DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
EPISODE 9
Femi ran out after Shana and saw that when she was running past their car. He increa-sed his pace and caught up with her. He gr@bb£d her and she pushed his hands away from her.
Shana: “Leave me alone, don’t you ever t©uçh me again! I hate you!”
Femi: “plea-se, listen to me. She was lying; I never said any of those things that she said”.
Shana: “I don’t care what you said or didn’t say. All I know is that I am done with this marriage. That insult and embarras-sment was too much for me to take, did you see how everyone in the mall turned to stare at me when she said you told her that I am too wi-de? For more than one year now I have been tolerating your excesses because of the love I have for you, I un-derstood the fact that you were cheating on me probably because I was unable to give you a child. Now I am pregnant and yet you and your mistress won’t allow me carry this child in peace. If your plan is to cause my blood pressure to sh0t up so that I can have a miscarriage, then you have failed. I am sure you miss whatever it is that she does to you on the be-d and so you can’t wait to have me out of the way. You don’t have to wait any further because I am leaving you for good, I am going to my parents’ house and I will tell them all that you have been doing to me all these years”.
Femi: “You are getting worked up over nothing. That lady was just lying”.
Shana: “You still have the mouth to talk? As if I didn’t see your phone where you saved her name as real deal?”
Femi momentarily lost his voice and he didn’t know what to tell her. He knew that he would fall into serious trouble with his father if news of his extra marital affairs should get to him.
He was also afraid that Shana’s anger could lead to a rise in her blood pressure and this could have adverse effects on the baby. Ignoring his status and those pas-sing bye, he got on his knees and held his wife on her feet.
Femi: “Baby, plea-se forgive me. Yes, I know her but I never told her any of those things that she said. Yes, I had one or two inti-mate thing to do with her but I never said your…your…I never said your v@g!n@ is too wi-de. I couldn’t have said that. You are my wife, the mother of my unborn child and you are the one I truly love. She is jealous and that is why she wants to cause problems for us”.
Shana: “Are you sure? I hope you are not just saying this because you don’t want me to leave with your child?”
Femi: “No, I am saying this from the depth of my heart. I love you more than I love myself and I promise never to cheat on you again, in fact, I swear!”
Staring at him from her standing position, Shana’s heart melted and she knew that was no way she could end their marriage like that. She loved Femi more than anyone and anything in the world and so she had no option than to forgive him. She gave him her hand and he stood up.
Shana: “This our n@ûghty daddy”, she tea-sed. “I told you to start behaving well but you just won’t listen. Don’t you know that our baby is watching you from the wo-mb? Do you want him to grow up behaving like you?”
Femi: “I have changed o. I promise that such a thing will never happen again. I promise to be the best daddy in the world”, he placed his ear on her stomach. “Wow, I can hear my boy kicking and calling my name, you see my child is glad you forgave me”. They laughed and drove home.
====
Femi got to work the next morning and saw a mail about the new staff that was employed and s£nt to his br@nch. He was skeptical when he saw that it was a female staff, he had made up his mind to avoid any extra marital affair ever since Shana got pregnant and he knew that he could go back on his words if he stayed close to a h0t female banker. At exactly 7:10am, the new staff walked into his office. His face lit up when he saw her, the same applicant that had come to beg him for employment that he had s£nt away.
Nana: “Hello, mr Manager. Surprised?”
Femi: “Of course I am not surprised. I know that desperate ladies like you can go to any length to get what they want”.
Nana: “Good, thank God you can see the desperation in me”.
Femi: “I guess you are here to work and not to talk. So, go to the human resource officer, she will show you to your duty post and tell you all that you nee-d to know concerning your job”.
Nana: “I know where to go. I just c@m£ to inform you that I want you. It doesn’t matter if you are married to ten women. I am one woman that knows how to get what she wants. Forget my size and appearance, I know what I have upstairs. I am coming for you, watch out”. She left Femi in his office dumbfounded. He couldn’t deny that the girl was attrac-tive and he knew that he would nee-d the grace of God to overcome this temptation.
