The past few days have left me groping for words with which to express my feelings.
I've seen things I never thought I'd see in my entire life even in the afterlife (if there's something like that).
When mom was discharged from the hospital, the doctors said that she may have to use the wheelchair all her life and her face and speech would never go back to normal.
As a sadly as it sounded, I understood perfectly because I mean she refused the surgery that would have corrected a lot of things.

Today, after work, I went as usual to check on mom and I got the shock of my life. When she looked up from her Bible, I noticed something spectacular.

"What in the world?!" I dropped my mug of coffee and it shattered into splinters on the floor, spilling the hot liquid all over the floor in front of my legs. Thank goodness I was wearing my fluffy rabbit slippers, if not my toes would have been scalded.

At the sudden sound of my mug crashing, my mom jerked violently in her position on the bed, pushed aside her Bible frantically and tried to pull herself forward and come to my aid in order to make sure I wasn't hurt.

"What are you doing Maya?" She was at the edge of the bed now, about to get off.

I wasn't about to let her stand up without a wheel chair because that could lead to so much damage so I beat her to it and stopped her before she made any drastic moves.

"No don't, you're not with your wheelchair!" I insisted, gripping her shoulders and searching her face, the tears welling up in my eyes.

"But what was that for, why did you drop your mug? Don't you know you could have hurt yourself?" She scolded.

"I'm sorry mom." I sobbed.

"But what is it honey? You're acting strange." She cupped my cheek in her hands.

"Y...your face mom. It's, it's....."

"Calm down honey. I can't understand you when you're crying like this." Her eyes held deep concern and I'm sure she must have thought I was going crazy.
I fought to calm myself and regularized my breathing enough to talk to her.
After a few seconds, may be a minute, I was finally calm enough to speak.

"Your face mom, it's normal now." I sniffed.
"A...and your voice....it's no more husky or broken. It's just…normal now." Her eyes widened in realization and she touched her face and her neck and looked back at me, smiling in surprise.

"It's…it's true." She said, and I nodded, smiling and sniffing. "Can you get me a mirror?"

"Okay, I will." I stood up and made my way to the bathroom door. It didn't take me long to find one and I hurriedly returned and handed it over to her. She took it and held it up to her face. Her eyes widened even more as she touched every part of the left side of her face one after the other, laughing each time. I just stood there with tears cascading down my eyes as I watched her admire her face.

"What did you do? How did it happen?" I prodded her with questions.

"I don't know Maya, but what I do know is that God has answered the prayer I have had since I got discharged." She laughed and I shook my head.

"I don't know what agreement you and your God had but you are going with me for a checkup tomorrow. We need to find out what happened." I assured her with a pointed look.

"Okay, if you'll accept that God works miracles after that." She laughed.

"Maybe, just maybe." I gave her a watery smile and got up.
"Stella is on her way. She was delayed at the supermarket."

"Okay, no problem but are you going somewhere?" I halted in my tracks and my heart skipped a beat before I turned on my heels to face her.

"What made you think so?" I put on a straight face so she wouldn't suspect I was hiding anything.

"Well, you're kind of in a hurry and since Stella isn't back yet, I wondered why you are so quick to leave."

"Well... I..."

"You are going somewhere." She smirked and I rolled my eyes. "Where if I may ask?"

"You may not." I retorted.

"Okay, I won't push it." She threw up her hands in surrender and I shook my head.

"Good, now I only have a few minutes to get ready so I'll be in my room. Ring your bell if you need me but I doubt it because Stella should be here anytime now." I leaned down to peck her forehead before exiting the room.

So, right now, I'm in my room, brushing my teeth and about to take a shower.
I don't even know what to wear because, it's been really long since I attended a social event, but I'm sure I'll find something.

