Chapter 7

Quiet Revelation
 

"Where have you been?" Daniel said almost yelling.

"I told you I was going out with my friend... And why are you raising your voice at me?" Victoria said looking at her husband with a cocked eye. 

He readjusted in his seat. His eyes were intensely looking at her. He was clearly angry.

He stood up and pointed his finger at her. 
"You have been doing this for a while now. You will leave me hungry at home. You now come back and give me this nasty attitude of going out with your friend. Did you marry your friends or me?"

"What have I done wrong this time? Everytime I go out, you are always asking me questions like I am outside doing something funny... "

"You give me reasons to think like that..." He poured out back at her. His expression was laden with anger.

"See, I am tired. I don't have strength for this now..." She said walking away. 

"So you will walk out on me while I'm talking to you?" He was almost shouting out his words.

"Why are you shouting?" She ignored him and walked away.

"Yes, I expected you to do that. I have been hungry all day and you come back and this is what I get?"

"You could have made something for yourself..." Victoria called out from inside.

"Is that what you are supposed to say?"

There was no response from inside. 

Daniel stormed out of the house. He slammed the door hard it made a loud blab sound.

He started the car and in a few minutes was out of the compound.

***

Paul stood by the window.

It was 6:27am in the morning. He was looking outside.

His wife was fast asleep. 

Paul could not sleep. He had spent most the night turning in his dreams. He had struggled to get himself to sleep but it was to no avail. He tried to read his bible but that did not help either. 

He had been relieved of his job three weeks ago. That had left him devastated. If not for his ever loving and supportive wife, he would have lost it.

He turned around from the window to meet the eyes of his wife. 

"Did I wake you?" He asked gently.

"No, you didn't...." She yawned.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Well, yeah. Kind of... You?"

"Did not get much sleep..."

She pulled off the covers and stepped out of the bed. She adjusted her nightgown and tied the sash properly. She walked towards him. 

They hugged for a minute and then he said, "I hope you won't be late today?"

"I'd hurry my bath. I think I can make it before the training starts."

He released her.

"You have started thinking about your job again abi..?"

"It’s obvious huh?"

"You are so easy to read...." She disappeared into the bathroom.

He walked to the bathroom door. "Sometimes you cant just but think about things like this..."

"If you worry so much about a job you have lost, you would not have room..."

"To create and get another one... I know."  He finished her statement.

"It’s been three weeks now. Can you believe that?"

There was quiet in the bathroom. Then the sound of the shower.

He walked back to the window. Just below his apartment, he could see his neighbor's son washing his car. On the street, he could see stream of cars making their way to the highway. The street was busy as usual. 

Minutes later, his wife emerged from the bathroom. Her face was washed white. Her skin matched her face tone. She had a yellow towel wrapped up to her waist. He watched as she went to her closet and started to push her clothes around. 

"Honey, I don't know what to wear. Can you help me choose?" She did not wait for him to respond. She was at her vanish table in seconds.

Paul was looking at two of the choices he made. He finally decided to pick the coffee brown pleated skirt and a Beige colored flowery blouse. He had always liked it on her. 

"This one looks great on you all the time." He smiled. He put it on the bed.

"Thanks love."

"You are welcome."

"So tell me what exactly were you thinking about...?" She asked as she buttoned the blouse.

"A lot of things... "

"Like?"

"The project we started, I don't know how we are going to continue, let alone finish. My target is that we complete it before the end of the year..."

"Let’s take it one step at a time. What we need to focus on is getting you a new job. Then, the project can continue. You should stop worrying. Its contagious you know..."

"Yeah, you are right. It’s just that it’s one of my projects for this year."

"Well, now that we are in the situation we find ourselves, its time to reorganize. Change is what everyone should prepare for. Nothing is permanent. Not even today."

He did not reply. He was looking at the window.

She walked to the mirror to check herself. She adjusted the skirt. Seems like it was creased on the left. She brushed her forearm on it as if to keep that edge smooth. It did not work. She left it and moved on.

"Sometimes, I wish I had your kind of mind."

"Why?" She questioned. This time he had her full attention. She loved to hear people say that. Especially, her husband.

"You rarely let anything bother you. I feel intimidated."

"No, there's nothing to it. If I know my worrying about a thing won't translate to change or improvement, I discard it immediately. And interestingly, I learnt a lot of it from you when we were dating. Only God knows what happened to you."

"I don't know my dear. I really don't. I need grace at this time, honestly. I wish it was that easy…"

"Sincerely, it’s that easy for me."

"Yeah, I know."

Their 5 year old daughter walked into the room.

