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"Don't.... ever.... trust... him" Arthur tried telling her something while   breathing to death. 

"Who? who dad? " Rosela asked, furiously shaking him as she watched him die, closing his eyes gradually. 

*****

The evening breeze  blew and the sun gradually returned to its home in the east  after performing its job for the day.  Unlike every other day, there was light and Rosela was busy cracking her head, with papers filtering all over the floor of her room. Rosela tapped her pen continously on her fore-head, bitting her nails at the same time for something to come up. She was trying to solve her simultaneous mathematics assignment. 

Rosela found that particular topic hard for her since she wasn't that good with mathematics. 

She was deep in concentration when she felt a cold hand touching her from behind. She got startled at first but immediately, her memories struck, flashing her mind backwards. She could remember that same cold touch from the last time it happened.

She dropped her pen on the  table, where she was seated, gently, her body already filled up with scrubles and her heart was beating faster than it should. She turned around in fear to look at him, her instinct was correct on who it was.

 Her breath got stiff as her eyes almost popped out from their sockets. 

Rosela thought she had a mother who would listen to her troubles anytime in life but she was wrong as Dansanisa, her supposed mother, changed totally since the death of her father, Arthur. she got fooled and blinded by Amunsa's love or should she say, fake love. 

The death of Arthur Uwaki, Dansanisa's husband and a father to Rosela remains a mystery as no one knew the person behind his sudden death. They'd  gone out to the eatery and while they were still eating, he suddenly fell on the ground holding his chest with  blood rolling out of his mouth and he passed on before they could get him to the hospital.

Arthur died a mysterious death and was confirmed by the doctor that he had been poisoned. The case of his death went on for months and died down when no evidence was found to carry along. Before Arthur died, he tried telling Rosela something concerning the investment deal he made with the people he worked for, worth millions of naira which was supposed to yield in years time. 

He had never for once mention the exact business line he was into to his family till his death as he kept it a secret from them. 

Rosela on the other hand was indeed blessed with  beauty in that any man that set his eyes on her, would want to lay his hands on her. 

****

Rosela was scared as she didn't want what took place few days ago to repeat itself again. She got tense and furious screaming out for her mother in a shaky voice from her room and ran out really fast to the kitchen to meet her. 

"Mother! Mother!" Rosela screemed aloud as she ran out to the kitchen to meet her mother, Dansanisa Arthur. 

Dansanisa was a young beautiful widow who lost her husband few years after their marriage and immediately re-married to Amunsa Keane a year to her husband's funeral.

 Rosela was already fifteen year old and in secondary school. Rosela leaves under the torture of her step-father Amunsa, her mother's new found love for years. Rosela's family were not too rich or poor but her mom always tried her best to make sure there was food on their table everyday as she was only a high school teacher and her step-father, Amunsa, was just a lazy and a home-stayed Daddy. 

His only job was to sit at home, eat, sleep, wake up and start up his daily evil deeds. Dansanisa had two kids for Amunsa, Anuella and kwensa. 

Dansanisa loved Rosela so much and she was always ready to do anything to make her happy. Things started changing when Rosela complained everyday about her new found love, Amunsa and his disgusting attitude towards her.... 

"Why are you screaming my name so loud Rosela, what's the problem?" Dansanisa asked,  turning her face to the side as she chopped onions. She was cooking pepper sauce in the kitchen in readiness for dinner. 

"Daddy is trying to touch my breast". She reported with her two hands wrapping around her chest, covering her little breast. Rosela grew up calling Amunsa father since she lost her real father, Arthur  months ago. 

"Shut up! You this girl, why are you always trying to fill my mind with lies against your father before me, huh, why?" She said in anger towards Rosela as she used the knife she was using to point at her, shaking it to her face as Rosela blinks her eyes due to the water that was sprinkling out of the knife to her face. 

She wiped her face. "I'm not lying mother! why do you find it so difficult to believe me on matters that concerns dad? why?" She wailed and used her thumb to wipe off her tears. Rosela in the eye of many was seen little especially by the people that she knew and trusted but as little as she was, she was smart, strong and brave. 

Amunsa immediately came out in the middle of their conversation acting all cold and innocent to Dansanisa. "Come on darling, don't tell me that you are giving ears to this small girl. I was just scolding her to tidy up cloths in her room and boom! She started screaming and calls out to you as if I wanted to harm or do anything serious to her" he said. 