A few years back, when Kinder hospital began to rise through the ranks and the cash started rolling in, I got really excited.
I mean, I had never really had any money before.
I grew up not having much, so it was all new to me. I began to party a lot with Tomi (that was before she became a Christian).
It helped me take my mind off a lot of things. I also shopped a lot, things I needed and things I didn't need.
That was when I got us this big house in one of the most affluent neighborhoods in New York.
Mom was really uncomfortable with all that was going on at that time and she tried to warn me but I turned her a deaf ear.
I almost went into debt and I almost got sacked from the hospital because they were fed up with my behavior. I would show up at work late and tired because of partying all night.
Then suddenly, it was like I had a change of heart; I got bored of it all and just stopped.
I stopped the partying, the extravagant spending, all of it and just focused on work.
That was basically the only thing that gave me the least bit satisfaction and fulfilment.
So, most of the dresses I have now, I got them then because now I hardly go shopping; I'm just too busy.

I pull open the doors to my walk-in closet and walk in. I mean, that's what you're supposed to do; walk in right?
Since most of my outfits are work related, at the first glance, I don't see any social wears. The only social wears I can see are my T-shirts and ripped jeans which aren't exactly social wears, they're more like casual.
It seems I'll have to look a little harder because it's been quite a while since I went for something like this. It's been more like work, eat, sleep or rather have nightmares and lose sleep.

I leaf through the first row of clothes and they're all suits of different colors and shapes, but suits nonetheless until my eyes stop in the middle of a pair of formal pants and a black suit jacket. In between those two, further behind, on the second row, I catch sight of a black long dress. I reach in and pull it out. It's a black middle length strap dress in suede material. Middle length I mean, it's past the knees but not reaching the ankles. I know recently, suede has been really out of fashion but this one looks really good.
The material comes out in a very modern and classy kind of way.

"This looks nice." I walk over to the full length mirror and hold it in front of me to observe it further. I think it's good.

"I'm gonna try it on." I say before shutting the doors of my closet. I know nobody's gonna barge in but I still close it. I guess it's more of a habit because in my earlier years, mom used to barge in on me a lot so I developed the habit of closing my doors whenever I'm inside.
It's obvious the habit has followed me till now even though mom doesn't barge in on me anymore.
I mean even if she wanted to she can't really because this house is too big and it'd be too tiring to go around barging in on people.

I've put on the dress and I must say, it looks gorgeous.
It has thin spaghetti straps and a cute v-neck line that doesn't go down too much because I've never been too comfortable showing off cleavage, even in my wild days.

The back is just straight and simple and it hugs my figure up to my hips then falls straight down about six inches above my ankles.
I love it; it gives me a classy but simple look and even though I don't remember when exactly I bought it, I understand why I did because it's just so me. I must have gotten this for one of the dinner parties Kinder hospital organized some time ago since this is so not a club dress.

I picked out a pair of black leather strap heels to go with the dress and a black clutch purse that has gold and white colored pearls decorating the front.

With my heels and purse in hand, I leave my closet and head for my dressing table.
I lift a lock of my hair and wonder if I should curl or straighten it.
I usually straighten it for work but I don't know if I should still do that or go different.

After a few seconds of debating, I settle on curling it because straightening it could make it appear too simple and my dress is already simple.
It'd be better to do something more interesting with it… at least make it wavy.
I plug in my curler and wait until it gets hot enough before pulling it through my hair a few times giving producing some cute waves that cascade down my upper back and shoulder.

I pull open my vanity and resolve to just go light, partially because I only have about thirty minutes till Brian shows up and even if I have the time, I'm not such an expert at make up.
Tomi is and since she's not here I'll just have to do it myself.

I search for my foundation spray and apply a little on my face just to even out my skin color a bit because there are a few blotches here and there.
I then use the foundation brush to spread the creamy goo evenly round my face.
I take out my sparkly black eye-shadow and dab a little unto each eyelid, then I apply eyeliner and use my mascara to enhance my eyelashes.
Lastly, I put on some finishing powder and nude lipstick.

I search in my jewelry box for accessories and settle on a pair of silver teardrop earrings with gold studs and a silver colored metal bracelet with diamond like studs running all around it. It was a gift from mom on my last birthday.
I grab my purse and strap on my heels before going downstairs.

I decide to check on mom before heading to the kitchen to have some water like I originally intended.
I push open the door and peek in. This time, Stella is with her and they seem to be engrossed in whatever it is they're talking about.
They're really close, my mom and Stella, maybe because they get to spend quite a lot of time together and they're both Christians.
The door creaks as I open it and their attention is diverted immediately to me.

