FARIDA
PART 70
Farida and Monica had decided they wouldn’t talk about the pregnancy again but Monica was worried. Farida wasn’t eating unless she was there to force her. It was like she was determined to either lose the babies or her life. Monica felt whatever decision she takes was hers but she didn’t look healthy at all. Her PCV was 15% at the first test and now had dropped to 13%. The doctors were talking about transfusion but Monica felt Farida was depressed and would feel much better in an environment where everyone will concentrate on her. She advised Farida to come back to Nigeria for two weeks and see if she would get better instead of staying back there and scaring Kufre.
Farida didn’t even have the strength to go to the abortion clinic. She eventually got a taxi to take her there. She dropped off the children in school and Morenike at the daycare and took Kufre along just in case there was an emergency.
At the clinic, after series of tests, they refused the abortion and asked her to go back to the clinic for a transfusion or come back when her PCV had increased. She was weak and there was no way they would carry out a procedure on her.
Kufre helped her get into bed when they came back. She made food for her to eat but she took very little. She was tired. Kufre made hot chocolate for her which she drank and fell asleep. Kufre called Monica and asked her to please come over.
“I know Farida is pregnant and she is not happy about it. She wants to ab0rt the pregnancy. But, the pregnancy doesn’t want to ab0rt. There are some herbs that they give women in this condition so she will feel better. She does not have blood. If I can get the herbs, she will get blood in a few days.” She wrote the herbs for Monica. Monica called her stepmother and asked her to help her get the herbs and send to them as quickly as possible.
The herbs arrived in three days. Kufre made soup with them and forced Farida to eat the soup. She ate the soup three times a day with pepper soup. She juiced some of the vegetables and made her drink them. She was restricted to certain fruits too. Within a week, there was a major difference. Farida was stronger and the paleness had almost disappeared.
Monica insisted she comes back to Nigeria and be better taken care of. Farida agreed. She came back to Nigeria and stayed with maami. Maami could see she was weak and just wanted to rest so she sent her to Ilorin, to Iya Agba to take care of her. Iya Agba made sure she ate right and slept very peacefully. She was energetic in days. She stayed on. She needed all strength she could get to forge ahead.
Meanwhile, Sam got a call. The caller asked Sam to meet him at a junction with his wife alone. They got to the junction; they met a black SUV waiting for them. They were asked to park their car and join them in their SUV. Idara entered first and then Sam. Sam became uncomfortable. What if they wanted to kill them? Nobody knew his whereabouts. He brought out his phone to make calls but there was no signal. He could not call or send a message in the vehicle. He realized it was deliberate.
Idara was not scared. She believed her father-in-law; her son will be returned to her. The price Sam had to pay for his stupidity was inconsequential to her. He created this mess; he should clean it up. She began to reminisce on their discussion with Alhaji on this issue. So, even after disowning his son, Sam’s father was still protecting him as best as he could. She remembered all the insults Sam gave his dad just because he wanted the world to know he had ‘arrived’. Sam did not deserve all the love he had gotten. She had discussed with her stepmother-in-law about Sam and Farida; she realized that Farida was the one making all the sacrifices and directing him career wise. How did he repay her? He cheated on her and even married without telling her. Honestly, both of them had hurt Farida. She still could not understand why Sam’s mother hated Farida so much. She called her horrible names. Probably it was because Farida had a hold on her son and her ex-husband. She wanted to have that hold. She couldn’t get Sam to do anything except support his bad behavior. Since they had been looking for their son, she had been globetrotting and didn’t spare a little time to come and be with them. Phone calls aren’t enough.
The vehicle turned from the very smooth road into bumpy one. they drove for about 30 minutes more before they got to their destination. The vehicle came to a halt in a compound which looked like a fortress. They came down and walked into the house. The sitting room was dimly lit. They were greeted by some men all in white. They were offered seats and then conversations continued as though they were not there.
Sam tried to figure out who the men were because he believed he recognized some voices but the room was not just dim but a bit hazy. He was uncomfortable and so was Idara. They didn’t pay any heed to them. They were there for hours. They were not spoken to neither were they looked at. It continued like that until about 11:45pm. The men left the sitting room one after the other. The men that brought them took them to the dining to have dinner but they declined. They wanted only water. They were given and they went back to the sitting room.
Suddenly, they could hear dogs outside. They sounded like fierce and very hungry dogs. Sam looked through the window and saw them. There were five of them. He became worried. He sat down and the nervous feeling came upon him again. He hoped he left here alive.
