“Mum! Mummy!” Sandra ran up the stairs, the sound of her size 4 feet as loud as automatic gunfire, echoing off the walls of the house. She was alone with her mother for the day; her father was still at work, and her elder brother was away in boarding school. Her mother had given the nanny the week off so she could spend the week with her only daughter.

Mrs Ikechi smiled as she brushed her hair in front of the mirror in the master bedroom. Sunlight streamed in through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking their backyard; it looked more like a mini-park than a backyard, to be honest. Done entirely in white, with the electronics’ black and the minimal chrome on the furniture, the room was her own personal heaven. She loved to sit and watch the sunrise here; the architecture had been deliberate. This was her inner sanctum…