"Honey, you look stunning." My mom exclaims once I enter and she gets a better view of me. Stella just smiles and nods obviously in agreement with my mom.

"It's him right?" My mom smiles mischievously and I roll my eyes.

"Okay, yeah it's him. His company has a dinner party set for tonight and he asked me to come with him."

"Okay, have a nice time." She chirps.

"You too." I laugh softly and shake my head and head for the kitchen. Before I'm done with my glass, I spot Brian's black Mercedes pull up slowly in fron't of the gates.
I look up at the clock and it says 8:21pm.
About a minute later, the doorbell rings and I take that as my cue to leave. From mom's room, I hear Stella unlocking the door obviously to get the door so instead I shout.

"I'll get it!!"

"Okay!!" Her voice sounds muffled because it's coming from behind a door. I walk over to the double doors and unlock it to Brian.

There is a smile on his face as I open the doors but it immediately vanishes when his eyes land on me.
He just stands there blinking continuously as his mouth falls open and I fight the urge to giggle.
I'm really surprised to have this effect on him.

"Hi." I smile and that seemes to jerk him back to reality. He looks really embarrassed I had just caught him staring.

"Oh I...I'm sorry, forgive me but y...you are just looking really beautiful." He stutters and smiles sheepishly.

"I forgive you." I joke and that causes him to laugh softly, the sound of his deep baritone making my heart skip a beat.
I try to turn away quickly so that he wouldn't notice the blush that is already creeping up my cheeks. "Thank you. You don't look so bad yourself." I return his compliment and truly he isn't looking anywhere near bad.
In fact, you can say he is looking dashing.
He is dressed in a sleek black tux, his bowtie neatly positioned under his crisp white collar.
His black curly hair is straightened out and styled backwards, his twinkling green eyes completing the look.
In honesty, he looks like a greek god in all his glory.
At my comment, he twirls dramatically, showing off the back of his glossy black suit and dips to a low bow in mimic of the ancient French lords and I just giggle.

I think I've been giggling a lot lately, yeah.

"Thank you mademoiselle."

"Ooh, manifique monsieur." I say in a high pitched very feminine voice joining in on the act.

"On y va cherie." He stretches out his arm for me to take while pushing out his chest in a very comical way and spreading his two feet in opposite directions while the heels touch just like a typical French man.

"Oui monsieur." I respond in French and he leads me to his car before we both give up the act and double over with laughter.

"Oh my, I didn't even know what I was saying." I say in between bursts of laughter.

"I knew a little of mine except for the on y va part, I didn't have a clue." He chuckles and I just shake my head still laughing as I slide into the passenger seat while he holds the door open for me.
Once I am seated comfortably, he walks over to his side and gets in.
He pushes the ignition button and the car starts up.

With that, we roll out of the compound, through the gates and into the night.

Hey guys, whoops, it's another chapter and I have to say, I really like this one.
I know you haven't heard much from me or even anything from me in the last few chapters but no worries, I'm here now.
The next chapter is going to have some juice..... drum roll please, hahaha.
Yes, the next chapter is going to be quite interesting and you'll most likely find out what happened to Maya's dad.
I deserve an applause right? 🤗. I'll take your applauds and drum rolls in the comment section don't worry.
Also there is something I wanted to make clear; the picture above is Maya's outfit but there is a little problem though.
I couldn't get the perfect dress as I pictured it in my head while I searched for outfits on the Internet. I could only get the next best one and that's what I uploaded.
The cream colored dress has the v- neckline I described in the chapter but it wasn't the right color and the right length, it was too long, that's why I hid the lower half.
The other dress on the other hand is the right color but not with the right neckline or length too, it was also too long but I decided to leave it untouched because it comes very close to the idea I had in mind. That was why I just uploaded the both of them.

Enough with all the things I didn't get right, the shoes and purse were perfect. I got the shoes from Instagram @just.fashion.4all. You can check out their Instagram page for more beautiful shoes and I think dresses too.
I got the purse from the Internet on indiamart.com.
So there you have it guys, I'll have to go now. See you in the next chapter, bye.

Chinwe_epistle ❤