FARIDA
PART 44
Farida had the same attitude for the rest of the month of January. She refused to be his wife who cooks, cleans and advises. Most importantly, no s*x. She maintained her lane.
Sam was not happy with the new development. He initially ignored her and had random ladies around when he doesn’t go to Lagos. None of them was like Farida. The first day of February, he forcefully had his way with her. It was terrible. She laid like a log of wood and ignored him. He had to stop midway because he couldn’t enjoy it.
On Valentine’s day, he told her to get ready and took her to Ghana for the weekend. She didn’t want to go but he appealed to her. Over there, he begged her. He told her she should ask for anything in this world she would want and he would give her.
She smiled. “I want a child. Can you give me a child?”
“We are still trying. It will happen one day”
“We are not trying anymore. Why are you against us trying IVF again?”
“I am just scared with what happened the last time. Let us wait for God’s time”
Farida smiled at his excuse. He thought he was smart. ?Wale told her to outsmart them. She used the opportunity to throw in her real request. “Then, I want to further my education. Attend a prestigious university in the UK. I want to attend London School of Economics and Political Science. Make it happen”
“Is that all?”
“Yes”
“How long is the course?”
“Eighteen months”
‘And you will forgive me if I let you go?”
“You will not just let me go. You will pay my tuition and expenses then I will forgive you”
“Farida, you want to leave me for eighteen months? Who will take care of me? Since you stopped taking care of me, can’t you see how I Iook? Eighteen months is a long time”
“Eighteen months is too long for my advancement? You are being selfish. Let the other woman take care of you while I am gone. I need to make something for myself too. Since I don’t have a child, at least I can have a progressive career”
“That is fair. I really don’t want to let you go but I will. It is done. I will pay your tuition when we get back to Nigeria”
That night, they had a good time. Farida was back to being in control. She had him eating from the palm of his hand. He couldn’t have enough of her. This was the weapon her mother talked about. She had a good bargain and he got a reward he would desperately need a repeat of.
Farida didn’t tell maami about the second wife until she had Sam’s confirmation for the London teip. Maami was so upset about it that she even cried. Farida had investigated and gotten all the information about Idara and her children. She knew whom Idara was and where she was staying. She was disappointed at Sam’s mother. Farida told maami she was not interested in having children with Sam since he has children with the other woman, but she disagreed.
“You will have a child in that family so your stay there will not be a waste. If you don’t have a child, no one will want to marry you believing you have a problem. You will have the child and still throw their betrayal to their face”
“But I have never been pregnant”
Maami told her she would get pregnant. She took her to Kwara state to see an elderly woman, her grandmother recently discovered, who had solved so many fertility issues with herbs. She saw the woman who was called Iya Agba Alagbo. There were many people with exotic cars waiting to see her but because of her grandmother, they were led in.
The woman spoke in Yoruba. She asked her to undress and lie on the bed beside her. Farida had never undressed in the presence of others not even her husband except when they were in bed. She couldn’t in front of the old woman, her grandmother and mother.
‘You see where the problem is coming from. It’s from her mind. Remove your clothes or go out, I have people waiting to see me”. Farida undressed quickly. The woman examined her stomach. Then she inserted her fingers into her v@gina to feel her cerv!x. She could only insert two fingers fully in without hurting her. She had to use an ointment to gain entrance.
“I can feel the problem. Where you inserting any herbs into your vagina in a bid to satisfy your husband?”
“Yes, I did”
“I know the herb. It kills the potency of the sperm when it meets it. If you use it often it will remain even when you don’t use it. It is what makes your vagina tight. I will give you herbs to neutralize the effect of the that one and another to use instead of that one. You will get pregnant in no time”
They didn’t spend up to an hour with the woman and everything she needed was just N2000. She took them back with her to Ibeno.
She was granted study leave in the office. Her admission letter was sent to her with the expenses. Sam was reluctant to pay the fees. He began to play games with her. It was obvious he didn’t want her to go.
Even if he moved his second wife here, she didn’t know how to take care of him. She was so scattered and disorganized. That was why he wanted Idara to remain in his mother’s house while he stayed with Farida. Now Farida wanted to leave him. Eighteen months was too long. Since he started dillydallying, Farida had gone back to ignoring him and not caring for him. She moved out again if the room again calling him a deceiver. He believed he could persuade her to change her mind after sometime.
Farida was ahead of him. She went to meet his father. She told him how disappointed and upset she was with every member of the family. They knew Sam had his girlfriend in their house and they all accepted and accommodated her. It was the height of disrespect. Her father-in-law apologized to her. She had been avoiding him since the incident until she needed him now. She told him how Sam made promises to her and has refused to fulfil them. She said she wanted to end the marriage as she no longer felt comfortable in a family where she would be disrespected and deceived. A family that was only interested in their children’s progress and not their spouses. She was ready to take a walk. She sounded damn serious. He promised her all her demands will be fulfilled.
