[0:00]Uh-uh, this price is too much for these tomatoes. My sister, the market price has gone up. This sun is too much for my skin. I can't wait to leave the village. Eh, ya pele. We are almost home. Mama, look at me. Just look at me very well. Is this how a girl like me supposed to be living in this village with this face? Mirabel, what is wrong with you this morning? Everything is wrong, mama. Everything I woke up this morning and I looked at myself in that mirror and I almost cried, almost cried, mama. Because this beauty is being wasted. Completely wasted here. Wasted. K is beauty something you pour inside a bucket? You don't understand, my mate's mama. Chidima that left this village three years ago, she's in Lagos now posting pictures on Instagram, designer bag, lace wig, eating in big restaurants, and me, I'm just here watching goat cross the road every morning like it's a film. Why my mates are living large in Lagos becoming influencers for big brands? Me, I can't do this anymore. And you know how Chidinma is getting all those things? She's making it, she's living her life. Is that what they're calling it now, Mirabel, my daughter? In everything you do in this life, just know that contentment is key. They might be living large but do you know what they go through? Mama, please don't start. I'm serious. I'm too beautiful for this place. Even the boys here, they look at me with their dirty eyes and empty pockets. None of them can match what God put on my body. Mirabel, sit down. But, mama! I said sit. You think beauty is your passport, eh? You think because God gave you a fine face, the world will open its gate and bow down. It's not just my face, mama, it's everything, my shape, my skin, my carriage. Do you know what they call girls like me in Lagos? I don't want to know what they call them. Slay queen, influencer, big girl. That is what I should be. Not this. Not waking up every morning to pound yam. Mirabel, the road to Lagos is not a runway. You hear me? It is not a runway where you just walk and people clap. That road has swallowed children more beautiful than you and more intelligent than you and more confident than you. But, mama, I have not finished. I have not finished. You want to be a big girl, fine, but don't be faster than yourself. Don't let your eyes carry you to a place your legs are not ready to stand. Everything that shines in Lagos, somebody paid a price for it and some prices, Mirabel, once you pay them, God Himself cannot give you a refund. You always say this, mama. Because you never hear it. A child who refuses to hear will feel. I swear on my father's grave, I cannot do this again. Do what again? This... This waking up every day to the same red sand, the same market, the same people, the same everything. I'm suffocating. Mirabel, you're being dramatic. What's going on? I am not being dramatic. I am being honest. There is a difference. Look at me, favor. Look at me very well. Do I look like a girl that was created to suffer in Umunze? You look like a girl that hasn't swept her compound since Monday, but go on. Don't play with me today, please. I'm serious. I was on my phone last night watching these Lagos girls. They were at cocktail parties. Yachts, boutiques, hanging with senators and businessmen, trending on Instagram. And you know what most of them are doing to be on that yacht, right? Mirabel, you need to be very careful. Favor, don't be jealous. Me jealous of what exactly? Of course, girls that are living, not surviving, not managing, living. That's what I want. When I get to Lagos, I will become somebody. People already know your name here. That doesn't count. Everybody knows everybody here. I want strangers to know my name. I want to walk into a room and people will whisper that's Mirabel. I want to be the kind of woman men spend money to impress. The kind that other women study. The kind that ends up on the blogs for the wrong reason. Why are you being like this? I'm being like this because I know you, Mirabel. Since primary school, I know you. And I know that when you want something, your brain switches off completely and your eye just they go, go, go. And so, is wanting better things a crime? No, but Lagos is not a joke. My cousin Adeze went there with the same speech you're giving me right now. Same confidence, same beauty. You know what she's doing now? What? She called her mother last month crying. Couldn't even say what was happening to her, just crying. Her mother had to borrow money from three people to bring her back home. Adeze is not me. With all due respect to your cousin, I have something she doesn't have. What? This face, this body and sense. I'm not going there to fall into the wrong hands. I'm going there to build something. Mirabel, that sentence alone should frighten you. Nothing frightens me. I've been in this village too long to be afraid of anything. At least in Lagos, when things happen to you, they happen in style. Mama, what is this