💫MY WIFE’S WEALTH💫
SEMI FINALE
EPISODE 4
Kauna refused to confess to her family who was responsible for her pregnancy. She endured all the persecutions and intimidations for a whole month. I begged her to let us run away together since she has chosen not to get an abortion. I made her realise the implications of our action but she seemed to have a hidden plan. My silence became my nightmare to me. This is the time I needed to talk to someone about my plight.
I called our pastor to confide in him and seek his counsel. Pastor Lanre was really disappointed on hearing my confession. His first statement broke my heart so badly. “A man who set his house on fire must inhale the smoke of the fire, you must take responsibility for your action”, he said. He sounded a bit harsh on me as he rained insults on me. “You have to confess your sin to your wife and father-in-law before they discover you are responsible for the pregnancy,” he counseled. But how can I stand before my wife and tell her I impregnated her sister or before my no nonsense father-in-law that I impregnated his daughter? This is the most difficult thing to do this time.
I begged pastor Lanre to assist me because I was loosing my mind. He led me in a short prayer of confession and asked me to give him my wife’s number. I dictated the number and he stored it on his phone. “You will be placed on three days dry fasting starting right away. I will see you after I must have talked to your wife. You may go,” he said. I left pastor’s office like Adam who was driven from Eden. Going back to the house was like going to hell. On the third and the last day of my fast, pastor was in the house as early as 7:30am. About fifteen minutes later, Jocelyn’s father joined us with her mother. When Jocelyn’s parents came in, I knew that was all for me. I was shriving like a man whom rain had beaten. Without anybody telling me I knew what the meeting was for.
Pastor Lanre opened the meeting with a short prayer and greeted everyone seated. Jocelyn was agitated and restless because pastor Lanre hadn’t told her the purpose of the meeting. Pastor Lanre took up his Bible, preached a long sermon on forgiveness and mercy. Everyone was quiet waiting for pastor to break the news but he was perambulating from one idiom to the other. After all his long sermon he broke the news. “Sir, Kauna is pregnant and unfortunately your son-in-law, brother Patrick is responsible” he has not finish his statement when Jocelyn left her seat and bounced on me, gave me a hot bite by my right arm and the drama began. Pastor was trying to calm Jocelyn down but she was really angry. While the drama was still on, Jocelyn’s father went outside and came in with his ordely and I was taken away without a word from Jocelyn’s father.
I was handed over to Garki area police command. From dry fasting to the cell. I was not opportune to break my fasting before the incident, so I came into the cell with an empty stomach. For these two times I have been kept in custody, I understood the saying that “your torture is based on who you offend and not the gravity of your offence.” When they began to torture me I fainted several times but nobody cared. Suffering was far an understatement compared to what I went through in police custody. Right there I made a covenant with God that I won’t go to hell if he could save me from this trouble and give me another chance. If hell will be hotter than my experience in police custody then no man deserve to go there…
I ended my dry fasting with dry bread later in the evening. I had spent one week in custody, before I was charged to court and later sentenced to six months imprisonment. Six months in jail seemed like six years. No member of my family was aware I was in jail. Pastor Lanre and his visitation team came once in a while to check on me in prison. Visitors were allowed to bring food for us but it had to be cooked or processed food. Days when Pastor and his team came around were like days of jubilee to me. They didn’t just give me the physical food, they also fed me with the word of God.
Days and nights seemed longer in prison than outside the prison. 24 hours were like 240 hours. Prison life is better imagined than experienced. The isolation and boredom can not be overemphasised. No friend to relate with, no place to go to, nothing to keep one busy.
But Instead of just staying idle in prison, I began to invest my time in prayer and studying of the Bible. I became a prominent member of the prison fellowship, a very vibrant fellowship of convicted inmates.
While in person, I began to retrace my steps back to my Lord. I became closer to God and fully rededicated my life to Christ. Other Christian bodies and religious organizations always visited us in the prison to encourage us with God’s word and to pray for us. My commitment and dedication in the prison fellowship got me to the position of the assistant secretary of the fellowship. My experience in the prison really humbled me.
Our fellowship president became my mentor and role model. Bro Ishaku was sentenced to life imprisonment and had spent twenty years already in prison. His faith and trust in God despite his condition, was a motivation to all of us who were his disciples. It really takes strong faith in Christ for a condemned inmate to talk about God the way bro Ishaku did when he gave us exhortations.
