1 Prologue

I can't believe these people knew my mum.

Where have they been all these years?

Why have my mum never said anything

about them or tried looking for them

while she was alive? All my life has

been lived on the streets.

We have always moved from one

place to another surviving on charity.

Most importantly,  why did my Mum tell

me tor un far I never look for her again?

Was it because we couldn't pay the

hospital bills? I just feel like I never

truly knew who my mum was.

These wealthy people are here for my

mum's funeral. They know my name but

I don't know them.

While I was sitting under a tree observing

at my mum's funeral while she was being

buried by people I don't know. A man

walked up to me and said, "Lota you

have to come with me."

I looked at him and asked, "Who are you

and what's going on here?"  Then he told

me he was a friend of my mum.

I had many questions but decided not

to be too curious. So I followed the

man who introduced himself as

barrister Fred.

We got his house and oh! My. I have

never entered a place like this in my life.

The place was oozing with opulence.

While I was still in my trance, a beautiful

 lady who looked like she came out of a

 fairytale came to welcome him.

She had flawless skin, she was tall, her

 complexion was chocolate, big bright

 beautiful eyes, and perfectly manicured

 nails. She gave me a look I couldn't

understand and asked barrister Fred

"who is she?" Then he said,  this is

Lota and she just lost her mum.

I was later shown a room and was told

that will be my room. I couldn't believe

 what I was seeing. I was trying not to

wake up if it was a dream. My room

looked beautiful with a bathroom inside.

Then the lady said, "I am Shade, if

you need anything, ring the bell by your

bed and someone will attend to you."

Then she turned around and left.

All through the night, I couldn't sleep.

I was excited and sad at the same time.

I never imagined I could live in a place

like this.

I thought of my mum and what she said

 while she was dying but I couldn't make

 sense of anything.

I thought about barrister Fred and why he

 was helping me. My life took a great turn

 within a day. Before I knew it, it was dusk

and I fell into a troubled sleep, I saw my

mum bound in chains in my dream and

she was shouting "Lota!! You have to run.

You need to get away it's not safe." She

was being dragged and beaten and there

was nothing I could do to help her. I felt

paralyzed. I tried running towards her but

I couldn't move and the man dragging her

looked scary, so all I could do was shed

tears.