Sam’s father asked his son why he didn’t want Frida to go for her MSc. He gave flimsy excuses.
“I know why. You have allowed this girl have a hold on you, to control you. I know she is a good homemaker but if Idara doesn’t stay with you, how would she learn? Allow her go and bring Idara to learn her responsibilities towards you. When she comes back, you can use her travelling as an excuse. Tell her you had to marry a second wife in her absence. You didn’t want her to go but she insisted”
“She won’t buy that story. How about the children? How do I explain their ages? Dad, she will be gone for eighteen months. I can’t cope for those eighteen months”
“Idara is there. She will take over”
‘I don’t want Idara to come here again. I don’t trust Farida; she can come back unexpectedly and catch us. I don’t want to lose her”
‘I think you should tell Farida. Let her know so she takes a decision. I don’t think she will leave; she is enjoying the wealth”
“You don’t know Farida, she will leave. She is not interested in wealth. She asked me for a child and I can’t give her’
‘Why?”
“Idara wants to have all my children. I don’t want Farida to stress herself about kids anymore. She should maintain her figure while Idara be the baby making machine”
His father was speechless at his son’s reasoning. He knew his son had a problem. How would he agree for one woman to have children and deprive the other from having? He could see Farida really needed a break so he gave her.
He called Farida the next day and credited a large amount of money into her account for her tuition and other expenses. Farida was grateful for his kind gesture. He advised her to go and advance in her career. He supported her. She paid for everything she needed and applied for the visa. She was granted. She was to leave in July as the session began in September. She wanted to get acquainted with the place before the semester began. She was also travelling with her mother. Her mom was to return when her school was about to resume.
Her two brothers had made them proud. They were both graduates. They had served and were both working. Akram decided he wanted to lecture. He started his MSc immediately. Upon his graduation, a top private university gave him a lecturing job. It wasn’t surprising, he graduated with a first class and was the best graduating student. Ahmad got a job with Julius Berger while doing his own private jobs. He was the one that designed the estate Wale built in Abuja. He wanted to go back to school to study Building technology but he was advised to learn on the job which he was doing. Akram was living on his own in the staff quarters of the university. He was engaged to be married. He was also pursuing a PhD. He wanted to travel to acquire it but he needed to save money first. Ahmad was at home with maami. He hasn’t said anything about marriage. Maami was getting worried but Farida asked her to allow him achieve before marriage.
When Farida informed Sam she had made payment for her tuition and when she would be leaving, he was surprised. He didn’t give her the money so how did she pay? When she told him his father paid, he was angry. He told her he wasn’t in support of her leaving him. Farida told him she didn’t really care if he was in support or not. She was ready to walk out of the marriage if he stood in her way. They had constant fights and arguments.
When it was getting closer to the time of her departure, Sam searched her room in her absence and found some document which he believed she needed for the trip. He took them and disappeared. Luckily for Farida she kept her passport and original documents with her mother. What Sam collected were coloured copies of her documents. Sam thought they were original and took them. Farida decided to play along with him. She came to Lagos in search of Sam. She first went to her father-in-law who claimed not to know where Sam was. She knew where he was and she went there.
She went prepared. She was dressed to kill. She wore a yellow bodycon dress, a pair brown of coach shoes and a brown leather bag. She looked classy and sweet. The shoes were higher heels than she would normally wear which were perfect for intimidation. She walked into the sitting room of Sam’s mother. Seated on a chair watching television was Idara while her the children were being fed by a maid. She had a close look at the children for the first time. They looked like Sam.
‘Hello. I came here to see Sam or his mother” Farida announced as she came in.
“Sam is not here” Idara responded immediately. She was shocked to see Farida in the house. She never visits.
“What of his mother?”
“Let me call her for you. Have a seat”
“No thank you. I would rather stand; it’s not a courtesy visit”
She went in and didn’t come out until almost thirty minutes later with Sam’s mother.
“Farida, how are you?” Sam’s mother asked.
“I am fine ma. Your son stole my documents because he doesn’t want me to travel for my Masters’ degree programme. He is not in his father’s house and I was told he frequents here. Please tell him to return my documents otherwise he will never see me again in his life. I will file for a divorce and sue him for what he can’t imagine. Just tell him I, Farida, I am not stupid. I held my peace for a reason. If he wants war, I will give it to him. Don’t say I didn’t tell him. All he has built I will destroy. I am giving him 24hours to return them. Please help me pass the message. Good day ma” and she walked out of the house.
Sam’s mother said, ‘She knows something. She has never come here to check on me before without calling. Why would Sam take her documents? Why would he want to stop her from travelling? Call him out.”
When Sam cam out, his mother immediately demanded, “Sam, give me her documents. She is smarter than you thing. If she could trace you here then she knows something. Why don’t you want her to go? I thought you wanted her out. So why all this drama?”
