Caught in the Cracks

Caught in the Cracks

Her mother was a non-literate woman.
Her father was educated in an
ivy league school in the USA.
It was a mismatch and a
colossal disaster. Her mother had 
five children for her father but it
was obvious there was no love lost 
between the two of them. 
Her mother never seem to know how to
do anything to please her father.
Her father never seems to have 
anything but harsh words and 
criticisms for her mother. 
She wondered how they
met and how they seem to agree
to have so many children despite
the fact that they could barely
see eye to eye.
 
When she was ten years old,
her father married a second wife.
The second wife was beautiful, 
sophisticated, educated, and 
career-oriented. 
She was a banker.
Even she had to admit that
her father and the second wife were
much more suited to each other
than her father and her mother.
Her mother always seem lost in
the world they were being raised in.
One day she asked her mother to
tell her the love story between her
and her father before things went sour.
Her mother said "My father and
his father were friends. My father
was a rich cocoa farmer, his father
was a poor laborer in my father's
farm. He was very brilliant in school
but his father struggled to pay
his school fees. His father approached
my father for help to send him
through school. My father demanded 
that an agreement be made that once 
he graduates from school he would 
marry me. 
My father felt that was the
only way to protect my future.
 
Both parents agreed and my father
took up his education until he got 
a scholarship to study in the UK 
and the USA. 
He graduated with first-class
honors, got a job with a government 
agency and we got married two years 
later. 
It had nothing to do with
love, it was all about honoring the 
agreement his father made to mine
under oath.
She never had the nerves to
confirm the story from her father
but some of the dislike her father
had for her mother was evident
in the way he related with the
children too. She felt he was cold
and distant. She felt he could have
taught himself to love their mother
and flaunt her to the world instead
of treating her like a mistake and
his children like afterthoughts.
She had grown to hate him
by the time she was eighteen
She promised herself no man
would ever treat her the way
her father treated their mother.
 
By this time he had moved
out of the house completely and
only sent monthly stipends, school fees, etc. 
The children were free to come
to the office to see him but apart
from that, he treated their mother like
a nuisance. Her mother was not so 
innocent either. She knew her father
got her teachers to teach her how
to read and write and even speak
basic English but she resisted 
knowledge like it was a plague. She was
also aware of the scenes her mother 
caused at her father's office several
times for stupid reasons and the way
she treated the second wife to a
good beating at a public family function 
(The reason their father moved out) 
but her mother was a woman.
 
Women do stuff to men all the
time and men took it in
their stride. Isn't that what love
really is? Anyway she graduated
from the University and her father
offered her a job as his PA.
The job came with a car,
and a modest salary.
She had always wanted to make
her own money independent of him
so that she can stand up
to him and tell her a piece of
her mind as she had always
desired. She rejected the offer.
She got a job with a bank,
her father heard about it and
called the bank manager.
The job offer was withdrawn after
the call. Her father asked her
to see him.
She went
Her father said "I want to hand
over this business to you. If you
work as my PA, we will travel
together. You will know my business
associates and within four years,
the job will be yours.
She went home and told her
mother. Her mother told her to
take the job and remember that
her father always kept his promises.
"He came back and married me,
when he didn't have to, didn't he?"
said her mother.
She took the job reluctantly.
Her friends were working in banks,
govt parastatals, agencies, etc
and they all had fancy titles.
She hated telling people she was
a PA, she was too emotionally
invested in her parent's marital issues
to suddenly become reasonable.
 
After a year, she left for the
USA to do her masters.
She didn't tell anybody,
She saved up and made her
move quietly. She resigned via email.
She was finally free to live
far away from the tyrant and
make something of her life.
She was finally able to slap
the tyrant in the face and it
felt good. Her father employed her
stepbrother, the son of the second wife
as PA in her place. The boy
was 21 years old, and had barely 
graduated from the university. 
The boy worked with her father intimately
for three years.
Her father died at the age of 67
Her stepbrother took over their 
father's business empire
 
She was just rounding off her
studies when she was informed. 
She couldn't make it for the burial 
but she was there for the reading 
of the will.
Her father stated in his WILL that 
he acknowledged that he would never
have attained greatness without the 
sponsorship of his wife's father and
his plan was to hand over the entire 
business to his first wife's children
in order to ensure they never
want for anything but his first wife 
had three children. 
Two were encouraged
by their mother to drop out of s
School in defiance of him and
the one that graduated from school
left for America to study instead
of staying with him to learn the
intricacies of the business and taking 
it over at his demise. He said
the business was not to be
decimated but must be left to
grow in the care of the new CEO.
He stated that a certain amount
must be given to his first wife
and they must get a certain
percentage of the profit-sharing
annually.
That was it.
She wept bitterly after the will
was read. She had assumed she
would feel relief, dislike, hatred
Or malice but all she felt was regret.
Her mother told her there must be 
something they can do to reverse
the will. She called some lawyers
and then they began spiritual 
consultations
 
Of course, many pastors and prophets 
fleeced them and made empty promises.
They met with the Brother in
Jeans and T-shirt, he told them
to accept the verdict. He asked
her to talk to his stepbrother
about getting the role of a PA
in the same company so that
she can understudy him and
be of help in running the business.
She began to cry.
"How can I become a PA to
So and So, I am so so years
older than him. Do you think
he will even allow it, will I
let a rival into my own space so 
carelessly? She cried and complained
on and on, but that would be
the wise move especially if she
and her family does not want
to become mere spectators in
an empire their father created.
They prayed and she promised to
reach out to her stepbrother.
She did so later.
The next day, her father's lawyer
reached out to her and said
her father left instructions that
should she humble herself and
apply for a job in the company,
she should be given the position
of Deputy CEO in charge of an
arm of the business located in Abidjan
She took it!
 
PS: She has been working in
Abidjan for a year and the business
is thriving. 
Please don't be short-sighted.
Don't be so invested in your parent's 
marital and emotional challenges to 
the extent that it defines you.
Let the Holy Spirit heal and
lead you into His plan for
you daily
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