Page 212 of Lau Ahi
“Quite. Get over yourself. Your life has been nearly perfect. Do you know what types of things happen to other girls? Millions in Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea undergo augmentation before they’re old enough to understand what is going on yet you think that you are so tortured?”
My mother’s bitterness at my lack of suffering wasn’t surprising. But the way she seemed ambivalent to female mutilation was beyond the pale.
“You call female genital mutilation anaugmentation? It’s not a fucking nose job, Jacqueline. It’s a barbaric practice that dehumanizes women. I have empathy for everyone globally, not just in Somalia and Eritrea who are forced into the practice. But to say that because I didn’t have to endure it my life has been fine is rich coming from you.”
“You’re such a brat. One thing I’ve ever asked of you and you had to ruin it and make it about yourself. We still don’t know all the implications of what you did and how it could come back on us.”
“What are you worried about coming back on us, Jacqueline?”
My father and siblings walked in on the conversation and my mother seemed disturbed to have them there.
“Asha is just detailing these ridiculous escapades she’s been a part of. And apparently drawn you into. That would be very interesting news should it ever get out.” Jacqueline thought she had leverage and made it clear by the way she beamed with this knowledge; she wasn’t afraid to use it.
Abo crossed his arms unbothered by what she’d said. “Just like the news that you sent our daughter to be a stand-in and she ended up kidnapped by a serial killer?”
“Wait. I thought you said that she begged you to go in Sasha’s place. That she wanted a minute in the spotlight.” WJ was looking between me and Jacqueline as if he could visibly decipher who was the guilty party.
So that was how she’d hooked him. Pointing to my supposedly being jealous of all my siblings’ success. If he believed that I was jealous of Sasha then of course my being put in charge of Avery Investments would seem like I’d backdoor him too.
“And you believed that? You thought that after I’d worked my ass off for years on that show and then happily bowed out so that I could go to university that I would suddenly want to dip my toe back in that cesspool? How many times did I say I didn’t think it was good for Sasha? But you thought that I wanted it back?”
The entertainment industry was not for the faint of heart. My mother felt as though we should do the show because it would’ve been the first time that there was a show with a Black British girlnot playing the side role. We had episodes where they focused on our character and although it was stereotypical bullshit; she made us continue to do it until I got sick of it. Very few people knew that Sasha and I were switching off for filming. I knew that was my mother’s doing and was only done to get around the child protection laws in the UK.
“I can’t believe you’ve been lying to me all this time, Mum.” WJ was experiencing what most people did when they realized their parents weren’t perfect. Only he had the compounded issue of realizing his mother was a piece of shit.
“Not that any of it mattered because in the end you got her back mainly whole. That should be enough. It’s not like—”
“Not like what? Not like it was me so you cared less?” Sasha’s voice was hard and she was no longer attempting to be diplomatic. With what we’d learned, I wasn’t surprised she was over Jacqueline’s shit.
“Sasha, come on. I can’t believe that you’re letting her turn you against your mother.”
“She’s my sister. My twin. One egg that split so that we could be two people. No one is ever going to stand between the two of us.”
Since she couldn’t get over on Sasha she turned to my father with angry eyes. “You ruined the life I was supposed to have. Being alone with three kids all the time wasn’t how I wanted my life to go!”
“Gather yourself and stop lying! You’ve always had help even if it wasn’t familial. You had help because I insured that you did. You’re just a bitch. When I wanted to stay around you told me to focus on work. On investing and making something of ourselves. You told me the purpose of everything we’d sacrificed was to ensure we could live how we wanted. I thought I had someone who supported my goals and loved our children but it was clearI never did.” My father’s disappointment at having lived a lie for so long was clear.
“I should’ve sent you back to Eritrea so you could get raised the proper way. I didn’t have these issues out of your brother or your sister.” She refused to own up to what anyone was saying so she turned her attention back on me.
“The proper way? You mean where I’m sewn up and almost dead because of infection? Because the proper way means that female mutilation is the way we’re taught to remain good enough to marry. I knew you were sick but this just confirms it.”
She sneered and I wondered who’d warped her mind but I no longer cared to find out. The hurt she’d caused and the seeds she’d sown were about to bear fruit.
“It’s either that or the need for a lobotomy to keep you in line.”
“Abo would never let that happen.”
“You’re goddamn right I wouldn’t.” He spoke in a tone filled with venom at the mere thought of her trying to harm me.
“I can go to the police. Right now. And then you’ll have to give WJ the position at the company that is rightfully his. You won’t be able to steal that from him.” She was reaching for a way out. Attempting to flex leverage she didn’t have.
“You could try.”
Her eyes went back to me, remembering I caused her discomfort. “Why did you bring me here?”
“For closure. I knew I wouldn’t get it but I wanted to lay the cards out on the line for everyone. So they knew my actions weren’t done out of my hate for you but for my love for them.” I looked at each one of them even my brother, as I spoke so they could see my sincerity. He wasn’t off the hook but I wasn’t as angry at him as I had been.
“Love. What a ridicules notion.”