======
Shana woke up in the middle of the night feeling feverish. She was alre-ady used to feeling feverish ever since she got pregnant but this one was p@rticular because she always sle-pt well at night but that night, she had found it very difficult to fall asleep. She peeped into Femi’s face and she realized that he was fast asleep and snoring. She picked her phone and checked on the time, 02:13am, it re-ad. She got up from the be-d and went to the bathroom to ease herself, careful not to wake Femi up. She realized that her temperature was high and she took a hand towel, dabbe-d it with water and placed it on her head. After some minutes, she returned to be-d where she kept on tossing up and down for some minutes. Then she felt a sharp pain in her lower abd0m£n and woke up with a start. Femi who was fast asleep also j£rked up at that moment.
Femi: “What is it?” he asked with alarm in his eyes.
Shana: “I don’t know, I have been feeling very uncomfortable. Then there is this sharp pain in my abd0m£n”.
Femi: “Could it be the baby coming?”
Shana: “Don’t be silly, Femi. The pregnancy is not even six months yet. The baby has some months to stay in there”.
Femi: “Don’t blame me, I can’t wait to have him around, you know….”
“Ah! Yaay!” Shana screamed forcing him to swallow his word”.
Femi: “What is it? Are you okay?” he was obviously frightened this time around.
Shana: “My stomach”.
Femi: “What is wrong with your stomach? He asked sitting up from the be-d”.
Shana: “Femi”.
Femi: “Yes?”
Shana: “I feel we-t down there”.
Femi: “Where is down there? we-t as how?” he was beginning to lose his patience.
Shana: “There”, she pointed in between her legs.
Femi quic-kly gr@bb£d the duvet that was covering her and fli-pped in on the floor. There they saw that Shana was bleeding.
“Jesus Christ”, Shana shouted and closed her eyes, shielding them from the blood.
Femi: “My God you are bleeding. We have to rush to the hospital now before something happens to the baby. He picked his car keys from his be-dside drawer and carried her gently not minding the havoc the dribbling blood was ma-king on his pyjamas.
Femi drove to the hospital where his wife had registered for ante natal and the nurses on duty rushed to the car and took her in. The doctor on duty was the same doctor who attended to Shana when she was involved in an accident and he wasted no time in collecting her file and rushed in to the room where Shana was lying in the pool of her own blood.
Doctor: “Mr Femi, what happened to your wife?”
Femi: “Doctor, I don’t know o, we were lying down and she suddenly started complaining of pain in her abd0m£n, next thing, she was bleeding”.
The doctor s£nt Femi out when he noticed that he was nervous.
Few minutes later, the doctor c@m£ out and Femi who was waiting outside the door ran to him.
Femi: “Doctor, how is my wife and the unborn baby? Can I go in and see my wife now?”
The doctor, who was wearing a frown, cleaned the sweat forming on his brow with his handkerchief, an act that confounded Femi’s agony.
Doctor: “Come with me to my office”.
Femi’s heart flew to his heart, he felt within him that all was not well with his wife.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
EPISODE 9
Femi ran out after Shana and saw that when she was running past their car. He increa-sed his pace and caught up with her. He gr@bb£d her and she pushed his hands away from her.
Shana: “Leave me alone, don’t you ever t©uçh me again! I hate you!”
Femi: “plea-se, listen to me. She was lying; I never said any of those things that she said”.
Shana: “I don’t care what you said or didn’t say. All I know is that I am done with this marriage. That insult and embarras-sment was too much for me to take, did you see how everyone in the mall turned to stare at me when she said you told her that I am too wi-de? For more than one year now I have been tolerating your excesses because of the love I have for you, I un-derstood the fact that you were cheating on me probably because I was unable to give you a child. Now I am pregnant and yet you and your mistress won’t allow me carry this child in peace. If your plan is to cause my blood pressure to sh0t up so that I can have a miscarriage, then you have failed. I am sure you miss whatever it is that she does to you on the be-d and so you can’t wait to have me out of the way. You don’t have to wait any further because I am leaving you for good, I am going to my parents’ house and I will tell them all that you have been doing to me all these years”.
Femi: “You are getting worked up over nothing. That lady was just lying”.
