Chapter 4

After that brief but unpleasant meeting with her son-in-law, she went into the ward to meet her daughter.

Lami stayed in her daughter's ward till she and the baby could be discharged. Since it was a VIP ward, the bed was wide and she didn't mind sharing with her child and Debbie couldn't have been more happier since it had been awhile she and her mother had shared a bed. They had called her Mommy's girl for a reason.

The only one who had a problem with this arrangement was Richard, who was forced to sleep on the couch in the ward due to 'temporary arrangement' – as Debbie had gladly put it.

"So mommy," Debbie asked when they were finally settled home, "Why did you ask us to come down home to give birth to Gracie? Is there something wrong?"

At the question, Lami, who was behind the kitchen counter cooking a concoction for her daughter who had just given birth, turned and gave Debbie a million dollar smile. "I may have been a modern woman in my time but my mother taught me all that a woman of the soil should know."

Finishing up the soup, Lami walked up to Debbie and gave her the soup, "Drink up." She ordered and Debbie nodded before taking a gulp.

"Your daughter is a special one. I had seen it several times in my dreams." Lami took a seat and continued. "Remember how I had told you that you were pregnant with a girl before you even knew you were pregnant?"

Debbie nodded and said with a serious expression, "I was so shocked. The last time Richie and I got intimate was during my safe period and he wore protection."

Lami chuckled at her daughter's novice, "A flimsy nylon is no protection from the gods and isn't the dates of womanhood a gift from above?" Lami said mysteriously with a matching smile. "I'm sure that your stupid husband doubted my words when I told you. The same way he had doubted your daughter?"

"Ehem," a cough broke their conversation from a distance and they both turned to the end of the sitting room where in a single couch sat Richard looking at the mother and daughter duo in disbelief.

"I'm still here, you know?"

"I can't even unsee it, talk more of ignore it." Lami muttered in discontent. Debbie elbowed her mother who sat beside her on the sofa and signalled her to be nice her eyes and Lami rolled her eyes at the sight.

"I meant to say that: how can we ignore you? Not when your presence is so annoying that even your c*Ndola found your release to be an inconvenience. Luckily my daughter's genes saved my beautiful grand baby. " Debbie facepalmed at first and later elbowed her mother again when she lamented, "Ha! And I just happened to leave my medication back there."

"It's fine, Debbie. It's normal for people her age to be irritable and naturally weak." Richard said with malice dripping from his voice.

"Oh my!" Lami cried out with a face filled with shock and disbelief but soon it turned to disappointment. "I was just making a normal statement but I guess it's fine since you're my daughter's husband. It's alright for you to be stereotypical about your words to me and indirectly call me senile. It fine."

Richard watched Lami in awe and disbelief. He now saw why every film and play that his mother-in-law had played, directed, casted or written had turned out to be a super hit. This woman was really an Oscar deserving actress. Damn it all! He knew that Debbie won't sit still now that she had put it like that.

And sure enough, Deborah's face reddened with rage and panic as she saw her mother like that. "Richard! That wasn't nice what you said to mom. You know that she has a pet peeve and she's weak at the mention of old age." Debbie's voice was stern and Richie was shocked.

'Lami? Weak?!' Richard screamed within and suddenly he realized that this woman had been living a double life in front of her daughter and Debbie had no idea of how despicable and low this woman she called her mother could really be. The thought frightened him and he looked at Lami who smirked at him viciously while Debbie had her back to her. This woman was really insane!

"It fine Debbie." Lami tapped Debbie's hands that held hers in a bid to comfort her. "He didn't mean it. He doesn't know how we talk to each other so his reaction is understandable." Deborah looked at her mother helplessly then turned to look at Richard, who met her gaze, in disapproval.

Richard was once again reminded of Lami's threat in the hospital and he shuddered. Lami was reminding him of his place in Debbie's life. If she could give it to him, then she could equally take it back.

"It's fine. We have more things to worry about than what trash– I mean, than what he has to say about me." Richard's face darkened an it darkened even further when he saw the sad and helpless look on Debbie's face. "We have more important things to talk about than that."

"You mean your dreams about Gracie?" Richard asked, ignoring all previous beefs. It was his daughter they were talking about. Any beef they had before could wait.

Lami smiled in a sly manner, "I thought you weren't interested in what an old crony like me had to say."

"I may be sceptical but I'm not blind to reason, neither am I stupid. The elders are the ones who hear the voice of the gods best, aren't they?" Richard answered.

Now it was Lami's turn to smile helplessly. "Yes. Yes, they are."

"And besides," Richard continued, "it's about my daughter's future and I'm sure my child's grandmother would be the best person to seek an advice from if the need arises."

Lami looked at the man who her daughter chose and smiled. She really liked this boy but she was never going to tell him. Lami made a mental note to tell her daughter to give her diary to her husband after she passed on. He could find out after she was dead. She wouldn't have to care about her dignity by then.

Lami cleared her throat and smiled big before she said, "It's about your daughter. She is the child of the gods. The beloved of the stars and the queen of the cold." Lami's smile then turned to a smirk, "Isn't that why the night of her birth was colder than a snowy day and the night sky filled with criss cross strokes as though the stars would fall like rain?"

The fear, shock and confusion that filled their faces were apparent. The questions they had on their minds, written ever so clearly on their faces.

Soon, Gracie cried and Lami went to her room to take care of her grandchild, giving Deborah and Richard enough time to look at each other, gather their thoughts and question the fate of their lives and that of their daughter's after this. Whether it would be the same from now on or not.