Marital Vice – Episode 8


by Kizzykeziah

“I should also get going now. You guys take care, okay?” Tayo stood up ready to leave with Kay who had been signaling to him to take their leave. He wondered why he was in such a hurry. It was just a few minutes past eight p.m but since he was staying at his house for the few days he was going to be in Lagos in course of his official duties, he had to leave whenever Kay said to.

“Tolu, I’d call you later,” Kay finally said and made for the door passing beside Deola who nearly hissed as he went past her. She never liked him throughout their stay on campus and never tried making friends with him even as he was Tolu’s closest friend in school. She shifted her attention to Tayo as she heard Kay open and shut the front door behind him,

“Why are you leaving so soon?” She asked him and he smiled back at her,

“I would have loved to stay longer but I’m staying with Kay and he has some things to do at home so he wanted to leave earlier,” he explained to her while Tolu only watched them.
The way Tayo got along so well with his wife was gradually getting to him and the feeling wasn’t good in any way. Tayo had gone to speak to her when he came that afternoon since he couldn’t get a chance to speak to her the previous day which was the naming ceremony and also a Friday. He had promised to come the next day and since both their mothers as well as other family members had now left, he finally got to speak to her. Only God knew what hold he had over her that was making her smile at him this way when since the previous day after the naming ceremony, he didn’t get to see the slightest smile cross her lips.

“Tee boy, I’d come over tomorrow. Maybe I can get to spend more time here then,” Tayo told him, jolting him out of his thoughts .

“Okay, let me walk you to the car,” Tolu offered and went out of the house with his friend.

Deola watched them leave and sighed. Her mum had only left that morning when she had convinced her beyond every reasonable streak of doubt that she was fine. Moreover, her mother in-law had left the night of the naming ceremony, promising to be back with whosoever that Lydia was. She still found it hard to l comprehend how possible it was for her husband to get another lady pregnant when she was still living under his roof. What was he thinking? Or had he been like this all along and she had been the blinded one? Did she do something wrong or did he just lose his moral sense?
It however was surprising to her how quickly it had all happened.
First, he withdraws from her and becomes colder. Then next, he comes back as ‘hubby dearest’, even though she never fell for that. She’d always had her own perceptions knowing there was something more to it. But now that she was finally in on it all, she just hated Tolu for keeping the least of the facts from her and letting it evolve up to the point where his whole shameless family throws in their hatred for her. Most especially his mother. He was exact definition of the son of a bi-tch. She wasn’t sure how she was going to get past it all but knew she had to grow up now and quit being the little girl that always had her daddy there for her.

“Mummy, I want to eat.” Deola turned around to see Niyi with a plastic plate and spoon by the door of the kitchen. She had totally forgot she hadn’t given him anything to eat since that afternoon. That was going to be his own sacrifice for his daddy’s insanity, she thought bitterly staring at her son.

——————————-

Kay’s phone kept vibrating on the glass table and Tayo who had been watching it ring for nearly four times now, stood up to check who the caller was so he might know whether or not to answer the call and tell the caller Kay wasn’t anywhere close by. He had barely caught a glimpse of the caller’s ID when Kay showed up and hurriedly picked up the phone, cast a glance his way and then turn away to answer the call,

“Don’t you ever give up,” Kay said into the receiver and stepped away into his bedroom. He was getting really pissed at this Lydia girl. Even after showing her the way to Tolu’s mother and her wishes seemingly falling in place, she still chose to bother him rather than bother Tolu who got her pregnant.

“Why didn’t you want to pick up?” Lydia nearly yelled and he put the phone away from his ear to save his tympanic membrane from tearing up.

“Why are you calling me?” He said when she finally got quiet.

“I don’t like that woman. She asked me to stay away from Tolu’s house and that she would take care of everything but I’m not buying her strategy at all. I’m nearing delivery and I need money. It’s not as though the pregnancy doesn’t have an owner so I don’t know why I can’t move into his house. Is his wife that powerful or has she jinxed everyone of you?” She continued angrily.

Kay sighed, tempted to hang up on her but he knew that was just going to make her come straight over to his house. He wasn’t ready to give an explanation to Tayo who was already watching him with scrutinizing eyes,

“I wonder why you don’t dial the phone number of whosoever got you pregnant rather than disturbing my peace. And if your problem is money, then send me a text message with your account number and stop bothering me,”

“You know fully well that Tolu won’t pick up my calls. The fool is just staying quiet that I’m almost tempted to throw something at him and make his senses return,”

“Just stop calling me as if I’m your husband. Even a married couple shouldn’t bother each other the way you are bothering me,” Kay insisted and hung up.

