Her trial

She then turned to kiss him and he also responded kissing her back. The kiss went on until she began to descend backward into the bed, and he followed suit. He ran his fingers through her still-wet hair as he shifted

his lips to her neck kissing her passionately and ever so gently while opening the blanket from her now warm body.

Spending the night together. They both made love twice that night again before they slept, each lasting longer than the previous with her climäxing easily and very early in the morning before he walked her back home just before it was daybreak. And as she rightly said, Ojo was

still sleeping.

**Present Day** 

All of a sudden, the whistling sound of the kettle on the fire brought him out of his thoughts and he remembered he was hungry and wanted to warm up his meal. As he stood up from the couch to go into the kitchen, he realized he had a hard-on, a very hard one and his hands had been stroking it.

"Damn," he breathed out. Cynthia, one of the senior eastern officer's daughters who he was currently his new fling had brought the food for him. She had a key to his apartment and he was expecting her later when it became dark. He couldn't wait.

MAX

Even before Max became pregnant and moved to Bruges town to stay with her grandmother, she had always been Mama Cita's favorite grandchild. The duration of her pregnancy only strengthened the bond of love and friendship between them the more. They had done virtually everything together. Mama Citas was more than her grandmother, she was her father, mother, and friend.

Her immediate younger brother had snuck out of Cantina thrice to come to see him during the pregnancy. On his second visit, she had asked him to bring her clothes and books for her. She told him where she hid Cain's letters and cash he had been giving her. Money she had mostly saved up together with the ones he sent in his letters.

While Cain was in Cantina, he was fond of buying her clothes. Very beautiful dresses, tops, skirts, panties, and bras almost every week. But she couldn't display them in other not to raise eyebrows. She had kept the clothes hidden in a bag in her room, hoping to "launch" them in the university. But she always wore some of the undergarments. She was sad when John (her immediate brother) revealed their mom had searched her room and carried a particular bag, which turned out to be the one containing her new clothes.

But on his third visit, he brought everything she had asked for including the bag with the new clothes, saying he had entered her room to remove it from where she hid it. Unfortunately for him, Ojo had seen him and reported to their mom. The beatings he received from her got him hospitalized when he returned home, and that was the last time Max saw him before Mama Cita's funeral.

There was just no way she would forgive her parents because if they hadn't chased her out of the house or supported her throughout her pregnancy, Mama Citas would still be alive. Her parents killed Mama Citas she concluded.

It's now been three weeks since the birth and death of Anna and Mama Citas respectively. Max's grandparent's compound was a beehive of (funeral) activities. She was yet to fully come to terms with the fact that Mama Citas never saw her baby and was actually no more. She had been an emotional wreck and had to move in with the other older lady who filled in for Mama Citas. Her only consolation was the general words of the community, that Anna was Mama Citas reincarnated.

**Funeral**

She had yet to see her parents. Only John had shown up in the next compound where she stayed. That was when she saw the scars of her mom's treatment of him after he had explained why he never came to visit again. For the first time in her life, she hated her mom. To her, the only family she had now were John and Anna.

The following day was Saturday and Mama Citas was to be lowered. Leaving the baby behind, she had gone to the wake and lying in state when her dad confronted her calling her unprintable names to the embarrassment and disbelief of everyone present. She had kept her cool to his insults. She was really surprised her mom was watching quietly as the whole scene played out without saying a word to her or looking her in the eyes.

She went about as though her dad was non-existent whenever they came close together. This had infuriated him to a point where he couldn't bear it anymore he moved to hit her for snubbing him. A fatal mistake that move would have been because out of the blue, she pulled a knife out from her gown and charged at him aiming for his chest even before he reached her. But for the screams of the women who had been watching the drama (mostly all evening) between them, she would have driven the blade as far as it would go in his chest.

He quickly pulled back, tripping as he fell backward in the process. But for a young boy standing very close who rushed and seized her hand, she meant to follow him down.

Mr Williams 

To Mr. Williams, if at all he was considering ever forgiving Max and maybe supporting her, he completely changed his mind. To him, she killed his mother with her pregnancy. Because if she hadn't gotten pregnant out of wedlock for that boy, his mom wouldn't have slipped, hitting her head on the floor which ultimately led to her death in the night. But the truth remained the fact that he couldn't stand seeing that other man head that position he had worked so much for, while his daughter and her illegitimate child were next to him.

