TITLE: TOO PRECIOUS
WRITTEN BY: OGECHI ALABI
CHAPTER 30
The first person she told was her grandfather. He was ecstatic. He didn’t care to know the father of the foetus until she told him.
“Is he aware?” Chief asked.
“I haven’t told him yet.”
“Any relationship?”
“No sir. He is involved with someone else”
“Will telling him change anything?”
“I don’t know. But, I don’t want a relationship with him; he is in love with someone else”
“Then tell him and let him know you are keeping it. Also, tell him you don’t want a relationship only the friendship you both share”
“I’m scared he might want more. I don’t. His father isn’t someone I want to relate with for whatever reason”
“You can both agree to keep it a secret or tell the family, manage the crisis and move on”
Her mother shared the same views with her grandfather.
Titi, her grandmother was very happy. She didn’t care how the pregnancy came about; she was excited her granddaughter wasn’t barren after all. She was ready to spr-ead the news but PB stopped her reminding her what can happen if the news got to the wrong person. She allowed her grandmother’s superstition to get the better of her.
It took a while for PB to be br@ve enough to tell Allen about the pregnancy. She called him on phone and asked if they could meet and talk.
“This sounds serious,” he said jokingly, “hope you are not pregnant”
PB was shocked at his response. She didn’t know how to respond as her silence gave her away.
“You are pregnant? Am I responsible?”
“Yes. I don’t want anything from you. It happened just as you suggested. I am glad I am not barren and would want to keep the baby. I don’t want to disrupt your life. I do not want a relationship. I just want our normal friendship”
“I am coming over to see you. Thanks for telling me.”
When Allen arrived at the house, PB took him up to her room so they could talk privately.
“I know you want to keep the baby but what about our relationship? I proposed to Olivia; she has been excited ever since. How do I tell her about having a child with another woman?”
“You don’t have to tell her we had s-x. Let her know you helped a friend via artificial insemination. I don’t want to cause trouble between the two of you. You don’t nee-d to be involved with the child; I can take care of him/her. I just wanted you to know”
“Hmmm, Precious, we are friends; more like siblings. I will go with your story but I will like to be involved in the life of the child just like I am involved in the lives of PY’s children. It doesn’t mean we will have a s-xual relationship but we can have a good parenting relationship.”
“That’s fair”
“I am so happy for you Precious. At last, you are pregnant. Remember I told you it was possible to get pregnant the natural way. Just one hit the evidence showed. I’m a sharpshooter”
“Aren’t you worried your mother will be upset about it? What about your father?”
“I honestly don’t care. They can’t claim ownership of the child. The child is ours and we make the decisions concerning it. I want us to remain friends and this child will cement the relationship. I’m sure Olivia will love you and our child. As agreed, we will claim artificial insemination to stop unnecessary enquiries”
“And to cover your @$$ with Olivia. I get it!”
“That too.”
When the pregnancy began to show, PB couldn’t hold her excitement. She shopped for the baby and had a room full of things before the foetus was even six months in the wo-mb.
Being excited was an un-derstatement. Chief Adeoye and his wife were more excited. There would be a cry of their great-grandchild in the home and the child will live with them. How the pregnancy came about was never a concern to them.
“You will travel with your mother and grandmother to have this baby. You will stay there for three months before you come back.”
“What of PY’s children? They will still be in school and would nee-d close supervision. I can’t leave them with the nannies.”
“I will be around to take care of them. I want your mother and grandmother to reconcile; I believe this child will make it happen.”
“I wonder how you will do it.”
“I will do it for your sake. Your grandmother will leave with you first. Your mother will join you once the baby is born. Your mother can leave after six weeks so she can tend to the children here. I hope Simon is aware.”
“He is aware. I will discuss the details with him”
“Good. You are a responsible girl. I am very proud of you.”
PB brou-ght up the issue of her father with her grandfather. “Isn’t it about time you rele-ase him? Your wife is depressed from his continuous stay in prison. It has been many years since he has been in detention. He must be fully rehabilitated by now. Let grandma enjoy her son before she leaves this world.”
“Have you forgiven him? Forget about him for now. I will do the nee-dful when it is time.”
“That will be nice.”
“Wouldn’t you want to see him?”
“No, grandfather. I have no interest in a relationship with him. I am fine the way I am.”
“It’s your choice, my dear.”
Chief Adeoye requested a transaction of a hefty amount on his account. The transaction had to be confirmed by his account manager. Francis was informed. Unfortunately, he was unable to reach Chief on the phone. He went to Chief’s office to see him but he wasn’t there. He was informed Chief was at home.
Francis, Biodun’s brother-in-law, came to the house to see Chief. He saw PB and couldn’t hide his surprise. “You are pregnant? I thought Biodun said you were barren.”
