Lagos state, 1999

The Bensons lived in a rented three-bedroom apartment while living in Kano state. Ever since Tade had thought of settling back in Lagos with his family, he had judiciously saved up and bought a land in a new developing estate called The Flower Garden, located in Lekki Lagos.

He gradually built on it a five-bedroom house with two living rooms. Set apart from the main building was a smaller two-bedroom and a living-room apartment originally meant for live-in staff. By the time the family was forced to flee Kano, the house was completed and fully furnished.

'The Bensons are truly God sent to me' Julianna thought to herself as she traveled with the family to their home in Lagos. 'They chose to help me...a stranger, who had nothing to her name but a baby. A baby who is an additional mouth for them to feed.

What if they didn't stop to help me like the others who passed me by?... Who would blame them when we live in a world where criminals had set up fake pregnant women in distress to rob people who made the mistake of stopping to help.

God is indeed great! He sent help to me just when I needed it the most' She thought as she remembered the voice that told her to keep running towards the highway.

Julianna was truly grateful to God and the Bensons. The only thing she was worried about was being an introvert. She preferred her own company than to spend time with others and she was afraid her stay with the family would be awkward because of her.

Shade Benson on the other hand had a bubbly and lively personality. She didn't know how to be awkward with anybody. If she likes someone, she would make sure she becomes friends with the person by all means possible. She knew how to pull an introverted person like Julianna out of her shell, no matter how deep she had burrowed herself into it.

Since Shade liked Julianna very much, she already had a plan mapped out, a plan that would affect the whole of her family for the best, and Julianna was the perfect candidate for her plan.

She's just waiting for the right time to let everyone in on what her plan was, and she prayed they accept, especially Julianna. Tade and the boys already knew about the plan, they just don't know who her choice would be. But she knew they would accept whoever she suggested.

The two women hit it off immediately, they had been inseparable ever since they arrived in Lagos, thanks to Shade who was so friendly she made being friends with her easy for Julianna.

Shade wouldn't go anywhere without Julianna like they were siamese twins, and all the places they went to, the older woman was always the one with the baby strapped to her back.

They went shopping for clothes for Julianna and Abby and all the household items together. They searched for a suitable school for the boys...and do all other kinds of stuff together. They were so close that Tade started to mumble of neglect.

Soon it was three months. Time for Julianna to go check if her parents-in-law were back in the country. Knowing her mother-in-law, she couldn't just imagine how worried she would be right now. But whether there's now peace in Kano or not, Julianna never wanted to go back again.

She couldn't just imagine herself living in Kano again. The city had taken a lot from her...more than it had given her. The memories were still very fresh in her brain and she was not sure if she would ever forget them for the rest of her life.

Time would tell. She knew convincing her mother-in-law was not going to be easy, but she had no choice.

The religious and inter-tribal violence that forced them all out of Kano state had lasted for two days, and about thirty people were killed. The media reported that the violence that erupted was a reprisal attack instigated by the Hausas, following an assault by Yorubas on the Hausa community of Sagamu, Ogun state.

~~~

SOME DAYS LATER

"I don't understand why you insisted on going with her when she's not a baby. Who will take care of us while you are gone? Have you thought of that?" Tade grumbled to Shade.

He was lying on the bed inside Shade's room while he watched her pack her bag in readiness to follow Julianna back to Kano, to see her mother-in-law.

"Since you still need me to take care of you at thirty-five years old, why do you consider Julianna too old for me to care for?" Shade asked sarcastically, neither looking at him nor pausing from what she was doing.

"But I am your family. We are your family...not her"

"Leave my children out of it, they are old enough. You are the only baby in the family. The one that still needs to be weaned"

"Will you stop talking nonsense with that your bad mouth? Witch!" Tade laughingly said and overturned the bag that Shade had carefully packed on the floor "...oops my bad!" He said and smirked.

"OMOTADE BENSON!!! I'll show you the real witch in me. I'll beat you to death!" Shade shouted angrily and grabbed the local broom that was lying on the floor while Tade laughingly hopped around on the bed, dodging her attack.

"Don't you dare hit me with that broom! You know its a taboo to beat a man with a broom right?

"What nonsense taboo?"

They made so much noise that the whole household gathered at the entrance of Shade's room. When Julianna came out of the kitchen to find out what the ruckus was all about, she saw the boys peeking through the keyhole and laughing hysterically.

"What happened? Is everything okay...are they fighting?" Julianna asked with concern. It was natural for her to think the couples were fighting when she had witnessed a lot of that between her dad and stepmother.

She was lost for words when the boys looked at her like she was an alien.

"Fight!?" Mark asked with amusement

"More like play-fight. Aunty stops worrying. They are not fighting, they are just playing." Matthew said and laughed

"Yeah! They are too playful, see..." Josh said. He opened the door wide. They all saw Tade laughing and jumping on the bed while Shade was trying to beat him with the broom in her hand.

When the couple saw they had an audience, they stopped. They wouldn't have stopped though since Shade was determined to kill Tade. If not for Julianna that was watching mouth agape along with their laughing kids.

"She's always acting like a witch!"

"He called me a witch!"

Tade and Shade both said together in an embarrassing attempt to explain their childish behaviors to their guest. It was Julianna who felt more embarrassed, to witness this rare but happy moment between the two couples.

"Do you even know that I'm doing this for you?" Shade said after their audience had left. She was going around the room picking up things that were strewn everywhere, while Tade was back lying comfortably on the bed.

"For me? How?"

"Don't you find her beautiful?"

"By her, I assumed you meant Julianna right?" He asked while Shade nodded in affirmation.

"Well... I have never looked at her long enough to notice..."

"You liar!" Shade said laughingly. Even your son, Josh told me 'aunty is very beautiful.'

"That little jerk!" Tade laughed. "...but seriously, I have never noticed her in that context"

"Well, you better start because she's the one I want you to marry."

"She!?...but she's so young and..."

"Omotade she's twenty-three and with experience too. So no but(s), and(s) and whatnot(s), because the whole family already talked about this remember?

You are going to take a second wife and I'm the one to choose your bride... so just zip it and remember mommy always knows best"

"Really!? Mommy always knows best?... Like I'm one of your kids? Woman, do you even remember I'm older than you?"

"By just six months"

"I'm still older..."

"Then go and use the difference in our age to withdraw money from the bank," Julianna said and they both laughed.

"Does the boys know she's your choice?"

"Yep! They're happy about it. They were even more thrilled about the idea of having a little sister."