again? Watery plain rice and stew without fish or meat again? Third time this week, mama. I'm tired of all this poverty lifestyle. I wasn't meant for this kind of what you are. Eat your food. It is food. It will enter your stomach and do its work. It won't do any work on my skin though. What this kind of food does to a complexion like mine? It will fade me, mama. I have too much to lose sitting here eating my food. My friend, eat your food. I'm serious. A girl like me should be eating fresh fruit, salad, things with vitamins, not this. Then go and buy your salad and your vitamin. With what? With what money? That's exactly my point. There's nothing here for me. Nothing before this year ends, mama. I'm leaving this village. I swear it. I'm not spending another Christmas in Umunze. I refuse. I've lost my appetite. Then go and find it. But before you go, let me tell you something. Every girl who left this village chasing shine, not all of them found light. Some of them found fire, and fire does not care how beautiful you are before it burns you. Favor, come and see this thing. Come and see with your own eyes. I could not believe it with my own eyes. I was all night thinking about this. Like, how did this happen? What is it? Amanda Okafor. What about her? The girl I used to feed in SS Two, the one that used to borrow my clothes and return them smelling. I just saw her on Instagram. Omo, Amanda of yesterday is now a big Lagos socialite. Someone who used to smell. Wait, is this not the short dark one? The very one? The one God was not serious about when He was creating her. Look at her. I could not sleep last night because this girl is beneath me. Bowling. Dubai. 80,000 followers. Designer bag, big men. All of this in two years, Favor. Two years is something else, oh. Something else? I'm offended. I am personally offended. That girl used to eat my food. She used to wear my clothes. She had nothing. She has nothing. Have you seen her face closely? Have you? Mirabel, no. Look at it. Look at what God gave her and look at what God gave me. Now tell me what she has that I don't have. You're more beautiful than Amanda. Everybody knows that. Exactly. So how is she in Dubai and I'm in Umunze? It doesn't make sense. It's an insult. It's a direct insult to me. Like, how can she be living large while I'm still in this village? Okay, calm down. I will not calm down. And guess what? She saw my message. She's coming to the village next week and I told her I'm leaving with her. Okay, but just take it easy, small. You don't even know the full story yet. What story? The story is simple. Amanda went, Amanda made it. I am ten times what Amanda is. So I will go and I will make it ten times more. I hear you. I believe you. But just wait till she comes first. See her, hear what she's saying. Don't just jump. I'm not jumping. I'm simply taking what belongs to me. If that ordinary girl can be a socialite, then what am I waiting for? What have I been doing with myself in this village? Just cool down and think. I'm not saying don't go. I'm saying wait. See Amanda first. Hear the full thing before you pack your bag. My bag is already half packed in my mind. Mirabel, you're my friend, and I know you deserve good things. But just enter this thing with your eyes open. That's all I'm saying. My eyes have never been more open in my life. Two months, Favor. Give me two months in that city and nobody will ever remember Amanda's name again. Look at her. Just look at her smiling like she owns the world. Little Amanda that couldn't afford lunch in SS Two. This bag is Gucci, this one is Louis Vuitton. Where did you get the money, Amanda? Where did you get the connections? Because it's not your face that opened these doors. We both know that. But look at me. Look at this face. Look at this skin. God sat down for this one. He took his time. And I've been hiding it in this village like a fool. When I get to Lagos, every man that is currently running after Amanda will stop. They will stop and they will turn around because the moment I enter that city, everything will shift. I just need to get there. That's all. Just get there. I'll watch her, I'll study her. How she talks to them, how she moves, what she posts, what she doesn't post. Every secret Amanda has, I will learn it. I will take notes like a student and then I will graduate and leave the teacher behind. She thinks she's coming to this village to do me a favor. Amanda is actually coming here to hand me my destiny, and she doesn't even know it. Use me, no, my dear. I will use this opportunity. There's a difference. Two months. I said two months, and I mean it. By the time I'm done, Lagos will forget Amanda ever existed. The blogs will be writing my name. The big man will be calling my line, and Amanda will be calling my name. Just to get into the same room she used to carry me into. Everything you have, Amanda, I'm coming for all of it, and more, because you were never supposed to have