ONE month later, Tina managed to settle down in the small apartment she had rented and started a job as a salesgirl in a grocery store. She felt so alone, missing Mother Laila, with an ache in her heart still for the old lady. She heard nothing from Suraj, as though she no longer existed for him. Then, one day, Sunil saw her in the market and told her, “Suraj is in Paris, enjoying his life.”

“And why yuh had to tell me dat?”
He had laughed a little and walked on, uncaring if what he said had hurt her. And it did, for it would take some time for her to overcome Suraj’s betrayal.
She lay sleepless in bed many nights, unsure of what the future held for her. Those were the nights when she remembered Mother Laila’s words, “Yuh ah wan good gyal, and something good gon happen fuh yuh.”

Tina tried not to dwell on the old lady’s sentimental words because, so far, life had not been kind to her.
“Ah wish ah knew how something good could happen fuh meh.”
At the start of the new month, she received a letter from a lawyer’s office. She was requested to be present at the office in two days’ time for the reading of Mother Laila’s will. That was an unexpected surprise, and Tina wondered, “What does Mother Laila’s will gotta do wid me?”
On the appointed day, she asked for time off from her job and walked into a tense atmosphere at the lawyer’s office.
Mother Laila’s children stared at her with contempt and asked the lawyer, “Why is she here?”

“According to your mother’s new will,” the lawyer answered, “it’s important for Miss Persaud to be here.”
They exchanged displeased looks, and the eldest daughter asked in a suspicious tone, “If our mother couldn’t move around much, how did she get here to change her will? Who brought her?”
The lawyer smiled patiently and replied, “My father and your mother were old-school friends. He was the one who had drawn up her first will, and she called him for a favour. On the day, she came alone, chauffeured by my father’s driver. She had a distressing story concerning her children to tell.” The lawyer paused, then continued, “As such, she requested that the will be changed.”
Sunil and his sisters looked at each other, puzzled and upset, and he said, “Dat don’t sound right.”

The lawyer opened a file and took out the new will.
“It reads as follows: Sunil Mahabir is no longer the owner of my estate. My property and bank account are the only assets I have. Thus, to my four children, I leave six hundred thousand dollars to be divided equally, and to my son’s ex-wife, Tina Persaud, I leave four hundred thousand as gratitude for her care and companionship.”
“Dat is unacceptable!” the eldest sister seethed with anger.

“She cut we off tuh give a stranger?” the younger one questioned.
Sunil raised his hand for them to be quiet and asked, “And de house?”
“The house,” the lawyer stated, “is now willed to Miss Persaud.”

That stunned everyone, but most of all, Tina. She couldn’t believe what she had just heard. Her heart was racing, somehow scared of Mother Laila’s children’s reactions. They looked at her with undisguised hatred and expressed their anger, “Dat can’t be! She’s not family. She’s a stranger!”
“Calm down,” the lawyer urged them. “She was your brother’s wife, and your mother saw her not as a stranger but as family—someone who gave her the love, care, and compassion no one else did when she needed it.”

Tina went back to work, trying her utmost to stay calm until she was home.
“Oh my God!” she exclaimed aloud, still unable to believe what the lawyer had declared. “How did dat happen?”
She stayed awake late, reflecting on everything Mother Laila had said to her. She realised the old lady had felt that Suraj had wronged her, and this was her way of compensating Tina, as well as expressing gratitude for her unwavering care.

“What a way,” Tina exulted, “the house and money.”
Tina had always hoped that one day, life would be good to her, but she did not expect it to be this good. She looked up at the heavens and said,
“Thank you so much, Mother Laila. You have really made a poor girl happy.”
Sunil and his sisters threatened to contest the will, but because of the cost and time it would take, they decided not to proceed.
“Is an ole house anyway,” Sunil said dismissively. “Leh she see wuh she can do wid it.”

Old or not, Tina now had her own home, and that pleased her heart beyond words. She also had money to start her own small business.
“Ah gun now be my own boss,” she declared, thrilled and excited.
She invested part of the money in a grocery business right there in the market and deposited the rest into a savings account. She was now a businesswoman—independent and confident.
Four years later, Tina had expanded her business, becoming an established and recognised entrepreneur. She bought a car and, over the years, made repairs to the house. One year ago, she remodelled the downstairs flat and rented it to a small family.

It was quite amazing for Mother Laila’s children and Tina’s own family—who had treated her so badly—to see her knowledge and capability to progress in the way she was doing.
“Never underestimate the power of a woman, especially a poor woman,” she mused.
As March approached, Suraj returned to his home country. Tina was unaware that he was back until one late afternoon when she went home after closing her business for the day. He was sitting on the stairs, and after parking her car, she said cordially,
“Why are yuh here?”

“Ah was waiting on you, hoping we could talk.”
“Ah don’t think we got anything tuh talk about,” she said in a casual tone.
“Yeah, we do.”
He got up and came down the steps slowly, a bit unsteady. He had gotten thin, his face was pale, and his hair no longer looked as great as it once had.
Tina couldn’t help asking, “Wah happen to yuh?”

He shook his head slowly and smiled wryly. “A long story. We sometimes pay fuh we mistakes.”
Looking at him, she felt a tinge of pity for the condition he was in.
“Ah see yuh have made it good in life,” he said with a little laugh.
She nodded, unbothered.

“And now own de property that had been mine,” he said, with an edge of bitterness in his voice.
“Dat was yuh mother’s decision.”
He nodded. “Ah leff her, so I can’t blame her. And yuh deserve it.”

There was a long moment of silence as he sat on a garden bench. Then he said, “Ah just want to say sorry fuh the bad way I treated you.” He paused, then continued, a slight tremor in his voice. “I’m sick. De person I had loved leff me, and I have to now try and rebuild meh life.”
“Sorry to hear dat,” she said. “Ah hope things work out good fuh yuh.”
“Is there any way yuh could forgive me suh we can have a fresh start?”

She got up and looked at him with no empathy.
“Dat is all in de past, and ah have moved on. I’m not anymore dat poor young girl yuh used and betrayed. I am now somebody.”
She walked up the stairs and closed the door, leaving him sitting there. She whispered quietly to herself,
“I am now somebody.”