Chapter eight
The next morning, Collins was woken up by Eugene, Aunt Agatha's youngest son. When he got to the living room, the whole family was gathered for morning devotion as usual. The strange part was that Collins for the first time, was invited. It was as if he had been accepted into the family at last. The devotion lasted for a few minutes after which the day's chores were dished out to the children, Collins included. While Junior was to handle the breakfast preparations, Felix, the second child was assigned to do the dishes and Collins was to clean out the kitchen with little Eugene assisting him.
When Aunt Agatha had her third child and it was yet a boy, she gave up looking for a female child and opted instead to bring her boys up as though they were females. At the age of eleven, Junior could handle most of the meals they ate in their house and could wash and clean as well. Felix also wasn't doing badly in that aspect as he too could wash, clean, and cook, although not as efficiently as his brother Junior. While they worked, Aunt Agatha who had developed a fever overnight nursed her health. Of course, as expected, Chris had long gone for work. He was such a workaholic that he hardly had time to be around his family, no wonder Aunt Agatha was the established authority in the house. The children welcomed the development with open hands and pointed out to Collins where they felt he needed help. Eugene was not much help as he soon ran off to play with some lost but newly discovered toys. Between pointing out mistakes to him, Felix and Junior soon found themselves cleaning along with Collins and they all agreed within themselves that it was more fun. Soon they were done and they got prepared to have breakfast. It was 11:06 a.m.
As soon as Collins received his meal in a surprisingly different plate, he went straight to his usual spot to eat but Aunt Agatha stopped him, asking him to eat at the table henceforth. Yeah, it was strange.
Little Collins didn't get over joining the family for devotion before he was assigned a chore and in the process of carrying it out, he had had real conversations with his cousins. All these were spinning in his head when he was asked to eat on the table not for once or for the time being but henceforth. Only two days ago, he had pleaded with Aunt Agatha to allow him to visit his mother, and Aunt Agatha had agreed almost immediately. She had made good her promise by taking him herself yesterday and it was a whole different story since they returned. Will it be wise to accept this new treatment? Will things not go back to how they were or become even worse? This only made little Collins scared to accept the positive change he was starting to experience.
At first, he was extremely careful so as not to offend Aunt Agatha or her children, and as time went by, he got used to being a part of the family, and for the first time, he felt a sense of belonging in a home and family other than his.
They never got to visit the hospital again as the news of his mother's death came a few weeks later. According to the staff, she was badly hit by a very sick patient who had expertly untied himself from the bounds to which he was held. By the time she was rushed to the ward where she could get treatment, it was already too late. Collins became an orphan and all his hopes of living with a parent were dashed. It was a dark day for the whole family as they all wept bitterly while they received mourners who came to offer them comfort. ln no time, the house was crawling with distant relatives, most of whom had bluntly refused to take Collins in, a few years back. They all lamented and stated how much of a virtuous woman the deceased had been.
The funeral was scheduled for a few weeks later and as hard as it may seem, life had to continue. Aunt Agatha retained custody of her only nephew, treating him as though he were her son and providing him motherly comfort from time to time. His cousins were not left out as they too treated him like one of them, like the siblings he never had. It was so till he got to secondary school and proceeded to the university. Although Aunt Agatha and her husband strongly supported him as they ensured he lacked nothing as a student, he too worked to reduce as much burden as possible from them. He never fully got over the trauma he faced as a child while relatives rejected him with some of them passing ill comments at him as he sometimes felt unworthy of receiving love and affection from people and he kept to himself most of the time, which made him prey to secondary school bullies. Little wonder he was surprised when the billionaire's daughter became fond of him.
Sugar, as her name implies is a sweet lady, with curves in the right proportions. She was as beautiful as the sun's radiance on a bright summer morning. Her aura speaks class and one glance at her will reveal just how much she is into wealth. Beneath all her beauty and curves, she was self-centered and spoilt, which is typical of billionaires' children especially as she is an only child. Compared to her financial status, Collins was nothing to write home about and this brought some friction at the beginning of their relationship. When Sugar noticed his withdrawal sometime later, she reassured him that his financial status didn't matter since she was already doing just fine. She would shower him with gifts and foot the bills whenever they went shopping. It was embarrassing sometimes, having the lady foot the bills while he looked on but Sugar didn't seem to care. He got so bothered that he suggested Sugar give him the bill in advance so that he would be the one to pay but Sugar did not agree, According to her all that matters is that she is comfortable with the arrangement and every other person can go to hell, Collins included.
It wasn't the first time she had gone all saucy on him and even though he vowed not to accept it as normal, he also decided to keep his cool promising himself to map a plan for himself. Meanwhile, he had started to invest with the money given to him by his girlfriend, without her knowledge. He suffered years of bullying throughout his secondary school and he wouldn't be tied to a woman who doesn't respect him a bit, he wouldn't be bullied by a twenty-four-year-old girl who is two years younger than he is.
It was a good thing he schooled very far from home, his cousins would have had a good laugh with his choice of girlfriend and Aunt Agatha would have seriously told him how wrong it was to be with someone he had no feelings for. Yes, his heart still belongs to Anne. Anne! how much he had missed her. How was she doing and how did she take his sudden change of attitude...?
The sound from his phone brought him back to reality. His guess was correct, it was Sugar.
"Meet me at our usual spot at the Royal restaurant and bar" came her voice and she hung up afterwards.
It has always been like that, Sugar being all bossy and Collins being the one receiving and following her orders since the first day and until now, he didn't mind at all. But now, he seemed to have been reminded of his worth. He got up and started to get dressed but he stopped halfway and called her back, telling her he was attending lectures and couldn't come around. She didn't hide her displeasure and suggested he came out anyway to which he declined saying they were about to have a test.
He hissed loudly after hanging up and he laid on his bed. It was a lecture-free day and if his "girlfriend" cared a little about his welfare and education, she would know. It felt good to defy her once after receiving series of embarrassments from her because she is too self-centered to think of anybody's feelings other than hers. Collins could tell from the cool music playing in the background that she was already at the restaurant and that made him feel really good.
"Serves her right", he said inwardly.