"Of course I don't. She's just a little girl and doesn't know a thing of what she is saying. Please, forgive her, sweetie, will you?" She said, slowly walking towards Amunsa, touching him gently and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. 

He smile and robbud both side of her cheek with two of his hands. "It's okay darling, I forgive her. It's obvious and well clear that Rosela doesn't like me, even right from the start. she hates me with passion for reasons I know nothing about". He said pretending to be nice. 

"Don't sound that way. she loves you as her father and I know it, she is just a little kid". Dansanisa said giving Rosela an awkward stare. 

"I understand darling, I will be inside. Please, hurry up with the food because I'm so damn hungry already" he said chuckling, swishing in his stomach in a joking manner. 

"Okay, I will, sweetie". They kissed using their forehead to rob at each other as Amunsa smiled, glaring at Rosela in a quick way and left the kitchen afterwards to the  sitting room. Dansanisa stood there, watching him leave, she was so in love with Amunsa. She scolded Rosela seriously after he left. 

"Look here you little brat, I have put up with this your stupid attitude for so long and I'm not going to take it anymore from you. Don't you ever try to come between me and my husband again. I still don't know why you are not getting along with him and that's definitely  your problem but I'm warning you, let this, I mean, today's drama not repeat itself again, do you understand me? She scolded, holding her ears, drawing it in a way she knew hurt her. 

Rosela sobbed and ran outside, away from the house for a while, holding her hurting ears. 

Feeling so tired and hungry, kwensa came out of the house. "mom, what's this noise I heard from inside? Ah men! was too tired to come out" he said and as young as he was, he knew some few slangs he learnt from watching movies. 

"It's nothing sweetheart, just a little misunderstanding with Rosela and daddy okay". She retorted stirring her sauce on the gas cooker. With one of her hands rubing his cheek. 

"And dad"? Kwensa kept asking eating out a slice of onions that was left in the plate. 

"He just went out, little boy, and stop asking all these questions and help me out with the dishes". She kept stirring her sauce. 

"Mom no!! I'm hungry already, is the food not ready?" He asked sitting on the kitchen chair.  

"Haha, hungry boy, its almost ready okay? just help me out with the dishes. By the way, were is your sister Anuella?" His mother asked wearing a wired face, wondering where she went knowing that she is cooking in the kitchen. 

"I don't know mom, maybe in her room doing her assignment". He said moving slowly near the sauce pot to steal out meat. 

Dansanisa glared at him and saw him trying to take out meats from the already heated sauce pot as she warned him "Don't you even think about it little boy". 

"Mom... just a tasting... please..." he said, stammering, showing half of his fingers to his mom on how little he want the meat to be. 

"No, no, not today. You know how much I warned you kids not to eat the things that is meant for cooking as it will in the end leave the pot of that particular food empty, alright". Both chuckled.

Dansanisa stood there remembering how she and her mother used to play back then in the kitchen and how her father died a tragic death. 

Her mother Rosie back then normally kept her far away from her pot each time she cooked to avoid her continually asking for meat or fish tasting as she hated that attitude. 

She remembered how Rosie, her mother, so hated it a lot each time anyone washed something like fish and cutting some part into their mouth. 

Rosie brought Dansanisa up in a good and fine way of home management when it come to the things around the kitchen. 

Rosie loved and cared for Dansanisa a lot since the death of her husband who got knocked down by a trailer just when he turned to give directions using his hands to gesture it for the other cars to drive pass since it's was their turn to go. He was a road safety police who stood in the middle of the road constructed container to give directions to cars in order to avoid too much accident on the road, jamming each other. 

Dansanisa also remembered that her father's body wasn't found to bury properly as it had been crushed too bad on the ground by the trailer. So bad that it was only his blood and bloody paste of flesh that was seen sprayed all over the floor with some broken bones all scattering on the floor. 

She also remembered that, her sweet caring mother of hers, had a heart attack because of that and died few days after the accident. 

She also recall how Arthur Uwaki came beautifully into her life, like an angel sent from the heavens to turn her tears and agony into laughter and great joy but she never understood his working line of business until the day he passed on.

"What a life so full of pains, sorrows and afflictions". she said to herself while dropping the pot of her sauce down from the gas. It was already done and ready to be consumed by the full-house , hungry birds.