Shana: “You still have the mouth to talk? As if I didn’t see your phone where you saved her name as real deal?”
Femi momentarily lost his voice and he didn’t know what to tell her. He knew that he would fall into serious trouble with his father if news of his extra marital affairs should get to him.
He was also afraid that Shana’s anger could lead to a rise in her blood pressure and this could have adverse effects on the baby. Ignoring his status and those pas-sing bye, he got on his knees and held his wife on her feet.
Femi: “Baby, plea-se forgive me. Yes, I know her but I never told her any of those things that she said. Yes, I had one or two inti-mate thing to do with her but I never said your…your…I never said your v@g!n@ is too wi-de. I couldn’t have said that. You are my wife, the mother of my unborn child and you are the one I truly love. She is jealous and that is why she wants to cause problems for us”.
Shana: “Are you sure? I hope you are not just saying this because you don’t want me to leave with your child?”
Femi: “No, I am saying this from the depth of my heart. I love you more than I love myself and I promise never to cheat on you again, in fact, I swear!”
Staring at him from her standing position, Shana’s heart melted and she knew that was no way she could end their marriage like that. She loved Femi more than anyone and anything in the world and so she had no option than to forgive him. She gave him her hand and he stood up.
Shana: “This our n@ûghty daddy”, she tea-sed. “I told you to start behaving well but you just won’t listen. Don’t you know that our baby is watching you from the wo-mb? Do you want him to grow up behaving like you?”
Femi: “I have changed o. I promise that such a thing will never happen again. I promise to be the best daddy in the world”, he placed his ear on her stomach. “Wow, I can hear my boy kicking and calling my name, you see my child is glad you forgave me”. They laughed and drove home.
====
Femi got to work the next morning and saw a mail about the new staff that was employed and s£nt to his br@nch. He was skeptical when he saw that it was a female staff, he had made up his mind to avoid any extra marital affair ever since Shana got pregnant and he knew that he could go back on his words if he stayed close to a h0t female banker. At exactly 7:10am, the new staff walked into his office. His face lit up when he saw her, the same applicant that had come to beg him for employment that he had s£nt away.
Nana: “Hello, mr Manager. Surprised?”
Femi: “Of course I am not surprised. I know that desperate ladies like you can go to any length to get what they want”.
Nana: “Good, thank God you can see the desperation in me”.
Femi: “I guess you are here to work and not to talk. So, go to the human resource officer, she will show you to your duty post and tell you all that you nee-d to know concerning your job”.
Nana: “I know where to go. I just c@m£ to inform you that I want you. It doesn’t matter if you are married to ten women. I am one woman that knows how to get what she wants. Forget my size and appearance, I know what I have upstairs. I am coming for you, watch out”. She left Femi in his office dumbfounded. He couldn’t deny that the girl was attrac-tive and he knew that he would nee-d the grace of God to overcome this temptation.
======
Shana woke up in the middle of the night feeling feverish. She was alre-ady used to feeling feverish ever since she got pregnant but this one was p@rticular because she always sle-pt well at night but that night, she had found it very difficult to fall asleep. She peeped into Femi’s face and she realized that he was fast asleep and snoring. She picked her phone and checked on the time, 02:13am, it re-ad. She got up from the be-d and went to the bathroom to ease herself, careful not to wake Femi up. She realized that her temperature was high and she took a hand towel, dabbe-d it with water and placed it on her head. After some minutes, she returned to be-d where she kept on tossing up and down for some minutes. Then she felt a sharp pain in her lower abd0m£n and woke up with a start. Femi who was fast asleep also j£rked up at that moment.
Femi: “What is it?” he asked with alarm in his eyes.
Shana: “I don’t know, I have been feeling very uncomfortable. Then there is this sharp pain in my abd0m£n”.
Femi: “Could it be the baby coming?”
Shana: “Don’t be silly, Femi. The pregnancy is not even six months yet. The baby has some months to stay in there”.
Femi: “Don’t blame me, I can’t wait to have him around, you know….”
“Ah! Yaay!” Shana screamed forcing him to swallow his word”.
