RED FLAGS
EPISODE 13
Gabriel gave a call to his hospital and request an ambulance and within fifteen minutes they were already in front of our house. I was already covered in my blood by the time they arrived. It was when they wheeled me into the ambulance that I woke up and saw eight emergency responders surrounded by me with Gabriel beside me holding my hand as tears spilled down his eyes. He was crying like a baby not minding the people around us. The emergency responders tried to stop the bleeding by giving me an injection but it didn’t work. I was packed with a lot of diapers as the blood keep rushing out of my virginal.
My blood pressure was already dropping as the pain become unbearable. I was already closing my eyes back when one of the emergency responders tapped me and said:” I need you to talk to me, Mrs. Anisha. I can’t have you fall asleep right now”. I was wheeled into the emergency room immediately we got to the hospital and I heard one of the doctors (Gabriel’s colleague) telling him that: “She is having a stillbirth and we need to carry out an emergency surgical dilatation and curettage on her if we want to save her life” after an ultrasound was performed on me. She has already lost a lot of blood we would have induced her to give birth to the dead baby naturally.
“I just want my wife to be okay, I am ready to sign any papers, ” Gabriel told him with tears spilling down his eyes. He was given a form and he signed it with trembling hands. I could not talk anymore except the tears that were streaming down my face. I was given an anesthetic injection immediately and everything went dark. I woke up after what seems like an hour and met my husband and mother beside me in a different ward. I asked them:” Where’s my baby ?” but they could not talk and their only response was the tears streaming down their eyes. The doctor came to check up on me and told us my baby died from an umbilical cord accident. He had a nuchal cord, which means his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. We were also told it was a rare occurrence.
I cried on the hospital bed as if my life depended on it, they had to inject me before I was able to sleep. Unless you have experienced this type of loss, there is no way to imagine the feeling of losing your baby at 20weeks. The pain is primal, raw, and unbearable. Unspeakable. It was as if God was punishing me for not listening to him because after three days in the hospital, I started to hemorrhage. When the Ob/Gyn came back around, she was shocked at my condition. Her response is:” In my twenty years of experience, I have never experienced this before”. They had to give me 19 bags of blood, four bags of plasma, and four bags of platelets before I became stable.
I was discharged after spending two months in the hospital and what amazed my mom and me is that my mother-in-law never for once come to check up on me in the hospital and that was when my mom believed what I told her about the pastor’s message. I had to tell Gabriel I can’t go back to our matrimonial home that I would love to be at my mum’s place for the main time and he respects my decision without asking me why I decided to stay at my mom’s place. He always made sure to check up on me every day at my mum’s place before going to work and I could see he is not happy with the way things are. He would call me every night saying soothing words to me and I had to ask him one day:” Gabriel, why didn’t your mom come to check up on me in the hospital?”.
He was silent for a while before saying: “Anisha, I am so sorry my mom didn’t check up on you. I called her when we lose our baby but she told me she’s not in town but …..”I cut him short and told him not to bother explaining that I knew better.
Bimpe and her pastor came to visit me at my mum’s house a week after my discharge from the hospital and the pastor said: “Anisha, I hope you can now see what disobedience has caused you?. Let me tell you what you don’t know today. Your mother-in-law was the one behind all that you have been passing through and the only way to get out of it was to leave her son. Once you are healed I will advise you to come for 7 days deliverance so every bondage in your life can be freed. My mum and I thanked the pastor and promised to come for the deliverance once am completely healed.
Immediately the pastor and Bimpe left, I broke down into tears and regretted ever ignoring the red flags I saw the first day of going on a date with Gabriel. I knew his mom didn’t like me and I still went ahead and marry him. I blamed myself for literally everything and blamed my mom for the loss of my child. I blamed her for forcing me into marrying Gabriel, I blamed her for not believing me when I told her about the dreams I was having, I blamed her for not being a good mother to me. I blamed her for misleading me. I blamed her for putting herself first before me.
“You want me to get married so badly and now I am leaving the marriage with the same way I rushed into it. I hope you are happy now? ” I told her with tears spilling down my eyes and she was just wailing and asking for my forgiveness. I didn’t talk to my mom for a whole two weeks and she keeps begging me every day to forgive her with tears and I had no choice but to forgive her since she is my mother and I can’t completely blame her because she just wanted the best for me.
I made my mind up after spending three months at my mom’s place and told Gabriel I wanted a divorce. He was so sad the day I told coolvalstories him I can’t continue with our marriage. He asked me if it was because of his mum or the baby but I told him it’s is my sole decision because am not in the position to tell him his mother was the one behind all that I passed through while married to him. I believe sooner or later he is going to know the truth. I told him he doesn’t have to bother about sharing his properties with me because I don’t need any of them. I just wanted my freedom and that was all. He begged me for days and when he noticed my mind was made up, he had no choice than to sign the divorce papers and I realized that day that;” sometimes the best thing you can do for someone you love, is to let them go . Set them free and wish them happiness even if that means you are not part of it “.
The day I went to packed my loads from Gabriel’s house was an emotional day for the both of us. Memories of how we got married, convinced our baby, our sad and happy moments keep recalling in. We both had tears on our faces as the truck movers I hired takes my loads into the van. When my loads were completely loaded into the van, Gabriel hugged me with tears and said:” I will miss you so much Anisha, you will forever have a place in my heart as the mother of my first child . I don’t think I can ever find a woman like you “. He handed me a check of five million nairas, I tried to reject it but he told me it was just a goodbye gift from him.
We hugged each other for the last time before I ran downstairs because I don’t want to see the hurt in his eyes. You know what they say that words spread like wide fire, it doesn’t take long before people know am now a divorcee. Some made a jest of me and call me names saying:” Why won’t she end up as a divorcee when her wedding was too extravagant “. People give different opinions about my failed marriage without knowing the truth behind it. I had to tell my mom that I will be relocating to Abuja to start afresh because my environment reminds me of my loss baby and failed marriage and she had no choice but to let me go even if she wasn’t happy that am leaving her in Lagos.
I resigned from my job and Bimpe, our CEO and my colleagues were so sad when I dropped my resignation letter but they had no choice but to wish me well since they knew about the loss of my baby and failed marriage. They all gave me money and when I told them am relocating to Abuja to start a new life. I calculated every money I had with me and it was 10 million nairas which was more than enough to start a life in Abuja.
I got to Abuja and rented a room and parlor self contain. I invested the remaining money into clothing business and within two years my business blossom. I am now 34yrs old with no man to call my own and I have also forgotten about the deliverance the pastor told me to come and do. I decided to give my heart a chance to love again when I met Bode but one thing I always forgot to do is to seek God’s hand until some tragic incident started happening.
