'You have gained admission into Uniben. Accept or Decline' glared at her from her laptop's screen. She smiled sheepishly as she got up from her bed, laptop in hand, going to show her mom the good news.

This was her second week in Nigeria and she had considerably settled down. She opened her mom's door and of course her drop dead gorgeous mother was still in bed, sleeping, drool trickling down from the side of her mouth.

Angel loved the imperfections of her mother. It also made her feel special since she could boast to others that she knew her more than them, "Mom, I got in! I'm going to study at the University of Benin," she screamed and her mom jolted out of her slumber.

She quickly used the back of her palm to wipe her mouth and smiled at her daughter, "Oh, Angel. I knew you would pass. So how are we going to celebrate?" She asked as she got out of bed and engulfed her in a hug, "Have you told your father yet?" She asked in a quiet tone.

Angel shook her head, "I'll email him instead," she said as she opened the email icon on her laptop and sent the acceptance letter as an attachment file to him.

Almost immediately she received a reply from him. He sent a long letter of appreciation and of course a lot of emojis. She smiled as she read through it. She knew he had written this a long time ago and was just waiting for the right time to send it.

He was a doting father who showered his daughter with all the love he could. He wanted her to have a perfect life, the opposite of what she wanted for herself.

Chioma, her mother, phone buzzed and she answered. It was a call from her manager, "Good morning," she said as she exited the room leaving her daughter inside.

Angel knew her mom… her parents were busy people. She had always known but another thing she knew was that no matter how busy her parents were, they always made time to shower her with love and attention.

She clicked on the 'Accept' button and smiled. She was finally going to have one of her dreams fulfilled. She was going to study Veterinary Medicine at an African Federal University. She couldn't be any happier.

Her father, Makoto Iura, initially wanted her to attend a flashy prominent university like Harvard or Oxford and she had written the trials to soothe his ego. She hadn't passed the eighty percent cut off mark for both but knew with his connections she would definitely get in one way or the other.

But, she was going to Uniben. She was going to attend a university in her mother's motherland.

She did a little victory dance and fell on her mother's Queen sized bed. It smelled of expensive perfumes and fragrant hair products. Her mother was really a world wide known model and she felt a tinge of pride in her chest.

She loved her parents.

Marie, her caretaker knocked on her mother's door, "Milady, it's time for your breakfast," she said in a strict tone. It's already past ten and you haven't had breakfast and here I was thinking that change in environment would change your awful sense of timekeeping,"

Angel chuckled as she got up from the bed and opened the door. She hugged Marie and with her face buried in her chest she told her about how she had been accepted into Uniben. Tears flowed down from Marie's eyes.

"Dear dear dear," were the only words she could mutter.

Marie Campbell was a young lady of twenty four. She had only been seven years old when her parents died in an airplane crash. Both had been business partners of Makoto Iura and out of pity he had taken her in.

He had just gotten married and had a heavily pregnant wife. Marie had decided to be the nanny of the child whether it would be a boy or a girl.

Luckily, Angel was a girl.

And she had kept to her promise. Sixteen years later she still loved the little girl like the first day she had met her in a cradle, swaddled with white linen and smelling weird. It has truly been the best experience and journey ever.

Marie was Angel's best friend.

Hand in hand they walked to the dining table and Angel told her about the film she had watched the night before. It was a movie adaptation of a novel she had ordered a week ago from hazelbooksng, the biggest Bibliophile library in Nigeria.

Not only was the book neat, Hazel had also sent a thank you card and two bookmarks. "Jack Harper was completely different from what I had expected," she complained as she whined in Marie's ears.

"We have jollof rice for breakfast," Marie announced as Angel took a seat. She watched as Marie served the food with expertise and experience. Angel loved this motherly side of Marie.

After dishing out Angel's, she dished out a plate for herself and sat down opposite to where Angel was sitting. She said her prayers and Angel did the same.

Marie always had breakfast, lunch and dinner with Angel since her parents were always busy. She was her caretaker afterall, "So now you're in Uniben. You'll finally have a normal life," she said as put a spoon of rice in her mouth.

Angel nodded as she got up to get a glass of orange juice from the fridge in the kitchen, "School resumes in three weeks and I think I'll have to leave home," she said as she walked back to her seat, "Uniben is quite far from here," she added.

Marie stood up from where she was sitting and walked to where Angel stood. She planted a kiss on her forehead and said, "At least let me go house hunting with you," she requested and hugged the teenager tight.

Angel smiled and nodded her head," Sure. I'd be honored Marie," she said and she was released.

Throughout the remaining time they breakfast that morning no one said anything. They just waved Chioma off when she rushed out to work with a mug of coffee and some waffles Marie had made earlier in the morning.

Truly, Uniben was far from where they lived. They lived in an estate in GRA and Uniben was in Ugbowo.

In case you didn't know, GRA stood for Government Reserved Area and of course only the rich of the rich could afford a living there. Not only was the place serene, it was lonely.

Since she was now an undergrad in Uniben she deserved to be in it's environs. Make new friends, study her dream course and maybe fall in love.

She shuddered at that thought. That was a topic she wasn't comfortable discussing with anyone– not even Marie who knew almost everything about her. She has never really fallen in love with anyone.

Back in her high school at Ottawa she had either been feared or reverenced. She was the daughter of a drop dead gorgeous model and a stinky rich philanthropist so of course nobody wanted to get into her bad books. She believed all her friends then were fake and she couldn't convince anyone to have a real relationship with her.

She knew that kind of lifestyle would have continued if she had followed her father's dream and gotten into Harvard or Oxford but–

Luck was on her side. Someone had told her father that her mother was cheating on him. This wasn't true at all. Chioma could never cheat on Makoto… it was obviously a lie.

The situation got worse and Chioma requested they separated for a while as her husband began stalking her every movement. She was no longer comfortable in her marriage of sixteen years.

After a month she announced that she was going back to Nigeria and Angel begged to follow her. "If you go with your mother to Nigeria, what school would you go to?" He had asked her via email when she told him she was going to Nigeria with her mother.

"I will go to Uniben," she had replied and he had done a decent research on the school. On the day his wife and daughter had left he had been at the airport waving them goodbye with teary eyes.

He couldn't accompany them because he had to respect Chioma's privacy but without a doubt he would miss his daughter dearly.

Soon the day was far spent. Angel practiced her piano lessons and her dancing session was a huge disaster because she kept messing up. It was obvious she overexcited and couldn't contain herself.

She had emailed her father that she was going to see her new school and he had permitted her on the grounds that Marie followed her. Her mother had called in that she wouldn't be home for dinner but would come back in the wee morning to see Angel off.

That night she hardly slept. The next day she was going to see Uniben for the first time in her life and she didn't know what to expect. She already had a picture in her mind, what remained was for her to see the real deal.

She really couldn't wait.