THE UNFAITHFUL HUSBAND ππ
Written by Henry Zibima
Episode 26
*****
Jennifer’s POV
I need a straightforward answer. Who is Sonia??” I queried.
Horizontal lines immediately appeared on his forehead and his jaw went slack. His entire body began screaming panic.
“Femi I asked you a question; who the hell is Sonia?”
“What do you mean?” He said pretending like he had no idea what I was talking about.
“What do you mean by who is Sonia, I’m confused here”
“He he” I laughed clapping my both hands together m
“So you have suddenly forgotten who she is right?”
“Jennifer I don’t understand you anymore, if you have something to say why not go ahead and say it; as you can see I’m very busy right now”
“So you’re saying you don’t know who she is…so you no longer remember that she schooled in the institution where you work?” It was now Femi truly realized that I must have found out about his escapades.
“See Jennifer I don’t know what you’re talking about; I need to drop something with the dry cleaner”
“Which drycleaner?? Aren’t you just coming from his shop.”
“Jennifer you are really getting on my nerves” he said panting angrily.
“I don’t care about wherever you want to go to but as far as you’ve not answered my question then be rest assured that you are not leaving this house”
“Look I don’t have time for this nonsense” Femi said opening the door to leave; I swiftly jumped up the bed; ran towards him and hooked his trouser by the side.
“Woman it seems you are high on something, you really want it hot before you behave yourself right”
“Femi I don’t want anything hot, I only asked you a simple question and you’re trying to run away”
“Why would I run away”
“Then answer my question” I shouted “Who is Sonia??”
“I know a lot of Sonia; be specific about what you’re saying”
“I told you before; the one that just graduated last year”
“Hold on, are you referring to Sonia?… Sonia was one of the brightest students in her set; she even received the best graduating student award”
“Abi?” I said sarcastically.
“So that is why you decided to turn her into your mistress and even worse; get married to her. Femi why are you this wicked”
“Who is telling you all these? where are you hearing all these lies from? You should know your husband too well to believe such a thing. Sonia and I just became close naturally due to her intelligence”
“Which intelligence” I yelled.
“I’m sure you must have been the one responsible for her good grades”
“Hey! Jennifer it’s okay! Enough of this nonsense. Aren’t you aware that the nonsense you just said can make me lose my job”
“Oh! So Femi you didn’t know you could lose your job when you went about misbehaving. First of all; you try to r@pe my niece, you forgot that you could serve serious jail time for attempted r*pe. As if that was not enough, you go ahead to plan for a second wife. After all our years of pain and misery together; Femi I remained with you through thick and thin; now you think you can discard me like a used toilet paper?. Femi you have failed; terribly because even if we get separated; I’ll make sure you lose your job and spend some years rotting in jail” I said boldly.
“I can’t believe you’re the one saying this, Jennifer I expected you to be more mature; you can’t believe everything you hear. You believed Esther’s lies and now this. I’m not ready for this nonsense” he said as he pushed me to the bed and vanished away from the room.
Frank’s POV
I followed after my dad as he walked to his room; I stopped at the passage so I could hear my parents. For the past few days; I’ve been restless, keeping track of all my parents discussions. Hoping dearly that they would both come to a resolution.
I stayed for some minutes but there was no sign of a conversation. I wanted to leave when I heard them raising their voices at each other. I listened keenly and I was amazed to hear Sonia’s name. I tried paying more attention but I scarcely heard anything.
I took a bold step, walked to the front of the room fully aware that if anyone opens the door; I will be caught right away.
“Then answer my question; who is Sonia??” was the only thing I could discern.
How did my mum get to know about Sonia? If she really knows that my dad has a side chick then things will definitely move from bad to worse. Their argument sounded very fierce but there was no sign of a fight. As if instructed by an angel; I left the door and quickly went to the living room. I had hardly sat down when my dad walked out from his room and went straight to the guest room; looking very enraged.
Surely, my dad would have seen me if I had wasted any more time before leaving my parents’ door. I wanted to ask my mom a few questions; find out what she knows about Sonia but I needed to wait till my dad leaves the house. Luckily for me, in less than no time; my dad went out. I went to my mom’s room, knocked and waited for a response.
“Yes, who is by the door?” She asked.
“It’s me, Frank”
“You can come in” came my mom’s voice from inside the room. I slowly pushed the door open and entered inside.
“What is it” she asked drying her eyes with a face wipe.
“Mom, are you alright” I asked filled with sympathy. I and my mom shared this mother and child bond; the connection between us was unbreakable. Whenever I was faced with one challenge or the other, she was always there for me; putting me through on what to do and what not to do. And now I felt it was my duty to be there for her to lean on.
“I’m alright” she said softly.
“Mum, I don’t know if it was just me but I think I heard you confront dad about someone named Sonia”
“Yes, so?”
“Y…y… you know about her?” I asked.
“I don’t understand you, what is it you are driving at”
“I… I also know about Sonia”
“You know about her…as in how? I’m confused”
“I’ve being aware that she and dad’s relationship”
My mom was completely taken aback by what I said.