it before me in the first place. Mirabel, the basket is on the table. Go and buy tomatoes, pepper, and the dry fish. Mama and Kechie owes me change from yesterday. Tell her I said, why is it always me, every single day? Because you are my daughter. Go in this sun. Look at this sun, mama. Look at it. It's dangerous. I can't wait to leave this village to the city so that maids would be doing all that for me because this is bad. The sun has been there since creation. It has never killed anybody going to market. It will damage my skin. I have sensitive skin, mama. You know this. Mirabel, take that bastard and start going before I damage something else for you. Tomatoes and pepper. That's what my life has become. A girl like me running market errands in this scorching sun like I don't have a future. This sun is not my friend at all. Not my friend. It's burning my skin. Amanda is probably in an air-conditioned room right now, smelling good, looking good. And I'm here collecting heat on my face like a market woman. No. Not for long. The moment Amanda lands in this village, I'm putting my bag in her car and I'm not looking back. I don't care about anything anymore. I just need to leave. Gosh, everything in this village irritates me. No good road, no better houses. It's all looking like poverty and I can't stand it. Fine girl, come. Me? Good afternoon, mama. What happened? How many fine girls are standing there? Come, I need to tell you something and you need to listen carefully. Okay, mama. I'm listening. Good. You are beautiful. Thank you, mama. But you already know that. That's not why I called you. I see something around you. A big future. But I also see a door. And on the other side of that door is everything you're dreaming of. But the door has a trap at the bottom of it. And if you enter in a hurry, you will not see the trap. You only feel it when it has already taken. What kind of trap? Greed. You want too much too fast, my daughter. And the people who will offer it, I know that. Your hunger is the key they will use to open you. Ma, I appreciate it, but I'm just a girl going to the market. I don't know what you've seen, but you have a friend coming. Someone from your past, someone who left with nothing and came back with everything. And you're looking at what she has and your eyes have turned red. How did you? Not everything that looks like a ladder is a ladder. Some things that look like they will lift you are only there to carry you somewhere you cannot return from. Your future is real. Your beauty is real. But let it build you slowly. Don't let greed turn your blessing into a transaction. Thank you, ma. I appreciate you. You heard me, but you haven't listened. I can see that too. I will pray for you anyway. That's all an old woman can do. Favor, this village will kill me. I'm telling you, it will physically kill me. What happened now? What happened? What happened? Look at my face. Look at it. I went to that market this afternoon under that wicked sun. And I could literally feel my skin burning, burning, Favor. Like something was peeling off layer by layer. You're exaggerating. I am not exaggerating. Touch my face. Okay. Let me feel. You'll be fine. Hitting me. And I walked through that market and everywhere I looked I saw lack. Small, small things. And I kept people and I think this cannot be my life. Okay, but what really happened? I can see something is on your mind. I met an old woman on the road. She was just sitting there selling garden eggs. She called me and I went and she started telling me things. What kind of things? She started talking about my future, about a big door, about greed. And then she started talking about Amanda, about someone coming from my past with things I want. Wow. And I'm standing there wondering, who told this woman my business? Who discussed me with this stranger? Because that was too specific, Favor. Too specific to be coincidence. Like someone was watching me. Maybe nobody told her anything. Then how did she know? Some people just know things. Old people especially. Maybe you should have listened to her properly because it might be a warning. I did listen. She talked about greed. That greed would destroy my future. That I should slow down and let things build gradually. All of that. And she's not wrong, Mirabel. You should just listen. But here's what annoys me. She's sitting on the roadside at her age selling garden eggs for what? 500 naira a tray? She's the one talking to me about greed. Maybe if she was greedy enough when she was young, she wouldn't be suffering in old age with nobody to help her. Maybe greed would have actually saved her. Mirabel, that's a terrible thing to say. Is it terrible or is it true? Look around this village, Favor. Every person who took it easy and didn't rush and let things come naturally, where are they? Right here. Same red sand, same kerosene lamp, same suffering. Taking it easy is what keeps people poor. And rushing is what