Login to ManoBook
icon 0
icon TOP UP
rightIcon
icon Reading History
rightIcon
icon Sign out
rightIcon
icon Get the APP
rightIcon
Grace the great billionaire

Grace the great billionaire

Godwin .o. maduekwe

5.0
Comment(s)
21
View
9
Chapters

This story is told to highlight the need for one to have absolute dependence on God in everything, knowing he alone has the power to lift one up and to bring down another.

Chapter 1 Patient

There is more to a name than it sounds.The literal meaning and spiritual connotation of names are believed to have covert influence on the destiny of the bearer.

In the days of old, tradition and superstition allowed parents to name their children based on the circumstances surrounding their birth, days of the week, place of birth or after any spectacular event that season. That was why some people bore names like Africa, independence, manager, January, strongface, warmate, Friday, etc.

In each of these cases such parents obviously did the naming as a way of expressing their anticipations, convictions in a positive or negative light or deep-seated emotional pains.

This was the case for Mr and Mrs Opus Okaro, a young couple living in kuroama, a remote fishing community in the southern part of Nigeria in the early seventies. They were very poor and could barely boast of one meal a day. The husband, Opus, was in his late forties when he got married to his wife Beatrice.

Being an attractive young girl who had just turned 20 years of age when he betrothed her, he hoped her beauty would one way or the other compensate for his penury; and inadvertently, he resigned to fate and accepted his poor condition without much ado. Indeed, her approval of him because there wasn't any girl who could bear his situation given that he was one of the poorest young men in that community at that time.

Beatrice fell in love with Opus unconditionally; she had always believed the Bible passage that says "he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favour from the Lord." Anchoring her faith on this promise, she knew her presence in his life could change their fortune for good.she always encouraged him to be steadfast in his fishing business; seeing the possibility that by the grace and and favour of God, as he worked hard, some day they would start enjoying a life of riches.

It was her prodding and encouragement that kept him going. As a fisherman, Mr. Opus, barely eked out a living for his family from his daily toiling. Whatever he got in his outing was what his wife used to prepare their meal for that day. Their situation was so bad that even the poor in the community derided them.

They lived along the spread of a water front that was popularly called "suffer man area". The ramshackle thatch house he managed to construct from raffia palms and bamboo sticks had holes in the roof such that whenever it rained they used buckets to fetch stream of water to prevent flooding of the of the mud floor.

Their room was barely a twenty square feet space that contained an old bug-ridden mattress, which he picked from the bin; their kitchen utensils were so small that they tucked perfectly in a small wooden cupboard just as match sticks fit the box. Because there were no electricity in that area, the source of light at night was an old kerosene lantern hanging from the epicenter of the roof and lowered to a considerable height by means of a piece of rope tired to it's handle.

They had their convenience in a roofless raffia- made room linked to the river bank, in about ten-meters stretched, by means of rickety woods and planks which were also used as supports to hold the bathroom and the toilet over the river.

Nevertheless, it was a great joy for the couple when Beatrice took in a year after their wedding. They believed that children are a blessing from God; and also they hoped that what they couldn't achieve in life, their children would do for them when they become old. This was one thing that motivated them to raise a family even in the face of their abject poverty.

It was unthinkable to go to the village health center to register for antenatal because it was unaffordable. When her time was due for delivery they went to a quack matron in the community that charged a paltry sum which they even had to pay in four installments after Beatrice put to bed.

Much to his expectation, the child was a baby boy, given that a male child was naturally seen as the scion of the father and someone that would flag the name of family after him. With this, Mr.Opus was extremely happy as he invited friends and family members for the child's naming ceremony on the eight day after delivery.

It was a very windy Wednesday morning in the month of December. The weather was cold and icy because it rained the previous night, but even at that, most of those invited arrived just on time before the dawn of the day. The event was meant to be brief and so the guests that came didn't bother even as they were huddled up in the limited space within the room; as they watched Mr.Opus named the baby, "PATIENT" which means poor child in okrika language.

The entry of the child into this family of two individuals, who could not adequately feed themselves, was supposed to be something to be worried about. Raising a child is not only a matter of provision of food - which they lacked - but there are other aspects that bothered on clothing, health care and education, which required money.

However, since they have decided to embark on this journey of life by bringing in a third mouth into the family, how to survive was Left to fate. They toiled and managed whatever they had in order to wean the child up to the age of five. By this time, Patient started accompanying his farther to fish. Now, this was a harrowing experience for the Okaros because the luxury of giving Patient a good child upbringing was lost in their inability to fend for themselves.

Kuroama had only one mission school which was some kilometers away from where they lived. When it was time for him to be enrolled into primary school, his father couldn't afford the tuition fees even though the amount was small.

Continue Reading

Other books by Godwin .o. maduekwe

More

You'll also like

Resisting my Possessive Mafia Husband

Resisting my Possessive Mafia Husband

Ife Anyi
5.0

Warning: 18+ content for mature audiences. Book Excerpt: Donovan's POV Her enchanting green eyes that were alive with passion the day I told her she could go shopping are pale with only despair dancing in them. "Oh, I'm quite aware of my duties as your wife, Mr. Castellano." My eyes darken at the formal use of my name. I've told her to stop doing that. It feels wrong. Like she doesn't belong to me. I clench my jaw as I wait for her to finish her sentence but her cold smile widens. "Ah, you don't like when I call you Mr. Castellano, right? Too bad. You can't force my mouth to say what you want to hear." Blood rushes to my groin as her words settle in the tensed air between us. Does she realize the gravity of what she'd just said? Does she know she'd moaned my name while I had her wet cunt in her mouth? Does she know how needy she'd been when she wanted me to take her even though she wasn't awake? And is she aware that I know how bad she wants me in her dreams while she pretends in real life to hate me? She glares up at me while I seethe, looking down at her. "It's Donovan," I say darkly, resisting the pull of her lips and maintaining my vision at her eyes. "Mr. Castellano," she retorts. My face draws closer, getting ready to give her a punishing kiss but a harsh sound fills the room and then I realize, belatedly, that I'd just been slapped as my face swings to the side, turning away from Eliana. Eliana slapped me. Luis Santario's daughter just slapped me. Just like her father had done many nights ago. Shame fills me but it's quickly trampled upon by hot, violent anger. How dare she? How dare the whore?! Her cheek instantly goes red with the imprints of my fingers. Blood trickles from her nose and her hair that was up in a messy bun scatters all around her face. Eliana's head remains bowed as the blood from her nose drips onto her white bedcovers. ***** Eliana's POV I know I'm signing my death warrant by provoking him like this but what else can I do when he's already planned to kill me? I could just as well make it easier for him to by getting on his nerves. If I don't push him away, I'm scared I'll start to blur the lines between my dreams and reality. The Donovan in my dreams is drastically different from the one in real life. If my plans to escape from this marriage don't work, I may end up dead or worst, in love with Donovan Castellano. And I'd rather die now than to fall in love with him and die later. *** Many years ago, Donovan Castellano went through something that irrevocably changed him for the worst, and Eliana's father was to blame. Years later, Eliana's father dies. Eliana doesn't know her father's dark past or why Donovan Castellano bought her and then married her. But she knows he's out for blood and wants to kill her, but how long will she continue to defend herself when the way he touches her and kisses her in her dreams is starting to blur the lines between reality and fiction? Will Donovan succeed in finally getting revenge on Eliana for what her father did to him and will Eliana succeed in resisting her possessive mafia husband's advances even when he says he wants her dead? Read on to find out.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book