Seven years later

Nicholas had gone to pick up two of our children from school and the twins from his parent's place and they would be home anytime soon. I would've picked them up myself but I finished late a night shift at the hospital from the hospital, so I settled on preparing their lunch.

The front door flung open and the house became alive with the stomping of feet everywhere.

"Mummy!!" Chinedu and Chinelo, my three-year-old twins screamed as they rushed toward me.

I engulfed them in a hug and placed kisses on their foreheads. "Hey, babies. Did you enjoy your stay at your grandma's?"

"Yes," they chorused at the same time. "She got us new coyorin books"

"Oh wow, she got you both colouring books. I hope you thanked her?"

They both nodded their heads and sprinted off to their room. Adaobi, my six-year-old daughter entered the room with Kosiso in tow behind her.

"Good Afternoon, mummy" they both chorused

"Afternoon sweeties" I hugged Adaobi who walked up to me first.

I released her and moved to do the same to her brother. A loud gasp escaped my lips as I noticed the reddish shade below his left eye.

"What happened to your face?" I pulled him closer by the arm and held up his chin, examining his face.

"He got into a fight at school" Nicholas piped in, entering the room with the twins' play bags in hand.

"What?" I turned to face Kosiso. "What happened? Explain yourself, young man" I placed my hand above my hips and shot him a stern look.

"It doesn't matter, I was wrong and I've learnt my lesson" He replied. "Can I go and change out of my uniform?"

"No, not until you tell me what happened?" I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Please, mom. I don't want to talk about it" he pleaded with his eyes. "Can I be excused, please?"

My anger dissipated into worry and I dropped my hands down to my side. What could've happened to make him fight in school? It was not like him to go around fighting and causing trouble, he was more on the calm, gentle and observing side.

I let out a sigh. "Fine, you can go to your room. But this conversation isn't over."

"Thank you," he walked out of the kitchen with Adaobi in tow.

I lifted my eyes to Nicholas. "What happened?"

Nicholas came nearer and leaned against the counter, beside me. "He got into a fight with some white little boy because he made fun of the fact that he has a Nigerian mother"

What? My brows furrowed and I crossed my hands over my chest. "And what did the school do about it?"

He released a frustrated sigh. "They just let them off with a warning since it was the last day of school before Christmas. They promised to speak to the other boy's parents"

"What? A warning?" I scoffed, irritation building up in my chest. "What is 'a warning' supposed to do?"

"I know but today's the last day of school. They can't really punish the boy over the holidays." Nick raked his fingers through his hair. "I never thought we would have to deal with this sort of thing so early in his life"

"Me too" I sighed and my shoulders sank. "We are still going to take it up with the school next year, first thing after the holidays. I want to make sure there isn't a repetition"

"Of course" Nick affirmed.

"I'll go and talk to him" I patted Nicholas's arm and then strode out of the kitchen.

After I got pregnant with our second child, we had to make some renovations to the house. We moved out of the house and into one of Nicholas's guest houses. We needed more rooms because we knew we were keeping our options for children open and so they would need their own space as they grew up. We also didn't want to just buy a new house or build one because there were so many important memories we had experienced here in the house as Kosiso grew up.

As I approached his bedroom door, I thought of ways to answer whatever questions he might have for me, in a way that he would understand. I placed gentle knocks on his door before venturing into the room. Kosiso sat at the edge of his bed, taking his school books out of his bag, still in his uniform.

He lifted his eyes to me as I stepped into the room and frowned.

"Hey baby" I strode forward and sat beside him on the bed. "Your father told me what happened"

He remained quiet

I pressed forward. "Sweetie, Is this the first time this is happening?"

He shook his head slowly. "Mason normally makes fun of me with his friends but he has never talked about you before"

"Is that so? What does he normally say to you?"

"Well, he would make fun of my hair and how I talk sometimes"

Kosiso sounded a bit different from the rest of his siblings because I started teaching him how to speak Igbo very early. I would speak to him in Igbo, most of the time, while he was growing up. Now, he could fluently speak and understand Igbo.

I chose to do that because I didn't want all of my kids to only speak English and neglect their other cultural languages. I also encouraged Nicholas to teach them Italian, so they could pick up. I read an article that talked about how children easily picked up on languages.

Although, Nicholas was so used to English that he would sometimes forget to talk to them in his mother's native tongue. Which was why they didn't know so much, and could only understand a few commands. Adaobi and the twins were set on speaking English, especially Adaobi. She wasn't a fan of both languages.

"Why didn't you talk to me about it?" I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I usually just ignore him but today when talked about you, I got so angry" His voice began to crack.

"Aww baby" I hugged him to myself, gently rubbing his arm. "Don't cry"

I allowed him to calm down before I spoke up"Look sweetie, some people are going to treat you unfairly because of how you look or how you talk which is not right . . . And it's okay to feel angry or upset about it but what I don't want you to do is to act on that anger."

I raked my fingers through his hair. "I don't want you fighting people because fighting would only make matters worse . . . If someone says or does anything that hurts your feelings, I want you to either report to your teachers or principal or even come home and talk to me about it, okay?"

He nodded.

I continued. "I also don't want you feeling ashamed of who you are or being half Nigerian. I don't want you to ever think that Nigeria is inferior to any other place and feel the need to hide that side of you, okay?"