“I am not. He was the one stopping me from getting pregnant. I got pregnant without medical @$$istance. Biodun said I do not know what he is going throu-ghbecause I don’t have a child. I’m going to have one from my wo-mb and still, it won’t change the way I feel towards him and his betrayal”
“Biodun is suffering. The girl has left him. She left her children with him and took off. Biodun is at fault; he maltreated her when no money was coming in. He would beat her and push her out of his room unclad. We were called on several occasions to settle fights between them. The girl had been threatening to leave but he thought she wouldn’t. When she couldn’t take it anymore, she left”
“Isn’t Biodun working? He should find something to do even menial jobs”
“That’s what he is doing. Your grandfather blocked his way everywhere he went in search of a job. Even his personal clients turned their backs on him. Biodun is suffering and I pity him. It is worse now the girl has left. I wanted to appeal to Chief to forgive Biodun and give him another…..”
“Feel free to discuss that with him, I don’t want to be mentioned”
“I thought you will put ‘mouth’ in the matter”
“Matter that doesn’t concern me? I don’t put my mouth in such matters. I have severed all ties with Biodun and I never want to have anything to do with him”
“Then it is best I don’t get involved too; I treasure my relationship with Chief. We are hopeful that someday he will be delivered”
TITLE: TOO PRECIOUS
WRITTEN BY: OGECHI ALABI
CHAPTER 31
PB gave birth to a bouncing baby boy and named Treasure. To her, he was priceless. He was worth the sacrifice she had made. He was worth the wait. He was a gorgeous baby.
Her mother and grandmother fought to attend to him. PB watched them fuss over him. Her grandfather wept when he beheld his great-grandson on a video call. You wouldn’t believe he had other grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Allen was prese-nt for his birth. PB had refused the s-xof the baby to be disclosed to them. She found out she was having a son when she got to America to have the child. Allen found out after she had had the baby. Allen was elated. “At last I have a son”
“Are you telling your parents?” PB asked.
“I will tell them when I get back. My father especially will be happy I have given him a son”
“What will his surname be? Okoli or Adeoye? We nee-d to agree on this”
“Let him have my surname, please. He is my first son. I prayed you would have a girl but then it’s a boy”
“He will bear Adeoye-Okoli since we aren’t married. I will give you that honour”
“Why combine two surnames? Call him your grandfather’s name as his middle name and Okoli as his surname. It will be an interesting combination”
“Treasure Rotimi Okoli. I like it. Once your family accepts him, then we will go ahead with the name. If not, I will change the surname to Adeoye”
“Deal. They will accept him. Thank you”
When Allen went back to Nigeria, PB received calls from Hope and Collins. She knew he had informed them and they were looking for opportunities to either scold her or congratulate her. She wasn’t interested in either.
Her grandfather called her and appealed to her to pick their calls as they were not out to fight her but rather to congratulate her and share in her joy. She agreed to pick their calls.
Hope called first. “When did this conception happen? I am not buying the whole artificial insemination story. Congratulations my dear; now you have proved to the world you are not barren as Biodun had declared. I am so happy for you and Allen. What’s the next step now?”
“Next step? There is no next step. Allen is in love with someone else and I have what I have always wanted, a child. There is no next step”
“Your children shouldn’t behave like this. How can he have s-xwith you and be in love with another woman? This is so wrong….”
“No. Who told you we had s-x? He has always been with Olivia and I see him as a brother. He helped me fulfil my heart de-sire of having a child; that’s all. Don’t read more into this and build castles in the air. I have no such feelings towards Allen and he has no such feelings for me. That’s all it is”
Hope was silent for some time. Then she said, “I won’t intrude. Both of you know what you are doing. I want Precious back in this family and if I have you instead, it is still better than none.
“You have me. Apa-rt from having your daughter’s children, I have had Allen’s first son. What more do you want? I am your daughter and I will always be”
Hope ended the call with a “Thank you” in-between sobs.
Engineer Collins called her. She picked the call. “I can see you want to remain relevant in my family. You brou-ght the disruption in my family by first making Precious disobey me and then scattered Allen and Adaeze marriage. Now, I can see you want to come into the family by for-ce.”
“Good afternoon sir. And thank you for calling”
“I haven’t finished. Allen says the child is his; I believe him. We don’t throw away children in our family even though born out of wedlock. Allen has a son now. We want to pla-y an active pa-rt in his life”
“Who are the ‘we’?”
“My wife and I. Since he is half Allen’s, he should spend half of his time with us”
“He is my son. He spends time with whom his father and I agree to rele-ase him. I don’t owe you anything. Work it out with Allen. This child is mine and I won’t be releasing him to someone who has no regard for his mother. You can never be left alone with my son.”
“Are you talking to me?”
