CHAPTER 5
SWB: Akinsehinwa Oluwaseun.
He was staring at me with shock written all over his face.
The tears in my eyes had found their way out of their comfort zone.
“Are you alright?” He finally asked.
“Richard you deceived me” I said as I fell on the bed dejectedly.
“Oluwanifemi I , I …..” He suddenly began to stammer, my fear has finally been confirmed.
“For how long were you going to keep hiding this from me?” I asked as I suddenly burst out crying louder.
“I…….I…….” Richy tongue had lost its eloquence. I picked up the phone and read out the message, his sister sent to his hearings.
“Please stop disturbing me, I’m in a youth meeting, I’ll call you as soon as I’m out. Now you are complaining , didn’t I warn you to tell her before the wedding? Did you think such secret can last forever? Deal with it Bro, I’ve tried my best”.
Richard fell on his knees, his hands on his head. He had tears dropping from his eyes too but I didn’t care. My heart has been broken into irreparable pieces.
“You have a child somewhere bah?” I asked because that was all I could interpret the content of the message to mean.
Richard looked up at me looking more confused.
“What child?” He asked looking all surprised.
“Don’t you dare try to deny it Richard!’ I flared up at him, charging towards him.
“You have a child somewhere, or could it be that you impregnated another woman? oh my goodness! Richard you deceived me” I sobbed intermittently as I talked.
“I don’t have a child anywhere. I don’t” he said and I almost slapped him but I didn’t. I still managed to control my anger, so it doesn’t get out of hands.
“Babe please calm down , at least hear me out. It’s not what you are thinking , please at least hear me out first. I love you and I didn’t want to lose you”
“Richy you are such a liar, a deceiver, an hypocrite. Tell me , who is the other woman? Who is she?”.
“I don’t have any other woman, you are the only……”
“Liar, Richard I promise you if I find out who she is, you will have to choose between her or I “
Richard held his head like someone who was having a headache. I hissed and walked out of the room angrily. I picked up the car keys and sped off to Dolly’s apartment. I have a lot of questioning to do.
I was driving recklessly but I didn’t care, it was as if my anger had overwhelmed me.
“Ta lo gbe motor fawon iya e, omoale, o fe pa yan? (Who gave a car to your mother, bastard, you want to kill someone?). A motorcyclist that I had almost brushed away unintentionally shouted in fear. I didn’t say anything. I just need to get to Dolly’s apartment. If they still had parents, I would have gone straight to them but their parents are no more. After Dolly finished up with her final exams in the school,she decided to rent an apartment instead of staying in their parents mansion. She said she didn’t want anything that will make men feel intimidated and begin to run away from her. The mansion was left to be taken care of by the gatekeeper and the gardener.
I got to the street and parked my car outside her house. I knocked on the gate and the gate keeper opened to me. He greeted but I couldn’t respond. I kept going towards Dolly’s apartment, my heart was beating faster than normal. I’ve taken Dolly as my own sister, why didn’t she tell me the truth? Why did she hide such secret from me? No wonder she kept begging me to please stay with her brother till the end.
I got to the entrance and was just about to knock on the door when I heard Dolly conversing with someone on the phone. With the tone of her voice, I could tell she was furious. I decided to wait till she was through with her conversation before knocking. During the process of waiting by the door, I was able to hear all that she was discussing with the other person on the line.
“Don’t blame me any further please, you are the one who brought this problem upon yourself. Afterall I pestered you enough before the wedding that you should let her know”
She said and immediately I realized it was her brother, my husband, Richard that she was talking to on the phone. I guess Richard called her as soon as I left the house in order to vent his anger on her.
“What were you thinking Bro? That you will adopt a child and live happily ever after? What will it cost you to confide in your wife that you are impotent? My brother you can’t continue to hide forever. Will you keep on telling her you have headache forever? Tell her the truth that you can’t perform as a man…..” she blurted the worse news. My ears felt too heavy to take them. Wait a minute, my husband is…., As in Richard is impotent? Impotent, no I didn’t hear her clearly, maybe she wanted to say Richard is important. What’s the correlation?.
“Yeahhhhh!!!” I screamed but it was only heard in my mind, I couldn’t scream out. The shock was just too much for me to digest. I staggered out of the compound into my car. I was really confused as I wept while driving. Richard doesn’t have a concubine, he doesn’t have a child out of wedlock but he is impotent. Impotent?
All my beautiful fantasies has been cut off. I waited for good twenty eight years of my life and this is what I get?. An impotent deceiver?.
My mind went back to the scene in the church today,no wonder Richard was so uncomfortable with the girl’s question. Lord Jesus, I’m in trouble. I parked by the road side because I couldn’t continue with the driving any longer, I’ve been driving for the past twenty minutes with no particular destination in mind. I placed my head on the steering wheel and wept bitterly.
My phone was ringing but I didn’t pick it up. It was Richard calling.
“It’s a marriage of deceit ,file for a divorce” a persisting voice whispered to my mind.
“You will be miserable in this marriage just file for a divorce right away. Call Barrister Jide, you know he’s good at handling such cases” the voice added.
My phone kept ringing,I don’t know how many of Richard’s calls I’ve missed but I guess he would have called up to twenty times. I finally decided to go to my parents’ house, I can’t go back to Richard until I have made up my mind on what step to take. I will try as much as possible not to let my parents know anything, at least not now. But I know my Mom, she will definitely guess that something is wrong. My eyes are red and swollen. Plus it’s just the second day of my wedding and I’m back to their house to pass the night . I just pray Dad will allow me stay till tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning , I’ll get dressed up and go to my place of work, maybe then I can decide on what next to do.
As I drove to my parents’ house, several thoughts kept running through my mind. I flashed back to when I met Richard. It was during one of those Sunday School classes on a Sunday Morning. I’ve been attending that class for years but I never noticed Richard until that morning. A question was raised and Richard stood up to give an answer. He answered the question so beautifully that everyone applauded him. I was really impressed at his sharp wit. That wasn’t the incident that got us close anyway but that was the first time I’ll notice him in the church. Our church is really big that in each Sunday school class, we have over a hundred students.
“Peee, lady go park this car inside bush now” one rude driver ranted. I don’t blame him, I guess my absentmindedness had almost caused an irreversible error, had it not been God’s grace.
My mind went to Dunmininu and how I had always warned her against sex before marriage. Something within me whispered to my mind “Is she not better than you now? At least she knows that her man is capable of performing his marital duty on bed when they get married, she knows she will become a mother after wedding. Look at where your stupidity has landed you. Even those your Pastors preaching to you about sexless courtship, ask them if they met their wives as virgins. Ask them if they never for once slept with their partners before marriage. You see your life ” it was as if the voice speaking stuck out its tongue to mock me 😜. I could hear it saying “orbiii”. I parked my car again and began to weep, this time for my own foolishness, because I felt stupid for waiting till my wedding night.
Wasn’t I foolish to have waited?