Hey y'all!! (Kindly pretend like I'm being consistent with my updates, plix.)

I'm back again with another banger!! ... sort of 😂.

Anyways, I've just been busy with a lot of stuff. All these sugar daddies are stressing meeee 😣.

*Cries in loaded sugar baby*

Sha just enjoy the chapter 😂🤲🏿.

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Baami just didn't know that, at that point, I simply did not give a fuck about what he could do.

❦︎

~[TRACY]~

I was beginning to grow impatient. He had been there for too long, looking too comfortable for my liking.

Really, how long would it take those sleeping pills to wear off?

Listening to his snores made me want to kick him in the shin, crack his neck and watch him bleed from his mouth. But I had decided to reserve the violence for when he would eventually prove stubborn.

The fact that I had to do this alone was exhausting enough. Those ones, my gang, they let me down.

They didn't understand. They didn't know Baami like I did. This man wouldn't say shit unless he had no other choice. That was why he was there with me in the basement, where nobody could hear his screams.

But I didn't expect Kathryn's pills to work this well. He had been asleep for six hours already. And even though he was tied to a metal chair, he looked comfortable, too comfortable.

So, I dumped the bowl of cold water on his head.

And it gave me some kind of sick joy, the way he choked, coughing out the drops of water trapped in his throat. And oh, how wide I smiled when he began to struggle with the ropes that were taming him to the chair.

The look on his face: disbelief, confusion, it made me grin even harder.

And when his eyes zeroed on me, smiling down at him like the sweet, little daughter I was supposed to be, anger joined the mix of emotions on his face.

"Tolani?" He questioned in an unsure tone, like he was trying to convince himself that he was having a bad dream. "Kini gbogbo rubbish yii?"

[What's all these rubbish?]

"Eku'role." I squatted slightly, a sign of respect for the wicked soul before me. "How are you doing this evening, Baami?"

[Good evening.]

"Tolani..." He let out. This time, it was a warning, a dare, challenging me to stand there another second and not untie him.

But this man didn't understand. He did not understand the desperation of a longing daughter. He didn't get it, the length at which yearning for your mother could drive you to.

Baami just didn't know that, at that point, I simply did not give a fuck about what he could do.

"Eight years, Baami." I settled the empty bowl on his thighs, looked straight in his eyes that still had that warning in them. "It's been eight years since I've seen Maami."

"Is that-"

"You're a businessman, this should be easy for you." I dared to intercept his speech. Then I made my offer. "Tell me where she is and I'll lose you up."

That man, he was staring at me like you would an insane person. And maybe a screw or two had gone loose in my head. But the deal was simple enough.

"Tell me her location and I'll let you free." I just had to repeat, because he was beginning to stare at me like I had just dropped from the roof.

"Tolani, are you okay at all?"

"I am fine, Baami! I am alright!" I flared my arms in the air and let them drop with a slap on my thighs. "You are the one that's not okay!"

At first, his eyes expanded, nothing but shock written all over his face. But then they reduced to slits, his eyes, they had gone slightly red. And for a second, just one second, my breath ceased out of fear.

"Tolani, get these things off me."

He didn't shout, he didn't bark that order. A neutral tone, that was what his voice carried, like he was simply asking for a glass of water.

But oh, his eyes, I saw everything in his eyes: the way he would strangle me once he got untied, how he'd watch me struggle for air and tighten his fingers around my neck.

I saw everything, felt it too. And I just had to coach myself to breathe, take in slow breaths.

As long as he was still tied to that chair, he could do absolutely nothing.

"You're a monster." I jabbed his chest with my index, right over his heart. "You're heartless, Baami." I grabbed his chin, made sure he met my gaze. "How are you so at peace with separating me from Maami for eight years!?"

His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed, and then he let out the most useless excuse ever known to mankind. "She's dangerous."

I chuckled. No, I actually laughed; one that had me clutching my stomach and gasping for air.

"You're asking all these questions at the wrongest time, Tolani." He went on, his voice still neutral. "You can never see your mother again. Never ever."

That made me pause. I held onto his knees for support to get back on my feet, and his eyes followed my face as I rose. That dangerous glare he had regarded me with was gone, replaced with... nothing. Baami was expressionless now.

"I don't mind forgetting you in this basement, Baami. I really don't."

"Omotolani..." This man actually breathed a short laugh, tsked as he shook his head. "Ma fi mi sere oo. I said get these things off me already."

[Don't play with me.]

"And all I've asked is to see Maami!" I pulled at my hair. Hard. It was either that or I would have snapped that man's neck.

"You cannot see her." He simply told me, even added a little shrug.

And I went insane.