He was however caught up like a mouse when he looked up to see Tayo behind him.

“Why would you be talking to the girl that’s making our friend’s life this miserable?” Tayo shot at him before he could put up any denial.

—————————–

“I can’t believe Tolu did this, damn it,” Remi cursed as he listened to his mum narrate what went down at his little sister’s baby’s naming ceremony. He had been away on an official assignment in Abuja for the architectural firm where he worked and couldn’t make it to the ceremony. His wife with whom he only got wedded four months before had also fallen ill making her unable to attend either. But hearing his mum’s account, he wished he had been there for the poor girl. How was she going to take it now? He was terribly worried about her and sighed placing his hands over the ridge of his nose.

“I feel like I have left my daughter in the hands of Lucifer himself right now. I can’t even take watching her act like she’s fine because she isn’t,” his mother had tears rolling down her cheeks as she lamented, “I wish your father was alive now. He could have known what to do but he chose a time like that to leave us this way. Remi, we have to bring your sister out of there. She asked me to leave and not bother but I know it is all a show. Those people are going to hurt her especially that old witch, Tolu’s mum,” she continued while Rachel, Remi’s wife watched them both silently. She was also worried about her sister in-law who had always kept to herself. They weren’t on terms of being friends but she was young, barely twenty six and already having to deal with in-law’s problems.

“We can’t do so much now that another lady is in the picture. The lady is even pregnant at that, so I can only go hammer some tough words into Tolu’s head so he won’t ever dream of ill-treating my sister. Aside that, I’d also talk to Deola. Staying inside that house all day is not good for her. She has a certificate for God’s sake and I don’t even understand why she stopped working before. She definitely needs to get some air and we have to be there for her while she gets stronger,” Remi concluded and stood up to turn on the television.

“Hmmmm,” his mother sighed again. She was going to get an heart attack this way, Remi thought to himself as he glanced at her, her expression vague. He had to convince her to stay longer at his place. She would just get sick if she returns to her house in their hometown.
———————
Tolu’s mum heaved again as she sat on the tattered chair in the living room of her friend’s house, waiting for her to come on out from the bedroom adjoining having assured her she was inside and promising to be with her soon.

“Mama Tolu, I hope I didn’t keep you here for long,” Mama Ruka, a really fat, dark complexioned lady with a weird looking nose and big lips walked into the poorly furnished choky living room with her left hand holding her wrapper tight over her big chest.

“Not at all, Iya Ruka. I didn’t wait for long,” Mama Tolu reassured her and sat up in the outdated sofa.

“I was putting away some clothes and if I ask these my children to do it, they would turn that room upside down,” the fat woman explained to her friend. They had become friends for so long that neither could recollect how they had gotten so close. Whenever either had a problem, she would go to meet the other for advice and they both seemed to always be fine with whatever either suggested. That had been the sole reason Mama Tolu was here. She had been having sleepless nights since Tolu asked her to leave his house on the day of the naming ceremony. She had felt so ridiculed when her own son shows her the way to the door in the presence of the whole family as well as his wife’s mother. It had hurt her ego and she wanted him to pay alongside his wife whom she was still insisting had bewitched her son. That is the only comprehensible reason Tolu would forgot on whose back he had developed and whose milk had nurtured him.
Thinking of all these, most especially confused on how she was going to get him back to her, so that she would give him his new wife who was carrying his baby, she explained it all to her friend who sighed on hearing the account,
“So this Adeola or what is her name has decided to bring her game to these level,” Mama Ruka said staring straight at nothing.

“Iya Ruka, gba mi….save me. I can’t let a witch steal my son from me in my lifetime,”

“But didn’t you cause a ruckus there. You even took Alhaji along, so how come nothing happened that day?” She asked in awe, she had suggested the frontal attack to her friend just before she left for Lagos but was however surprised how the plan got foiled and Deola still managed to spend another night in that house.

“Trust me, I had performed every single act perfectly and she was already halfway back to that her mother until the pastor came and ruined it all with his bible talk,” Mama Tolu said and shifted back with a resigned look on her face.

“And you are a ‘christian’ o,” Iya Ruka remarked sarcastically and watched her friend hiss before continuing after clearing her throat, “Well, by my own methods, I have a suggestion since an urgent situation requires an urgent measure,” she started and lowered her voice into whispers with Mama Tolu nodding at intervals.

“It is very fine,” Mama Tolu said when her friend was done with her suggestion.

“Good, I’ll change now and we would go. Nnkan to o ba ti ya ki i pe mo…..we shouldn’t delay anymore then,” Iya Ruka said rising to her feet and going into her bedroom.

… to be continued

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