Dear readers,This is the concluding part of last week's story. According to our writer, a good mother is like a jewel, those, who have one would call her a valuable jewel.What then would you say of a mother who abandoned her child at the time she needed her most'Now, she is back, how would this young woman handle the situation' She needs your help. Monica Taiwo.Dear Taiwo,In the early hours of the morning, I was awaken by voices. Five men in black were talking in one of the rooms. From their conversation, I could deduce that they were thieves sharing their booty.I made to run away, but they chased and caught up with me. That early morning, four of them raped and beat me up. They did not allow me out of their sight, because they felt I would spill what I saw and heard.One of them, who I guessed was their leader took me home. He lived alone in a mini - flat and he raped me almost every hour. Whenever I tried to refuse, he would beat me up.Eventually, I gave in. Three days later, when the others came, they equally took turns to rape me.A week after I was taken away, I was informed that I had to work for my living. My job then was to steal petty things. Later, I graduated into surveying the houses they would rob.Three weeks into my stay with them, I was smuggled into someone's apartment through the window. The idea was for me to go and steal some money so that we could eat because business was bad and they had no money. They thought nobody was in the house, but it was a mistake. The lady inside raised the alarm and I was arrested. But the rest of the gang ran and left me at the mercy of the mob.I was beaten by the mob. But for the intervention of the police, I would have been killed.By the time I was taken to the police station, I was so weak and feverish that I could hardly stand on my feet.At the police station ' a very popular one in Ibadan. I met a very nice woman. After listening to my story, I was kept there for two days. When they could not locate my people, she said I had to go to the juvenile home as I could not stay there.Before admitting me, she took me to the hospital where I was treated for many things, including severe STD. My lower abdomen was swollen and I had vaginal discharge.By the time I had spent almost seven months at the juvenile home, a nice woman took me to stay with her. I later learnt that she adopted me. She had a son, who was away in the United States. She asked what I wanted to do, I opted to learn fashion designing. I had always loved it. But when her son came back to the country, he insisted that I should go back to school.I was too big to go to a regular school, so I had to register at an extra-mural class. I wrote my GCE examinations three years after. By this time, I had perfected my fashion designing and after my graduation, 'my mother' established me, but 'my brother' insisted that I had to go back to school. So I had to go to the polytechnic to study Insurance.It was during the cause of my study that I met my stepmother's second daughter. She was an assistant food vendor in one of the food canteens on the campus.I guess she told my father she saw me, because he came to look for me. When he came, I told 'my mother,' and she said I had no choice but to forgive and give him another chance. He wasn't looking well. He told me he was involved in an auto accident not long after I left. He had aged and I also learnt he was having problems with my stepmother and her children.He also told me that my mother too was ill. She had HIV and was very down.I told him in a plain language that I didn't want to see my mother. I really didn't know how they traced my house, but both of them came to plead with 'my mother' to beg me.They wanted money, and I am not ready to give them money. I am comfortable. Apart from the fact that I now have a good and supportive family, I also make good money from my fashion designing outfit, which is flourishing to the glory of God.My question is, is it compulsory I help them' Then, what if I had died, who would have given them what they now want' Yet 'my mother' insists that I help. Is this right'Rachel
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