14 YEARS LATER

"We'd be going live in two minutes." The director, a dark short man, announced.

I had been to several press conferences, on numerous media rounds and even been invited as a guest for talk shows time after time, but I still got the adrenaline rush when the announcement was made.

"Are you ready Daniella?" Nancy, the TV presenter, asked me. We were both seated opposite each other in the studio with the media team before us. Nancy and I were acquaintances, so before now, we had been chatting about... well ladies stuff.

I feigned a confidence demeanor and wore a smile on my face. "This isn't my first time doing something like this. So yeah, I'm ready."

"That's the spirit!" She flashed me a radiant smile.

"Are you set Nancy?" The director asked.

"Wait," She took a glass of water from the table placed between us, gulped a little and set the glass down on the table. She sat upright with a ready demeanor. "Let's do this!"

"We're live in one, two, three, action!"

"Hello people! Welcome to Wattv brought to you by Wattpad. My name is Nancy Avala and it's always a pleasure to have you join me on the show. My guest for today is the ever delectable and talented writer, Daniella Nwadinso."

"Hey!" I smiled and waved to the camera.

"How are you doing today?" Nancy asked for the second time today. Well it was obviously for the sake of the show.

"I'm very well, thank you. And yourself?"

"I'm good, can't complain." She replied. "You're looking so gorgeous and I'm not even flattering you."

"Thank you. You're not looking bad yourself." Nancy was wearing a black jumpsuit under and a turquoise leather jacket.

"Aww," She covered her face sheepishly. "Thanks. I'm blushing."

"Remember we're on TV Nancy. You can just act like an adult for the sake of the show."

We both burst out laughing.

"Don't mind me. So tell us, what are you wearing and what's the inspiration behind the outfit?"

"Oh well as you can already see, I'm putting on a blue peplum dress and a silver stiletto heels. I really don't have any inspiration behind this outfit. I just love to go out looking simple yet classy. That's my style."

"And you sure are looking classy!"

"Thank you."

"Let's talk about your book Daniella. So Daniella has amassed a lot of reads and has been sold in so many countries all over the world with different language translations. How does that make you feel?"

"Okay so amongst all my published works, Daniella happens to be the only one closest to me because it's based on my reality-"

"Oh that explains why the book character's name is Daniella." Nancy mumbled in between my statement.

"- a phase of my life that I felt I needed to let the whole world know about. The interesting thing is, Daniella happens to be my first ever drafted novel and it was actually rejected by eight publishers before it was eventually accepted by Lexicon and that was the breakthrough for Daniella. Believe me when I say I didn't think the book was going to be this big, if you know what I mean. I'm still in awe and I must say, I feel really blessed and fulfilled with the success of the novel."

"Hmm, it's good to know you find fulfillment in what you do because that's most important."

"Yeah it sure is."

"But now I want to ask- I mean, with the reads and support of Daniella comes a lot of unanswered questions from your readers about the book-"

I snorted in a chuckle hearing that. It was something I expected before coming for the interview.

"-We'd all like to know, what happened to Peter and Daniella? Did their path ever cross?"

"Well like I said before, it's a story based on my reality and by implication, Daniella is me and Peter is a real person I had feelings for back then in secondary school and ever since he left for Dublin, we haven't even communicated, let alone cross path. I would love to see him again though. I've really missed him."

"Aww. I mean, what looked like a relationship that was going to end happily, ended in a- well not so good way. How did that affect you emotionally? 'cause it seemed like Daniella in the book was head over heels in love with Peter."

"Um, to be very honest, I felt really devastated and heartbroken. Though I had forgiven him, I couldn't easily erase the whole Peter situation from my mind for some time. Once in a while, I'd cry whenever I thought about him. He was the reason I promised myself never to be in a romantic relationship with any guy until I become an adult. It was that serious. But on the bright side, that whole experience thought me a lot of lessons, which is why I wrote the story to share with the world, so they can learn a thing or two from it. Most people, especially teenage girls, read romance novels and it's happily ever after fairytale ending and then expect the same for their young relationship. But the question is, is there anything like a happily ever after?"

There was brief pause. Nancy squinted her eyes a bit, like she was trying to get the sense in what I was saying.

"The answered is no. There's no such thing. As some point in any relationship, there would be sad moments, banters and friction amongst the two partners and that really isn't my definition of happily ever after. The point is, every relationship has its ups and downs. Even marriages from matured lovers have a lot of misunderstandings, not to talk of a relationship from two young teenagers, which is bound to be toxic and most often lead to a break up. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that teenage relationships can't lead to marriage. It can. But most times it never does. So instead of wasting your time trying to experiment on different boys and girls which of course is a distraction, I want all teens and young adults out there to focus on self discovery and personal development for now. Getting in a serious relationship can come after you've found a niche for yourself and you're successful." I said my last statements, facing the camera.