He was about to leave for work the following day when the same boy his mom had sent to summon him to the village the previous day showed up at his doorstep. Surprised as he started his Volkswagen beetle, he asked the boy what happened again and was shocked to his roots to hear his mom had passed away that night.

He quickly drove over to his office to notify his superiors before heading to the community with the boy in the passenger seat. As the boy explained how she died, his hatred for Max only increased. Getting to the community, he had screamed all over the place for Max but didn't see her or the baby. When told she was in the next compound, he made to go there and rip her into shreds. But on seeing him approach, his uncle (owner of the compound) had quickly gone inside his room only to exit with his Dane gun telling him he would put a hole through him if he took another step forward. Having fought in the Civil War and remembering stories of his uncle, he knew the old man wasn't threatening him but was only telling him what would happen.

Finally, today was his mother's wake, and the little brat and murderer had finally left the protection of her granduncle's compound back to his father's compound. But as if to annoy him the more, the girl had snubbed him all through until he made to hit her and she pulled out a knife.

After the boy held her back and stood up with people rushing towards them, he told her "From this moment, you stop being my child".

But to his greatest surprise, she had calmly replied "You stopped being my father the day you threw me out of your house" as she quietly walked away.

That was the moment it hit him. He had turned his once-loving daughter into a monster. How come he missed the part that he had gotten her mom pregnant (with her) out of wedlock? His family never denied him their support and had contributed to his marriage because he was just a broke young boy then. No wonder his uncle threatened to shoot him. This was the same man who paid and got him the apartment he and Ivy moved into when she returned to Cantina after the birth of Max with his salary from the Nigerian army after the Civil War.

She meant to kill him and yet he's talking about disowning her after he already threw her out about a year ago and hadn't cared about her since then despite pleas from almost everyone including the mom he claims to love so much. What moral rights was he thinking he had all the while?

Mrs. Williams 

For Mrs. Williams, her prayers are finally being answered. At least Mama Citas is no more and no one else would always look at Ojo with scorn the way she did or remind her husband he has a whore for a wife. That little witch and her bastard child are next up she rejoiced silently after her husband drove off with the messenger that morning.

The pregnancy aside, she never saw herself liking Max genuinely as a mom because whenever she saw the girl, she was always reminded of the fact that a boring encounter with William resulted in her, which ultimately led to her marrying him as against Peterson whom she truly loved. Then there was also the fact that Cain (who was finally letting her have it) had ended the relationship between them because she was just spiteful, to say the least.

Though she had now added much weight, the girl (Max) reminded her of how beautiful she was when she was younger, and that Cain preferred Max to her was a fact she couldn't live with that fact.

Having arrived at the village for Mama Cita's funeral with her husband, the first thing she noticed amongst almost all the women was the fact that she was being ostracized. Only her husband's uncle's wife (the lady nursing Max) had walked up to her washed her down and rained curses on her for her role in the whole incident of Max's pregnancy saga. In the end, the lady spat on the floor as she walked away after reminding her how she had become pregnant with Max. In clear terms, the lady had told her to return Ojo to his real dad.

After that incident, she finally came to terms with the fact that everyone including her husband knew Ojo wasn't his and that he had been saving face by avoiding a divorce with her. She couldn't find the courage to go and see Max or her grandchild.

Finally at the wake, she saw her daughter approaching from the other compound and for the first time since she gave birth to her, she felt a mother's compassion for her child. Something she never felt even the day Max was born. She watched and saw how over a year of neglect and life in the community had transformed her daughter from the once stunning beauty she was envious of, to something she could barely recognize. Was it the girls fault she was born? How come she never asked if the girl had a liking for sex just like her the mom. On a very good day, they could both pass for elder and younger sisters because of their striking resemblance.

Also was she actually expecting 26 years old Cain to stick with her while a girl as beautiful as Max and from his generation was available? She had watched as her husband rained abuses on the girl afraid to stop him because it's now obvious he all along knew Ojo wasn't his. She didn't want to interfere as she hoped and prayed he never brought the topic up.

Just when she was thinking about how to make her own peace move towards her daughter was she mortified when she watched her daughter pull out a knife and attempted to kill her husband, her own father. Then to have heard the girl saying she had disowned him the day he threw her out. Since it was both of them that threw her out, she knew she was included also. Right then she knew how worthless she was.