Femi: “What is it? Are you okay?” he was obviously frightened this time around.
Shana: “My stomach”.
Femi: “What is wrong with your stomach? He asked sitting up from the be-d”.
Shana: “Femi”.
Femi: “Yes?”
Shana: “I feel we-t down there”.
Femi: “Where is down there? we-t as how?” he was beginning to lose his patience.
Shana: “There”, she pointed in between her legs.
Femi quic-kly gr@bb£d the duvet that was covering her and fli-pped in on the floor. There they saw that Shana was bleeding.
“Jesus Christ”, Shana shouted and closed her eyes, shielding them from the blood.
Femi: “My God you are bleeding. We have to rush to the hospital now before something happens to the baby. He picked his car keys from his be-dside drawer and carried her gently not minding the havoc the dribbling blood was ma-king on his pyjamas.
Femi drove to the hospital where his wife had registered for ante natal and the nurses on duty rushed to the car and took her in. The doctor on duty was the same doctor who attended to Shana when she was involved in an accident and he wasted no time in collecting her file and rushed in to the room where Shana was lying in the pool of her own blood.
Doctor: “Mr Femi, what happened to your wife?”
Femi: “Doctor, I don’t know o, we were lying down and she suddenly started complaining of pain in her abd0m£n, next thing, she was bleeding”.
The doctor s£nt Femi out when he noticed that he was nervous.
Few minutes later, the doctor c@m£ out and Femi who was waiting outside the door ran to him.
Femi: “Doctor, how is my wife and the unborn baby? Can I go in and see my wife now?”
The doctor, who was wearing a frown, cleaned the sweat forming on his brow with his handkerchief, an act that confounded Femi’s agony.
Doctor: “Come with me to my office”.
Femi’s heart flew to his heart, he felt within him that all was not well with his wife
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
EPISODE 10
Femi followed the doctor to his office with his heart pounding furiously. As soon as he closed the door behind him in the doctor’s office, he ran out of patience.
Femi: “I can’t take the suspense anymore, doctor. Tell me what has happened to my wife before I faint and become another patient here”.
Doctor: “You nee-d to seat down and calm down first”.
Femi: “Don’t tell me to sit down and calm down. My wife and unborn child are lying down sick on the hospital be-d and you are saying I should calm down, calm down as how?”
The doctor sat down and brou-ght out a file after perusing for few minutes and removing his glas-ses, he looked into Femi’s eyes.
Doctor: “I am sorry,Mr Femi, there was a miscarriage and your wife lost the pregnancy. We haven’t told her yet because her blood pressure is very high and we do not want anything that will trigger any sort of shock in her”.
Femi was dumbfounded. He couldn’t believe that the child they were looking forward to having was no more. He had many questions to ask the doctor but when he opened his mouth to speak, the words refused to form.
Femi: “Doctor, how did the miscarriage happen? I mean what caused it?” he uttered inaudibly.
Doctor: “I didn’t get that, can you say it again?”
Femi: “How did my unborn child die?” he barked causing the doctor to startle on his seat.
The doctor recollected himself and cleared his throat. “You see, we observed that there was pressure on her lower abd0m£n which led to a weakness in the wall of the uterus….”
While the doctor was talking, Femi lost concentration, all he could think of was the years of barrenness that they had spent together and how that had pushed him into the arms of another woman. The news of her pregnancy had brou-ght him back on track and now he felt like he was beginning to lose that s-en-se of faithfulness all over again.
He nee-ded to get away, far away from her and the miscarriage news, he didn’t even give any thought to Shana who was lying unconscious in the hospital, all he thought of was the pain of his crashed hope of fatherhood. He walked out of the doctor’s office, got into his car and drove away.
====
Shana woke up with a start, she had sle-pt for more than ten hours un-der the influence of the sedatives that she was given. She tried to get up but she felt weak. She felt for her stomach and she noticed that she felt very light. She t©uçhed her stomach to feel her baby and she felt that her pregnancy bu-mp was no more. Then her mind went to the events of the previous day and how Femi had carried her over to the hospital and she began to scream. A nurse who was attending to one of the patients in the room close to Shana’s room heard her scream and ran into the room.