keeps people in trouble. You can't just throw away what that woman said because it made you uncomfortable. It didn't make me uncomfortable. It just didn't apply to me. Mirabel, she knew about Amanda without you telling her. That alone should make you pause and think. Or it should tell me that my situation is obvious, that even strangers can see I'm a girl waiting for her way out. That's not what it means, and you know it. And you're just going to ignore everything that old woman said? Amanda is coming this weekend. That's all I know. That's all I'm focused on. I respect her. I genuinely do. But she spoke to me about greed from a place of lack. I want to hear that same speech from someone sitting in abundance. Then maybe it will make more sense to me.
[12:39]Amanda, your packing bag. Where are you going? Village. I want to see mama. I've not been back in almost two years. Okay, that's fine. I overheard your call last night about one Mirabel of a girl. I'm bringing Mirabel back with me. I'm sorry. My friend, back then, that we both went to primary and secondary school together, the one that is light skinned that helped me before, I told you about her. She needs my help. I know who Mirabel is, Amanda. That's why I said I'm sorry. Have you lost your mind? Don't start. Don't start. The same Mirabel that used to tell people you smell in school openly? We were children. The same Mirabel that used to collect your food and then laugh about you with her friends, the same afternoon? That Mirabel? The same person who called your daddy drunk? People change, Amanda. She called you ugly to your face more than once. I was there, I heard it with my two ears, and I felt pain on your behalf because you just smiled and walked away. Now you want to bring her into your house? She apologized, Glory. Of course she did. She saw your Instagram. She saw how you've been enjoying. And now, she suddenly needs your help. That's not fair. No. What's not fair is you carrying a girl who treated you like nothing to the life you suffered to build, Amanda. You didn't have it easy when you came to this Lagos. I was here. I saw everything. And now, because she sent you a sweet message, you want to open your door? She's my friend. We grew up together. I can't just leave her there. You don't have to bring her here. Send her money. Set up a small business for her in the village. Transfer alert and block. That one, I support completely. But bringing her here, showing her your connections, your contacts, your life, that's a different thing entirely. Glory, you're being too harsh. I'm being your friend, which is what I've always been, unlike some people. I just don't want you to go and do something with your kind hearts that will come back and scatter everything you've built. That's all. I hear you, I really do. But I've made up my mind. We're adults now. Whatever happened in secondary school stays there. If she tries anything funny, she'll meet a different Amanda. I'm not that girl anymore either. Mirabel, my baby! I'm already on the road, oh. I should be there by evening, God willing. I can't wait to see you. It's been so long. This village visit is overdue. And listen, don't worry about anything, okay? All this suffering, all this poverty talk. The moment I land, everything changes. I'm not coming empty handed. I never go anywhere empty handed. You know me. By the time we leave that village together, you will look back and laugh. You will laugh at everything that was stressing you. Because where you're going, the only thing you'll be thinking about is what to wear and where to go next. That village will become a distant memory, I promise you. Just be ready. Travel light. Leave everything else to me. Amanda has got you, okay? Trust me. You'll soon be called the Lagos baddie. Let me focus on this road now. I'll call you when I'm closer, eh? Okay, my love. Bye-bye. Oh my God, Amanda, is this really you, Mirabel, my baby? Amanda, wait. This glow up is too much. Just too much. This car alone. Is this the 2026 model? Latest one. Just got it two months ago after I got back from Dubai. God. And you, Amanda, you're tall now. How are you tall? You are not this tall in school. Look at you. Just look at you. Amanda, you are glowing. Your skin, you look like a whole celebrity. I am so, so, so happy for you. Stop now, you may shy. But honestly, Mirabel, I'm just glad to see you. Two long years. And as you can see, nothing has changed here. Everything is still the same. The same poverty, the same dust. I remember it very well. But before anything, Amanda, I need to say this to your face. What I did to you in secondary school, the things I said about you, calling you ugly, saying you smelled, all of it. It was horrible. I was a terrible person, and I'm so deeply sorry. You didn't deserve any of that. You were such a sweet girl, and I treated you like rubbish. Please forgive me, Mirabel. I told you on the phone already. I didn't take any of it to