50-FIFTY

Marcus, a young man with a smooth tongue and a reckless habit, talked a close friend into staking eighty thousand naira on a bet that collapsed before the first whistle. When his father Chief Afamefuna died, grief and inheritance landed on the same day; Marcus stood in the family sitting room and told his mother Angelina he would take over the company, and she reminded him sharply that four countries had already deported him. Before the dust could settle, his uncle Udenna stormed in from Cameroon, declared himself head of the family, and began ordering everyone around as if the estate already belonged to him. Udenna even pressed a strange offer on Angelina: marry him, he said, and they would share Afam's property fifty-fifty. She rejected him with a disgust that could boil soup, and her friend sent for the family lawyer to read the will. By the terms of that will, the mansions, cars, and businesses went to Angelina while the remaining houses and village land went to Marcus; Udenna shouted that the village land had been a personal gift to him from his brother. Two young relatives, the sisters Ifeoma and Udoka, had arrived with Udenna, and they wasted no time turning the compound into their own marketplace. Ifeoma sold off a television and a car battery, then tried to coax Marcus into surrendering the land documents, and finally brought a stranger to buy the family house while Angelina was out. Angelina walked in at the worst moment and caught the deal red-handed, a furious confrontation erupted, and Marcus, standing uselessly by, earned his mother's harsh verdict: a useless shouter. Into this mess came Ngozi, the sisters' mother, who had been missing for fifteen years and returned in an expensive car, carrying money and apologies. Ifeoma in particular spat at her, but Ngozi begged for forgiveness and explained that she had hustled abroad to build them a better life; she bought a new family house, and with her father's relucta…