#DECEPTION
Episode Twenty Three
ยฉ Kemiliz Aiyemo Omotayo
With this, she stormed out of his office and dragged Ben who was in the waiting room with the pastor’s secretary.
Ben was surprised at the angry look on his wife and asked what was happening.
” He was trying to sexually assault me” she lied without a second thought.
“What?” Ben yelled looking back at the building they just came out from.
He couldn’t believe what he just heard. He had known his pastor for years and never found any traces of deceit in him.
He continued looking at the church building as if it would reveal what had really transpired between his wife and his pastor.
” Take me out of here now!” He heard his wife shouted. And like a person being remotely controlled, he did as instructed.
His mind couldn’t get off the allegations his wife just levied on the pastor. He drove in silence and thought about it without reaching any conclusion if they’re true or not.
Ben’s silence was deafening. Esther wished he would just say something and there she’ll understand her next line of action. She began to shake her legs as if bothered but Ben took no cognizance of it. They drove home in awkward silence.
” What really happened?” Ben finally asked when he was fully settled in their home. Esther had been expecting this question and she already had a well planned lie to feed him with.
” After you left, the pastor had prayed for me again and later saw a revelation that we weren’t spiritually compatible, which was the reason for our childlessness. I asked the pastor for the way out as I love you so much and can’t live without you. He explained that I had to step out of my marriage for the chance of having a baby. He said I might have do it with other men but to save myself the stress, he would be willing to be of quick and lasting assistance. I didn’t understand his last statement at first until he came behind me and began to smooch my shoulder. It was then that I got his intentions and left him out of anger after I have dished to him a piece of my mind” She narrated
” Really?” Ben said
” You can’t imagine dear. A man we have revered for years is really not who we thought he is” she added just to make Ben believe her.
” I’m trying to but I find it really hard to believe this. It’s not just adding up” he said
” Are you in any way calling me a liar?” She asked
” Is that what you think I called you?” He replied with another question.
” Is that not what your statement implied?” She asked
” So what do you think? Do you think you are not saying the truth?” He asked yet another question.
Esther was getting irritated with his questions and attitude. It seemed this wasn’t going to go smoothly as she had expected. She needed to make him believe her else she would be exposed.
“I can’t believe this is happening to me. My pastor trying to assault me and my husband not believing my words. This is just too much to take in. Oh God! What have I done to deserve this?” She lamented and bursted into cry. She left the sitting room to the bedroom and cried out the more hoping Ben would come to her as usual. She eventually became tired and her wild cry gradually became a silent sob while she expected her husband. It seemed this wasn’t going work as well as Ben didn’t come to her. She later returned to the sitting room but didn’t see her husband. She rushed out to check his car and it was right at the spot which he had parked it.
She thought about where the hell her husband would be at the moment. How could he leave her all alone at home when she was broken? What kind of man does that?
She returned to the room and decided not to reach him. She was sure he would come home and when he did, he will get it really hot from her.
Ben had thought well about all his wife told him when he was all by himself. He needed to find out the truth so he left without a word to his pastor’s office.
On getting to the pastor, he pleaded humbly that he wanted to know what happened between them. The pastor really didn’t want to tell him but he saw that he was truly in the dark and thought about what he would have done if Ben were to be his biological son.
” When I was praying, I saw in a revelation your wife handing over her seeds to a man. I was surprised she was doing it willing while you were just there watching and doing absolutely nothing. I later understood you were actually looking but not seeing what was happening. I tried to make her open up to me, at least she should be able to talk freely when it’s just she and I. She flared up and left with her secret in anger.” His pastor explained. Ben was now very sure of whose words to believe.
Ben appreciated him for taking his time to clear his mind. He humbly dodged it when the pastor asked why he had come for this conversation.
He returned home pretending nothing happened even when Esther quarrelled him for leaving home. He apologized and acted cool like a gentleman he had always been. He had to lie about where he went to when she asked.
Esther insisted they never go back to the church but he stood his ground on continuing his worship there even if she wouldn’t go anymore.
They continued living normal but with doubt. Esther didn’t go to any church for months until she was handed a tract for an upcoming program in a church. She thought in her mind to go as it was a program that was specific for those in need of the fruit of the womb. Since her husband now wasn’t really concerned about her choice of church, she decided to go there hoping for a testimony.
The day of the program finally came and Esther attended it. She wasn’t too pleased as the church was rather too small for where she thought miracle would happen. She soon recognized the Prophet as a huge and attractive man distinguishly dressed in all white.
During the service, the Prophet began to give open revelation to his members. He called her out and instead of giving her her own revelation, he began to pray in spirit. She was eager for a revelation, but the prophet was there casting out the unimaginables in her.
” Out! Out! Out by fire! Get out of this body now” the Prophet pronounced with authority and soon, she felt a severe pain in her stomach which was accompanied with a heavy menstrual flow. That wasn’t her time but it came rushing out as if it’s pipe just broke.
She rolled on the floor in pain in her already blood stained dress.
She was later relieved of the pain and was taking into one of the rooms in the church with a wrapper around her waist. She was really embarrassed.
After the service, she was called upon by the prophet. In his office, the prophet revealed how she had been using her seeds to make a man wealthy. She couldn’t believe this shocking revelation.
” How can Ben do that to me?” She thought aloud in tears.
