CHAPTER FOURTEEN – SAD REMINISCENCE

Riona’s jaws dropped as she listened to her dad speak. She could not believe what she was hearing.

All of these could definitely not be coming from him, she thought. Where was the love that he never

stopped professing for her mum?

When Riona got the news of the mum’s death, she had feared that a day like this would come when

her dad would forget about all the love that he shared with her mum. But then, her dad had acted so

well that she had to dismiss the thought as only a figment of her imagination.

She had seen how the home of a couple of her friends got torn apart immediately they lost their mum

and their dads soon got themselves a new wife and gradually transferred the love for them to the new

wife and the kids they had together.

She had sworn to herself that her dad was different and would not act like the dads of her friends. But

no, she was wrong all along as he seems to be exactly like the rest.

When she could not take it anymore, she burst into tears and ran up the staircase.

Wright could not understand what had triggered Riona’s reaction. He looked at her as she ran, and he

decided not to go after her. He believes had been soft on her for too long and it is about time that she is

left to face reality.

To Wright, Riona should be allowed to grow up and to understand that things would not always go her

way. Yes, he knows he owns it as a duty to make her happy, but it is high time she realized that others

around her deserve some level of happiness too.

……………………………………………………………

Riona ran and opened the door to her mum’s room and entered. She fell down on the bed and was

sobbing.

After a while, she sat up and looked at the door. She was wondering why her dad had not run right after

her as he had always done.

She got up and went to put on the light in the room. As soon as she did, she discovered a necklace of

her mum lying on the floor of the room. She bent and picked it and she remembered what led to the

necklace being on the floor.

………………………………………………………..

Riona was alone in her mum’s room on that Friday afternoon. She was holding her mum’s necklace

and standing in front of the dressing table. She tried on the necklace and then looked at herself at the

mirror in front of her. She saw that the necklace fitted her so perfectly and she was happy.

“Okay, when next I go out with mum, I am going to ask for this rare piece of jewelry” she said as she

admired herself in the mirror.

“And when will mum be discharged from the hospital? I just can’t wait to have her with me once again”

She lamented.

Riona had wondered why her mum was not back from the hospital yet. She had only gone to see her

on the second day of her being admitted into the hospital. Her dad assured her that there was no need

to keep visiting her mum as she would soon be discharged from the hospital and would then come

back home to her.

At first, Riona refused to listen to her dad’s excuse and had insisted on going to visit her in the hospital

regardless of how long she was going to stay. And to make her agree to him, Wright had further

explicitly assured her that her mum would remain on admission in the hospital for just one week and

that the doctor said that it was not safe for Riona to visit. And just so she could please her mum, Riona

had agreed to the arrangement.

She dismissed the thoughts on her mum for the meantime and she continued to look at herself in the

mirror and it was very obvious that she liked what she was seeing as she beamed as she took different

poses.

She could not explain it, but strangely, the necklace that she was already putting on dropped on the

floor and this sent a cold chill to her. But in order not to make any issue from this, she dismissed the

feelings and never attached any meaning to it.

She bent to pick up the necklace from the floor but her phone that was on the bed started to ring and

she left the necklace on the floor and went to get her phone.

She looked at her phone screen, the call was from her dad.

“Oh daddy” she said before she picked the call.

Contrary to her dad’s promise of her mum only staying in the hospital for a week, she had remained in

the hospital for ten days now. Wright had promised to take Riona to go see Evolette today and Riona

on her part had made up her mind that nothing would stop her from going there today.

Even though this was not the first day that Wright would be making such assurance to her, as he had

been doing that for the past three days, Riona was sure to make today different and ensure that he

kept his promise.

“Hello daddy”

There was no response on the other end of the receiver, so she continued to speak.

“Hello daddy, is that you daddy?” she asked.

Yet there was no response.

“Can you hear me daddy, hello” she said once again.

The call dropped. She looked at her phone and wondered why she was not hearing what her dad was

saying as she was sure she heard some sound from the other end.

She thought about what would have made her dad not say anything to her. Could it be as a result of

poor network, or was his phone faulty. However, since she was unable to ascertain what might have

been the cause for such, she resolved on putting the phone back on the bed while she patiently awaits

the arrival of her dad.

