My brother sold our father's land for ₦4.5 million. He didn't call me once.

My father died on a Tuesday. I was in Yaba when the call came, one of those calls where the person on the other end is crying so hard you can't even make out words. I drove to Akure that same night.

Burial done, tears dry, then the real thing started. My elder brother, Bode, called a family meeting. He sat there and said since he was the first son and he stayed back home while I was in Lagos forming big man, the house and the land in Ijapo were his by right. Our father's savings too. Just like that.

I didn't even know he had already collected advance payment from one Alhaji for the land. ₦4.5 million. I found out from our aunt.

See ehn, I am not the shouting type. I just asked for the documents. He said there were none. I asked for the account statement. He said it wasn't my business.

We went back and forth for months. Extended family took sides. Some said I should let it go because I have a job in Lagos. As if Lagos money falls from trees. In this economy??

What broke me was not the land. It was that my own brother looked at me and saw a stranger who came to take what was his.

We don't talk now. Two years. Our mother cries about it but what can she do.

I learned that death doesn't just take one person. Sometimes it takes the whole family with it, slowly.