What happened yesterday is still baffling me.
I know people are already judging me but it is not their fault. I am the one who placed myself in the public eye.
My body still hurts from childbirth but all I hear are insults and hisses. What I did is what many women do but they can judge me as if they are better than me. I am not a saint but I am not the devil either
This is what happened.
I am married to Ib but he is not my first husband. He had children before we met. I also had children before I met him but along the line we decided to be husband and wife.
Ib is a hard man, he beats me at every little provocation. Ask him for money, he will beat you, ask him why he came home late, it is gbosa, hot slap on the face; ask him about his travels, it is to warn me he would clear my legs off the ground. Such a man is difficult for any woman to love but I stayed because I didn’t want people to say I was moving from one man to another. Ib and I have two children together, he had two children before and I had two children before, too. So we have 6 children between us.
Now, Ib is always travelling because he is a truck driver for a haulage company, so he is always on the road; many times, I am alone with the children. Only my children from my former husband and the one I gave birth to for Ib live with us.
I am a food seller; I sell cooked food by the road side and I have many customers. That is how I met Sule. Sule is a regular customer; he would come and eat and stay and tell me many stories about his life. He is from Kogi state and came to live and work here in Lagos.
Sometimes, when I finish selling all my food, Sule would still be here keeping me company, telling me all kinds of stories and me too, I would tell him about my life. You understand.
I was always lonely with Ib gone for many days; he would not call me or tell me what was happening to him; when I call, he would tell me to stop calling him when he is at work, so it was a difficult marriage; no companionship, no friendliness and when he comes back, it would be sex, sex, sex, throughout until he leaves for another delivery.
He didn’t have time to sit and talk about our future or the future of our children. But with Sule, he would tell me his plans, his dreams, what he wanted his life to be. I think that is why I began to see Sule as a better man than my husband.
If anything happened to me the day before, Sule would remember and ask me about it; it usually surprised me.
When I told Sule that my husband beats me, he was very angry and asked me what I was still doing with him…that’s how come I began to think, maybe I also deserved a better life; a man who would not beat me; a man who would listen to me; who would share his story with me…
Ok, so Sule and I began to have sex. I don’t even know how it began but we began to see each other regularly; Ib was always away so…
Then I became pregnant!
When I noticed I was pregnant, I told Sule about it!
At first he was happy about it but after a few weeks, I noticed he was not coming to eat regularly at my shed. I was even told one of my rivals, who sells food down the road had snatched my loyal customer, Sule.
When I called him, he said my food was not the only good food in Lagos!
Shuo!
I didn’t understand, after a few days, I reminded him I was pregnant for him, he said that I was an adult, a woman who was also a mother and that I should know what to do. I didn’t understand him.
By this time, he had completely stopped coming to my shed to buy food. Anytime I called him, he would tell me, he also had children of his own, that I should know what to do, that I was not a young girl.
To be honest with you, if Sule had accepted the pregnancy, I would have left IB longest time but after almost two months of trying to get him to come back, I knew he had run away because of the pregnancy, so I took my fate into my own hands. I knew he got me cheap, so I stopped calling him and blocked his line.
Meanwhile anytime Ib came home as usual, it was sex, sex, sex for the few days he came home and he was gone again.
So I decided to give the baby to Ib!
Yes, if the real father won’t I take it, let me give it to the man who’s house I still lived in.
Yes, I know that it was a mistake, now but then, I was desperate. What kind of story do you want people to tell about me? That I got pregnant for another man in my husband’s house?
That’s what happened o.
So I gave birth to a baby boy and Ib said he would do a proper naming when he came home. Yes, Ib was always coming home like every two months, so he saw as the pregnancy progressed, yes, he was and he thought it was his own.
So, because of all this Covid wahala, we couldn’t do the naming ceremony, so Ib said I shouldn’t worry, when Covid is over, we would invite our friends and do the naming ceremony.
If I had known, I would just have asked him not to worry but he was so happy, even though this baby would not be his first son, he had a son from his previous marriage, this would be his second son but he wanted to do naming and invite people and alfa for the naming.
Then on the day we were naming my baby, while the Alfa were chanting quran and giving the baby his names; Sule came with his friends that they have come to carry their baby, that the baby was his!
He is alshatani itself! That Sule, he is from the pit of hell!
That shaitani called Sule, scattered the party, shouting that the baby was his own!
If you can reach Ib, please, help me beg him, this is the work of the devil, please beg him for me!
What was I to do yesterday? I was screaming and shouting, no, this baby is not your baby, o. This is Ib’s baby, I made a mistake, o.
But it was too late; that’s when I fainted.
That’s how the party scatter; Alfa left, a few friends left and our story became the story in the community. Ib has left the house since yesterday. Please, help me join mouth to beg him; I know I have wronged him, please beg him for me. He must not find me here when he gets back, I know that for sure, otherwise, me and my children are dead!
(Series written and edited by Peju Akande and based on true stories)