Pastor Lanre was not able to contact my people until a month to my freedom from prison. When my father was worried for not hearing from me for such a long time, he sent one of my uncles to trace me to Jocelyn’s family house where we held our traditional wedding but he was shut out on hearing he was from my kindred. When my father and mother finally visited me in prison, we all wept together when they saw me suffering. I assured them I will be fine knowing I would be out of prison soon.
Even though I stayed beyond six months in prison, I was released on the 21st of August.
I, who was thrown into prison as a backsliding Christian, came out as a fire brand. I learnt my lessons well with hunger and hard labour.
Upon my release, I was warned never to step into Jocelyn’s house or anybody close to her ever, else I will be sent back to prison. I came out of prison without a place to go. All my things were still in Jocelyn’s house but I was told never to step there again. Thanks to pastor Lanre, a man with a good heart. He admitted me into the church mission house. He gave me hope and a new life. My faith in Christ waxed stronger by the day seeing how pastor Lanre and the church rallied round me to give me shelter when I had no one, food when I was hungry and clothes when I was n***d. Pastor Lanre tried to get me a job but that wasn’t realistic without my credentials. He begged Jocelyn to release my credentials to me but she refused. She had since stopped attending our church, after I was thrown into prison. Pastor Lanre engaged me as one of the staff of the church even when there wasn’t vacancy. I was engaged to do special duties. As special duty officer, my job was nothing more than running errands for the church and staff of the church. This time, I ran those errands not just because they were my official duties but I did them as a service unto God
All my efforts to hear from Kauna proved abortive as I learnt she later relocated to the UK to cover the shame our action had caused the family. I was reliably informed also that she gave birth to a baby girl and may never come back to Nigeria again. Mrs Kalu became my informant, she was a member of our church and a staff of NNPC. She was the one who informed me that Jocelyn in annoyance had burnt all my things in her house, including my credentials.
Pastor Lanre began to talk about reconciling with my wife and her family but I saw this as a dream that may never come true. The damage done to Jocelyn’s family by my action can never be repaired. The scar of the the wound will also be there and will cause the seed of bitterness and hatred to ever bear fruit anytime they see me. I know Jocelyn will never forgive me, if for everything, not for impregnating her younger sister. Even though I knew I needed Jocelyn’s forgiveness and that of her family, getting it seemed elusive.
I began to give consideration to pastor’s suggestions on reconciliation and restitution but how will I go about it? Who will convince Jocelyn I am a new creature? Who will tell Jocelyn’s father to take me back again as his son-in-law? It was a serious bridge to cross. I started a chain of prayers for God’s leading and guidance.
Pastor Lanre had said I cannot marry another woman while Jocelyn is still alive. I was not getting younger and my parents were getting closer to their graves by the day. “When are we going to embrace our grandchildren” was a popular song in the lips of my parents. I wish I could tell them they already have a grandchild but I may never see this child all my life.
I moved out of church mission house to a one room apartment to enable me start a new life and re-plan my life. Pastor Lanre through Mrs Kalu traced Jocelyn to her new church and began to talk to her pastor on the possibility of our coming together again. The first meeting arranged by Jocelyn’s pastor to discuss our reconciliation was fruitless. Jocelyn walked out immediately she realized the subject of the meeting was our reconciliation. It took her pastor a month’s rigorous follow up to be able to make her return back to the church. She threatened never to attend that church again if anything about me is ever raised. The matter was put on hold for another one year. One year of loneliness and silence.
Many sisters were interested in me in the church but pastor Lanre had warned me never to give attention to any of them. You are a married man, you can’t date any sister in church. This he has said several times to me. Among these sisters who danced around me in church, sister Eunice was different. Epitome of beauty and humility. Her smiles are good enough to heal the sick. I wished I could get closer to her but pastor Lanre would not let that happen. Sister Eunice was a total opposite of Jocelyn, she will make a perfect wife, I thought.
