And then came the waiting.
Chief Karim paced endlessly.
Latifah clasped her hands together and prayed.
Finally, a doctor appeared with an envelope.
Chief Karim opened it with shaking fingers.
His eyes moved across the page.
Then he cried out.
Not in pain.
In joy.
He turned and pulled Latifah into his arms, holding her so tightly she could feel his whole body shaking.
“It’s you,” he sobbed. “You are my daughter. My blood. My little star. You lived.”
Latifah broke into tears in his embrace.
“Father,” she whispered.
It was the first time she had ever spoken the word.
Mama Zanab, now sitting in a wheelchair nearby, covered her mouth and wept.
The doctor smiled softly. “It is a 99.9 percent match. She is your biological daughter.”
Seventeen lost years had ended in a hospital corridor.
Chief Karim knelt before Mama Zanab and took her hands.
“You saved my child,” he said. “I owe you everything.”
He refused to let either of them return to Ojoko.
Mama Zanab would receive the best care.
Latifah would never beg again.
Three days later, once the old woman was stable, a limousine arrived to take them to Chief Karim’s home.
Latifah could barely believe what she was seeing.
A massive gate.
A mansion with fountains and flower gardens.
Marble steps.
White pillars.
