The first sign that something was off was that her room mates were outside, along with a couple of her belongings. Her bags, shoes, clothes, wigs, the mat she slept on and even her cooking utensils were strewed across the interlocked cement tiles while her roommates picked her things aside and set them in a pile.

"What are you doing?" She screamed and pulled her bra from Lydia's hands.

"Good. She has come. Oya, hold her." Iya Tobi's voice overpowered the sound of Lydia's explanations. No wonder the car outside the gate looked familiar

Romola scrambled to turn away but one hefty man with a huge chest and a scar at the base of his neck. The man starred her down, his eyes widening in shock at the sight of her bloodied chest.

"What are you waiting for?" Iya Tobi's bark brought him back to life.

He grabbed Romola's shoulders and forced her to kneel in front of Iya Tobi. The woman knocked her head and she roared in pain, rising, only to be knocked back down again.

"Idiot. Do you think you can ruin my store and get away like that?"

There was no time. She rose herself to a squatting position while she surveyed her things. Her bucket was missing, along with a bag of her much better clothes. If she could still get inside, she could grab her small saving box, add it to what was in her bank account and they could start Sunbo's treatment. Then, she would have more time to beg from other people. But time was her most precious resource now.

She clasped her hands together and held Iya Tobi's dress. "Please. I didn't mean it."

"Come on, get off." Iya Tobi kicked Romola away. "I should've just fired you the first time. You'll pay for what you've done."

"Ha!" Romola screamed. The bags and shoes on that rack were not the most expensive or the best quality but Iya Tobi would surely not demand a repayment at cost price. "Ma., I don't have that kind of money."

"You should've thought of it before you tried to ruin my shop. Someone will suffer to build something; another person will destroy it in minutes."

"I didn't mean it like that. Sekemi accused me to trying to steal your husband."

"And so? Poor girl, the bleeding from her head was so bad, she had to go home but you, you ran here thinking I would not catch you. God na catch you, I got here before you. Come on, pack everything outside."

Another hefty man emerged from the shared room and tossed out a few of Romola's belongings. The brown wooden savings box was tossed out along with the rest of the things. Romola hurried towards it and she held it in her hand, ready to turn away, when the first of Iya Tobi's gang men, seized the box from her and offered it to Iya Tobi. Romola ran to Iya Tobi and clutched the box. "You can take everything else but not this."

"Do you think these rags and scraps that you own can pay for the damage that you've caused. We haven't even added Sekemi's treatment fee because I am not going to pay that with my money."

"No. No." Romola shook her head, trying to drag the box to her chest. "This money is for my sister."

Iya Tobi dragged once and pulled Romola along with it. Fat muscles that had sat dormant for years, moved along with her effort to dispose Romola of the box. "If you want it, then I must have it."

Romola cried. "My sister is going to die without it. She's in the hospital."

"That is not my problem. You should've thought about it before trying to kill someone's child."

Iya Tobi's words hit her like a needle through a baby's sole. She was responsible for Sunbo's condition but there was still a chance that she could help her sister. She knelt down at Iya Tobi's feet. "You don't understand, my sister is at the hospital. She needs treatment now. It's a life and death situation."

Iya Tobi squeezed her nose in unbelief before shouting at Lydia, Chioma and Edidiong. "What are you three doing there? Didn't I ask you to separate her trashy things? I don't even think I would see enough things to sell from her things."

"You can have everything." Everything she'd suffered so hard to work hard for. It was worth nothing now. "But not this box."

"Oya, Musa, Dubem, pack all these things into my car. This girl is stinking." Iya Tobi pushed Romola aside and began to walk to her car.

Romola turned to her roommates. In all the time she'd lived with them, she had never begged for their help for anything. She tired as much as she could to be independent. "Please, help me beg her. I'm not lying. My sister's life is at stake."

"You're not lying?" Iya Tobi laughed. "Tell me again, how did you end up living in my house? How did you convince me and my husband to give you a job? Bl**dy fool."

Romola ignored the woman's taunts and faced her room mates. Sympathy swirled on Lydia's face while Edidiong looked from Lydia to Chioma before shrinking back and holding Chioma's gaze.

Chioma hissed. "You can't expect me to help you. I don't even know what you did. I cannot carry Gbese for another person."

Chioma turned away from Romola and walked into the house while Edidiong followed, dragging her heavy fair skinned legs without another word.

Lydia closed the gap between them, eyeing Romola's bloody t-shirt before taking her hand. "What happened to your sister?"

"She had an accident." Romola fought through tears to speak. "She's bleeding so bad."

"I believe you." Lydia sighed. "I tried to beg your boss. To tell her to wait until you came back. What you did was very wrong."

"I know that. I know." Romola placed a bent index finger between her lips as she sobbed. "I know that now."