I cannot disobey pastor Lanre but sincerely I am falling in love with sister Eunice
“Wives be very careful the way you treat your husband. If you refuse to carry him like a king. Hundreds of ladies out there will treat him like a monarch. You know men now? I know you will be saying hundreds of ladies ke? No matter the level of anointing please WIVES don’t frustrate your CROWN”
I love pastor Lanre for one thing, he was a goal getter per excellence. After a year, he was able to reconcile me back to my wife, Jocelyn. The conditions for reconciliation put me further into marriage prison. It was either I accept the conditions or I remain unmarried all my life. Staying unmarried for life is a prison on its own, going back to Jocelyn also is a prison. The decision was to choose between two prisons. I decided to choose the later prison.
I returned to Jocelyn’s house like a slave, this time I was already born again. The price I had to pay was to obey all conditions set for me and obey God in all my dealings. I had also signed an undertaking with the police never to engage her in any violent activity. With these conditions and my new spiritual status, Jocelyn became a god and a monster. The bitterness of what I did to her sister still lingered in her mind. The presence of my wife became a terror to me. I was practically loosing my mind but I was encouraged to endure and stay in the marriage.
Whenever I came back late Jocelyn would lock me out. I stayed late most times because of fellowship and the nature of my job in the church. I was the last person to leave the church everyday because I had to ensure all doors and windows were locked before leaving. Sometimes when she locked me out, I will return back to the church and pass the night with the security guard or at the church auditorium, the den of mosquitoes and dangerous insects. Other times to avoid too many questions, I just passed the night at the balcony. I became a victim of domestic violence. Initially it was emotional violence but it later graduated to physical assaults.
If you are nursing a plan to marry a rich woman for the sake of elevating your poverty, I beg you to drop that ambition today. Those who see me outside with fine dresses may not know the pains and agony those dresses are covering. Many people don’t know why I was always wearing long sleeve shirts. I have a wound around my upper arm, an injury inflicted on me by Jocelyn because I broke a glass cup. I wear long sleeve shirts to hide the wound that have refused to heal. It was infected badly that sometimes it brings out pulse and stinks like spoiled egg. I have been to hospital severally to get rid of the wound all to no avail.
It doesn’t take anything for Jocelyn to hit me, I get slapped almost everyday. Unfortunately for me I can’t retaliate or over defend myself, it will be termed as domestic violence against her. I reported my predicaments to pastor Lanre but he kept encouraging me, bro Patrick it shall be well. My life became miserable more than it was before I went to prison. I really desire to go to heaven and no amount of oppression will make me turn back. Nothing again shall separate me from the love of Christ, not Jocelyn nor the things she did to me, I vowed…
All my attempts to replace my credentials were futile. Getting a police report was a big problem. They wanted me to give them bride before the report could be issued. But I am a new person now, I can’t give bribe anymore. All my years of labour in school were burnt in minutes by a woman I called my wife, just to get back at me. Well, I can’t blame God, I was only swallowing what I chewed.
Many things I suffered in the hands of Jocelyn were unthinkable and cruel. Some I have never shared with anyone before. How can I tell people my wife was beating me? How can I tell people my wife denied me s*x for 365 days of a year? How well can I explain my emotional pains and my secret groaning? My marriage was resemblance of hell fire. Many times I have thought of suicide but that will hinder me from seeing God on the last day. I can’t endure these sufferings here on earth and still end up in hell.
To further frustrate me, Jocelyn started bringing different men into the house I should have referred to as our matrimonial home. I will serve her and also serve her numerous boyfriends who treated me like a houseboy. They do a lot of things in my presence yet I mustn’t react. She hugged, kissed and romanced them right in my presence. At night i wud hear their moans, during s*x but I had to keep mute. I will clean up their mess without partaking in it. I wanted to marry a rich woman, a rich woman I got.
When the suffering was too much and was becoming unbearable I to told pastor I want a divorce. I was ready to live all my life without marriage. Pastor Lanre tried to discourage me from seeking for a divorce but my life was at stake and my Christianity was not guaranteed with Jocelyn. Divorce was better than what I called marriage. I would have been ordained as a minister in the church but my marriage was the setback.
What would you advice me if I was your brother?
Don’t you think my punishment is too much for my sin?
If you are in my shoe what will you do?
The Bible discourages divorce, what would you advice me to do ,should I wait for my wife to die so that I can be free, and then remarry? Wat do u think?
To be continued…
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Esther Ochoga
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