Chapter 1: The Elopement
Before Mary ever took her first breath, a decision was made that would shape the course of her entire life. It began with two young hearts, beating wildly against tradition.
Her parents came from different backgrounds, but shared one thing in common—an unshakable love. It was the kind of love people whispered about, the kind families disapproved of. The pressure from their communities became unbearable. The rules, the expectations, the boundaries-they felt too tight, too cold, too wrong.
So, they ran.
Hand in hand, they left behind everything familiar. With nothing more than clothes in a bag and dreams in their chest, they fled to Lagos, a sprawling city of noise, sweat, and endless possibility. It wasn't a fairy tale. Life there was hard. The streets were crowded, the nights long, the mornings uncertain.
They slept in cramped rooms. They worked jobs no one else wanted. They learned to survive in a place that never stopped moving. But they had each other. And that was enough.
For fifteen years, they lived in Lagos—through struggle and small victories. They built a life on trust and grit, not comfort. They made friends. They lost some. They argued. They made up. But every day, they chose to stay together.
Still, something in them longed for home—for the red soil of Taraba State, for the hills and silence, for family ties stretched but not broken. They had left in rebellion. Now they were ready to return in peace.
And so, they came back.
Not as runaways, but as builders of a new chapter. They carried with them a story already full of courage, sacrifice, and love—and they were about to begin the next one.
It would start with a house. Then children. And in time, a little girl named Mary.