heart. Honestly, we were young. We were kids. I forgave you a long time ago. You have such a beautiful heart, Amanda. So tell me, how has life been treating you here, Amanda? What kind of life? Look at me. Look at what this village has reduced me to. You know me now. You know how I am. You know I wasn't built for this kind of suffering. Look at my complexion, look at my face. This beauty is going to waste here. I wake up every morning and feel like this village is swallowing me alive. I understand. Trust me, I do. I was in this same position before I left. If someone had refused to help me when I needed it, where would I be today? Someone did help you, and that someone was God, not Mirabel. Wait, before we talk about Lagos, what about Favor? Our Favor from school. Where is she? She's still around or she's married? Amanda, please don't let me start with that one. Why? What happened? Favor is here. Right here in this village. She has refused to leave. That girl has planted herself in this village like an Iroko tree, and she is not moving. But why? What's keeping her? Nothing is keeping her. That's the annoying part. Nothing. She just enjoys it. She enjoys the poverty. She enjoys the lack. She enjoys the suffering. I swear to God, Amanda, that girl hugs poverty like it's her boyfriend. She holds it tight like it's going to run away. She looks at suffering in the face and says, I'm fine. I don't understand. Her family, are they not struggling? Struggling? Her mother is selling groundnut on the roadside. Her younger siblings are sitting at home because nobody can pay their school fees. Their house is practically falling apart, and precious Favor is sitting there in the middle of all that disaster going to church, clapping her hands, singing praise and worship, talking about God will make a way. She didn't even try to leave. Try to do something. I talked to her, Amanda. I begged that girl. I said, Favor, look at yourself. You are a fine girl. God gave you face. God gave you body. God gave you everything. Use what you have. Let us find our way out of this place. You know what she said to me, Mirabel? I will not sell myself. I will wait on the Lord. His time is the best. She has been saying that since we left secondary school. And what has changed? Nothing. She prefers to stay in this God forsaken village and suffer rather than use what God Himself gave her to elevate herself and her family from poverty. Who does that? And this is right here is exactly why I don't roll with people like that. People like Favor, I can't keep them around me. I just can't. They love being backwards. They love it. Their thinking is backwards. Their mindset is backwards. Everything about them is backwards. The world is moving forward, and they are standing still. Holding their Bible, waiting for mana to fall from heaven. Mana finished in the Old Testament. We are in the real world now. Preach. Listen to me. Lagos will favor you. I mean that. You're beautiful. You're light skinned. You have the look. Men will love you. Doors will open. But you have to follow the rules. You have to listen. Lagos is not the village. It has its own system. Its own way of doing things. And if you want to make it, you have to listen. You have to learn. You have to move the way I tell you to move. No questions, no hesitation. And Amanda, sweet, foolish forgiving Amanda. She came here today looking like a whole new person. New face, new body. Everything new. But I'm not stupid. I know what happened. I know that girl has gone under the knife. There is no way that the Amanda I knew in secondary school, that dark skinny, rough looking girl, would just wake up one day and became what I saw today. No, that's not natural. That's not glow up. That is surgery. That is doctor's work. That is money buying beauty. She fixed her nose. I can tell. The nose is different. Would just just wake up one day and became what I saw today. No. That's not natural. That's not glow. The hips, the shape, everything. She bought it. She went to some clinic in Lagos and she purchased that body. And then she has the audacity to come back here stepping out of a big car wearing designer smelling like money. Looking like something I was never born to be. And I'm supposed to be grateful. I'm supposed to be the one saying thank you. If ugly Amanda, the same Amanda who couldn't even look at people in the eye in school. This is the same Amanda who used to eat my leftover lunch and say, thank you, Mirabel. God bless you, Mirabel. The same Amanda who people used to avoid because of how she looked. If that Amanda can go to Lagos, get surgery, buy beauty, attract rich men and live this kind of life. Then what do you think will happen when Amirabelle get there? Me, with this natural beauty, with this real body, with this complexion that God gave me free of charge. What do you think will happen? I'll tell you what will happen. Those men, those rich Lagos men, those big boys with the money and the