The light in the house went out. The men who were seated in white before came in carrying big scented candles and placed them at different locations in the sitting room. the fragrance was alluring. The leader asked Sam to come forward. Sam obeyed; there was nothing else to do. He was asked to undress. He was initially reluctant until someone was willing to help him out so he did it himself. He threw his clothes at his perplexed wife who folded them and kept aside as though in a trance.
Sam was down to just his boxers. Five of the men undressed too. They were st@rk n@ked. They asked him to remove his boxers. That, he refused to do. Two hefty men held him and took off his boxers. The other men seated laughed when his manh00d was exposed. Idara believed she was dreaming; this couldn’t be real.
“We hear you like forcing women to take it in the a$s. This is the perfect rite of passage for you. You will be our b!tch for a month. Anytime we call you, you must come. If you refuse, you will understand why you shouldn’t step on our toes. We will ruin. We won’t consider your father when we begin to fight. Be warned”
After those words, the first guy pushed him on a couch and pour some ointment between his butt0cks and then penetrated him. Sam couldn’t struggle because the two hefty men held his hand as he was disv!rgined. Sam screamed in pain which made Idara jerk in fear. Five of them took turns with him. He was no longer in pain; he was in shame. His wife sat and watched in shock. Her husband had been reduced to nothing in her eyes. She felt his pain with each thrust. At a point she threw up in disgust at what she was watching.
At the end, he was thrown to the ground like a piece of rag and they left him. He was in severe pain. Idara watched as they filed out of the sitting room leaving him there. When she was composed, she sat up and tried to get Sam to sit up but he pushed her away. She witnessed the greatest humiliation of his life. This was no other person than Alhaji. he must have heard about him sodomising Farida and decided on this rite for him.
The two men who came with them asked him to dress up or they would drop him off the way he was. He stood up and dressed up. He tried to walk upright with pride and he couldn’t the pain was unbearable. They were dropped off where their car was. Idara wanted him to be taken to the hospital but he refused. He asked to be taken home.
Their son wasn’t returned to them that day. Idara waited and waited but her son didn’t come home. She went to see the Alhaji herself while Sam slept. Alhaji told her she would get her son back but her husband had to finish the rite. She fell at his feet.
“Sam can’t anymore of it. Please, once is enough. I beg of you”
“Do you want to do it in his place?”
“God forbids. An@l? I can never do it. But Sam is devastated. It will kill him if he does it again”
“So allow him finish his rite. You women are part of the problem. You married a man who was married secretly. Why? He is good looking and charismatic right? He had a wife; you should have insisted on his divorcing the lady before marrying you or even telling her. You sold yourself cheap to someone who didn’t deserve you. Your son will come back to you. Get Sam to finish the rite”
Idara knew Sam would never agree to go back. it was almost impossible for her to convince him. They shouldn’t have gone at all. But her son. What if they did same to her son? She wanted her son back.
Sam went back to Uyo. He refused to see anyone including Idara. He couldn’t believe the humiliation he was subjected to. He didn’t know them and yet they had unprotected interc0urse with him. His saving grace was the ointment they used otherwise he would have been damaged beyond repairs. He wasn’t going back; that was the end for him. They could keep his son and the House of rep seat. He was no longer interested. For a whole week he stayed indoors and didn’t see anyone.
A week later, a private number called him. They told him to come to Abuja for what was left of his rites. He told the caller blatantly he was not coming and they should do their worse. After he ended the call, he received a video. He couldn’t believe what he watched. His heart began to beat faster than ever. There and then he had a heart attack. He was the only one at home as he had refused anyone access to him.
His father called Idara to go and check on him. When she got there, he was almost gone. He had to be airlifted to Lagos as he was unconscious.
Idara cried. Her son was gone and now her husband. They were able to resuscitate him but he had suffered a massive stroke and since he wasn’t found in time it affected his speech and the left side of his body. Sam’s father called his mother to take over his care as Sam was a product of her mischievousness. He sent Idara who was still traumatised back to the village to bring back her kids so the other two don’t disappear.
Sam’s recovery was quite slow and so his mother flew him to Germany for treatment. She never knew what caused it, she never cared to find out and Idara didn’t want to say anything until her son returns.
Idara went back to Abuja to meet Alhaji after Sam left for Germany. She told him what happened to Sam and appealed for her son to be returned to her. Alhaji told her the only condition he would release the boy is if Sam resigns from his position. Once he does that, the boy will be released.
Sam was not capable to do so at this time. He had a massive stroke which they were glad he was still alive. She begged Alhaji to release her son and Sam would either finish the rite or resign his position. Alhaji made her understand her children were not safe if he defaults. It wouldn’t be just the boy but all of them. It put the fear of God in her. She was scared but decided to get the boy back by every means possible.
