In this article, I will be telling you the continuation of the story that is titled "Why Praying Mantis Still Shakes".

  One day, Crocodile went to visit the farm for the last time before the great event. He saw that nearly all the yams has been uprooted, crocodile then ordered for the search of the thief. The search of thief immediately.

  A week passed, two weeks followed, weeks turned into month. Yet the thief was not identified and all the yams began to disappear from the farm. Finally the crocodile decided to lay traps on the farm. The leopard knew nothing about the trap until he fell in to one.

  The leopard became sad and knew that they rest of the animals will identify him before day breaks. The sun began to rise and the leopard lost all hope. His eyes were full of tears. 

  Then he saw the first person coming from far away.......

Watch out for part 3.

Sarah grew up without her biological mother, as her mother died a few hours after she was born. Her father Mr. Onuwa hated her from birth because her presence reminded her of the death of his beloved wife.

The man had wished Sarah had died at birth instead of his wife. Mr. Onuwa hated his daughter but he tried hard to conceal his emotions as Sarah was only a child and it made no sense to hate a child as young as Sarah. 

Soon, Mr. Onuwa remarried and there Mrs. Rebecca automatically became Sarah's stepmother. Sarah was only 6 months old when her father married Rebecca, The beautiful lady fell in love with Sarah the first time she held her in her arms and as time goes on, she took Sarah as her child.

5 years later, everything changed when Rebecca gave birth to her daughter.

Who Mr. Onuwa named Ngozi

 Soon, The love Rebecca once felt for Sarah decreased, and soon after, Sarah's father died of a heart attack.

Many years later, Sarah was 17 years old when he met a handsome young man named Dozie, At the time, Dozie was 20 years old.

The young man had graduated from college and was looking everywhere for a good job, so he could further his education

They both appeared to be in love but their story turned sour when something unplanned happened.

One day Sarah fell very ill and her stepmother found her vomiting 

"When last did you see your period" Rebecca asked at once 

"Last month" Sarah managed to say

"Oh my goodness this girl has put me into a lot of trouble, I have been responsible for you ever since your late father married me, and then he left me to cater for you and your sister, I have tried my best to treat you well but I see that you are a cursed child that's why you are not only an orphan but a shameless and useless girl, how can I tell your late father's brother how you got PREGNANT under my roof?" Rebecca barked.

At the mention of the word "Pregnant", Sarah's heart skipped a beat. She was terrified as she recalled the intimate moment she had with Dozie.

Dozie's younger sister, Sandra, was also her best friend and she had only visited her friend when she meet her absence, but she meet her lover Dozie..alone, soon Dozie convinced her to stay a little longer.

" Sandra would be back soon...Today is February 14th...It's Valentine's Day, it's lovers day, I have been alone all morning... Why should I be alone, when I have you?" Dozie entered and Sarah had listened in smiles.

"Happy Valentine's Day Dozie," she said lovingly

And Dozie responded by walking closer to where she sat.

They have been dating secretly for 3 months and they had kissed a lot.

That day, one thing led to another, they had sex for the first time and after some weeks Sarah was showing Pregnancy symptoms.

When Sarah got out of her thoughts, She was so afraid that she couldn't look into her Step Mother's eyes. How could she explain that she made out with a boy?

That same day, Sarah's Stepmother took Sarah to the clinic where she was declared pregnant.

Rebecca was confused as she had no idea of what to do. Yes, she loved her biological daughter, Ngozi..more but over the years Sarah had also been a part of her life and her responsibility.

She knew that people would blame her for not bringing Sarah up in the right way, she was always at the restaurant and paid no attention to Sarah.

When they got home, Rebecca asked 

"Who is responsible for your pregnancy?" 

But Sarah was still afraid to respond.

Rebecca gave her 24hours to bring home whoever got her pregnant.

And Sarah nodded still in fear as she thought that her stepmother would beat her up if she disobeyed.

The next day, Sarah meet up with Dozie and she revealed the fact that she was pregnant for him 

And right there, Dozie replied "this pregnancy is a big mistake, yes. I love you so much but I'm not ready to father any child. My grandmother warned me, I wished I listen to her, this is exactly what ruined my late father's life, he got our mother pregnant and he left all his dreams to become a family man, he died when my sister was born and do you know what my so-called mother did, she abandoned us in this village to live with our paternal grandmother and my old grandmother had singlehandedly raised us.... for the past 10 years, we haven't laid our eyes on our mother" 

Sarah was confused by the story that Dozie shared. And became speechless while he continued "I'm not ready for this absurdity, I am only 20 years old and I can't even provide for myself talk much of you and a baby, please Sarah don't ruin my life, see if you call my name I will deny you, after all, no one knew about us not even Sandra"

Before Sarah could protest Dozie had walked away.

