Writers 
MOTHER'S, WHY?....2
Days turned into weeks, then months.
Jessica began to retreat from every social event. She stopped attending parties, avoided people and spent most of her time alone.
The girl who once laughed freely now questioned everything.
Then one afternoon, she found another piece of paper beneath her pillow.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO YOUR MOTHER.
Her hands trembled.
This time, she didn't tell Amara.
Instead, she kept the paper.
That evening, Daniel came to see her.
“Jessica, we need to talk.”
“About what?”
He looked nervous.
“About the papers.”
Jessica froze.
“How do you know about them?”
Daniel looked away.
That was when she knew he was hiding something.
“Daniel, tell me the truth.”
He sighed.
“I know who has been leaving them.”
“Who?”
“Amara.”
Jessica's heart sank.
She confronted Amara that night.
At first, Amara denied everything.
But when Jessica placed the papers on the table, Amara broke down.
“I did it,” she whispered.
Jessica stared at her.
“Why?”
“I hated you.”
The words hurt more than Jessica expected.
“I hated how everyone noticed you. I hated how confident you used to be. I wanted to see you fall.”
Jessica's eyes filled with tears.
“And Daniel?”
Amara looked down.
“I asked him to help me frighten you.”
Daniel had only agreed because he thought it was harmless at first. But when he realized how badly Jessica was being affected, he tried to stop it.
That was why he had been warning her.
Jessica felt betrayed by both of them.
But there was still one question.
“Why did you use the word ogbanje?”
Amara hesitated.
“Because I heard your mother saying it.”
Jessica went silent.
For years, her mother's words had been repeated by other people until they sounded like truth.
She went home.
When she confronted her mother, she expected another argument.
Instead, her mother sat quietly.
“Jessica,” she said, “I owe you an apology.”
Jessica stared at her.
“I was afraid,” her mother continued. “When you were growing up, people told me that a beautiful girl who rejected men was being controlled by something spiritual. I believed them. I thought I was protecting you.”
“You weren't protecting me, Mummy.”
“I know.”
“You made me hate myself.”
Her mother's tears fell.
“I know.”
Jessica cried too.
“All those years, I thought there was something wrong with me.”
Her mother reached for her hand.
“There was never anything wrong with you.”
Jessica pulled her hand away.
“Then why did you make me believe there was?”
Her mother had no answer.
Only tears.
And for the first time, Jessica understood something.
Her mother had been wrong.
Amara had been cruel.
Daniel had kept secrets.
But Jessica had also allowed their voices to become louder than her own.
She couldn't change what they had done.
But she could decide what happened next.
She returned to university.
She began attending classes again. She made new friends. She started laughing.
And slowly, the girl who had disappeared behind fear began to return.
Months later, Jessica stood before a mirror.
She looked at herself.
For years, she had looked into that same mirror and searched for something wrong.
This time, she smiled.
“I am not an ogbanje.”
She paused.
“I am not cursed.”
Then she smiled again.
“I am just me.”
She picked up her bag and walked out.
Her mother had spent years asking,
“What is wrong with this girl?”
But Jessica finally had her own question.
“Mother, why did you make me afraid of the person I was born to be?”
There would never be a perfect answer.
But Jessica no longer needed one.
Because sometimes healing begins when you stop waiting for someone else to tell you who you are.
And that was the greatest lesson Jessica ever learned:
Words can break a child.
But they don't have to define the adult she becomes.
THE END.
My sincerest apologies for the late update.