” Woman! You can’t deceive the spirit in me. You know it is not your husband but the man you’ve been committing adultery with” the prophet gave another revelation.
She wished she could disappear at that time. She didn’t even tell the prophet about her husband, yet he knew him already. It was just as if her starked nakedness was being displayed on a 55 inches full HD Television. She bowed her head and truly felt ashamed for what she had become. A stream of hot tears rolled down her cheeks. She had thought she was enjoying life, enjoying s*x, enjoying money but then Mr Charles was using her. The odd feelings she had for Mr Charles then was eventually true. He was a f*****g ritualist. He was just working with the company then to protect his image. No wonder he had been spending lavishly on her. She wished she could speak death to Mr Charles and it would be sealed instantly.
The Prophet’s touch brought her out of the memory lane. He assured her that she is in her delivery period as she would be completely delivered by the time the flow stopped. She was giving an anointing oil which will speed up the deliverance process.
She cleaned up right in the church’s convenience and was offered an oversized worn out clothes.
On her way back home, she got another clothes and disposed the one she was wearing. She remembered she had left her blood stained dress in the church and concluded it would be properly disposed.
She attended every of the program and was convinced in her mind that truly God dwelled in that church. She was supposed to meet Mr Charles as earlier scheduled but she didn’t call him neither did her call.
Is God not wonderful.
Esther soon became a member of the Prophet’s church and began to financially support the growth of the church and also with her melodious voice. With her deliverance and now dedication to the things of God, she was expecting to conceive immediately but nothing of such happened. The prophet kept on encouraging her of the need to be patient and she found herself easily accepting every of the Prophet’s word.
She soon became very close with the Prophet, financing and going with him to every invited program as well as acting as a backup singer for him who was musically inclined also.
One day, she received a call from Mr Charles out of the blues. Sincerely, she had forgotten about him after the revelation of him being a ritualist. She didn’t want to pick his call but decided to hear what the bastard had to say. She was convinced to see but never to have s*x with him when he promised her a huge sum of money.
All this while, Ben had been watching his wife. He needed to act not on what others say but the fact he would see with his eyes. He had been man enough to tolerate every of her attitude, and would even do more because of the love he had for her. But infidelity is what he would never accept. At least he had the Bible’s backing to divorce her if she’s found guilty of adultery. Although he wasn’t a man with luxury of time, but the little he had, he spied on his wife just to get a clue. However Esther had always been smart enough to clean every of her track making her appear morally just and also, she hadn’t seen Mr Charles for sometimes now.
Ben noticed she hadn’t been going to work on Saturday’s fortnightly anymore. He once asked her why and she said they had more supply than demand. He had secretly followed her to her new church and still no traces of unfaithfulness. He had almost decided to believe she was truly right all along until she came to him on Friday while he was resting at the verandah that she would be going to work the next day which was Saturday. Ben remembered she had told him before then that she would be going to Church that same Saturday.
“Well, maybe she would go to church after work” he concluded in his thought.
The next morning, Esther dressed up as usual to go see Mr Charles for the last time. She wished she could just poison him to death for what he had done to her but couldn’t add more fuel to her flames of sin. She bade her husband goodbye and he replied with a wide smile before she sets out. When she got to the spot where Mr Charles always picked her up, she began to call him when he wasn’t there already according to his words. She had grown past to be kept waiting so she impatiently continued calling him but he didn’t pick up still. She decided to go to the church from there if he didn’t pick up her next call to tell her where he was.
As if Mr Charles was reading her mind, he picked her call.
” Hold on baby, I can see you already. You’ll see me…” Mr Charles was saying before the truck which had failed brake ran into his car.
Esther heard a very deafening crash and was confused if it was from her phone or from the accident scene that just happened some miles before where she was. She looked at the phone and discovered the call had been disconnected. She saw people rushing to the accident scene and decided to join them to know what was happening.
On getting there, she realized it was Charles’ car that had just been involved in a fatal accident. She didn’t know if she was to be happy that he had received a quick judgement or sad that she wasn’t able to get her final gratuities before this incident. She bursted into tears when some of the crowd managed to bring out the blood soaked body of Charles, her very own Charles.
Even Charles’ worst enemy wouldn’t be able to to hold himself from crying on seeing his lifeless body. She along with the others cried as the victim’s hand had been completely detached from the body. Esther couldn’t believe the person she just spoke with few minutes ago was no more.
In the large crowd, Esther felt someone tapped her hand from behind. She turned around and came face to face with Ben, her husband.
” What are you doing here?” He asked.
It seemed the world was closing in on her. Just as if she was facing her own end, she became dumb instantly. She tried to speak but couldn’t. She had to shut her mouth back when she couldn’t utter any word as there was nothing in her head to tell Ben. The shock of Charles death was still fresh in her head and didn’t even expect or prepare for Ben at all.
Ben took her by the hand and pulled her out of the crowd and she followed effortlessly. Ben couldn’t wait to get to a safe place before repeating his question again.
” What are you doing here?” He demanded authoritatively ” and who have you been waiting for? He added yet to his unanswered question.
Esther wished what had happened to Korah, Dathan and Abiram where the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up could repeat itself on her.
She looked up and saw on his face an indescribable burning rage, which she had never seen in her entirety.
To be continued…