Hot tears rolled down Sarah's eyes, as she walked back home, her thoughts were suicidal as she remembered that her stepmother had given her 24 hours to present the man responsible for her pregnancy.

As she got home, she went straight to the kitchen and reached out for the liquid soap that was on the top of the Kitchen sink, she had one aim and that was to end her miserable life.

Ever since she was a little girl her late father REMINDED her CONSTANTLY that she was responsible for her mother's death.

"Your mother would have been alive if you were never born"

And when her father died as well, her stepmother would say out of provocation "That she was cursed and that no wondered she was an orphan"

Dozie's last words worsen everything as she felt like she was not good enough, she felt like she was a burden, and like she was cursed.

Just as she was about to sip the liquid soap, her stepmother walked in and stopped her.

"Sarah, what did you think you want to do? You want to drink that soap, do you want to die?" Rebecca asked and Sarah began to sob.

"Dozie rejected my pregnancy, he is not ready to father a child" Sarah responded in tears 

"Who is Dozie? " Sarah's Step Mother asked

"Sandra's elder brother, he rejected me and threatened to deny me if I call him out" Sarah responded as her stepmother shook her head in pity.

"I wish you didn't mess up your life, I wish you were a good girl, you have suffered a lot, and I feel pity for you, see I have a plan and this plan would save you from shame and insults" Rebecca entered.

Sarah listened attentively as her stepmother whispered into her ears.

When she was done whispering, Sarah's tears stopped but she stared at her stepmother in confusion.

"This is the only way my child, this is the only way to save us both from shame and insults, " Rebecca added

"But he is way too older than me, Chief Maxwell would be around 50 years old while I'm only 17, I can't marry him, he is an old man" Sarah objected.

"Chief Maxwell is Rich, yes I know that he is older than you but he is never married, you are 17 years but that doesn't mean that you are a saint, you had unprotected sex and got pregnant. When you are supposed to be preparing for your Jamb exams, you are even ready to kill yourself, so I saved your life, you have to listen to me or else, I will turn my back on you" Mrs. Rebecca said with a straight face.

"Chief Maxwell is too old to be my husband, I prefer death, it's either I kill myself Alongside my unborn child or go for an abortion" Sarah entered.

"Come on keep quiet, I am not in support of your crazy ideas, the doctor at the clinic said that your pregnancy is a high-risk pregnancy, you may die while aborting it, you should be very careful..well I won't take my eyes off you...Marry Chief Maxwell is the best option for you, the man is so rich that he could fly you abroad to have your baby, I knew him for many years, he is a good man" Mrs. Rebecca suggested 

"If he is a good man, why is he unmarried?" Sarah asked at once

"Because he is impotent" Mrs. Rebecca replied and Sarah was stunned. And Mrs. Rebecca continued

"People don't know, he told me himself... yesterday when we were returning from the clinic, he saw us and when he came to my restaurant today, we had a long conversation, and we told each other everything and he agreed to be the father of your child, he even saw you crying on the way today and he called me on the phone, to go and check on you and that's why I'm here by this time of the day, you know I'm always busy at this time, its either I'm cooking or I'm attending to customers... Please my child think about it, forget about the little boy that got you pregnant because he is not going to change his mind, Chief maxwell is doing us a favor. And you are also doing him a Favour by giving him a child, he said if you bore him a son, he would will all his properties to you" 

And Sarah was surprised, and she began to think about the proposal.

The next day she agreed.

In a few days, their wedding was fixed and Dozie was surprised.

He thought Sarah had gotten rid of their child and somehow he felt guilty about the situation as he couldn't understand why Sarah was getting married to an old man.

The wedding day came and Sarah got married to Chief Maxwell.

And after the wedding they lived together in Chief maxwell's mansion, a lot of good things were in store for Sarah if she delivered a baby boy.

Chief Maxwell had promised her a lot and she was joyful.

The old man pampered her all through her pregnancy and he never for a day maltreated her.

"My niece is also pregnant like you, and I had always wanted to will all I had to my niece and her unborn baby, but I am married to you now, so I will turn this to a little competition," The old man said in smiles.

"I am going to will almost all I have to a boy child, and I hope you give birth to a boy my dear"

And Sarah smiled.

As her pregnancy grew she was so nervous as wondered if she was having a male or female child.

She fell into labor exactly 40 weeks of pregnancy, lo and behold she was so disappointed when she delivered a baby girl.

End Of Episode 1

To be Continued

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