I cleaned his office for eight years; he never knew I was the mother of the boy he abandoned in high school

“Sometimes, the dust you clean is the same dust you swallow to survive. And silence, the only legacy you leave to an invisible child
My name is Lucia. This is the story of how, for years, I swept the office of a man who never knew his biggest mistake had a name, a face, and a grave.

I was seventeen when I found out I was pregnant. It was in my final year of high school, in Enugu, when all I wanted was to finish my studies and dream of a better life. He was my deskmate: Nonso Okoye. Funny, always eloquent, the son of a well-off family. I, the daughter of a shoemaker and a banana seller, barely dared to look him in the eye.

The day I told him I was pregnant, he remained silent

“Are you sure?” he asked, his voice trembling.