Riona had already missed her mum to a point that she could take it no longer. She believes that she

had been stretched to her limit and might explode if her dad tries to play games with her this time

around and she had already made this known to him when he was leaving this morning.

Riona remembered the necklace on the floor and decided to go and pick it up and place it back from

the box where she had taken it out from.

Again, just as she stooped to pick up the necklace from the floor so as to return it back to the box she owns © this.

had collected it from, she heard a knock at the door.

She was startled at first as she was not expecting anyone just yet. Actually, the only person that she

should be expecting right now was her dad and since he called her just a few minutes ago, there was

no way he would be home already.

So, she once again abandoned the necklace and went out to see who was at the door and what the

person’s mission was. Little did she know that she was willingly going to receive that news that would

tear her world apart and make everything not remain same any longer.

……………………………………………………

As soon as she opened the door, she saw that it was her dad that had knocked.

“Hey dad, you are here. I was replying to your call all along but it seems like you were not hearing me.

Was it the network? And why are you back this early, I was not expecting you this soon?” she

interrogated.

She was so excited that her dad was back as that would only mean one thing, which was that in a

couple of hours, she would be standing in front of her mum.

She noticed that her dad had not responded to all that she had said, so she decided to observe his

countenance to know if there was any problem.

She discovered that he was looking pale, she had never seen him this weak and sad before and she

wondered what might be the problem.

She decided to give way for him to enter into the house as he had been standing outside all along and

that was when she noticed that there were two other people with him, Maeve and Riley.

Riona was shocked at seeing the two right in front of door, with her dad. She wanted to enquire on the

reason for their visit, and why they were with her dad but since she was yet to uncover the mystery

behind her dad’s sudden terrible disposition, she decided to completely ignore them as they presence

was inconsequential to her at the moment.

Wright held Riona’s hand, and led her to go sit on the couch while he sat by her left and Maeve and

Riley sat by her right.

Wright stared at Riona “I am sorry I have to break this news to you Rio”.

Riona listened attentively to him. What had happened, and what news was he sorry to break? She was

completely loss. What direction was her dad taking this conversation to?

She was blank and could not think straight as all that was on her mind was to be taken to see her mum

as he had promised. Or was this one of his plots to stop him from taking her to see her mum? Riona

smiled within herself because she was already determined that whatever happens, she must go to see

her mum even if it entails going there all by herself.

“You have to be strong and accept this as it is” Wright said.

The whole thing was beginning to add up to Riona now. But she could not believe it. She listened and

prayed that it was not what she was thinking. Even the way Wright was speaking very slowly and

consciously, obviously trying to pick his words gave it all away. She could tell from his voice, he had

been crying and was trying so hard to hide it.

Was that why he could not say anything to her on the phone? She does not know how she was able to

do it, but she decided not to flare up, but to keep her emotions in check. Maybe she might be wrong

and had only been assuming.

And just as Riona was trying to battle her inner thoughts, Wright broke the news that would shatter her

and would always keep tormenting her for a very long time.

“I am sorry honey, but we lost her” he announced.

This was like a time bomb to Riona. At first, she could not absorb what he had just said. She watched

as tears flowed freely from her dad’s eyes. It took her about ten seconds to recount what had

transpired and make something out of his words.

She let out a loud scream and stood up from the couch. She was going to run back to her mum’s room

upstairs when Maeve’s hand grabbed hers. She attempted to free herself, but she was already too

weak and could not match Maeve's strength.

Riona hated Maeve for her guts. She had no right to restrict her movement or try to dictate how she

was allowed to mourn her mum, it was her mum that just died, and she should be in the best position to

know how to act.

When Riona saw that it was pointless trying to break free from Maeve, she surrendered and sat on the

floor.

She felt a hand on her shoulders, she turned and saw that it was Riley who was trying to console her.

But where the hell did these two emerge from? Riona thought. What gave them the impetus to walk

into their house and try to control how she should mourn her mum?

It was at this very moment that Riona decided that she was never going to forgive them for stopping

her to mourn her mum in the manner that she deemed fit.

………………………………………………………

Riona was sleeping on her mum’s bed as she. She had fallen asleep on it the previous night and had

not gone back to her room. She opened her eyes and look out of the windows. She noticed that it was

already morning and She could not believe that she had slept here for the night.

Slowly, she began to recollect the incident from the previous night, and she murmured.

“Maeve”