MARRIED
TO
VICTOR STEPHEN
???
?Episode_22
Victor’s POV✔
The next day, it was on a Friday morning. Suzy had tried to wake me up but I made her realize I wasn’t going to work for that day. I woke up very late on my own. On a normal day, by six, I should have been up, but checking the time, it was past nine. I took my bath immediately, dressed up, and went downstairs for breakfast because I was sure hunger woke me up.
Successfully reaching down the stairs, I saw Mom, and Suzy having a serious discussion that they didn’t notice me until I said good morning to them. I had my breakfast, and spent about an hour eating, and watching a programme I had missed for long.
Getting back to the room, calls c@m£ in from work, and as soon I was done with them, I started my work on l@pt©p. I didn’t know how long I sat there working, but I couldn’t hold the thirst any longer, and decided to go downstairs for any available soft drink.
Almost reaching down the stairs. I nee-ded to st©p, and be sure of what I saw again. The same set of people I left some two hours ago. The same position. Sitting on the same seats they sat two hours ago. That was serious!
What were they discussing close to three hours?
Like, what do ladies, or women talk about?
I was f0rç£d to ask them. “You both are still here. What are you seriously talking about?”
“Nothing. Just having a very little chat here.”
That caused me to choke on my saliva.
Did I just hear Suzy call that.. Very. Little. Chat.
Like, Suzy defined a three hours talk show as a..
Very. Little. Chat!
Seriously, I fear women. I fear them especially when they form a group. The larger the group is, the longer the discussion, or let me say chat. After had taken what I c@m£ for, as I was about to climb the stairs back to the room, I heard the bell rang. That made me st©pped on my track.
Wait… The only person who was coming to pay a visit was Dad. And he wasn’t coming alone.
Don’t tall me Dad is…
“No sweetheart!” I quic-kly st©pped Suzy before she could reach the door. “I will get the door myself.” I was really really pissed that Dad still went ahead with his decision. I did, and I was face to face to my unexpected visitor.
• • •
?????????????
✒Suzy’s POV?
Victor’s mom, and I had been having a very interesting discussion. She started with Victor’s Dad coming over to our house with some of Betty’s relatives, and the little boy. From there, we diverted to other stories, and it just got more, and more interesting interacting, and forgetting my worries. She suggested her and Victor’s Dad could take in the boy, but I told her Victor and I both made this decision together, and that was what we agreed on. To take the boy in.
“You know what!” Victor’s Mom was starting to cry sharing her personal life with me. “I had so many reasons to cheat on him, but I didn’t. He doesn’t have time for me. He got busy with life, work, work, and work. Today Abuja, tomorrow London! I could have, but I thought of the consequences if I do such a thing. I’m gonna lose my husband. I’m gonna lose my career, my family, my self-worth, self-esteem. I’m gonna have new names, and you know the type of names I’m talking about!” I tried not to smile with the way she was talking, but she did, as a tear dropped from her eye. “You know you’re free to smile, and laugh,” she said.
She is one action woman.
“But he did!” She continued, and I felt her pain. No woman wants to be cheated on. “He didn’t think of everything he would lose, but I did. The so called Abuja he was going to often, he had someone whom I had no idea of. But when I did, I left the marriage. I later realized I was pregnant with our first child, and that wasn’t Victor, because I lost our first child! The stress was just too much.” She tried not to cry, but I could see the pain in her eyes. “With that, I said I wasn’t going to forgive him, but he kept coming back, and never gave up.” She paused.
“You know, we can’t, and we will never accept that cheating is normal for men.” She was furious saying that, and we both laughed. “Seriously,” she paused. “Victor’s Dad said something after I forgave him. He said, I just couldn’t lose a woman like you. And I think, every woman out there should be a woman a man wouldn’t want to lose. Men are not left out either. Their wives should be able to say.. No! My
man would never do that.”
I just couldn’t help bowing for this woman. I learn so much from her whenever we sit and talk together. I guessed she bec@m£ so tough because of what she had gone throu-gh. My mom, and her are very different. The fact that we based our talk on men doesn’t mean we forgot women cheat. This case of both men and women cheating is everywhere, and nothing can be done about it except each individual vow to remain faithful to their spouse no matter what. I guess with that, this issue will definitely reduce.
“But you know, when I met your Mom, I observed where you got your sweetness from.” Victor’s mom said, and that got me smiling. My Mom and Dad do have their differences. Just like Joel Osteen once said in his preaching…
O ut of hundred percent, your spouse lacks twenty
percent of what you want from him or her.
So, don’t be greedy, and love the eighty percent of
what he has to offer you.
And I believe, parents also go a long way to affect their children in future. We were still discussing when Victor c@m£ downstairs again. He asked what we were discussing about, and I said nothing!