cars and the houses. The ones who have been chasing Amanda, the ones who have been spending on her, buying her bags and shoes and taking her on trips. Those same men, the moment they see me, the moment I walk into any room in Lagos, they will forget Amanda. They will forget her face, name. They will forget she even exists. They won't just chase me. No, chasing is what they do with regular girls. Men who Amanda has been bending over backwards to impress. Those same men will get on their knees and beg me. Get Mirabel to Sydney with them because there is levels to beauty. Amanda is surgery. Amanda doesn't know who she's bringing to Lagos. She has no idea. I give it three months, maybe four. By then, I will know everyone she knows. I will have met every man she has met. I will understand how everything works. And then, the real show begins. Amanda had her turn. She enjoyed it. She played the main character for two years. But every show needs a new star eventually. And this star, this star has been hiding in a village in Umunze, waiting for her moment. Amanda, my blood. Come here, mama. Ah, look at my daughter. Look at what God has done. You are glowing. Ah. My enemies are in trouble. The daughter they said would amount to nothing is standing here shining like gold. Mama, don't cry now. These are tears of joy, my daughter. Let them flow. Do you know how long I have waited to see you? Do you know how many nights I sat in this parlor looking at that door praying that one day you would walk through it again? And here you are. I've missed you so much, mama. I've missed you more. Sit down. Are you hungry? I made your favorite Often salad with fresh fish. The fish is big, oh. I went to the market myself this morning when I heard you were coming. Let me go out, mama. Sit down first. We'll eat. But let me just sit with you for a moment. Let me just breathe this house. This chair, your face. I've missed all of it, my daughter. So you went to see her. I couldn't believe it when I heard, mama. Mama, you went to see that Mirabel girl, like that same girl. Why would you do such a thing? How did you come about that thought? Yes, mama. I went, and we talked, and we discussed. And you are taking her to Lagos, mama. Mama, I told you about this on the phone. Amanda, have you lost your senses? Have you forgotten what that girl did to you? Mama, please calm down. Don't tell me to calm down. That same Mirabel is the one who made your life a living hell in secondary school. She called you ugly to your face in front of other students. She told people that you smelled. She told the whole school that your father was a drunk. Your father, my husband, a man who was struggling, a man who was fighting his own demons. And that evil little girl took his pain and turned it into gossip for the whole school to chew. I know, mama. I remember. You remember? You remember? Then why are you doing this? You remember how you used to come home crying? You remember how you used to beg me not to send you back to that school? You remember the day you came home and said, mama, am I ugly? Do you know what that question did to me? My daughter, my beautiful daughter, asking me if she's ugly because one wicked girl put that poison in her head. That same girl calls you, says sorry, I was childish, and you open your arms? You open your home? You drive all the way from Lagos to carry on your head? Amanda, are you a fool? Ama, I am not a fool, and Mirabel, she's not the same person anymore. People change. She has changed. She apologized. She was sincere. I could see it in her eyes. She's been suffering here, mama. This village has not changed her. Amanda, listen to your mother. Listen carefully. That girl has not changed. The only thing that has changed is your situation. You are doing well now. You have money. You have you have a life in Lagos. And that girl, she saw your pictures on Instagram. She saw your life. And instead of being happy for you, instead of celebrating you from afar, she did what wicked people do. She calculated. She planned. She figured out how to get close to you again. And that apology that I was childish, that is not remember strategies. Mirabel genuinely wants a better life. She's struggling. I was once in that same position. If someone had refused to help me when I needed it, where would I be today? Someone did help you, and that someone was God, not Mirabel. So, are you guys leaving this morning? No, mama. Amanda will be coming to pick me up later this evening. But I've packed my bags, and I'm ready. Sit. Eat before you go. I made akamu. My stomach is too excited to eat, mama. Your eyes are hungry, and your heart is the one that worries me. When you get to Lagos, don't be greedy. That city will show you things that will make your eyes open wide. Don't take what is yours quietly. Be patient. Because greedy people don't last. They rise fast and fall faster. Ma, that proverb is exactly what has kept this family in poverty. That