THE UNFORGIVABLE SIN
Aneesah and her husband, Marwan, had been married for a year and half.
On her wedding eve, her mother, Madam Ewatomi, sat her down and advised her on marriage. Her mother was a three time divorcee. She had four children for three different fathers. Although the three marriages hitting the rock were not actually her fault, nonetheless, she doesn’t want her daughter to go through the same agony.
Madam Ewatomi had a boy, Muhsin, from her first marriage before fleeing the marriage when domestic violence wasn’t bearable.
Madam Ewatomi proceeded to marry another man where she had Aneesah and her younger brother, Abideen. Aneesah’s father was a chronic drunkard. He could empty the whole brewery without getting satisfied. He was equally irresponsible and a wife beater. Aneesah’s mother carried all the responsibilities of the home alone while her husband spent his own earnings on alcohol and other frivolities. She would have stayed because of what people would say.
That was her second marriage which must not fail. She would have stayed if her husband was only irresponsible. At least she had a good job which paid the bills conveniently. But her husband wasn’t only irresponsible, he was equally a violent and aggressive wife beater. She had to leave when the last beating got her a three weeks bed space in the hospital. She carried her children and ran for her dear life.
It’s a living person that can answer the title of Mrs. The title of Mrs can no longer be beneficial to a dead person. For these reasons, she had to call it quits with her second marriage with sadness.
What she ran for in her first marriage became her reality for the second time. She cried bitterly, wallowing in melancholy everyday. She dwelled in self pity for being a victim of a bad marriage twice. She decided to remain a single mother for the rest of her life. She decided to focus her all on her three children, a case of once bitten twice shy. Her own case was not a once bitten case, it was a double bitten case which made her multiple times shy.
She rented an apartment and was living with her three children until she met Otunba, the father of her fourth child, Ali.
Otunba already had two wives at home. The two wives had all girls. Apparently, Otunba was looking for a baby boy which made him embark on the third marriage mission. He did everything at his disposal to woo Madam Ewatomi. At last she let go of her decision not to marry again and succumbed to love.
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Life happened and the woman who once swore never to get married again found love in the arms of another man. She married Otunba to become his third wife.
Otunba was good to her. He was the true definition of a good husband. He cared so much for her and her three children. He rented a duplex for her before the marriage. She moved into the duplex with her children.
When she conceived Ali, even before the scan detected a boy, Otunba’s kindness to her skyrocketed. She enjoyed paradise on earth. When she underwent a scan and the scan detected a boy, Otunba nearly ran mad with happiness. He cared for Ewatomilola like a baby. He took her shopping for baby clothes every week. The baby wardrobe was already filled to the brim before the arrival of the baby.
When the baby eventually arrived and he was indeed a baby boy, the whole World knew that Otunba Ali had now fathered a boy. He named the boy after him, Ali.
Otunba held a grand naming ceremony for his baby boy which was the talk of the town for months.
Otunba inclined more towards Ewatomilola at the detriment of his other two wives. Suddenly, like a pack of not well arranged cards, the marriage crumbled again. The once committed husband became an absentee. He withdrew totally from Ewatomi. He wouldn’t visit her house for months. She became an abandoned wife. Until finally when he told her he wasn’t interested in her again.
She pleaded and begged to no avail. She asked what her offense was but he said she didn’t offend him. He confessed to her that he didn’t really wanted to marry her but did unwillingly because he was looking for a male child. And now that he had gotten a male child, he saw no need to continue with the marriage again. He collected his son from her when the boy was 4 years old.
Ewatomilola felt the blow of the deceit. She nearly run mad. She cried everyday like a bereaved. She suffered depression. Suicidal thoughts crossed her mind. She wanted to end her own life but she looked back on her innocent children who would suffer her absence.
She had to be strong for her children. She got a grip on herself and her life continued. She moved out of the duplex Otunba rented for her. She couldn’t keep up with the rents any longer. She had her own building which she fast tracked after the divorce. She moved into her own house and picked the pieces of her broken life.
Years later, her only daughter, Aneesah was getting married at 23. She got really paranoid about the marriage of a thing. But she couldn’t stop her daughter from getting married. She could only pray for her not to suffer the same fate as hers which she did wholeheartedly.
Aneesah got married to a good man. Marwan was a good man. He was just a man of high principle. He was always particular about his wants and needs. Aside this, he was generally a loving man.
The house he rented was a stone throw to his parents’ house. His siblings, mother and other family members always came around his house at will. This does not sit well with Aneesah as she thought she was being robbed of her privacy.
Marwan’s family meant no harm. Theirs was just a big and united family. They saw no wrong in visiting their brother, son or relative who lived just two streets away. The siblings might be the one to visit today. And it might be cousins the next day and his mother and aunt the day after. Marwan’s aunt and his mother owned a joint shop in front of their house. So, his aunt, aunt Bola, his mother’s younger sister was always in the house from morning till evening before going to her own house.
Perhaps, they’d gotten accustomed to one another’s company that they couldn’t do without seeing one another for a day. Aneesah disliked this development. Apart from the fact it robbed her of her privacy, it was also stressful having them around because she would need to entertain them with either snacks or food.
Aneesah spoke to her husband about this. She suggested that they relocated to a diffetent area of Lagos but her husband didn’t buy the idea. He told her not to bother entertaining them if it was stressful for her. She told him it wasn’t only because of the stress, she needed her privacy as well. Marwan told her he couldn’t tell his family not to come around again. He told her that she shouldn’t bother keeping their company. She could be in the room if she wanted, no one would disturb her.
Aneesah shook her head. It seemed Marwan didn’t understand her plight. She needed more of her husband’s time. He had a 7-5 job which took him away from Monday to Friday. The weekend she was supposed to spend alone with him, his family would still come over and rival that with her. She wasn’t pleased at all. But no matter how much she tried to make her husband reason with her, he wasn’t getting her point at all and it was quite frustrating.
****Watch Out For Part Two*****
THE UNFORGIVABLE SIN Part Three
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