CHAPTER ONE
It's usually on a consistent ground that a woman needs to have good qualities e.g good character, they have to be well mannered and they are expected to be able to cook especially the ones who grew up with their mothers.
So Peace made sure that Amanda, her eleven years old daughter was always by her side whenever she was in the kitchen they were preparing dinner and Amanda was so excited, she loves the idea of cooking and was always with her mother whenever she was in the kitchen.
"Amanda, cut these onions, careful oh so you not cut yourself" Peace said with the usual warning.
" Ok mommy" Amanda said as she reached for a knife.
"Where is Mariam sef?" Peace asked
"She's doing her homework in the parlor" Amanda responded concentrating on the onions she was cutting
" That man spoilt that girl too much, even if I call her now she won't come (hisses), nonsense" Peace said stirring her pot that contained some meat, ugbore (locust beans), maggi, salt and grinded pepper. She was preparing egusi (melon) soup with akpu.
After a while the food was ready, so everyone sat down in the parlor waiting for Peace to serve the food. Christian Iyare the head of the family sat on the sofa with a small stoll that serve as a table in his front. The Iyare's are a typical Nigeria family they were situated at Ekpoma a community in Edo State, they live in a two room apartment with a toilet, bathroom, a living room(parlor) and kitchen so there were no dinning room, not to even mention a dinning table. Peace served the food while Amanda brought a bowl with water, this was for them to wash their hands, everybody said their prayers which was customary since they were Christian's their prayers were usually few words which was:
'God bless this food, as we eat may we be satisfied may the food digest properly, in Jesus name Amen'.
"Amanda have you done your homework?" Christian asked while eating
"No, I was helping mommy in the kitchen, I'll go and do it when I'm done eating" Amanda responded quickly. Amanda Joseph is a nine years old girl living with her mother, stepfather and her two step siblings.
Although not properly loved by her stepfather, Amanda still make sure to support her mother in every way possible.
"Daddy I need calculator, my uncle said I should not come to school without it". Mariam said.
Seeing the fact that Mariam had asked for a calculator Amanda also asked for one
"Daddy me too"
"Oooh how many times do I have to buy calculator for the both of you?" Christian said looking irritated
" Daddy you did not buy for me before, I was using Mariam's old one" Amanda said while soup dropped on her shirt staining her
"Okay I'll buy for you Mariam, another day I'll buy for Amanda" Christian said looking at the two little girls. Peace felt hurt due to the way Christian always favoured his children over her's, he has never once treated them with equality and he his always being partial.
Peace gave birth to Amanda due to wedlock and raised her with the support of her mother she was only nineteen then, Amanda was already seven years old when Peace first met Christian he was a single father with two kids, they met in a restaurant where Peace was working as a waitress he showed interest in her and he asked for her number and eventually they started dating, they never really got married but they decided to live together after a year of dating. Few months after they started living together Peace started noticing how discriminating Christian was towards Amanda, he would buy stuff for his kids without buying any for Amanda, he would say a few words to his kids when they did something wrong but would beat Amanda for every little wrong thing she did, he would pay Mariam and Godsent's school fee's and say he didn't have money for Amanda's and he would buy clothes and shoes for his kids during Christmas and New year and not buy for Amanda. Christian was also abusive towards Peace he would sometimes beat her for no good reason.
Being a sixteen years old Amanda now knows how to go about in this horrible family where women are abused and wrong for no good reason, she just left secondary school without completing the third term, since Christian suggest she should be learning a skill and not going to school, the only thing that makes her blood boil is the fact that Mariam is seventeen years old, she's still in secondary school three and she's not been made to leave school and learn a skill. Amanda's only prayer is that she's enrolled so she can write WASSCE and JAMB.
And as expected Amanda was not enrolled even after she pleaded and begged her stepfather.
After a year of learning how to bake and make up she started working a salary job as a waitress trying to save money to pay for the next year WAEC.