When Kate received the email, she thought it was a scam.
Online scammers had an unoriginal tactic where they sent mail to random people, with promises of sharing inheritances and the like. It was an old trick and one Kate was familiar with, so when she received the mail asking her to show up for the reading of the last will and testament of an unknown chief Bassey Itah, she scoffed and marked the email as spam.
The phone call however , finally caught her attention. When her phone rang that fateful morning, the caller ID showed the call was from ‘Itah and Associates’. She clicked on the green button with a confused scowl.
“Good morning. Please, am I speaking to Miss Kate Udoh?” the voice was female, clipped and official.
Kate’s frown deepened. The voice was totally unfamiliar. “Yes, you are. Good morning. Who am i speaking to, please?”
“My name is Naomi, and I’m calling from the head office of Itah and Associates in Akwa-Ibom state, madam. I called to confirm receipt of the email we sent to you yesterday.”
Kate’s brow cleared as she made the association. Itah. Had the scammers taken things up a notch? “I see. So you guys don’t have work sha. You’re even calling me. Too much credit to burn, I guess. How did you even get my phone number, eh?”
There was a confused pause from the other end of the phone line. “We got your phone number via an online search, madam. This is Kate Udoh, correct? Daughter of one Mrs Nyaknoh Benson nee Udoh…?”
“Who is this?” Kate interrupted, shocked. “How did you people get my mother’s name? Look, you won’t find any mumu to scam here, so you better save your credit and find somtheing….”
“No, please madam.” There was a faint thread of amusement in the voice. “This is no scam, madam. You can look up Itah and associates. We’re a respected and legit company, owned by the late Chief Bassey Itah, whose death is the reason we attempted to contact you.”
Kate was confused. The woman sounded nothing like a scam artist and the confidence in the response had caused her to begin to doubt her original conclusion. What if they were real and it wasn’t a scam? “Well, even if you guys are real, what does this have to do with me?” She tried to remember the contents of the email she had ignored. “Why do I need to be at the reading of the late Chief’s will?”
There was another hesitation. “I’m not at liberty to say, madam. I can forward the phone number of Chief Itah’s legal counsel to you for any further inquiries. I only called to confirm you had received the summons.”
“Yes, I have, but….”
“Thank you for the confirmation, Miss Udoh. I will forward the aforementioned number to you as soon as I end this call. Thank you for your time and have a pleasant day.”
Before Kate could murmur another word, the end call tone beeped. She stared at the phone in her hand, confused , and jumped when a text message came in almost immediately. As promised it was the phone number of a Barrister Bishop Ekanem esq.
What if it’s a scam and you just want to burn your credit for nothing? Yahoo yahoo boys will just use your brain to wash plate now…
Kate ignored the internal debate and dialled the number before she could change her mind. The call was picked on the second ring.
“Hello?”
The voice sounded deep and stately, filled with an authority that Kate could feel over the phone line. She sat down slowly and carefully introduced herself.
The next few minutes felt like a dream to Kate. She listened, stunned, as the lawyer informed her of the astounding news. The late Chief Bassey Itah was her father and he had apparently left the bulk of his wealth to her. All that was required was for her to travel to Akwa-Ibom, authenticate her identity and come into the millions that had been left to her name.
She was too stunned to speak clearly after that, and after a few false starts, begged to call the understanding lawyer after she had fully absorbed the news.
There was only one way to be sure.
Without any hesitation, Kate immediately made her shaky way to her mother’s bedside. That was where she would get answers she could believe.
**
One week later, Kate Udoh was on a bus, on her way to Akwa-Ibom and to meet Chief Bassey Itah’s lawyers and family.
Her mother had confirmed the claims. Kate had listened, stunned, as her sick mother whispered a story of old sins, and an illicit affair with the then-married Chief Bassey Itah. When Kate’s mother had gotten pregnant, she had happily broken the news to her lover, expecting him to divorce his wife and marry her as promised, but the chief had balked at the public scandal. He had attempted to pay her off, but heartbroken, she had refused his largesse and relocated to Lagos, staying with an aunt till she birthed Kate and then eventually married her late husband, Ekerette Benson, with whom she had Dennis and Mimi before he died in a ghastly accident, taking away her hope for a fresh start.
“Bassey was your father.” The sick woman had whispered, her hot hands trembling as they squeezed Kate’s own. “Forgive me for telling you your father was dead. I did not want you to experience the rejection I faced. Forgive me, please.”
Forgive me.
The words haunted Kate as the small Hiace bus hurtled on its way to her destiny. Of course she had assured her mother of forgiveness instantly, but a deep-seated anger still dwelled in her. How had her father never thought to look for her all these years? Her stepfather had been a kind and gentle man, but she had still felt that ache of never knowing her true father. Discovering he had been aware of her existence all this while was painful. She wished the Chief were still alive so she could ask him a few hard questions. What kind of father never looked for his child for 25 years? And now, she would never know him. They had missed that chance.
As the bus sped on, tears slid out from beneath Kate’s eyes. She had received her miracle, but it was a bittersweet one.
Click here for episode 3