Idara’s son was found on the road close to the village house. The security saw him sitting and staring close to the house. He picked him up and called Sam’s father to inform him. Without telling his son and the wife anything, Sam’s father booked a flight for the security man and the boy to come to Lagos. It was a big surprise. Idara couldn’t believe it was her son in the sitting room. She burst into tears and ran to grab him as he called out to her. She heard her father-in-law on the phone saying thank you to someone. Who was he talking to? Sam’s father was a mystery. He never asked questions; he seemed to know it all.
The news of the return of his son helped with Sam’s recovery. He was still slow while speaking and still had difficulty walking well. Physiotherapy had helped so far.
Sam received a call from his lawyers. His mother answered the call. They informed her that the judge wanted him present for her judgement. Apparently, the bigamy case and as$ault case judgement were against Sam who also refused to appear as a witness to the case. The judgement was forwarded to the Judge of the divorce case and she was ready to give her ruling whether Sam was present or not. This time around, Sam genuinely couldn’t make it. They explained to the judge but it fell on deaf ears because of prior nonappearances. His mother told them to allow the divorce go through as Farida had been a problem to them since she joined the family. Sam couldn’t express himself very well.
Farida was still in Ilorin when she got a call from her lawyer saying the divorce case final judgement would be in three days. Farida left Ilorin for Lagos. She came with her grandmother. On the day of the judgement, the judge dissolved the marriage and gave full custody of the children to Farida. Tears of joy filled Farida eyes. She was so happy. At last she was finally free. She was free of Sam and all his threats and troubles. She was excited as she shared the good news with maami and Iya Agba.
“Now the divorce is over will you allow this pregnancy progress?” Iya Agba asked Farida. Farida was surprised she noticed. Apart from tiredness, she didn’t have any other symptoms. Her PCV had gotten to 35% since she came home. Her period were far lighter than before.
“Pregnancy? What pregnancy?” Maami asked perplexed.
“Farida is pregnant. She is about three months gone now and she didn’t want the pregnancy” Iya Agba answered.
Farida wondered how she knew. It was true but how did she know? Farida heard her mother ask, “Farida are you pregnant?”
Farida lowered her head as she answered her mother, “Yes maami”
“Who is the father? I hope it is not Sam again”
“No ma. It’s Wale”
“Wale? When? How? Have you come back together?”
“Not yet ma. It happened when we came for the wedding; Akram’s wedding”
Iya Agba smiled and said to maami, “I told you I noticed the way they looked at themselves that day. Now we can see the result. So why don’t you want to keep it?”
“Apart from the divorce issue, I’m carrying twins again. We will have five children. I do not want to Wale to be committed to me because of this pregnancy. I want him to come back because he loves me…..”
“Keep your mouth shut. He doesn’t love you but he had sex with you as he sighted you after how many months? You allowed him. And you allowed him even without protection and you are talking. Have you told him?”
“No ma. I want to be sure what I want before I tell him”
“What you want how? Are you a bastard? Do you want to abort babies and still claim to be my child? I stopped you for the twins and I am stopping you now. Don’t try it or you will die in the process. I am promising you that”
“Ah! Are you swearing for me maami? What did I do?”
“You want to murder unborn children and not tell their father. It will not happen. If you do, you will cease to be my daughter. You want to bring calamity unto us. You want to abort twins? This girl will not kill me with all her troubles”
Iya Agba smiled while they were having the argument. She understood Farida; what if Wale wasn’t ready for another child? But it was not enough for Farida to decide to kill them. She cleared her throat and talked to Farida.
“Omo mi, it is not common for a woman to have two sets of twins following each other. It is a blessing and it will result to you achieving great heights. I know your fear, but it is not enough for you not to tell the father and also for you to take a decision without him. Remember I told you having a child will give you a say in Wale’s family. Imagine what having two will do. My dear, your marriage has been dissolved; you are now a divorcee. You can be with any man without hiding or caring. Wale is the guy for you. I like him and my spirit accepts him. Go and see him and talk to him”
“I have heard you ma. I want to get to UK to quickly file some documents. I will inform Wale and we will take a decision together”
Farida left for UK armed with the judgement. She wanted to change to her maiden name and also submit documents that will stop Sam from seeing the children without her consent. Also, she wanted her new certificate to bear her maiden name.
Iya Farida called Wale on the phone. “My son, Farida has good news to share with you. I think you should go to UK. Please don’t mention me. I am very sure she has good news for you” Wale needed no further prompting.
Monica heard from Papi about Sam’s stroke and treatment in Germany. She left London for Germany to visit him. what she met scared her. Sam had lost so much weight as eating was a difficult task. She cried her eyes out at what Sam had reduced himself to. She had to stay back to her.
TO BE CONTINUED
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