*** Olivia AMESSAN ***

Cynthia: Do you want me to come with you to help you shut down your sisters and their mother witch?

Me: No thank you, I'm fine. I'm getting there for now, but if I'm stuck, I'll call for help, honey.

Cynthia: Are you sure you don't want me to come show them my latest footwork? We Guéré eat the man oh so if they've made friends I'll eat them a side. In a way, you see no coco?

Me (laughing): Stay here first and if it gets hot there, I'll beep and you show up strong.

Cynthia: It works. I give your father a big kiss.

Maya: Me too.

Me: Understood. Well I’m going to more. I love you.

They: Us too.

I have to go with my family today to see my father. I go see him once or twice a week when my schedule allows. I am Olivia TOUALI from a family of 4 daughters of which I am the second. Alex is the oldest, me the second, Axelle the third and Anaïs the last. I don't have the same mother as them. My mother died when I was 15 and that's where my troubles began. I don't get along with my mother-in-law and her daughters. Only my father is precious to me in this family. My father was married to my mother who took a long time to give birth. After 5 years of childless marriage, my mother's in-laws imposed a wife on my father. Of course this one didn't want to but my mother being such a sweet woman, encouraged my father to accept because he didn't want him to alienate him for her. He gave in to his wife's wish but did not touch his new wife. It took my mother again to push him. This is how Alexandra my big sister was born. As soon as Alex was born, my mother also got pregnant, which made my father crazy with happiness. He even wanted to take another house in which he would live with my mother away from his second wife, to whom he was only customarily married. Throughout my childhood, I kept witnessing arguments here and there between my mother and her co-wife. My mother would do anything to ignore it, but she insisted. My mother-in-law Honorine refused to let me approach her three daughters who also thought they were the butt of the world. One day my mother started complaining of pain in her stomach and before she was even sent to the hospital, she had given up her soul. The scans didn't reveal anything but deep down we knew it was coming from the other. The years have started to get worse than the last. I was being mistreated in the absence of my father who was a great businessman, but I dared not tell him because his health was starting to deteriorate. And one day when I was 17, bam, he fell apart. He had a stroke and when he woke up he was paralyzed all over his body. Only his left arm was spared. He can speak but hardly with his mouth tilted to one side. His wife instead of looking after him took a maid to take care of him and she in return took over all of my father's possessions. She got her hands on everything since after mum died they were legally married and until today she is the one who manages my dad's fortune. Obviously she kept me away from fortune. I no longer received anything as money and I was still being mistreated. My father told me that I had to leave the house but I refused to leave him alone in the hands of this woman and her daughters. But one day I was forced to do so when my father begged me, crying. The sight of her tears broke my heart and that's how I left the house. He had managed with the help of his maid to have 200,000 FCFA in his safe which he gave me to deal with. When Honorine found out, she chased the girl away to get another one she chased again and so on, until for 3 years now she has kept Ahou my father's current servant. Events followed and I met the girls at college and we settled in together.

Today I am working. Even though I don't earn millions but with my independence neither my mother-in-law nor her daughters can mistreat me. All they do now is put me down all the time. Treat me with whatever they want but I don't care. My only priority when I go to this house is spending time with my dad. My prayer today is to succeed in order to get him out of this house and take proper care of him but I am happy because his servant does it well and it is moreover with her alone that I get along in this house. When I arrive I find them all except Axelle in the living room watching TV. I greet them quickly and take the direction of the stairs but Honorine, my mother-in-law, calls me back.

I do.

Honorine: Sit down. (I obey) So how's work going?

I'm alright.

Honorine: Ah, so you can take care of your father's care.

Me: I thought there was already the money for this? In addition, with his health insurance everything is taken care of.

Honorine: Yes, but that's not enough anymore. We also have loads. I must continue to pay for your little sister Anaïs’s lessons and Alex’s house.

Me: But Alex is working so she can take care of herself and you can use the money you take to pay for her apartment for daddy's care.

Alex: Because you were told I make millions.

Me: Last I heard you were a bitch to a daddy's boy so you earn twice as much as your pay just by spreading your legs.

Alex: No but are you sick? But at least I have a man who takes care of me. And where are you at? It's the clotting that's going to kill you here. I'm sure it's because you suck in bed that your son's father dumped you to go and marry your little sister. Kpaa the taste of that.