Chapter 28: Promises

Now.

McKenna had always wondered why he had simply stopped trying to get back together with her for almost two and half years and now she knew. It was because of Kara. Jason had chosen Kara over her and she had no idea how to feel about it. 

McKenna pushed the disturbing thoughts to the back of her head. They had a jet to catch and a new stepdaughter to meet. Yay!

Jason and McKenna raced to the airport to catch a flight to Malawi on their private jet. Jason kept looking at her wristwatch.

"We will get there on time, Jason"

"I hope so. I promised Kara I will be there for her presentation. I can't be the father that breaks his word to his little girl"

"We will make it"

But Jason knew he was not going to make it in time. He hated that his kid was in another country and her mother won't let her come to Nigeria until she was thirteen years old. He wondered what Kara was doing in that moment.

******

Kara stared out at the open space. She knew he would be there soon. Her father was coming to watch her give her speech on who her role model was. It was a school assignment on legends a child show should emulate. She chose her grandmother.

Elixir Yagazie was a legend and she was her granddaughter.

Her teacher had argued with her about it. Legends were supposed to be dead not alive but nothing would dissuade her. Kara knew who she was and she had insisted. She might be six years old but she was a Yagazie. And Yagazie's always get what they want.

Her blue eyes darted around the auditorium. No daddy, she registered. She was supposed to meet her new mother today; she even wore a dress to impress her. Kara hated dresses. She was a self proclaimed tomboy.

She could see her birth mother in the crowd cheering her. It was hard not to see, Naya Reese whose real name was Chloe Cleopatra Whitmore was the only white person in the auditorium. It was how Kara got her blue eyes. She was the only brown skinned kid in Malawi that had blue eyes.

"Next, we have Kara Hope Yagazie with her essay titled my legendary Grandma"

She could hear applause as her legs unwilling moved to the podium. She was the youngest in her class since she skipped a grade for being too smart.

She smiled when she saw her grandma walk inside the Auditorium. She didn't look like a grandmother; Elixir was gorgeous and young like a boss… still no daddy.

"My name is Kara Hope Yagazie; I am here to talk about my grandma as a legend....."

People listened with rapt attention to her. It was her superpower, the ability to make people listen without trying.

Towards the end, the whole auditorium was cheering. Grandma was smiling proudly at her.

Kara walked back to her seat. She had no smile on her face. When she saw no one was watching, she picked her backpack and she slipped away.

Kara walked along the lonely dusty road. She wasn't supposed to. A lot of people wanted to hurt her father and the only way they can was through her. She was six but she knew Jason Yagazie adopted her when she was two and half years old.

The first time they met, she was hiding under his bed while he slept like a log of wood and not very boss like. She had touched his toes and her father told her, she had called him a Giant. The rest they say was history.

It didn't occur to Kara until it was too late. She had run away from school without informing an adult. If that doesn't get the attention of the most powerful man in Africa then nothing else will.

*************

"Fudge! We are late. We missed Kara's presentation" Jason wanted to kick himself.

McKenna squeezed his hand gently. They were in the family's jet and a few minutes away from the Orphanage and Kara's school.

"We will be there soon enough. She is just six years old and six years old are very forgiving" McKenna reassured him.

"Not this one! She made me take away her phone privilege when she failed a math question out of ten. She is bossy and mean. She is like a mini me" Jason had a look on his face. It was like he loved that about Kara.

"We are here" McKenna told him and grabbed her handbag.

Soon, they were in a car going to Nsanje, a remote village in Malawi. Jason's phone rang and he picked up.

"I am sorry but I think you said Kara is missing?" Jason had an angry look. He placed the call on speaker for McKenna's benefit.

"She was here one minute and the next she was gone" Naya explained over the phone.

"How long has she been missing for?"

"About an hour… I have looked everywhere"

"Naya! My kid has been gone for an hour and you didn't tell me? I swear, if your psycho ex-husband abducted my daughter, there is no army on this planet earth that will stop me from snapping his neck!" Jason hung up and spoke to the driver.

"Thokozani, stop the car. I am driving!"

Jason took over the wheels and arrived at the orphanage half the time he was supposed to.

His mother and baby mama was there waiting with poignant faces.

"Where is she?" He asked as soon as he came down from the car.

"We don't know. We are organizing a search party" Elixir told her son.

"I will find her myself!" He muttered and left.

The search went on for another hour. McKenna was becoming apprehensive. The statistics wasn't in their favor. She remembered the room Jason saved Kara from burning alive. It was a good place to start.

She asked one of the orphans she saw about Jason's old room in the Orphanage and she pointed to a door in front of her.

McKenna noticed that the room looked unoccupied and she pushed it open. She could hear a whimper from a corner. McKenna moved closer.

"Hey" She whispered to the six year old "You must be Kara. It's nice to meet you"

The child wiped her face.

"Who are you? How did you find me?"

"I am McKenna.. I am your father's wife. And this is where you met your father"