Hoping he would leave on time for us to continue our gist. It wasn’t as if I sat there for close to three hours. I got up multi-ple times with Victor’s Mom to attend to the twins whenever one of them was awake.
As Victor was about climbing the stairs, the door bell rang. After a second or two, I got up only to be st©pped by Victor. I wasn’t even willing to open the door before because I was really engrossed by the discussion we were having. But Victor’s Mom advice I joined him to see who it was.
“Honey, who is that?” I shouted for him to hear before I got up.
“Hey Buddy, won’t you invite me in?” I heard that familiar voice as Yomi walked in, causing Victor to hiss.
“Good to see you’re better than the last time I saw you.” Yomi greeted me. “I hope my new set of twins are doing well?” He strolled in, while Victor followed behind. I was about replying, when Victor spoke up instead. “I didn’t tell you to come over. I said we will meet somewhere.”
“I decided to save you the stress,” Yomi said, greeting Victor’s mom, and immediately went after his cousin who was alre-ady climbing the stairs. I was about taking my seat when the door bell rang again.
This time, I wondered who it was?
The moment I opened the door, the people I was face to face to was clear and precise, seeing the same man I was told will bring them. “Welcome sir,” I greeted first.
“Good afternoon my wife,” he replied, searching my eyes for confirmation to know if I was expecting him or not. I caught a slim, and not too fair, tall woman staring at me. She held onto a tall boy, who had grown a bit, and taller than my Emmanuel. I couldn’t see his face, because he was busy looking down.
“What is going on there?” I heard Victor’s mom, walking towards where I stood. “Ahnn, Ahnn! Lolade!” The tall woman in a long go-wn made with a red lace gave Victor’s Mom a sad smile. She doesn’t look happy, and appeared so stressed out. The tall woman walked in along with other two unfamiliar faces, including Victor’s Dad.
“plea-se have your seats,” I said, and immediately went upstairs to call Victor. Yomi quic-kly left us the moment I got in there, leaving Victor and I alone. I announced to him, and was about turning to leave when he gently dragged me back to him hvgging me from behind. I love it when he does that, but it wasn’t the right time for that. “Suzy,” he said not re-leasing me. “Mom, and Dad can always take him in if you’re not going to be comfortable with it.”
I turned around facing him. I knew my heart was beating very fast, and what I thought was so easy wasn’t. I thought I won’t feel hurt, but I lied to myself. Knowing he has a child with another woman hurts de-eply, but I couldn’t let my selfish interest get the best of me. His son wanted this. Betty wanted this. Victor as well deserves to be with his son. Why would I st©p that from happening?
He deserves to wake up, and k!sshim, like he does with both Emmanuella and Emmanuel. The little boy shouldn’t be deprived of that. He deserves to be with his siblings, grow up together with them, sit with his Dad, and get to know each other. I thought of all these, and I realized the two deserve to be together. I could not take advantage of this situation to cause a scene, and shame my family.
Victor looked down at me, and k!$$£d myl-ips. “You’re mine forever. Never will I let you go.” He smiled, and k!$$£d me again.
“I love you.” He k!$$£d me again, causing me to laugh.
Then he k!$$£d my nose
k!$$£d my forehead
k!$$£d my n£¢k
And k!$$£d myl-ips again.
“Victor st©p!” I laughed. “People are waiting for us downstairs.”
“They are very patient people,” he said, trying to k!ssme again, but I escaped, and just went downstairs immediately. After a minute, he joined me, and took the seat beside me. Immediately Victor arrived, his Dad spoke up, and introduced the people he c@m£ with.
“Suzy, this is Betty’s mother,” he pointed to the tall woman who was holding onto the boy earlier I greeted, and she did too. “This is Betty’s younger sister. Priscilla.” He introduced the tall, elegant, fair lady who sat with her legs crossed the moment she sat down. Her hair attachment was dangling on her l@ps, with full make up on, ma-king her look all glamorous. At first I thought she was still a Lady enjoying life, but a glance at her hands, I sp©tted a ring on her f!nger. She was married.
“And this is Daniel. The reason why we are all here,” he announced, and the boy just looked at me and looked away. “Daniel come!” Victor’s Dad commanded, and the dark, cute boy who looked so much like Victor obeyed, and sat on his Grandpa’s leg. Immediately, Victor’s Dad pointed to Victor. “That is your Daddy Daniel.” Everywhere bec@m£ silent watching the boy’s next move. And immediately Victor was introduced to him as his father, he looked down at the picture he was holding, and ran to Victor.
“Daddy, it’s really you!” He smiled so beautiful, and looked really happy, as he hvgged Victor with all his might. “Grandma, it’s my Dad!” She told the tall woman who was trying not to cry, and just smiled warmly. The boy would re-lease Victor, and hvgged him all over again as if he couldn’t believe he was holding his Dad. He did that for about three times, causing Victor to laugh, while I just smiled, observing.
