28 days in Christmas Town✔

Prologue

  Growing up for me wasn't like everyone else's. My whole life could be summed up possibly within three minutes but it didn't become tumultuous until I was 8. At that age, I watched my mother groom my older sister, Sarah into the celebrity supermodel that she is right now.  With only two years between us, Sarah was mom's favorite. She was very thin, had an angelic beauty and a flawless skin that I grew up envying. Mom was able to spot her talent. 

Within a year, mom had taken Sarah into enough beauty pageants and made her model for kids' products even at a young age.  I could tell that Sarah loved the attention and she fit right well into it.

I grew up staying at the background, watching everything from afar and wishing I could be part of their world. Mom did try to make me be a part of it but unlike Sarah, I wasn't skinny enough to fit any criteria, my looks weren't unique like Sarah's beauty, and according to the agency I tried to enter,  everyone looked like me, Pretty but not pretty enough.

By the time I was 14, the difference between my body's evolution became distinct compared to that of 14 year old Sarah.  I was a cup size too big and my waist wasn't narrow enough for anything, mom instantly gave up hopes of me being a model and I was cast aside.

   Dad was a busy man and he worked tirelessly to keep up with mom's busy life and her preference of being Sarah's manager. I rarely got to see him as a teenager but it wasn't as severe as my mother's absence from my life.

When I was 10 years old and ready for secondary school,  I was sent away to a distant boarding school in Ibadan. Mom had Sarah home schooled to catch up with Sarah's career that was inching closer to stardom and she  successfully got into a modelling agency in England, migrating there while I struggled to find my place in my family.

    After I had completed my secondary school education, I received the shock of my life when my parents informed me of their impending divorce.  According to them, they were too different to cope in the same home and had drifted apart over the years.  Dad wanted to work less and take care of his health because he had a stroke scare a year earlier while Mom wanted to concentrate on Sarah's modelling career since she was Sarah's manager and  she couldn't do that if she were still married, especially when Sarah now lived in England. 

Here I was listening to my parents excuses on why they needed to leave and not once did they speak about me and it broke my heart.  The divorce was finalized less than a year and my dad had full custody of me while mom had full custody of Sarah.

    After the divorce whilst I was still in university, I had to divide my time between my days I spent at my parents' separate houses. I spent the summer holidays with my dad and Christmas/new year at mom's house whenever she came to Nigeria. But as each year went by,  I spent less and less time with mom during Christmas. Sarah had already turned into a famous model to be reckoned with and Mom stood by her side all the way,  transforming her into Sarayah; the new name she had taken up to match her rising stardom as compared to a simple name like Sarah. Mom travelled round the world with the now renamed Sarayah and missed enough Christmas holidays in Nigeria with me.

    I remember a particular year where I spent a Christmas alone in mom's big house. It was the loneliest Christmas for me and a turning point that made me realize that I wasn't a priority to her at all.

    My aunt Carole became my mother figure towards the later part of my years in university and years after that. She was my mom's immediate younger sister and  voluntarily took me in,  raising me alongside her own children. With time,  I had already lost contact with my mom even when she relocated back to Nigeria  and only knew of stories of my famous sister and my mom; her now-ex manager, through the television and magazines.

    My father, on the other hand, had found happiness after his divorce from mom. Within three years, he had found love in the arms of Onyeka Dikeh. He had met Onyeka in the unlikeliest of all places and sparks began to fly upon meeting each other.  My father had remarried at the age of fifty within a short period of knowing Onyeka and I had never been happier for anyone like I felt for him. Onyeka was fourteen years younger than he was and I had no reservations against her since she was a genuinely good person. Unfortunately they couldn't have kids together due to Onyeka's infertility issues but it didn't stop them from being happy with each other. Presently they had been married for a decade and I willingly stepped back letting them focus more on their marriage than on me.

     Sarayah had become a national icon within the short years and became a household name in the entertainment industry. She wrapped up her successful life by marrying British-Nigerian footballer Nosa Timothy and presently have a three year old son Colin that they never get tired of showing off to the world.

    I had cleaned up my act, studied journalism in the prestigious University of Lagos and finished with a hard earned 2 : 1 in my degree. I had my masters abroad and came back to Nigeria when I was done with it, concentrating more on my time consuming career. My love life was another tragic down turn. My hectic job as a travel photojournalist and a lifestyle columnist in a highly ranked magazine company made it hard for me to have time for romance and relationships.

    So here I was, 28 and yet physically exhausted, sitting in my office with my hair tied in a messy bun, wearing my reading glasses and hurriedly typing my article so I could meet my deadline; when the editor's secretary abruptly walked in, informing me that the editor, who's also my boss, was asking to see me in his office.

    I pulled off my glasses, following the secretary while fearing for my possible doom that awaits in the office.

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Welcome to my new book 28 days in Christmas town. I don't know how you got here but I do hope you enjoy Abbie's story like I do