He nodded his head and wrapped his arms around me. "I love everything that concerns you, mommy. I can never hide that"

"Good and you better keep that way" I ruffled his hair. "On a lighter note, we are going to be going to Nigeria for the holidays this year"

"YES!!" he exclaimed, pumping his fist into the air.

"Oh wow, that was quite the reaction" I smiled.

"I've missed everyone so much" he replied excitedly.

"And they've missed you too. Now I have to go and tell your sister and I'm not ready for her tantrums" I moved to get up from the bed.

Kosiso held me back, by the arm. There was a mischievous glint in his eyes "Let me do the honours"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Why?"

"She broke one of my action figure's heads. I want to be the one to deliver the news, please" he tugged on my arm.

"Take it off my hands, if you must. Although, when you're done I want you to freshen up so I can take care of your face" I said

He nodded and sprinted off to Adaobi's room.

Nicholas and I decided to rotate our Christmas holiday between here, Italy and Nigeria just so the kids could experience our respective cultures. We were supposed to have gone to Nigeria last year but one of the twins fell sick and my hospital schedule was packed so we skipped it and spent it here.

"No!!" Adaobi's screams travelled all the way from her room into this one, and then the stomping sound of feet followed.

Oh boy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Christmas day,

Nick and I headed out to a surprise location he had planned for me. The kids stayed in my parent's place along with my sister Amara, and her family. We spent our Christmas in my home town instead of Lagos where we usually spent it. My mom thought it would be nice for them to also experience the rural side.

So far, the kids loved the experience, especially Adaobi who immediately cheered up as soon as she saw all her cousins. I was happy that they appreciated where I came from, the smiles on their faces as I showed them around the village filled me with a sense of pride.

It was early evening when we set out of the house leaving all the kids who were outside playing with bangers (firecrackers) under both my brother's supervision, of course. Whitney sent me a video of her four-year-old daughter dancing to a Christmas song along with her two-year-old son, it was so cute.

Whitney got married two years after my own wedding to a Nigerian guy, who happened to be one of my brother's friends. They met at my wedding reception and immediately hit it off. They exchanged numbers after the wedding and got talking. She discovered that he too lived in New York and was in Nigeria on a work-related trip.

It was about an hour and a half when we finally reached the supposed destination. It was on hospital premises. The hospital was huge and looked nice from the outside and I could see what looked like a building that had a big clinic sign in front of it. Although, the hospital seemed deserted because there were no patients or doctors in sight.

"What are we doing at a hospital?" I said the moment we got down, from the car.

Nicholas stuffed his hands into his pocket and puffed out his chest. "It's not just any hospital, it's your hospital"

I did a double take. "Huh?" I put my hand out in front of me and I searched his face with my eyes. "Stop, are you joking?"

He chuckled. "Why would I bring you all the way out here, to prank you?"

My eyes widened. "Wait . . . are you being serious?"

He cocked both brows and smiled.

My mouth hung open as I gaped at Nicholas. My brain was scrambled and I couldn't make cohesive thoughts. I glanced at the huge structure and my hands found the sides of my head. I choked up, my throat burning with tears. "Oh my God, are you serious?"

He gave me a heartwarming smile and nodded.

My chest tightened and tears ran down my face. I placed a hand on my chest and walked back to the car. I leaned against the trunk and buried my face in my hands. OH MY GOD.

"Come on, don't cry" Nicholas wrapped his arms around me from behind.

"Oh my God... Oh my God," I chanted those words as I began to sob.

"Please, stop crying" Nicholas ran a comforting hand along my back.

I couldn't believe it. My biggest dream was becoming a reality. Words couldn't begin to capture the emotions that ran through me.

I lifted my head and faced him. "When .... How ...."

"I started the building two years ago when I came back here to inspect the branch here" he replied. "Your brothers helped monitor the progress and reported back to me"

Nicholas had opened a small branch of the company, back here in Nigeria. It mostly took care of building guest houses around the city.

"Oh my God, I can't believe this" I glanced at the building and then back at him. "I love you so much, thank you"

"Don't thank me, you deserve it and more" he wiped the tears that ran down my face. "I just didn't expect you to cry this much"

I blew out a mouthful of air and sniffled. "I'm sorry, it must be the pregnancy hormones at work"

His brows knitted together for a few seconds before his eyes widened with realization. I chuckled a bit.

"Wait... Are we?" There was a glint of excitement in his eyes as he let the words hang.

I nodded. "Yeah"

A wide grin appeared on his lips. "So, I'm getting five kids'?"

I shrugged my shoulder, a smile spreading over my lips. "Looks like it"

"YES!!!" He picked me up by the waist and spun us around. He placed me down and dipped down for a quick kiss. "When did you find out?"

"A couple of weeks ago but I was thinking of a creative way to tell you until you had to go and do this" I replied.

"Wow," he chuckled and glanced back at the building. "Do you want to take a look around?"

"Of course, yes"

We walked towards the entrance of the hospital, hand in hand as I leaned against him. "I love you"

THE END.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

VOTE, COMMENT and SHARE

A/N: I really hope you all enjoyed this story. Thank you for sticking through to the end and for your wonderful comments.