Naadu woke up. If she looked surprised to see me dripping wet in her pond she didn’t say it. She got up slowly, holding the bench for support. She was huge. Her abdomen looked like two pillows had been tied in front of her and all I could think was, That is Pope’s real child. She looked tired. I remembered that the receptionist had said she hadn’t been feeling well. Truth was she didn’t look well. There were dark circles under her eyes.

“Let’s get you a towel,” she said like she woke up from her afternoon nap every afternoon to find her wicked stepdaughter dripping wet and sitting in her fish pond. I followed her to the house. She got me a big fluffy towel and a clean boubou. I dried myself, changed and joined her outside where she was pulling some dead leaves off a fern.

“I came to apologise for being nasty to you.”

She didn’t say anything so I kept talking.

I told her everything from the extra salt to the anonymous phone calls to the minced meat in her nursery. “And I came to ask you to please go back home. Pope and Nene miss you very much.

I won’t even be there anymore so you don’t have to worry about me. Nene’s talking now. He’s really excited about the baby. The three of you can be a proper family now. A real family.”

“Does your dad know you’re here?”

I shook my head and then I began crying. She held me. The same way Pope had held me that night when I cried on the beach. “Hush, hush,” she said stroking my wet hair but I couldn’t stop crying. I told her everything that had happened when she left. She led me to a bench and we sat down. “Did you know? That I was adopted?”

She nodded.

“But you didn’t say anything.”

She shrugged.

“My mot . . .” I sniffed and wiped my tears. “I don’t even know who my mother is anymore.”

Naadu remained silent.

“The woman who gave birth to me still doesn’t want me. She’s married and has two kids. She’s expecting another and she doesn’t want to have anything to do with me. I went to see her yesterday and all she kept saying was how she had told Pope and Asi that she didn’t want any contact with me and they’d broken that promise.” The tears were coming faster than I could clean them.

“She called me a ‘mistake’. She said I was a mistake.”

Naadu scooted over to where I sat and hugged me. “That’s not true. You know that’s not true. God made you specially for Asi and Pope.”

That made me cry even harder. Naadu didn’t say anything. When I felt better I pulled away and wiped my nose with the back of my hand.

“I’m sorry about your family.”

She nodded but I saw her bite her lower lip.

“Why didn’t you say anything if you knew? You could have put me in my place like Nyewayo did.”

“And what place would that be?” There was a twinkle in her eye and a smile was tugging the corner of her lip. “You’re Pope’s daughter. Legally. There’s nothing anyone can do about it. If they don’t like it, they can go and burn the sea.”

I sniffed and wiped my nose with the back of my hand. Why was she being so kind to me?

“Speaking of which, Pope’ll be going out of his mind with worry. You left home two days ago. You should call him.” She got up and went inside to the kitchen. I followed her in. She gave me her phone.

I shook my head. “I’m not ready.” “You have to. Tell him you’re with me.”

I shook my head. “Can I stay with you just for a while? While I think of what to do?”

“Sure. But you have to tell him so he stops worrying. That time you spent the night with Aseye, he was about to call the police when you were not home at eight. Your text message came just in time. He’ll be really worried.” She handed the phone over to me.

I pushed it away. I’d been so busy thinking about myself. I hadn’t even thought about anyone else’s feelings. Not Pope’s. Not even Nene’s. “You do it.”

“Stop being childish.”

When I made no move to take the phone from her, she hesitated, then she called him herself. She chewed her lower lip while she waited for Pope to pick up.

“Hi. Buerki’s with me. She wants you to know she’s fine. She wants to spend a few days with me while she decides what she wants to do.”

Silence.

“Yes. She told me.”

She turned to look at me.

“I think she’s handling it well. She came to apologise.”

More silence. She covered the mouthpiece with her hand. “He wants to speak to you.”

I shook my head.

“She says no.”

An even more prolonged silence. I could tell he was talking about me. Naadu kept sneaking glances my way.

“I’m fine.” She turned away from me and rubbed her abdomen. “Two weeks from now. The room is ready. I don’t need anything from you.”

A brief silence.

“I said I don’t need anything.”

An even briefer silence. “I’ll tell her. Bye.”

She turned to me. “He says to tell you he loves you.”

I nodded. My throat felt like it was swollen shut.

“You must be hungry. Let’s get you something to eat.” She led the way to the kitchen. I followed her even though I didn’t think I could get anything past the lump in my throat. Naadu opened the fridge. I was glad to see it was full of take-out containers. I hadn’t eaten properly in two days and though I couldn’t be choosy, Naadu’s cooking wasn’t what I was looking forward to. She took out a Tupperware container. I sat at the island and watched her. It struck me that if she had been in Ada with us, she wouldn’t have had to fill her fridge with take-out food. Pope would have been thrilled to cook special meals just for her and their baby.

“Oh oh,” she said staring at a puddle on the floor.