I saw a tear rolled down from his Grandma’s eye as she immediately put her head down to wipe the tear away. Daniel on the other hand was busy with his Dad “But Daddy, Mommy said you would come see me, but you never c@m£.”
Victor smiled up at him. “Daddy is really sorry.”
“No Dad!” The boy quic-kly waved it away. “Mom told me how much you love me, and receive your birthday gifts every year. Thank you so much Dad.” He hvgged Victor again, causing everyone on seats to smile, and chuckle. “Even when Mom said I was going to meet you today, I didn’t believe. I thought she was lieing like always.” Victor laughed, and Daniel did too. They both have cute, and lovely smiles.
I looked to Betty’s Mom, and realized she was still crying. I knew how ha-rd it was for parents to cope knowing any if their children is in pain. I’ve witnessed it several times at the hospital, and felt really bad for what the woman was going throu-gh. No mother would want to see any of her children suffer, or be in pain.
With what I heard Daniel said, my heart soften, and I couldn’t help but praise Betty for having such a good heart. We were all aware about Victor not s£nding gifts, but Betty knew such a day would come, and made it very easy for both the father, and the son. Daniel love his father. It was so obvious with the brighten smile plastered on his face as he kept staring at his Dad.
Everyone was introduced to him, and when it got to me, his cheerful smile was gone replaced with a worried look, but I just smiled at him instead. I hope I won’t be a problem to him, because I was sure he had many questions he would like to ask. One of them will be…
Why is my mom and Dad aren’t together?
“Mommy!”
“Daddy!” The front door was opened with Mr. Phil!pbehind them. They c@m£ to me first, staring and wondering what the gathering was all about. “Mommy are we having a p@rty?” Emmanuel whispered into my ear, but I instructed him with Emmanuella to go greet their Grandma, and Grandpa immediately. After they left, Emmanuella c@m£ back some seconds later, standing on the stairs. “Mommy, Michael is crying!” She yelled, and I immediately excused them. For Michael to cry, it means the boy nee-ds some milk in his stomach.
Joining those two was a very bad idea, because the moment they had me to themselves, questions were thrown at me.
Mommy who is that boy?
Why is that boy sitting on Dad’s l@ps?
“Mommy now!”
“Mommy!”
On getting to the kitchen to get h0t water, I felt someone behind me, and immediately turned back. “I’m sorry I startled you.” Betty’s younger sister said, walking towards me. “Betty gave me this to give to you, and pleaded that you re-ad it to the end.” I collected the brown envelope, and she left hurriedly.
I was left alone with Michael on my shoulder. I decided to re-ad, or else I might not go back to it until a very long time. I re-moved the white paper from the envelope, and unwra-pped it. It was a long note I prayed I would survive re-ading.
?
✒?Dear Suzy,?
I know this would be so tough on you but I
couldn’t help it, because this had always being his
dream. To see his Dad, and be with him. I decided
to pursue this dream for him, knowing it was the
best thing I could do to make him happy forever.
Who knows what will happen tomorrow? Just a few
days left. I’m glad I finally made his first dream
come true. I want him to be able to make other
dreams.
I trust you to be the best Mom for him,
because very soon, he would nee-d one. A mother to
run to in times of trouble. A mother to smile with
when he’s happy. Someone to share his more
dreams with. A mother to argue with, and have
quiz, spelling bee, and a debate with. Lol. I’m now a
genius because of him. That little man likes
exchanging ideas. I really wish I’m never going to
miss that.
Truly, I never had the intention of letting
Victor knows about his son, because I never wanted
to bother you both, or use my son to cause any
serious argument in your marriage. After being a
single Mom for six years, I found love, happy, and
got married to him after a year and the half of
courting each other.
Early this year, I felt something moving in my
stomach, and I thought I was pregnant. Believe me,
I was the happiest woman on earth, because had
always wanted to be a mother again. But no! That
dream got shattered when I realized I have cancer
of the ovary, and was going to die soon.
At that point, I saw a tear dropped on the paper I was re-ading, before I realized I was alre-ady crying. I just couldn’t imagine myself going throu-gh that.
What would I have done?
I wiped my tears, and went back to the rest of the letter.
I’m glad I didn’t ab-ort the pregnancy because
? that was the first option that c@m£ to my mind. I
actually couldn’t because that was how we lost my
? elder sister. I couldn’t do the same to that poor
? woman, but life on it’s own is unfair, and wasn’t
? moved by it.
Now, Daniel is all I have. He’s my tomorrow, and
? going to live the life I wouldn’t be able to live.
I know he would annoy you, disobey you, but plea-se
I beg you to find a place in your heart to forgive
? him. Sometimes,
I wish I had let go for a very long time.
?
Yours faithfully,
✒Betty?
✏✏✏
?Next Episode in progress✔
________________