Last updated on October 17th, 2025 at 10:27 am
I am better and lighter than I’ve ever been. You don’t know what you’re missing sometimes until you get it. After speaking to Constance and my parents, if you call that speaking, I’ve had better nights and more clarity. For the first time in a long time, I can say that I’m in a good place mentally. With this renewed feeling, I am equipped to take on my life and make something of it. My priority is to scale my business, settle in and have deeper social connections.
I am settling into the year and opening up to friendships within the city, just trying to really soak it all in when Hassan calls me to tell me that my parents are on their way to my place.
“Coming? Where? How?”
“Just didn’t want them to show up without you knowing at all.” He answers.
“Wait, how- how do you know this?”
“We just turned into your street. See you, bro.”
“Hassan!” I call and notice that he has hung up.
—
Today’s Valentine’s Day, exactly a week since my parents came to my place. Apparently, they had called Hassan to ask for my address, to which he refused. It took them explaining everything to him before he could agree. He felt responsible and decided to also come with them. They flew to Calabar and took a taxi while Hassan drove from PortHarcourt and led them to my house.
A few minutes after the call with Hassan, I heard a knock on my door and it was my parents. They’ve never visited me before. Of course, more than once they had suggested coming to my house, but it was easy for me to find an excuse for it not to happen. Now they’re here, and Hassan appeared behind them, looking remorseful. The look on my parents’ faces still twists my heart, though; my mother’s eyes were red, and my father didn’t look any better.
He cleared his voice and motioned to the door, “Can we come in, son?” I nodded and moved back, allowing them to go into my living room. After briefly scanning the place, I was a bit proud of myself for keeping the apartment tidy. Hassan also came in and nodded at me. I nodded back, still too unsettled to speak.
We all sat in silence for a few minutes before I gathered myself and offered them water which seemed to help with the awkwardness, then my dad started to talk.
“Son, before we say anything, we want to apologise.” My father started. At this, my mum started to sob quietly. “Your friend here,” he gestured at Hassan, “is aware of everything and we hope that doesn’t annoy you but we needed his help and that was the only way he was willing to help us. It’s very understandable, he’s a good friend.” He waited for a bit to get my response but I had none. I hold no grudge against them anymore. Do I think they did their best? No. Were they negligent? Yes. Did they work with what they had? Also, yes. My dad continued when no one said anything.
“It was a huge oversight on our part, gross negligence and… and stupidity. We thought that you were safe; we were catering to Constance’s needs as much as yours.” He paused, burying his head. At that moment, my usually confident father was anything but. “Well, in retrospect, we were only catering to your financial needs. All this to say that we’re sorry”
“I didn’t distrust you, Joey. When you told me that Constance abused you, I believed but I was in shock and my first reaction was to say something, anything. I didn’t react well. Constance and I, we’ve had a smooth relationship for more than seven years. As soon as she left the house and was able to finally stick to something, we became close. She’d come home when you were barely coming home, she’d take care of the house, cook, call me, she was-” My mother stopped to sniff. “She was like a daughter to me. When you were younger and started staying in your room more often, I thought that you were mad at us for being so busy. We thought it was teenage hormones. We were genuinely confused, so we decided to leave you to it. I should have pushed but that never occurred to me. It never would have occurred to me. I had only one jo,b which was to be there for you and I failed. Joey, please find it in your heart to forgive me. Therapy, counselling, whatever it takes, I’m ready.”