“Who called me to accuse me of disintegrating his family? The family you abandoned to live in hotels with young girls. Precious never wanted to disappoint you but you put her life on the line when you wanted her to marry a brutal woman beater. Adaeze left Allen because she wasn’t the right fit. You didn’t know your son enough to know the kind of woman that is right for him. Thankfully, he has found one who suits him perfectly. Elvis had said it from the beginning he wasn’t marrying a Nigerian; I caused that too? As you are pointing at me, four fin-gers are pointing back at you. I am not interested in this conversation with you anymore. Goodbye.”
PB was furious when she ended the call. It was always some else’s fault, never his. He never took the blame for anything. He believed, as a man, he had a right to philander and still be respected and honoured by his family. For how long did he expect it to last? PY ran away to be with the man she loved. Allen agreed to his demands and then what happened?
As PB was de-ep in thoughts, her phone rang again. This time it was Allen. She picked up. “Hey, he pissed you off, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I told him he did. He had no right to do that. I stood with what you said, he can’t see Treasure since he has no respect for you. I told him, I helped you have this baby you de-sired and therefore you call the shots. He was speechless. Don’t take what he says seriously”
“Thanks for having my back”
“I will always have your back; we are a family”
“Your mum didn’t believe we had the conception artificially”
“She should believe what she wants to, I told both of them what we agreed. It’s none of their business.”
“Thank you, Allen”
“I should be thanking you. My mum is so happy.”
I asked Salim to be the godfather of my son. He was a Catholic but answered his Muslim name around family. Olivia, who I met for the first at the christening, was the godmother. My grandparents, my mother and her lover were prese-nt. So also, were Allen’s mother and lover. His father was abse-nt. All our children were prese-nt.
Life went on perfectly.
A week after celebr@ting Treasure’s first birthday, something terrible happened.
Chief Adeoye fell in the bathtub and was unconscious. He was alone in the room when it happened, so no one knew. He had an important meeting with his lawyers that morning. It was persistent calls from the office to his phone and then to his driver’s phone that alerted the house.
His door was bulletproof and wasn’t easy to be broken into. PB had to get a welder to help remove the door from the frame. She stopped her grandmother and others from entering the room with her when the door was opened.
PB was scared. He didn’t answer his calls. It was very unlike him. Her fear was he had died in his sleep and didn’t want her grandmother to witness that. When she didn’t see him in the room, she rushed into the bathroom and met him on the floor. She covered his na-kedness with a blanket and asked some of the guys to help carry him into the be-droom.
She immediately called the hospital for an ambulance to be brou-ght to the residence to pick him up. She had prepared herself for the worse. She believed she felt a pulse but she didn’t want to keep her hopes up.
She called her uncles who also rushed down and got there when the ambulance arrived. They were the ones who helped make him decent for transport.
Her grandmother was inconsolable. PB un-derstood how she felt because she had put up a br@ve front but truly, she was dying inside. She couldn’t believe what she witnessed and she prayed last night wouldn’t be the last time she would speak to her grandfather.
At the hospital, he was admitted into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Her uncles made the necessary payment. PB was a stack of nerves. She was so frightened. What would life be like without her grandfather? This was the only man who showed her unconditional love from the time she was born.
Chief had gifted Treasure a house in his name for his first birthday without anyone’s knowledge and asked her to keep it a secret too. Apa-rt from the house he gave PB for her wedding, he had also given her another house. She refused to take the house but he left the docu-mments with her. He told her he was preparing her for the worst. “These people that pretend to love you will show you their true colours when push comes to shove. I want to share my properties as much as I can so that war won’t break out at my demise.”
War almost began to brew. PB’s uncles locked up her grandfather’s room. PB had taken his briefcase, various files, phones and laptop because she felt they were the most valuable things there. Luckily, she handed them over to her grandmother for safekeeping.
Her uncles searched for those items and when they didn’t see them, they accused PB of stealing them. Before she could explain, they threatened her. Over his phones and laptop?
Her grandmother was there. She said to them, “Are you asking for his phones and laptop? I have them. I gave them to his lawyer. Nobo-dy knows what will happen here and I don’t want se-nsitive items lying around. They are best with the lawyer until he wakes up.”
PB looked at her grandmother and then turned to look at them sternly. They apologized and obviously, they were unhappy with the lawyer having those items.
“I think the lawyer should also have the key to the room” grandmother added.
“We are holding on to the key” uncle Ope replied to her.
“If that’s the case the place will be properly safeguarded”. She made some calls to ensure that was done.
When we got home that night, grandma se-nt the steward to buy four new padlocks. She had constructed a burglary proof gate in front of Chief’s door. She locked the gate to grandfather’s room with those padlocks so no one would gain entrance to the room.
Tbc