PART 15
“HIM, HER & I”
(A Love Triangle)
©?Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde
“If you like, bring a man who doesn’t love God to my house…” my mother would always
say.
At this point in this story, I know a lot of people would have called me names, but people
are so judgmental when they are not the ones in the spotlight.
I had a reason behind my action; I wasn’t just desperate about a good man for no good
reason. I had a past I was trying to correct with a good future.
At the age of 15, I got pregnant because of my waywardness and gave birth to
Jadesola, who lived with my parents. I had disappointed my parents especially my
mother who was not happy with her own marriage.
She had always wanted me to have a good marriage; marrying God’s will for my life.
So, it was highly disheartening for her when I got pregnant.
She therefore constantly rang it in my ears to get hooked to a born again tongue
speaking brother, unlike my father who she constantly told me was not the will of God
for her.
You should therefore understand why I was desperate about marrying Bro Kennedy, as
soon as it was obvious that Papa was not going to marry me.
I sent a text message to Papa in reply to his message to me,
“I am on my way to your place to discuss this with you.”
Almost immediately I got his reply,
“My home is off limits to you Sis Timi, that was my initial mistake with you. Let’s meet at
the fellowship center.”
“Fine.” I replied.
Mmesoma did not utter a word as I helped myself out of bed.
“I am going to the fellowship center,” I said to Mmesoma who didn’t give a response.
“Good riddance to bad rubbish,” I said to myself. Kennedy was mine.
I found my way to the empty fellowship center. Papa was already seated reading his
Bible. He couldn’t look me in the eye as he greeted me… I looked around to be sure we
were the only ones around.
“Welcome Sis Timi, we are the only ones around.”
“Better, so what were you saying?”
“Proverbs 28:13 states “You will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins.
Confess them and give them up; then God will show mercy to you.” This is from my
Good News translation, how does your version put it?” Papa asked.
“Does it matter? Papa what is your point?” I said with a serious attitude as I was ready
for battle.
“I just read it in simple translation so that it won’t be complex. For us to succeed, after
this great sin we have committed in private, we need to come out openly, confess it so
we don’t go back to the sin again, so we can obtain mercy. Satan thrives in secrecy.”
“So if I get you correctly, you want both of us to stand in front of the whole congregation
of students and tell them we committed fornication and I got pregnant thereafter
annddddd… I terminated the pregnancy?”
“Yes, that simple.”
“Oh! You think it is simple, yes it is simple for you as a guy, but it is not simple for me as
a girl who will be seen as the seductress, the loose girl and worse, the murderer. You
will go ahead to marry someone else and I will end up as an old mistress no one will
want to get married to, because the gist would have travelled round. Do you know if my
future sister in law or brother in law would be seated in that congregation?” I said raising
my voice.
“I have thought about all this, but mercy will speak for us,” Papa said.
“You are being insensitive!” I said angrily.
“On the contrary, I am trying to be sensible… however in case you don’t want to do the
confession, I will go ahead to do it, without you and I promise not to mention your
name,” he said.
“And you think people will not know it’s me…?” I said.
“Well, I have made up my mind to do what is right, and no gate of hell can stop me.”
At this point I knew he was serious about it and I needed to calm down the mad spirit in
me. I knelt down beside him,
“Please Papa, don’t do this to me, please, I promise to stay away from you but please
cover my shame…” I kept pleading but all of a sudden he stood up.
“I give you two weeks to think about it, I want us to make the public confession at the
last assembly at the end of the semester,” he said and walked out leaving me on my
knees.
I broke down sobbing, almost immediately Bro Kennedy bumped into Papa at the
entrance, but Papa didn’t wait to explain things. Bro Kennedy saw me crying and he
tried making sense of the scenario but he didn’t understand. He walked up to me.
“You told him?” Bro Kennedy asked.
“Yes!” I said sobbing.
“And …?” he asked.
“He is disappointed I went for an abortion without telling him, he said I am a sinner and
doesn’t want to have anything to do with me,” I said still sobbing.
“Did you tell him you were raped?”
“Yes, but he is more concerned about the abortion,” I said.
“No… Why would he say that? It is not your fault… Stop crying Sis Timi, I promise to
stand by you, even if the world turns their back against you… and if it means me
marrying you to prove to them that your being raped and the abortion mistake doesn’t
reduce who you are, I will.”
“Oh my God!” I wept at how I had judged the original wrongly. I had focused on the fake
because of my past. I was looking for a Christian brother who I could force my life on.
Papa didn’t know I had a child, my plan was to tell him after marriage, but If only I had
considered Kennedy, he was the kind of man who would have accepted me with my
child.
I wasn’t going to let Papa take Kennedy from me. Mmesoma was inconsequential. If
she proved too stubborn, my cousin Gbade was going to deal with her.
Mercy had found me, I had a second chance with Bro Kennedy and no gate of hell was
going to stop me.
I returned to the hostel to find an empty room and a note from Mmesoma. Mmesoma
had vacated my room.
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