“How come everyone knows about this and I’ve been in the dark and why didn’t you tell me, why did you keep such a secret from me”
“I just didn’t want any trouble between you and dad”
“If not of one thing I would have slapped you very hard, honestly speaking. Do you know that your foolish father intends on getting married to that stupid girl”
“Ah! Married? I didn’t know about that. I only knew that the relationship has lasted for a long time but I never knew they planned to take things further to the extent of getting married”
“You are one of the major reasons these things are happening; you know a lot yet you say very little. When you find out things like this you don’t do anything instead you remain calm waiting things to play out by itself. Now take a look at what you have caused, let’s say you told me right from the start; we would have handled this issue and it wouldn’t have gotten to this”
“Mom I’m sorry, I’m very sorry; I never knew it would result to this” I pleaded with her till she confessed with her mouth that she had forgiven me. I thought I had been doing good by not informing anyone; not knowing that I was causing harm.
Femi’s POV
What is happening? When did I become so sloppy; first my wife finds out my ordeal with Esther, now she knows about Sonia. How did she even get to know, from now henceforth I have to be extra cautious of how I run my things; if not this woman will get me into trouble.
*****
The energetic sound of my ringtone immediately thrusted me up from my state of soliloquy. It was my pastor on the line
“What does this man want again” I grumbled.
“Hello, good afternoon brother Femi”
“Good afternoon” I replied coldly.
“How are you sir and how is work”
“All good” I answered.
“Okay, glory to God. Ehh… Mr. Femi, I wanted to see you just for a brief discussion”
“Can’t we talk discuss on the phone?” I queried.
“No, it’s not a phone discussion; we have to discuss it face to face”
“I’m supposed to travel tommorow and I’m getting my things ready so I doubt if seeing you will be possible”
“Mr. Femi, please just try; you can come to my house, I won’t take much of your time”
After giving it some thought; I decided to go; just so it won’t seem like I was avoiding him.
My dressing was already fit for going out so I just brushed my hair, picked up my car key and left for my Pastor’s place.
****
“Good afternoon sir” Prince- my Pastor’s eldest son greeted
“Afternoon, how are you”
“I’m fine sir”
“Please inform your father that I’m around” I said and sat patiently on the sofa waiting for my Pastor’s arrival.
He soon entered inside and I stood up to greet him.
“Ah! Mr. Femi, I’m glad you came. Please have your seat.”
I sat down back while he sat directly opposite me.
“Mr. Femi, I asked you to come for a very important reason.”
“Ok?”
“Mr. Femi your wife told me what happened”
“What did she tell you, I hope you didn’t believe any of those things; they are all lies”
“Yes, I thought so too; because you are a high ranking personality in the church; someone who others look up to. Mr. Femi, I expected your spiritual life to be more solid; I expected you to be a light to those in darkness. That’s why I found it difficult to believe what she told me, so I decided to pray over it and God revealed even more things to me”
“What do you mean by God revealed more things to you” I said looking very puzzled.
“Mr. Femi, the path you are on will only lead to destruction. Change now, when you still have the chance; let go of every sαΊΉxual immorality, let go of…”
“So pastor you want to join them in accusing me? I can’t believe this” I immediately stood up from the sofa.
“Mr. Femi, no one is accusing you, I’m only asking you to amend your ways. Besides, God can not lie”
“Sir, I’m sorry to say but that your revelation or whatever is a fake one; that is how all of you go about portraying yourselves as men of God, meanwhile you’re all fake prophets.”
“Please mind what you say against a servant of God”
“Servant of God? Servant of God my foot” I shouted.
“Brother Femi…”
“Who are you calling a brother? Pastor I am disappointed in you. Infact I shouldn’t even be having this conversation with you. I’ll take my leave now” I said and walked out of his house very enraged while my pastor kept shaking his head in silence.
Esther’s POV
Since that incident occurred that night; I had not heard from Chidi. Femi seized my phone and refused giving it to me. My body itched to speak with him so badly, not because I wanted to hear his voice but because I wanted to let him know what he had caused me; give him a piece of my mind.
Suddenly, an idea struck me; I knew Chidi’s number offhand. If Frank would allow me then I could use his phone to reach Chidi. I just had to wait for the right moment; I paid close attention, my eyes fixed on my window waiting for when Femi would go out.
Finally he came out of the house and drove his car out of the gate. Joy filled my heart, I had accomplished one step. As I came out of my room to search for Frank; I was lucky enough that he was in the sitting room.
“Frank! Frank!” I called
“Is your phone with you there”
“Yea, you want to use it?” He asked.
“Yes, please. Do have airtime”
“Yeah, sure”
He unlocked the phone and handed it to me.
I dialed Chidi’s number, it took me some time because I wasn’t used to using Android phones. It rang and finally he picked.
“Hello”
“Yes, please who am I on to?”
“Chidi, it’s me Esther”
“Ohh! Esther, I’ve missed you so much, what happened? Whenever I call your line it’s always switched off and you didn’t even try to reach me”
“Chidi, I’m in trouble already and it’s because of you.”
“What happened?” He inquired.
“Chidi, they found out about us; my uncle found out about us and from the look of things it has cost me my stay in this house”
“Ah ah, how? why?”
“Your unnecessary naughty messages caused everything. Chidi, I can’t bear the fact that you’re the one responsible for my misfortune; I’m sorry but this thing between us ends now”
“Wha…wha.. what do you mean, is this a joke or something”
“It hurts me but I have to do this; please take care of yourself and I hope that one day you’ll find a better girl for yourself. Goodbye.”
TBC
