The air was thick and golden as the plane touched down in Abuja, the Nigerian capital. From the window, Melissa caught her first glimpse of the rich red soil, endless green, and the glittering skyline that shimmered with the heat of late afternoon sun.
She gripped David's hand. "We're really here."
David smiled. "You're not just visiting. You're coming home with me."
Melissa had packed light, for once. Her usual towering heels were replaced by sandals. Her designer coats had been swapped for airy linen and silk scarves. She had no idea what to expect.
Outside the arrivals gate, a group waited.
At the front stood a slender woman with high cheekbones and the unmistakable grace of one who had weathered storms. Her hands were clasped tightly in front of her, eyes fixed on the incoming passengers.
David saw her and exhaled slowly. "That's my mother."
Melissa barely had time to nod before David let go of her hand and hurried forward.
"Mama!"
They embraced tightly. His mother closed her eyes, holding him longer than time itself. She whispered in their native Tiv dialect. Melissa didn't understand the words—but she understood the love.
Then David turned. "Mama, this is Melissa."
His mother stepped forward, her eyes searching Melissa's face. A moment of silence stretched between them.
Then she spoke, voice soft but firm.
"Welcome, my daughter."
Melissa felt tears sting the corners of her eyes.
No one had ever called her daughter like that.
The next days were a whirlwind. Markets pulsing with color and sound, palm trees swaying like dancers, the scent of spices curling through the air. Melissa saw Nigeria not as a distant land, but as a living, breathing world—vibrant and filled with soul.
She met David's childhood friends, visited his former school, even helped his mother prepare a traditional yam porridge in a kitchen bursting with laughter.
At night, they sat on the rooftop of the family house, under the kind of star-streaked sky that Dublin could never offer.
"I thought I was giving you an adventure," David said as they drank hibiscus tea.
Melissa leaned her head on his shoulder. "You gave me something I didn't know I needed. A place I didn't know I'd fall in love with."
It was on the second-to-last day of their stay in Nigeria that Melissa woke up differently.
Not just emotionally.
Physically.
The smell of fried plantains made her nauseous. Her stomach lurched as she sat up in bed.
At first, she brushed it off—jet lag, perhaps. A different diet.
But when the nausea came again the next morning—and the morning after that—David's mother knocked lightly and entered with a gentle smile.
"My dear," she said softly, "your body is singing a different tune."
Melissa blinked. "Excuse me?"
"You are glowing. The kind of glow I wore before you were even a thought."
Melissa's breath caught.
She pulled out her travel kit and found the small test she always packed—"just in case."
In the quiet of the tiled bathroom, beneath the rising hum of roosters and distant music, she watched as two pink lines appeared.
She sat in silence for a moment, hand over her heart.
David was downstairs, discussing village housing ideas with a local engineer.
She walked out into the sun, dazed and radiant, and called his name.
He turned, brow lifted in curiosity—until he saw her expression.
"What is it?" he asked, walking toward her.
Melissa held up the test. "Looks like we're not leaving here the same people who arrived."
He looked down at it.
And the air between them stilled.
"You're…" he whispered.
She nodded, tears in her eyes.
He reached for her, wrapping her into the safest place she had ever known—his arms.
There were no words for several long seconds. Only a heartbeat, racing against his.
Then, with trembling joy, he whispered into her ear.
"Thank you. For bringing this kind of light into my world."
Melissa laughed, even as her tears slipped freely now. "Looks like your mother will be calling me daughter for real now."
That night, as the stars burned above them, they lay side by side under the mosquito netting, fingers laced.
And somewhere, beneath that emerald sky, a new life had already begun to bloom.