Shana: “Where is my baby? I can’t feel my stomach bu-mp, what happened to it?”
Nurse: “You nee-d to calm down, madam. You are working yourself worked up and that is not good for your health”.
Shana: “Don’t tell me what is good or bad for my health. All I am asking for is what happened to my child”.
Nurse: “Madam…”
Shana got violent and began to scream hysterically, pu-lling out her drip and threatening to harm herself if they didn’t tell her all that she nee-ded to know. This coincided with the arrival of the doctor who c@m£ around for his routine check.
Doctor: “I see that my patient is awake and strong today. How do you feel? Any pains anywhere?”
Shana: “Doctor, where is my baby?”
Doctor: “Your baby is fine, madam. Just calm down, getting violent will do you more harm than good”.
Shana: “Don’t tell me that my baby is fine. I can’t feel anything in here”, she t©uçhed her stomach.
Doctor: “Madam…”
Shana: “Tell me the truth before I do something that we will both regret”, she threatened with determination clearly written all over her face.
The doctor knew that it was foolishness to take the words of a determined patient for granted. He had seen cases where a patient with the kind of fire she had in her eyes had done the unimaginable by running out to be hit to their death by drivers or even harming themselves with sharp objects. There and then, he decided to tell her the truth, there was no nee-d hiding anything. He had hoped that her husband will find a way of telling her and consoling her thereby saving him the stress of doing that but ever since Femi left the hospital premises more than eight hours ago, he had not returned.
Doctor: “Madam, I am sorry but we tried our best. It’s just that it was a little bit too late when you got here”.
Shana: “What was too late?” all the pain and frustration she felt for years since she was unable to conceive were carried in those words.
Doctor: “It was too late for us to save the baby. You had a miscarriage”.
The words of the doctor hit Shana like a thun-derbolt, she felt the ground crumbling un-der her but to her surprise she kept her calm. The doctor and the nurse were looking intently at her, they expected her to react violently and they were re-ady to prevent her from hurting herself should she attempt to.
Shana: “Hahahaha, hahahaha, I lost the pregnancy. Hohohoh, hehehe, I knew that this was too good to be true. I am back to my barren status quo, kikiki”, Shana found herself laughing uncontrollably to the amazement of the doctor.
The doctor moved close to her.
Shana: “You want to sed@t£ me because you think I am mad? I am not mad o, I am perfectly okay”, Shana wanted to cry her eyes out but she couldn’t cry, there was a lump in her throat that prevented the tears from forming and she knew that her life could never be the same anymore.
Doctor: “I am sorry, madam. I am sure if you rest well and take your medication as prescribe-d, you will soon be discharged and you will get pregnant again in no time”.
Shana: “Hahaha, the doctor thinks it is that easy for me to conceive. Listen, it took me more than six years to take in, six agonizing and pain filled years. But it’s okay, I guess not every woman was created to be a mother. No problem! Where is my husband? I haven’t seen him since I woke up”.
Doctor: “Oh, your husband excused himself to go home and pick something. He should be on his way back by now”, the doctor lied. He had been her personal doctor since she had the accident and he knew how much the pregnancy meant to her. He couldn’t bear to hurt her more with details of her husband’s behavior.
Shana caught the doctor trying to look away and she knew that he was lying. She knew that the only thing that kept Femi to her was the pregnancy and now it was no more, she knew more than to expect him to care for her.
Shana: “You don’t have to lie. I know that Femi has abandoned me, I can imagine his reaction after you told him that I lost the pregnancy. Femi who promised on the altar before God and men to stick to me for better for worse, in sickness and in health has abandoned me to bear this cross alone”, the realization that Femi had abandoned her to go back to his mistress broke her heart and she began to cry, a soul reaching cry that brou-ght out tears from the eyes of the nurse who was standing by her side. Shana felt like her world had crumbled. It was painful to lose one’s child in the wo-mb but more painful was the pain of betrayal from a loved one. She took a decision in her heart concerning her marriage and then she went back to the be-d shutting out the doctor and the nurse standing beside her from her agonizing world.
WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 11