Later that week, Jeff called from abroad. Mabel immediately tried to poison his mind.
“Fire that Angela girl,” she said. “I don’t like her.”
Jeff was tired of her complaints. “She is doing her job. That’s what matters.”
Mabel’s pride took the hit hard, but she kept plotting.
Then disaster struck Angela.
One night her mother collapsed at home, sweating and struggling to breathe. Angela rushed her to the hospital, terrified. After tests, the doctor called her aside.
“Your mother needs urgent surgery,” he said gently. “Without it, she may not survive the week.”
Angela’s blood turned cold. “How much?”
“Five million naira.”
The number hit her like a blow.
She walked out of the doctor’s office in a daze and sat on a hospital bench, crying into both hands.
“God, please help me. Where will I get five million?”
The next day she went to work late, her eyes swollen from crying. Mabel pounced on her immediately.
“So this is the time you’re coming?”
Angela tried to explain. “My mother is very sick. I took her to the hospital.”
Mabel hissed, “And is that my business? Let her go and join your poor father in hell for all I care.”
Angela felt something in her break, but she swallowed it and went to Papa James.
He noticed her face at once.
“What’s wrong, my child?”
