Chinidu finished school. He got a decent job in a small company. When he started bringing home a little money, Mama Ephuna felt like she was finally breathing.
Then one day, Chinidu brought a woman home.
Vanessa.
Vanessa was beautiful. Yes. She walked like she had music under her feet. Her nails were always done. Her perfume filled the room before she even spoke.
Mama Ephuna tried her best to welcome her. She cooked jollof rice and fried chicken. She offered Vanessa the only plastic chair in the room and sat on the floor herself.
Vanessa looked around that one-room apartment like she was in a poor market.
“This is where you live?” Vanessa asked.
Chinidu laughed quickly. Too quickly.
“It’s temporary,” he said. “Just until we move.”
Mama Ephuna noticed the way Vanessa’s eyes narrowed.
That was the first sign.
After the wedding, things changed faster than Mama Ephuna could understand.
Chinidu moved into a better apartment with Vanessa.
At first, he still came to see his mother. He still called her Mama.
But Vanessa didn’t like it.
“She is too involved,” Vanessa would say when Mama called. “Why is she always calling you? Are you still a child?”
Soon, Chinidu started answering calls with anger.
“Mama, I’m busy.”
“Mama, I’ll call you back.”
“Mama, stop worrying me.”
Then the day came when Mama Ephuna’s landlord increased the rent again. Mama Ephuna had no money.
Her hand shook as she walked to Chinidu’s new place with her small nylon bag.
She told herself, “He is my son. He will help me.”
When she arrived, she saw a different world.
Clean tiles. A big TV. New curtains. A small dining table.
Vanessa opened the door, and the look Vanessa gave her was like someone smelling something bad.
“Mama, welcome,” Mama Ephuna said politely, forcing a smile.
Vanessa did not answer. She turned and walked inside like Mama Yuna was air.
Mama Ephuna stepped in slowly.
Chinidu came out from the room and froze when he saw her.
“Mama?” he asked, his voice low. “What are you doing here?”
Mama Yuna swallowed.
“My son, I came because the rent… the landlord…”
Before she could finish, Vanessa’s voice cut through the room.
“She came again,” Vanessa said loudly. “Always coming with problems.”
Mama Ephuna’s cheeks burned.
Chinidu looked around as if the walls could hear them.
“Not here,” he hissed. “Not in my house.”
Mama Ephuna’s eyes widened.
“My son, I have nowhere else—”
Vanessa stepped closer, her smile sweet but mean.
“If you have nowhere else, go back to where you came from,” she said. “Chinidu has a life now.”
Mama felt her heart shake, but she still tried to stay calm.
“Vanessa, I am his mother.”
Vanessa laughed.
“And I am his wife,” she said. “Wife is the new family.”
Chinidu stood there silent.
And in that silence, Mama Ephuna felt something terrible.
Her son was choosing.
That night, Vanessa whispered into Chinidu’s ear. Mama Yuna did not know the full words, but she saw the result.
The next evening, Chinidu marched her toward the door, out into the view of neighbors so everyone would see.
And then it happened.
The kick.
The fall.
The shame.
Back on the street, after Mama Yuna collapsed, people rushed to her.
A neighbor poured water on her face.
“Call a taxi!”
“Call an ambulance!”
“She is breathing!”
Someone lifted her head gently. Another person fanned her.
Far away, the gate of Chinidu’s compound stayed closed.
No one came out.
No one checked.
And just as the crowd panicked, a black car slowed down beside them. The window rolled down.
A man’s voice, calm but urgent, asked, “What happened to her?”
The crowd turned.
The man stepped out.
He was dressed simply, but his wristwatch looked expensive. His eyes were sharp, like someone who notices everything.
He looked at Mama Ephuna on the ground. Then he looked at the open Bible in the dust.
Then he said something that made the crowd quiet.
“Lift her carefully,” he ordered. “Put her in my car now.”
And as they carried Mama Yuna toward the black car, her fingers suddenly moved.
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