Wild. Ballistic. Any word that describes a person thrashing around a dirty basement, wrecking everything in her way. From old TVs, to tool boxes, to piles of old books.

I kicked, flung, and trampled on anything. Just to channel my aggression away from Baami. And I just knew that somewhere deep down, I still feared that man to bits.

But why? Why was he doing this to me? Did I ask for too much? To see Maami, that was all I wanted.

And then my eyes caught it at the corner of the basement, Maami's wooden chest.

My head went quiet immediately. And even in the heat, it felt like a soft wind whirled around me, it reminded me of her aura. Calm, peaceful, welcoming.

Until something took over her and I didn't know her anymore.

I didn't even realize I had walked to the chest until I felt my fingers run over its shallow grooves. It no longer had her silver padlock, the one only she knew the combination password to.

And when I opened the chest, I felt new tears gather in my eyes again.

I didn't know if it was just my mind playing with me, or if it was actually there. But I caught a whiff of her scent: vanilla mixed with peach.

Calm, peaceful, welcoming.

For a blissful moment, it felt like she was actually there, cupping my cheeks and wiping my tears with her thumbs. But the the painful realization twisted my heart, that it was all just in my head.

I picked up a porcelain doll, the only one that had survived when she wrecked the shelf she used to display her collection on.

"They're just like me" she used to say to me. "Both strong and fragile. I like them."

I never understood what she meant. But little me would smile and tell her, "I like them too."

And then something caught my eyes. A necklace tangled in yarns. I picked it up by the pendant, an oval shaped one with vines intricately engraved into the metal. She always had it around her neck, never took it off.

But looking at it up close now, I realized it was actually a locket. It took a while to open it, given how rusted the edges were.

Warmth seeped into my chest as I looked at the photo inside. And for the first time in weeks I smiled, a real one, so wide my ashy lips almost ripped.

In the locket was a black and white picture of me on the day I was born. I knew because many times, she had carried me on her laps and showed me that same photo in the family photo album and told me, "this is little Tolani."

And then I'd laugh so hard and reply, "look at my little fingers."

I ripped the locket off the tiny chain, kept it away in the pocket of my sweats. And amidst reminiscing all those memories that seeing those items in the chest sparked-from her favourite beret, to her hairpins, and even her old eye shadow palettes-one question surfaced in my head.

Why were these things down here?

They used to be in different places around the house. Her porcelain dolls used to be displayed in the hallways, her makeup and hairpins were supposed to be in the room she shared with Baami.

But somehow all of them were stuffed in her chest and left to be forgotten at the corner of the basement. It dawned on me how over the years, little by little, whatever could remind one of Maami just disappeared.

I grasped what he was trying to do. Baami, he simply wanted to get rid of Maami's essence. Hide her memory. Forget her existence.

And he was such a fool for thinking he could do that. Because I was so damn sure that she was still in his heart as much as she was in mine. I saw it in the way he looked at me like I reminded him of her, how he had fallen for Kathryn that had similar mannerisms to Maami, how he still slanted his fila atop his head just the way she liked it.

He was trying so damn hard to fill that void she left. But he simply couldn't.

But he had it better, didn't he? He still got to see her. He wasn't the one that had not seen her face for eight freaking years.

And I just had to ask this man, "why are you doing this?" I trudged back to where he was tied up. "Why wouldn't you let me see Maami?"

"Because there's no way you can see her. The sooner you understand that, the better." He was still so nonchalant, absolutely expressionless and unremorseful. "Now, untie me."

"No." I croaked out, fought those stupid tears brimming in my eyes again.

Because he deserved to feel this pain I was feeling, this constant jab in my chest. He deserved to remain tied up and left to starve. He deserved whatever was going to come with me leaving him down here and never coming back for him.

He deserved everything bad and painful.

So, I left him there.

And again, as he screamed my name and barked useless orders to untie him, yelling all kinds of threats as I ascended the stairs, I felt some kind of sick joy.

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A/N

It is well 🙂. I no fit talk pass that one.

Little by little, we're approaching the climax of this book. So, the pressure is definitely getting werser 🙂💔.

The next chapter is going to be lighter sha, make una no go get cardiac arrest. It's in Victoria's POV. And there may or may not be a moment with a certain guy 😏 (if it's Jason in your mind, just cancel that thought 😗). Fidel >>>

You can argue with your phone screen 🙄.

Anyways, can y'all just try to guess where Tracy's mother is??? Just give it a shot 😂. Whoever gets it right wins a ticket to my husband's next concert.

Daz all I have to say for now. Remember to vote, comment and shareee!! We're pretty close to 5k, bestiesss 😩❤️.

Stay safe 💕
Love ya!