"How are you sweetheart?" Patience was looking intently on her daughter. The little girl was awake—her eyes were wide open.

"Good morning mummy. Good morning daddy" She murmured.

"Good morning princess.” Patience reached over and kissed her daughter on the forehead.

The little girl ignored her mum and walked to her father. He picked her up. "Good morning sweetheart."

She leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Seems like a father-daughter thing is going on between two of you. I’m jealous." Patience walked out of the room.

"Lizzy, did you hear what mummy said?"

She did not answer. He put her down and looked at her. “What’s the matter my little shweetheart?”

She did not say anything. He made a gesture to tickle her.

“Lemme jhoor” She managed to say. A smile tracing her upper lip.

“Oh so this princess can talk.” He acted surprise.

Lizzy ignored him and went to the bed.

He walked up to her. “What’s the matter with my little princess?”

This time he tickled her. She turned, laughing as she did. She was fond of her dad. He always made her happy.

“Daddy lemme alone… hahahaha” She laughed.

He stopped tickling her and let her calm down. “So what do you need daddy to do for you this morning?”

At that moment, Patience walked into the room. She had two slice of bread in her hand with a cup of tea on the other hand. Lizzy jumped down from the bed and ran to her mum.

“Oh so you have my attention now abi?”

Lizzy giggled.

“Do you want to drink tea?” She asked her daughter who was curiously looking into her cup.

Lizzy nodded. She was touching to side of the cup to feel it.

“Mummy, it is hot” Lizzy said. Her expression showed dissatisfaction.

“Yes honey, it is very hot.” Paul came to her rescue.

“Common, princess, let’s go and make you your own cup of tea. Leave mummy’s tea alone. Mummy’s tea is not sweet. I will make a sweet one for you…”

Lizzy walked casually to her dad.

“Thanks darling.” Patience said to her husband.

“No problem. You’ve got to hurry up. You have less than forty minutes to get to the venue.”

“Yeah.”

Father and daughter were out of the room.

Patience pushed her cup of tea aside and went on her knees.

Dear heavenly Father, I appreciate you for everything You have done in the past in my family. I thank You for the current situation and what You will do out of this. I pray that You give my husband the strength at this time. Please give him your grace so that he can get through this tough time gracefully. I trust You will provide what we need when we need it. Thank You for everything in Jesus Name. Amen.

She picked up her cup of tea and allowed herself to the rest of the content. She picked up her bag and pair of shoes and walked out of the room.

“You look very great.” Paul complimented his wife as she walked into the living room. Their son—David was also with him. He had a cup of tea in his hand as well.

 “Thank you honey. I will be using your car” Patience said kissing her son on his head. “Hope you slept well?” She asked him.

“Yes mum” David nodded.

 “That’s alright.”

“I will be picking up our laundry and may pick up some groceries.”

“Ok. Babie, pls you need to leave now.”        

He walked up to his wife and kissed her on the forehead and then on the cheeks. She in turn, kissed him on the lips. “I love you Paul and everything will be fine.”

“I know. Have a lovely day.”

She turned to the kids who were at the moment watching the TV. “Love you guys. See you soon. Bye”

“Bye mum” They chorused.

***

“You are very fortunate my dear” Michelle said to her friend. 

“Why? What do you mean?” Tadekemi asked looking at her friend curiously.

“Do you know I caught my husband red-handed with his mistress?”

“What?” Tadekemi covered her mouth. Her eyes flashed.

“Hmmm. I tell you.”

“How? Where…?”

“It’s a long story.”

“I have all the time in the world my dear.”

“Ok. I need you to keep this between us. My husband does not know I’ve found out.”

“He doesn’t know? How did you find out? And I’m surprised. If someone else told me this, I won’t believe it. But coming from you…”

“I was out of the country for a month or so. He called one day and said he would be going to the Bahamas with a couple of friends and they would be out for two weeks. So I asked which of his friends, just out of curiosity not in any way suspicious. He mentioned the names of his friends that I knew. And I said ok. He promised to be back before I came back. So I wished him the best. I thought he needed that kind of vacation from work since most of his family are in the US. I just thought it was change of environment and it would be good for him. He sent me some pictures while I was in the US of the pictures they took at the beach and when they went fishing. There were about eight of them on the trip. I think it was his club. ” She paused and looked away. She was evidently shattered by the aftermath.

“Its ok Michy” Tadekemi tried to console her friend.

“I don’t know why I trusted that man at all. That trip of one of the many trips he had been having over the years…”

“So how did you figure out…” Tadekemi cuts in.

