I lay there in bed trying to force myself to sleep. I squeezed tight to my pillow. I shut my eyes and tried to let my mind drift. I rolled in bed restless but still fighting my restlessness. The weather was cool, just the perfect weather for a good afternoon's sleep. I finally gave up when I couldn't tap into the other realm. Then I lay there in bed pretending to be asleep.

She stepped out of the airport. Her heels clicked against the cracked pavement. Lagos airport hadn’t changed much, she thought. She quickly climbed into the owner's seat of the car sent by her parents to pick her up. She wore nothing but a smile on her face and the smell of hot Suya in her nose. And Jo there was no Suya stand at the airport or anywhere nearby. It was just what she had craved; for years, she had sojourned to a foreign land for her studies. The sharp absence of suya smoke, the kind that her favorite Mallam, Mallam Musa, had curled into the sky in his stall.

At exactly 8:47 AM, work had already started in earnest. I sat there in my tiny space clicking through a client's file when an email popped up my notifications, asking me to approve the transfer of a six-figure sum to an offshore account.

I should have known the day was ruined already the moment I stepped into the bakery. Everywhere smelled of vanilla and sugar. I walked majestically to the cashier. "Birthday cake for Ada," I said, resting my arms on the counter.

It has been only two weeks since I moved into this compound, and I was already regretting signing the tenancy agreement. My reasons had nothing to do with the size of the room. Neither was it the noisy children in the neighboring compound. It had nothing to do with the noise from the ever busy street nor was it the long distance I had to trek to the market. Already, I knew that to afford luxury housing in Lagos, one had to spend a huge amount of money.

![]( She had always been a people pleaser. The 'Oh yes mistress'. So easy to please. Too easy to agree to anything.It all started right from childhood. As the only daughter and the lady child, she was taught to obey everything and everyone. There was never a time she questioned her parent's or siblings' decisions. Even if it affected her. “Good girls don’t talk back,” her mother would say. She became the perfect daughter.