"Hmm, amazing stuff." Nancy commended. "So shifting away from Peter and Daniella, let's talk about other characters in your novel. What happened to Adam, Gbemi, Charles and Prudence? I mean, who would have ever thought Adam and Gbemi would ever betray Daniella like that. Talk of the real frenemies!"

"You can say that again. I was beyond shocked as well. Um, well I didn't get to see any of them again except Adam who attended the same university as I. Just for the record, I didn't continue my secondary education in Pacific college. I attended another school. Anyways, so Adam and I crossed paths in the university and he apologized and told me he regretted doing what he did to me because his conscience had been pricking him until the day we met again. He said they did that because they were jealous of the fact that they were single and I was the only one in a romantic relationship. He also said he had visited my house, but my cousins had told him that I had left for the village and so he gave up looking for me, but he couldn't get over the guilt. I couldn't help but pity him so I told him I had forgiven him and we became friends again in the University. But not close friends. In fact, I barely saw him 'cause he was in a different faculty. As for Gbemi, Adam told me she was expelled from the school with another girl because they were both caught in the school toilet doing the nasty."

"Wait, what?"

I shrugged, and she got the gist immediately.

"Wow!" Nancy rounded her lips in surprise.

"I was shocked also." I said, nodding my head.

"A lot has really happened."

"Yeah, but I didn't just feel the need to write all of those happenings because that isn't the point of my story."

"Oh I see. So any news about Prudence and Charles?"

"Based on what I was told, Prudence became less sassy probably because Peter, the one she had a crush on, and Daniella, her rival, were no longer in the school. For Charles, he dated another girl and continued with his life."

Nancy chuckled. "The way you said he continued with his life though. Anyways, are those their real names?"

"No. None of the character's name in the novel bears any semblance with the real people. I have to protect their image."

"I'd love to know Peter's real name though."

"Nice try Nancy, nice try." We both laughed.

"Anyways, there's no way we'd talk about Daniella and not talk about the family that maltreated her. I'm sure everyone would like to know, what happened to aunt Caro, Uncle Henry and the twins?"

I let out a heavy sigh. "The story isn't even pleasant."

"Whoa, tell us!"

"Okay, so I met Amanda, one of the twins, sometime ago and she told me everything that happened soon after I left the house. She said aunt Caro and uncle Henry had a serious argument because aunt Caro had found out her husband tried to sleep with me. The argument led to a separation between the both of them. It was very hard for Amanda and Annabelle because both of them were asked by their separated parents to choose who they wanted to stay with. After much contemplation, they eventually chose their mum and that made uncle Henry furious. He beat up all of them and left the house for them. Since then, they had not even seen him again and things became extremely hard for them as it was uncle Henry that used to fend for the whole family. As a result, they started to beg food and money from neighbors and friends, but when that wasn't really helping, aunt Caro sold out all her jewelry and expensive clothes to raise money to start up a hairdressing business. Amanda and Annabelle also started learning a vocational skill- I think Amanda mentioned tailoring- can't really remember, but that's how they were able to make ends meet for themselves. I hope they're okay now though."

"Karma is really not friendly." Nancy said.

"Oh well..." I shrugged.

"So did Daniella grandfather know about her whereabout?"

"Yeah, he had to know. Daniella took her new parents to her grandpa and told him everything she had been through in the city from day one. He was really disappointed in his daughter Caro, but much more in himself for not noticing everything all along. Well that's by the way. The good news is, papa embraced my new parents like they were family and they offered to take Papa to the city, but he declined. He likes the village a lot. City is just a whole lot of stress for him."

"He's still alive?" Nancy asked.

"Yeah, he is. He is a very strong and agile man. I'm glad he's still alive to see his baby princess grow into a successful queen. All I ever wanted was for both of my grandparents to eat the fruit of their labour for me, but sadly, my grandma died. I know wherever she is, she would be proud of me."

"Of course, she would be. I mean, you're happily married with two kids and you have an admirable career, so why wouldn't she be?"

I smiled.

"So with all the questions about your book Daniella being answered, do you have any final words for the people out there watching?"

"Yeah I do. I just wanna say that, it doesn't matter what you're going through right now. It's all just a phase and it'll pass. See this trying moments as a learning process to become a better person and not a bitter person. So don't even dare to give up on yourself. Trust God and accept His love for you and all will be fine eventually. This is all part of your success story."

"Wow, amazing stuff."

"Thank you."

"Thanks for being on the show today. Did you have fun?"

"Yes, I did."

"I'm glad you did. And I don't know if I've told you, but your book Daniella is amazing."

"Aw, thank you very much."

"You're welcome. So that's it on the show today." Nancy said, facing the camera. "I hope you had fun with me and my guest and I hope you were able to learn a thing or two from her, because I sure did. Don't forget to tune in same time, same station to watch interviews from your favourite celebrity. Until I see your pretty faces again, don't forget that I love you, but God loves you more. Bye!"

"Cut!"