“You won’t understand”
‘What won’t I understand?”
“I don’t want her to travel. She should stay here. You won’t understand”
Idara was angry with his comment. It was obvious he loved her that was why he didn’t want her to go. How do you hold on to a woman who is barren? Sam has never spoken about her, Idara, in this manner. She felt pained and was happy Farida was leaving. She would make sure she leaves. That night, she searched for the documents but they were nowhere to be found.
Sam called off her bluff. He would show Farida who was boss. She would not travel anywhere. The 24hours she gave him elapsed and he didn’t return them.
Farida switched off her normal line and bought a new sim to use before she travels. She travelled with all their luggage to Abuja ahead of the journey. She didn’t want Sam to know where she was travelling from and the exact date she was leaving as she had changed her date. Her mother went to see her grandmother in Ilorin. She would come to Abuja by air the day before they were travel.
Wale picked Farida from the airport. It was a Friday evening when she landed. They went straight to the market. Farida spent so much money on buying foodstuffs. She spent the whole evening into the night cooking for Wale. She packed the soups and stews for him into the freezer. It was late and when they finished.
They went to freshen up and sat in the sitting room to catch up.
‘Does Sam know you are here? He is not going to like it”
‘That’s ’ why I am here. He will expect me to fly from Lagos on the 26th but I have cancelled that flight and reissued another one for 18th from Abuja. He has called my mother to ask where she is. She told him she was attending to her ailing mother. I gave him an ultimatum and he just ignored it. He will be shocked when I leave without those documents”
“And after that?”
“I’m filing for a divorce”
“Will you really file for a divorce?”
“Yes, I will. I am through with his bullshit. I saw his new wife. She lives with his mother. I saw the girls; they are Sam’s children. I don’t want to dwell on my regrets. I don’t blame him though, I never got pregnant talkless of having children for him”
“So, once you are divorced what next?”
“I’m finding myself. I want to be Farida again. I am tired of being in Sam’s shadows. We fought a lot these last days. Before, when we quarrel I try to make sure we never go to bed angry but now, I really don’t care. I’m dead inside. Sam has killed my emotions. I can never trust any man”
“There are still good men. Sam was never a good man. You will get a good man to marry when you discover yourself”
“Seven years of my life gone”
“Not really. It’s an experience and you needed it”
“What of you? When are you settling down?”
“The babe is still doing shakara. When she’s ready we will settle down”
“Who is she? Tell me about her”
“I don’t think so. Forget about me, let’s talk about something else”
“You never talk about any girl. Are sure you are ok? I mean down there is working?”
Wale threw his head back and laughed out loud. He looked at her, she had a serious look on her face and then he asked her, “Are you for real? Are you really asking me that?”
“Yes”
“Should I prove to you that it is working?”
“How?”
Wale lowered his head over hers and placed his lips on hers. Farida was too shocked to move or say anything. He k!ssed her. Gently initially waiting for her resistance but when none came, he went deeper. He took a deep breath when the sensation enveloped his body. He couldn’t believe he was k!ssing Farida again. He pulled her body towards him and made her lie on the couch while he laid beside her. Farida knew what was going on right now was wrong but she discovered she couldn’t stop it. Her body was too weak to resist him. She couldn’t talk or push him away. Her fear was what he would do next. Would he touch her body? Would he str!p her n@ked? Another man would see her n@kedness? Wale will see her n@ked? She couldn’t do this. She knew she couldn’t allow this happen. She was still married. As her thoughts were going riot, Wale stopped k!ssing her and looked at her. Her eyes were closed while he was k!ssing her but she slowly opened them when he stopped. He took her hand and placed it on his erect groin and said to her, “It works perfectly. Excuse me. I am going out before we both do something we would regret later” He picked up his car keys and left the house.
Farida was still lying on the couch trying to make sense of what just happened. Was she attracted to Wale that she didn’t stop the k!ss when she was suppose to? If he had continued, she didn’t trust her will power to stop him. She wondered what was wrong with her.
Wale had to clear his head. As he left the house, he made calls. He needed to be with someone at that moment if not, he knew he would have s*x with Farida and knowing her, it will ruin everything. The k!ss did things to him and he couldn’t explain. Will he ever get over Farida? He just couldn’t. He loved her too much. But, the feeling wasn’t reciprocal. He knew she still had feelings for Sam. All her noise was initial gragra. Once Sam lands and sweet talks her she would go back with him.
When he came back in the wee hours of the morning. She had gone to bed. He went into his room to sleep. His mind refused to settle down. He played the entire evening in his mind up until the k!ss that fired his l0ins. He dwelt very long on the k!ss. He recalled, she didn’t resist him. How come he didn’t realise then she didn’t? then he played out what happened during the rest of the night and his clim@x with Farida on his mind and his lips.
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