“I was going through some of the pictures again one Saturday evening. You know… I missed him. So I called him that evening. By this time he was back from the Bahamas. It was a female voice that picked the call. Then almost immediately the call ended. He called me back. I asked him who picked the call. He said what did I mean? I said when I called him that a female voice picked the call. He said that no call came through. He explained that the network might have had an issue at the time. He said some people have complained about calls routing strangely to the wrong numbers. I discarded it and assumed his assumptions were true. I could not suspect my husband. He was… You know him now…”

“Yes… that’s why I’m closed to shock. I still don't believe this. Not that I'm saying you are lying but I don't believe your husband of all men. its really hard.”

“My dear, see me ooo. Anyway, after that time, he gave me no reason to be suspicious. Two to three months after that time. The same thing happened. When I asked him whether he had called his network to resolve what the problem could be, his response was very casual.  But I asked him why was it that it was always a female voice that responded. He asked me what I was insinuating. And you know when you don’t have all your facts you can’t throw such accusation at someone like that.  Anyway, I did not push it that day but I became suspicious. So I spoke to a friend of mine on how to handle such issues. She said there’s an organization in Nigeria just like Cheaters. You know Cheaters now?”

“Yeah I do. Really?”

“Yes. They are very secretive. You will never know except someone tells you. Anyway, I got in touch with them and they got all the information I needed…”

“What did they say?”

“Not say. They gave me proof…” Michelle reached into her bag and pulled out an envelope. She handed it to her friend.

Tadekemi opened the envelope and brought out a set of postcard sized pictures. She looked at the pictures and her expression told her surprise.

“Jesus! Jesus!” She kept saying.

“Can you believe?”

Tadekemi held two of the pictures and dropped the rest on her laps. She looked at the pictures again and looked up as if to remember something.

“What is it?”

“I think I have seen this lady’s face before. Its very familiar.”

“Really? Her name is Jennifer Ejiofor. ”

Tadekemi did not reply. She was trying to remember where she had recognized the face.

“No not in my church. And not in my office either. Not at the gym…” She said. Obviously thinking out loud.

“Why are you bothering your head? What would you do to her? Is it her fault or my husband’s?”

Tadekemi sighed. Her mind was still working the face.

“I don’t know. What do men want? You can never satisfy them. No matter what you do, they would do what they want. I worked hard to slim down because he said I was growing big. It was a lot of work to get into shape. I started going to the gym to be fit. You and I met at the gym now abi? I did everything to please this man. Why now?” Michelle was rumbling words. She began to sob.

“Take heart my dear. Take heart. I wish there was something I could say to change all of this but you will need to go for counseling and talk with your husband about this soon.”

“I’m leaving him.”

“Don’t make such a decision out of emotional anger dear… You might end up regretting it.”

“Regretting what? What are you talking about? This man cheated, what there to regret abut that? And there’s nothing to talk about. He is just a foolish man.  After 15years of marriage? Jesus! Patrick. Patrick. I so hate that man right now.”

Then, it struck Tadekemi.

The face—she had seen it twice at her husband’s office.

***

Jide walked briskly following Adaora.

“Jide leave me alone…” She was about raising her voice.

“Ada, it’s not what you think it is. I can explain…”

“So what it is? Do you think me a fool?” She stopped in her track and looked at him.

“Ada, I’m so sorry I hurt you. I didn’t intend to do so.”

“I told you no sex…”

“I know you said so… I’m sorry. My emotions got the best of me.”

“If you can’t be in a relationship without sex, then I’m not the girl you should be dating.”

“I can. I’m so sorry Adaora. I would control myself. I promise. I promise it would not happen again.”

She sighed. “I guess it’s my fault as well.” She made a gesture on the clothes she was wearing.

“No it’s not your fault.”

“So I guess going forward, we won’t be meeting at your place again...”

“Why? No. If you are concerned about what happened, I can promise you it won’t happen again.”

She opened her car.

“It’s safer for both of us that we meet out in public. It makes it easier to control whatever runs through your mind.”

“If that’s what you want, then so be it.”

She smiled.

She started her engine. “I love you Jide.”

“I love you too” He replied with a smile on his face. “Call me when you get the chance.”

“Sure.”

She pulled out the car and waved him goodbye.

He blew her a kiss and waved back.

Man, I was so close. No sex? How now? He thought to himself.

He walked back to his apartment.

****************************************

CHAPTER 8 Coming Soon

****************************************

Please note that this material is covered by International Intellectual Property Law. No part of this material whether in part or as whole can be used, copied, redistributed, or sold without the express permission of the author. Any violation of any kind, would call for due prosecution