The drive home was the worst I've ever experienced in my life,my body ached thanks to the pot holes that made sure I didn't get any comfort from any part of myself.The lorry stopped at Western Avenue where it would off load the plantains,it was already night when we got there and we jumped out of the lorry and thanked the driver immensely,my dad gaved him some money which he refused saying he was saying lives which he was proud of doing always.We crossed the busy road and walked quickly to where we would board a bus to Maryland where we live,that is my mom,Gillian and I,then I came across a poster that shocked me that I couldn't believe what I saw;it was a poster of me declared missing and the photo of me on it wasn't a nice one ,I looked terrible,why would they use such a photo,well that's by the way,but on a serious note who would have done this,maybe my mom or my aunt,and the reward for finding me was 2 million naira, could you believe that,now I know it's my aunt at work and I'm now going be hunted so I had to cover my face like dad did with the scarf I took from a lady though she didn't notice it.Dad stood behind me and sighed placing his cold hands on my shoulders "Don't worry dear, let's just go home first and settle this once and for all"he assured me and we flagged a cab down that took us home.I stood before our apartment and a big banner of me declared missing greeted me,I overlooked it and noticed the lights were on in the house,my heartbeat increased and it almost pumped out of my chest,my dad held my hands and led me inside but I refused,my mother will be so pained if she saw who I risked my life to bring home, she'd be worried sick about me and I couldn't stand the sight of it.My dad somehow knew what was running through my mind and went ahead to knock on the door,I was startled by the sound of the door opening and my mom's blank face came in view;her eyes widened in total disbelief and she screamed but my dad rushed to her and closed her mouth so that she won't draw tha attention of neighbors and tooked her inside which she struggled to free herself and my dad finally did when we were in the sitting room "What are you doing here,you God forsaken being and what is my daughter doing with you"she asked with so much anger in her eyes that I've never seen before so I stood behind my dad to avoid her piercing gaze but she came and dragged me from behind him examining my body to make sure I was okay and hugged me so tight that I nearly lost my breathe "What are you doing with this man and where have you been all this while,you scared me Jasmine,what is all this and ....."my fear turned to anger at the questions she threw at me when I had to cut in"What do you mean by this man,is he not your husband and our father, you told us for years that our father died just because of what he did which you find it so hard to forgive and forget,you carry the pain everywhere you go and everything you do,that why you don't want aunt to do anything for us, judging everyone with what dad did and...."a resounding slap by my mom on my cheek shut my mouth that I thought I had become mute for a second then she turned to my father her index finger pointing to his frightened face at my mom's outburst "You see what you've caused,did you see what your coming to this house has done, you're full of evil and bad luck and my children will never be like you and I'll make sure you rot in jail"she grabbed her phone from the center table in the living room and was dailing the number to call the police,we pleaded with her to stop the call and my scared to death when suddenly Gillian appeared and hit the phone from her hand and it smashed on the carpet floor.We looked at the smashed phone on the floor like it was something strange we've never seen before then we raised our heads up slowly and she jumped on Gillian beating him like he was a criminal and before my dad and I could get hold of the situation Gillian already had a black eye and his face was swollen and this heightened my anger and I lashed at my mom forgetting the slap I received earlier because of my mouth "Mom if there's anyone you want to blame here it's me,I caused all this,I was the one who went in search for him all the way to Port Harcourt when I overheard you and uncle talking about him when we travelled to the village for Christmas then I made up my mind to find him and prove you wrong that he's not dead,I risked my life to find him and I found him a criminal,do you how that hurts,that my classmates talk about their dad like they were heroes to them and what do I have to say about my dad,that he's a criminal, it's sounds painful,he caused you so much pain,he abandoned us when we needed him the most but why don't we give him a chance to be better just as God has given us the chance to be alive today despite the hurtful things we do to him yet he forgives us ,why can't you just forgive him, he's sorry for what he did,he was young and didn't know his left from his right and he never wanted to come to Lagos but I had to persuade him and right now the police are in search of him,so please mom just forgive him and free yourself from whatever wall you've built around yourself and be free and let's be one again "they all looked at me with different expression that they took my word and they were so quite that it five minutes for my mom to break the silence but she couldn't say anything ,all she did was cry till there were no tears to shed while we sat quietly watching her then she cleared her throat and was about to say something when we heard a loud knock on the door and my dad nearly jumped out of his skin,it was a continuous knock with no one daring to open the door as we looked at each other with fear in our eyes waiting for the worse to happen.