DEPRIVED: The Girl They Tried To Bury.

Augustina Balod was already a widow with two children when Balod Eghosa found her in Benin City. Her first husband died shortly after she gave birth to her second child. She was left alone with Hisens, her stubborn son, and Adora, her beautiful daughter. Life was hard. She was selling wrappers in New Benin market. Then she met Balod Eghosa, the quiet oil magnate. He was a rich man but he was lonely. His doctors told him many years ago that he could never father a child easily. He wanted a family at all costs. When he saw Augustina and her two children, he did not run. He married her. He took Hisens and Adora as his own children. He put them in good schools. He gave them his name. Hisens Balod. Adora Balod. Everyone in Benin thought they were his biological children. But God still did a miracle. Shortly after their marriage, Augustina's sister introduced Balod to her best friend — a calm, gentle librarian named Stella. It was not love at first, but Stella was kind. Balod had a short affair with her, and Stella became pregnant. That pregnancy gave Balod the only child of his blood in this whole world — Valentina. Stella died during childbirth when Valentina was two years old. Before she died, she told Balod, "Please do not give our daughter to your sisters. Give her to a woman who will mother her." Balod trusted his wife. He called Augustina and his lawyer, Mr. Osagie, into his private study. Valentina was three years old, playing on the floor with a small doll. He said, "Augustina, I have opened a trust. ONE MILLION DOLLARS will enter your private account every single year. This money is for Valentina alone. Use it to train her. Best private school. Home training. Make her a queen. She is my only blood." Augustina knelt and cried, "My husband, I will take her as my own blood. I swear on my dead husband's grave." That night, Valentina was moved into Augustina's wing. The first year, Augustina tried. She bought small uniforms. But when the first $1,000,000 alert entered, and then the second year another $1,000,000, something changed in Augustina's heart. She started to think, "Why should I spend this big money on this small girl when my own children Hisens and Adora are here? Balod can never have another child. If anything happens to Valentina, all his property will automatically go to Hisens and Adora because they bear his name. And if I keep collecting this $1M every year..." Greed entered. That same year, Balod had a terrible accident on Benin-Ore road. His car somersaulted. He survived but suffered a severe stroke that took his voice. Aphasia. He could hear, he could think, he could understand everything, but he could not speak. Doctors said, "Six months of therapy in London, he will talk again." Augustina saw it as her chance. She told the family, "My husband wants us to move to Colombia for better education. There is a good place called Saint Martin's." She carried three children and fled. She did not go to the Colombia everyone knows. She went to a rich estate on the outskirts of Bogota called Saint Martin's Street. There were two important buildings facing each other: Saint Martin's Private Government School, the most expensive school for rich kids, and Saint Martin's Clinic, a private hospital for rich foreigners. In Saint Martin's Street, she enrolled Hisens and Adora in the expensive private school, paying with Valentina's $1M. She bought a mansion. She bought gold. She bought a boutique. And Valentina? She enrolled Valentina in a free public school three streets away under a different name — Valentina Augustina. She told the public school teachers, "This is my late sister's daughter, I am just helping her." At home, she told Valentina a different story, "Your father abandoned you. He does not want you. He is in Nigeria with other women. I am the only one feeding you. So you must work." At age 7, Valentina washed plates. At age 10, she cleaned Hisens' room where street boys came to smoke. At age 13, she washed Adora's expensive dresses and Adora would slap her and say, "You will never be fine like me. You are a servant." But suffering was training Valentina. She woke by 4am to read under streetlight because Augustina refused to pay for the light in her store-room. She passed all her public school exams with distinction. Her teachers loved her and gave her free lessons. They called her "The Saint Martin's Private Girl in Public School Uniform." And every night, she held one memory — her father's scent. Old spice and books. She remembered him calling her, "My Vava." Augustina told her every day, "Your father hates you." But Valentina's heart told her, "That is a lie." Meanwhile, in Nigeria, Balod did not recover in six months. Due to complications, he spent FIVE YEARS in a wheelchair, doing therapy in London and then finally in Colombia, because his doctor recommended the quiet air of Saint Martin's Clinic in Bogota for his final recovery. For five years, he could not speak. His loyal assistant Mr. Osagie would speak for him. Balod would write on paper, "Where is Vava?" and Osagie would say, "We are still searching, sir." He could not stop the $1M automated trust because his lawyer told him, "Sir, if you stop it now before we find her, Augustina might throw your daughter to the street. At least let the money keep her alive." He thought his money was keeping Valentina alive. He did not know his money was killing her slowly. Until that Tuesday. Valentina was now 17, in SS3, walking home from her free public school with her books in her old dusty wornout school bag that she has been using since Jss1. An ambulance screamed past her and stopped in front of Saint Martin's Clinic. Men in suits rushed out a man in a wheelchair. Valentina stopped. Her heart beat fast. Even from afar, she knew that scent. Old spice and books.