same don't rush, wait for your turn, is why you've been sitting in front of this firewood for 30 years. Somebody has to break the cycle. There is a difference between ambition and greed. Mirabel, look at Amanda. Mama, that girl was not fine. She was not attractive. I used to give her my lunch because I felt sorry for her. Today she drove into this village in a 2026 model, wearing designer from head to toe. If she can do it, why are you afraid for me? You are bitter about it, Mirabel. Bitterness and motivation feel exactly the same in the chest. Only time shows you which one it really was. I will not beg you to stay. I'm not bitter. I'm motivated. You are a grown woman. But hear me, and hear me well. Amanda came back here for a reason. People don't drive from Lagos to this village out of kindness alone. Find out what that reason is before you give that girl your whole trust. Mama, I'll be fine. Come back to me. Whatever happens in that city, just come back to me. Home. If it's too much for you, I'll always be here to welcome you. This is your home. So, today is the day. Today is the day. Amanda is coming by afternoon. I just came to say goodbye properly. How was it with your mama this morning? You know how she is, warnings, proverbs, greet this, patience that, same mama. She loves you. I know Amanda asked about you yesterday. Really? What did she say? She said she doesn't understand girls who are content with lack, that some people see opportunity and deliberately look away, that it's a mentality problem. She was basically describing you. Amanda said that about me? Her words, not mine. That doesn't sound like Amanda at all. The Amanda I knew was quiet, gentle. She wouldn't say something like that about somebody she barely knew. People change, Favor. Lagos changes people. All those surgeries and fillers she's done has removed the softness in her. The girl we knew is not who came back in that car yesterday. That's a bit harsh now. But it's true. We all know Amanda was not a fine girl. Back then, I used to wonder what men even saw in her to give her such attention. Now I know. It was surgery. It was fillers. It was manufactured everything. She literally bought a new face and a new body. Mirabel, I'm not saying anything that isn't true. If you see Amanda yesterday, she was looking all butch everywhere. And her body is fillers upon fillers. You're talking about someone who came all the way from Lagos to take you with her. Someone who is trying to help you, and this is how you're speaking about her? Not ungrateful. I'm just being honest. Amanda is not naturally beautiful. And already you're sitting here pulling her apart before you even get there. It's just us talking. And besides, I've been this way with her since school. I just fake the change. And she believed that makes it worse, not better, Favor. You're too sensitive. And you're too careless with your words, with people, with everything. If you can sit here and talk about Amanda like this, someone doing something good for you, wonder what you say about me when I'm not there. Just go to Lagos and be good. Stop looking at what Amanda has or doesn't have naturally. Focus on yourself, please. I'll give you a call when I get there. Amanda, I can't believe I'm finally doing this. I'm finally leaving that place. How does it feel? Like I've been in prison and someone just opened the gate. So tell me, the big men, the Dubai trips. How fast can all that happen? Why are you in a hurry? Because I've been waiting long enough. I want to start living, Amanda. Properly living. I want to meet the right people. I want to fly out, be seen. Mirabel, slow down. It doesn't work the way you're thinking. Lagos is not just where you come to today and shine today. There are rules. What do you mean? Fine body and fine face will only take you to the door. It won't open it for you. There are things you must do. Are things you must learn, things you must be willing to go through before any of that life becomes yours. Like what things? You'll understand when we get there. Just follow my lead and don't be in a rush. Rushing is how girls make expensive mistakes in that city. I hear you. Good. Trust the process. Trust the process. Trust your process, you mean. I see what you're doing, Amanda. You want me close but not too close. You want me grateful but not too powerful. You want a fine girl on your arm to make you look better by association. A lap dog. That's what you're looking for. Don't worry, play your game. The moment my feet touch Lagos ground, the city will know something different just arrived. The big men you're managing, they'll be calling my line. The doors you're opening with surgery and fillers, I'll walk through them with what God gave me for free. You brought the queen to the city, Amanda. You just don't know it yet. Very soon you'll know my true intentions. Amanda, you're right. I'll follow your lead completely. I will do everything you ask of me. Good girl.
