Only time will tell if she will be able to pick up the pieces after a man whom she fell in love with and trusted so deeply misled her.
After getting off the plane, Nia retrieved her luggage. Waiting at the arrival gate were her parents. She hugged them, and the three drove off to her parents' home. She did not have the strength to carry on a conversation with them; she was quiet and too embarrassed to discuss what had taken place overseas. There would be plenty of time for that conversation. Now, Nia had more time than she had money.
Her mother inquired as to how her flight went; she answered, "It was okay." Her father, who was never at a loss for words, was silent throughout the ride.
It seemed as though it took forever for the family to arrive home. The trip from the airport usually took about fifteen minutes. Nia thanked her parents for being there. Her mother had prepared her daughter's bedroom.
Exhausted from the long flight, Nia decided to take a shower, then went straight to bed and relentlessly thought about Toto's dishonesty.
The replay of those events kept rotating in her head until she finally fell asleep.
It was morning, and Nia heard a knock at her bedroom door. It was her mother asking if she wanted to come down for breakfast, but she knew what her parents really wanted to do; they wanted to discuss what occurred in Gabon. Since she never really went into any details about Toto, she was perplexed as to what she was going to say to them.
All her parents knew was that their daughter had met a rich businessperson who lived in a foreign country, and she was going to marry him.
Nia was very close to her parents who worked hard to obtain the American dream. Her mother was a dressmaker and worked from home, and her father was a bookkeeper at a department store. On the side, he prepared income taxes. He was a frugal person and was not one to waste money on frivolous things. Every penny he earned went into a bank account.
When he accumulated enough money, he purchased a home for his family and sent both of his children to college. Nia majored in finance and her brother in biochemistry.
The son was a scientist at a pharmaceutical company and resided in Colorado with his wife and four children.
Nia's father was very proud of his adult children, because he saw a little bit of himself in them. He always taught them the value of a dollar, stressed that money did not grow on trees and if managed wisely, one could be self-sufficient and live a comfortable existence.