"Do you think I will ever accept you as my child? I will never accept you as long as there is air in my lungs. You are nothing but a bastard child. Leave my room and don't ever enter my room." Maggie, the legitimate wedded wife, screamed at Kunle.
Kunle, who was just 10 years old, wondered why he had gone to the woman whom he knew to be his mother to read him a story book. His brother doesn't get treated this way. "What have I done to my mother for her to hate me so much?" Kunle thought to himself as he made his way to his room with hot tears streaming down his cheek.
In the metropolis of Lagos, Kulle lived with his father and his family, burdened by a truth that had shaped his entire existence. Born as the illegitimate child of a prominent family, his mere presence was a constant reminder of his father's indiscretion, a burden that the main wife could never forgive.
As the rain played a restless drum on the roof of their mansion that evening, Maggie stood close to the window of her room as she watched her husband get down from the car and make his way into the mansion. "It was raining like this that day," she said to herself. She began to reminisce about the day Kunle came to their home. It was raining that night, and Maggie was excited to tell Emjay of her pregnancy. As Emjay made his way into the living room, Maggie walked towards him and gave him a hug with a deep, passionate kiss.
"Baby, I am pregnant!" She screamed at the top of her voice, but to her surprise, Emjay wasn't looking so happy. "Whao, that's good news," Emjay said as he made his way to the couch in the living room. "Maggie, come sit beside me. I have something I want to tell you. Maggie looks so worried because her husband has never spoken to her in that manner. She said down. Emjay took her hand and said to her, "My love, what you have said to me this night is the best news I have heard today, but I have sad news too." Maggie sat upright and was seriously looking at her husband's face. "Duke, come in!" Emjay shouted. Duke, who is Emjay's driver, is walking with a child in his hands. "My love, this is one of my mistakes. I am so sorry, and I seek your forgiveness. This child is mine, and you don't have to worry about the mother. I want you to raise him like yours."
The crack in the door brought Maggie back to reality. Emjay made his way into the room. Maggie walked towards him and then gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Where are Kunle and Daniel?" Emjay asked. "Kunle is in his room, and Daniel is on the bed sleeping," she said, facing another direction because she was avoiding her husband's reaction. "I have told you to let Daniel and Kunle sleep in the same room."
"I will never let my son sleep in the same room with a bastard; what if he kills my child?"
Emjay did not say anything else; he just made his way out of the room to eat.
Kunle's life was a relentless struggle for acceptance, a battle against the unforgiving walls of societal norms and familial prejudices. From the moment he was born, he had been denied the warmth of a mother's embrace, torn away from her arms at birth, and thrust into a world that viewed him as an unwelcome stain on the family's renowned reputation.
Image generated from POE Stablediffusion
Despite the challenges, Kunle's father was his beacon of hope. Every year, his father instilled in him the values of perseverance and unwavering determination, nurturing the dream of one day being accepted by the family that scorned him.
"You are my son, no matter what anyone says. You are blood; don't let anyone look down on you. Emjay will always tell his son Kunle because he knows Kunle's dream is to get accepted by the family.
On Kunle's seventeenth birthday, the day he was stepping into adulthood, he wanted to tell his father about all his plans, but fate had another plan for him. His father fell ill. He was kept inside the master bedroom, and Kunle only got to see him once a week.
As Kunle walked into the room again, he saw his father in pain. Emjay was looking so skinny, without much life in him. "Father, how are you doing? Please come back to me. I really need you," Kunle cried as he sat at the side of his father's sick bed. "Ku Kunle, my son," Emjay said as he tried to say something with his weak voice. He continued with a shaky voice, "Nnnn No mat m m matter what an an anyone says, YOU ARE STILL MY SON." And that was Emjay last word, Kunle ran to call the family doctor who later confirmed that Emjay had passed away.
After the family patriarch's burial, the vultures descended, their claws sharpened by greed and contempt. Without his father's protection, Kunle was cast out and banished from the only home he had ever known. The door that had been slightly ajar, offering a glimmer of hope, slammed shut with finality. Kunle was left to wander the streets, a lost soul in a world that had never truly welcomed him.
He was cast out without knowing the truth of his birth, with no family or friends on the other side of the world without his family's protection. He thought to himself, "Am I a fool for dreaming of becoming part of the main family?" He walked down the street, crying bitterly. He remembered his father's love and the words, "No matter what anyone says, you are my son."
At that moment, Kunle made a silent vow—a promise to himself that he would rise above the circumstances that had been thrust upon him. He would forge his destiny, carving out a life that defied the prejudices and injustices that had plagued his existence.
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