of why a mere proposal would make the two girls so emotional. He didn't say anything or sabotage them, he just let them be. Meanwhile, Fiona was so happy and thankful for being Anna's friend just seeing her rejoice with her bestie wholeheartedly without getting jealous of her achievements when she hadn't gotten one herself. The fact that it was the couple that had funded the whole party even after Anna hearing all bad things the lady always said over her; baffled Fiona big deal.
"I can't wait to testify tomorrow at church for this great miracle." Anna said standing up and wiping her tears.
Nancy told them that Eric had chosen their wedding to be in three months time which added more joy to Anna. And she said that Eric, Nathaniel and Stella were arranging a small party for Liam, just for thanking and welcoming him in the family as an accepted and loved future in-law---and they were requesting for his presence his free day.
Liam gladly agreed and told them to arrange the party on Wednesday of the coming week as he would be less busy. The girls rejoiced that they ended up bringing out their subwoofers for them to enjoy themselves.
Nancy told Anna that they she and Eric had bought; a beautiful big house worth a hundred million shillings, hers and his car and many other valuable things. She told her that Eric had given one billion shillings to Nathaniel for helping and caring about him in such tough times and that Erick had changed his business; from car repairing to shipping.
Anna was happy that she kept applauding all through their conversation. Afterwards, she also told Nancy about the Lewis's second encounter at the café and the chaos that followed showing her their viral video. How they had actually ended up meeting in a club and how she had met the president's daughter for the first. She showed her the videos she had done with Debby yesternight; introducing herself to the media and answering some simple questions, dancing with Debby merrily and showing off their twinning twin boyfriends.
Nancy laughed, cried tears of joy at seeing her best friend thrive in both social life and love life; greatly happy__ and thanked Liam like thousand times for making her best cousin sister the happiest girl in the world.
When Nancy left in late evening, only then did Anna remember that she hadn't told her about she and Liam's deal about getting pregnant and marrying eachother. She groaned furiously at herself for forgetting such hot tea but told herself not to forget the next time they meet.
Everyone retired in their houses as it was late. Anna and Liam lay in bed awake but silent, just cuddling. As Anna was grateful for everything he had done in her friends' lives, Liam was purely grateful for her love for him. A lot was going through their minds at the moment but luckily, all was for the best and positive to eachother.
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"Do you know me?" Fiona asked her daughter, they were currently laying on the same bed facing eachother.
"Yes"
"Who am I?"
"You're my mother." The girl said,
Fiona teared up, "How did you know, who told you that am your mother?"
"Penny said that my mother is a most beautiful girl than everyone else in the whole world and also dad told me that I'm as pretty as my mother." Paulina said.
Fiona blinked back the tears stinging her eyes hearing the longest and touching sentence Paulina had said for the first time so far. She held her tiny hand and kissed it like a thousand times.
"Dad gave me your photo" Paulina said, "Can I show it to you?"
"You have it here?" Fiona asked and the little girl nodded. "Where is it?"
"In the bag." She said pointing at an old bag containing her clothes.
"Okay, go ahead" Fiona said sitting upright.
Paulina got to the bag and opened the smaller sized part and removed a folded hardcopy photo from it then climbed back on the bed.
"Here," She said handing it to her mother, "Dad said that you were so pretty; the day he gave it to me but you're more beautiful than on the photo."
"Thank you, my love." Fiona said gulping a lump in her throat. Getting complemented by her baby felt better and sweeter than anything else on earth. She unfolded the photo to see her 15yrs old self in a school uniform.
"When did he give it to you?" Fiona asked.
"Yesterday when I was two" The little girl said showing two fingers and Fiona giggled hard.
"How old are you now?"
Paulina showed four fingers, "one two three four"
"Eww! You were two yesterday and now you're four today?" Fiona asked laughing so hard,
"Yes, and Penny said that you will give me a nice gift when I make five" She said to see her mom cry more, "Stop crying mommy, Penny said that we should cast our worries to God than crying with sadness." The girl said wiping off Fiona's tears.
Fiona burst into fresh tears at hearing such wise words coming from a four years old. She pulled her closer and hugged her tightly and affectionately.
"I'm not crying with sadness, my baby, I'm just so happy to have you here with me. I love you!"
The girl wrapped her small arms around her mother's neck as well and remained silent.
"So, you like Penny?" Fiona asked after sometime.
"Yes, she's my best friend. She always gives me something sweet to eat at school and carry me on her back or shoulders when I'm sick." Paulina said with much fondness. "She even beat other children who beat me or say bad things to me. She makes me feel good when am sad."
Fiona was now at loss of words. Penny is her third younger sister who is fifteen years of age. Hearing Paulina praise her like this softened her heart a little bit.