"Well, it's too late. Maybe you should tell her you'll work for free. As for your sister—"

Romola didn't wait for the rest of the sentence. She ran over the interlocking stones, past the black gate and out unto the street where Iya Tobi sat in her car. The woman had cracked the saving's box open and was licking her fingers as she counted the money splayed on her posh leather seat. One of the gang men sat in the driver's seat.

Romola held Iya Tobi's car. "Ma, please I beg you in the name of God. Give me back that money. I promise I'll pay you back."

"What is this one saying?" Iya Tobi did not look at Romola's face. Instead, she gathered the money and stuffed it in her purse. "The money that is here is not even up to a quarter of what you owe me."

"Ma, I'll even work for free. Please."

"Dubem, drive us out of here." Iya Tobi said.

"Please ma." The tears ran in their full force. She did not try to wipe them away and she tugged at her dress, holding it towards Iya Tobi's head. "See the blood. See it. My sister is dying."

"Musa." Iya Tobi stuck her head out the window on the other side. "What is taking so long? What are you packing? It's not like this girl has much oh."

Romola raced to the other side of the window. "Ma, have mercy. Have compassion."

"Where was your mercy and compassion when you pushed my favourite worker. Goat."

"I'll work for free. I'll take care of Tobi. For a whole year." Romola tried to reach for Iya Tobi's bag.

The woman screamed. "Thief. Thief. You still want to steal my money. Money that I'm sure you stole from me in the first place. I am just taking back what is mine."

"Ma, Please... Call me anything you want." Romola's chest shook as the tears flowed. Each word was a hard effort. To ignore her own injuries for her sister's sake was the least she could do. Her words muddled together but she still fought to string them into a sentence. "This is all I have."

"All you have or all you stole?"

Musa arrived with a bag containing the notes she used for Mr. Joseph's class.

Iya Tobi eyed the stack in his hand. "What am I supposed to do with that? Doesn't she have anything valuable?"

Musa tossed the books into the wide gutter beside them. Romola turned to the books. She could save them from soaking the green stale gutter water. No. She turned back to Iya Tobi, before making a kneeling gesture. "Ma, I will do anything."

"Does she not have a phone?" Musa suggested.

"Yes." Iya Tobi's look turned feral. "Where is it?"

Romola shook her head. The tablet she used had been a hand-me-down. One of Tobi's old toys they were going to throw away because he didn't use it anymore. She had taken it and refurbished it with her own phone. "I don't have the tablet."

"Do you expect me to believe that? Search her Musa."

"No. No." Romola backed away from the hefty man. "How would the tablet fit in my pocket? It can't."

She heard the car door slam shut before she turned and met Dubem in her way. She stood between them both and the car cut her off from the main road, the only way out was through the slimy gutter.

She didn't have time to decide. Dubem grabbed her and held her in place while Musa stuck his fingers into her pocket. She struggled and screamed against their hold as his reached for her small torchlight phone. He pried it out of her pocket. She tried to bite Dubem and free herself form his hold but he pushed her away, before ducking from her poor attempt at a punch to his head. He hurried into the car. By the time she turned to Musa, he was in the car too, handing Iya Tobi the phone.

"Please, ma. Give me my phone." He was going to make a transfer from her phone so she wouldn't have to join a huge bank queue. There was no time to look for a POS besides, every Naira and Kobo counted. Every second counted.

Iya Tobi received the phone from Dubem and held it up. "Is this a phone that people still use in this century?"

Romola wrapped her hurting hand around the phone as the car engine roared to life. "You don't want it please, give me."

Iya Tobi slapped Romola's hand and as soon as Romola's hand came off, she stuck the phone in her bag. "I'll give it to Tobi. To replace the one you took."

"Please, don't let my sister die." Romola began to move as the car moved. "Don't let my sister die."

"Don't let Sunbo die. I beg you." She placed her hands in the window and increased her pace as the car picked up speed. "What if it were your son?"

"If she dies, that' not my business." Iya Tobi placed her bag on her laps and clutched her goods. "My son can never be in this position. God forbid."

"I'm not even asking you for money. Just let me loan this one, and my phone, I'll pay back." Her pace picked up to a slight jog. "I'll even work for free."

"Even if you pay me to work for me, I won't take you. I am finished with you Romola. Finished." Iya Tobi smiled.

"Please ma. Remember, you are a woman leader in your church, I beg you in God's name. Don't let my sister die." Her slight jog became a fast jog.

"Dubem, is this the fastest this car move?"

"No, but she is holding—"

"If she wants to die, let her die. Drive me home. I must not miss my Tv show."

The car picked up speed until Romola was running. She begged, trying to appeal to all that was good, honourable and just in Iya Tobi's life. The car moved faster than her legs could handle and she found herself falling behind. She chased after the car, yelling to the hearing of the whole street. She didn't care that she looked like she was a mad woman. All that mattered was that phone and the money in Iya Tobi's bag.

The car zoomed off, leaving her a long way behind. She stopped and threw her slippers at the car. None of them met their target and her shoulders curved inas she gave a deep cry of anguish before running back barefooted to the flat.