WHITE LIGHT WAS all Chinyere saw when she opened her eyes.

"Ugh," she groaned as she used her arm to block out as much light as she could from her eyes.

"Sorry," she heard a deep voice say before the lights were turned off.

Chinyere lowered her arm and she studied the room where she was.

With the beeping heart monitor next to her bed and the intravenous tubes connected to her arm, Chinyere concluded that she was in a hospital room.

"What am I doing here?" she asked no one in particular.

"You were shot and you've been down for two days now," the deep, manly voice said again and Chinyere looked at the person who spoke.

"Daddy!" She yelled and tried to jump off her bed but the pain that flowed through her left arm restricted her from doing so.

Her father sat beside her on the hospital bed and looked into her eyes before giving her a tight hug, one that was tight but not tight enough to suffocate her.

Happy tears pooled out of Chinyere's eyes, "I missed you so much. I love you."

Her father pulled away from the hug with a smile on his face, "I missed you too and I love you even more, that's why I'm going to tell you the truth."

Chinyere sighed and prepared herself for the verbal lesson that her father was about to give her.

"I consider your actions very stupid," her father said with a serious face. "To leave home without your parent's permission is one thing, but to leave home at night without your parent's permission is another thing. That was a very irresponsible action, Chinyere."

"I know," Chinyere sighed and looked down. "I'm sorry."

"Saying sorry won't reverse everything that happened," Adimchimpka said. "Do you know how worried everyone was? Do you know what it's like to lose someone you love? We weren't even sure if you were dead or alive until we received that phone call, telling us that you were in Ebonyi state?"

Chinyere kept her eyes down. She was most definitely embarassed and dissapointed in herself but her father was right; apologising would not reverse everything that had already happened.

"The good thing is that we've found you and I hope you've learned your lesson," Adimchimpka concluded with a smlie as he enveloped his daughter's hand into his.

Chinyere gave him a small smile, "I have most definitely learned my lesson. Even though I do wish that I learned it without having to go through all of this. How did you even find me?"

"Well, the night before you were found, the police officer working on your case received a phone call from a receptionist at a hotel," he said. "She said that her name was Jemima and that three kids were trying to book a hotel room, giving the excuse that they got lost in town. She said that their names were Tina, Chinyere and the other one was just a baby. I wanted to check it out but it was late at night and the police officers were tired from the day's work."

"What made you so tired?"

"We actually followed Amanda all the way from Abia state to Ebonyi state," he said with a yawn.

Chinyere's ears perked up at this, "You did what? Why?"

"After we received the the phone call about this 'Amanda'," Adimchimpka did air quotes as he said her name, "I went to see Mr. Alade, specifically his son. When both Mr. Alade and I heard that Amanda was present or, somehow, mentioned when both our daughters went missing, we decided to keep an eye on her. Mr. Alade's son knew where she lived so it wasn't hard to figure it out. One night, we saw her get into a car after another girl did and we followed the car, she surprisingly didn't notice the car that we were in, following her."

Chinyere furrowed her eyebrows, "Did you find out who the other girl was?"

"Her name was Rachel or Rita Eze... something of that sort."

"Rachel? Is she alright?" Chinyere asked.

"Listen first," Adimchimpka said with a sad face. "She and the Rachel girl led us to Amanda's brother's house. We stayed outside the gate and watched. Amanda was in an argument with her brother and Rachel never actually came out from the car. Her brother looked into the car and then took out his phone and called someone while Amanda was trying to grab his phone. A few minutes later, police arrive at the scene."

Chinyere's eyes became so large that they would have popped out of their sockets if she had not returned them back to their original size.

"Her own brother called the police on her?"

"Mhm," he hummed. "And that was when we decided to make our presence known. Amanda's brother turned out to be Daniel Oko, our chief's first born grandson. Mr. Amadi also knew him because of some incident several years ago."

"I know about the incident," Chinyere said. "Mr. Amadi had him arrested because of assault when he was fifteen."

"Like father, like son," Adimchimpka mumbled.

Chinyere heard what he said and she couldn't agree more.

"Is that why your phone was off when I called you?" Chinyere asked.

"My phone was dead," he scratched the back of his head with a silly smile on his face. "My daughter was missing and I didn't even think of charging my phone in case someone called and had information about her."

Chinyere giggled, "Anyway, what happened next."

"Amanda and her driver were taken into custody for questioning and Rachel was found unconcious in the car and admitted at this very hospital. We went to the hotel the next morning but you were already gone," he sighed. "Defeated, we went back to the police station and it was there that I charged my phone."

"May I please have some water," Chinyere asked.

Adimchimpka got up from the bed and walked to the table in the corner of the room.

On the table sat a water jug and two glass cups that were on a tray.

Adimchimpka took one of the cups and filled it with water before walking back to Chinyere and handing the cup to her.

"Thank you," Chinyere said and accepted the cup using her right hand.

Her left hand felt numb and she wouldn't dare use it to accept something from her father, either way.

"After a few hours, phones were being called every single second at the police station," he continued. "I turned on my phone and saw five missed calls. One from an unknown number, one from your mother and three from Florence. A few minutes before you called, we received a phone call from someone in town that a girl had been shot and they had captured the shooter. later on you called me and you know the rest. When we got to you, Mr. Oko had shot you twice in your left shoulder and he was about to shoot the third time but we overpowered him."

Chinyere now understood why her shoulder felt numb and painful whenever she moved it.

"What about Tina and Solomon and Rachel?" Chinyere asked.

"Tina hasn't woken up since she came out of surgery," Adimchimpka sighed. "She was shot in her back and the bullet grazed her spine. The doctors are sure she'll wake up but it's uncertain whether or not she'll walk again."

"Oh," Chinyere said and took a sip of her water. She didn't know what to say.

At least she's still alive, her conscience told her.

"But Solomon is doing perfectly fine," Adimchimpka said once he saw the frown on Chinyere's face. "Some woman handed him to the police when we got to the market. She said he belonged to Tina. The nurses are looking after him. Mr. Alade is still adapting to having a grandchild."

"At least he's alright," Chinyere smiled. "What of Rachel?"

"Uhm," Adimchimpka looked down. "Rachel was called home."

"Phew," Chinyere laughed. "With the way you look, one would think she died. I bet her parents were relieved when she went home."

Chinyere looked at her father but he still had his head down. She then realised what he meant.

"Chinyere, she's dead," her father confirmed her thoughts. "They used chloroform to make her unconscious but they overdosed on it and it was too much for her. She was dead even before we reached Ebonyi state and the doctors couldn't help her."

Chinyere was confused. She wanted to cry but no tears were coming out. This was definately a surprise to her.

"I know that this is sad news but we can't change what has happened," Adimchimpka said. "I, however, have a surprise for you."

Adimchimpka left the room and returned a few minutes later with the entire family, the Alades and a doctor, "Surprise!"

Chinyere couldn't wipe her smile off her face when she saw them.

Tunde had Solomon in his arms and Mr. Alade was standing behind him. Tina wasn't there.

Her mother, her father's other wives and all her siblings were there.

"I'll just check her stats and you guys can continue with your party," the young, male doctor smiled.

After checking her statistics, the doctor gave her some painkillers before leaving them to celebrate.

Chinyere was not happy about all she had gone through but she couldn't blame anyone but herself. She was extremely happy that she was now out of that house, though she would have to be in court in three months time.

To see her family and friends in front of her, celebrating and making jokes, pleased her and she wouldn't trade them for the world.