The DNA Test
Written by Sonia Okehie
Episode 2
Mistakes are common and are mostly unavoidable but that doesn’t make them less harmful or destructive. Some mistakes have the ability to cause a lifetime damage to victims that encounter it and in the case of Belinda, it looked as though she has headed towards that direction. One sad and painful thing about Belinda’s situation was the fact that it wasn’t her fault and she had no hand in the unfortunate fate that had befallen her. Like how was she supposed to know that her baby had been switched with that of someone else? How was she supposed to know that the nurses she entrusted her delivery to were careless and not observant? How was the poor lady supposed to know that she would give birth on a day her husband and mother would be out of sight? How was she supposed to know all these things? Too bad!
A day that seemed like a great and beautiful one for the new mum; a day that marked a new dawn in the life of the young couple was actually the beginning of their down fall and future heart aches. It was only going to take a matter of time before the devil raises it’s ugly horns. It was only just a matter of time before the happiness that once dwelt in their home vanishes and turns into sadness. At this point, the clock had already began to tick.
The birth of the couple’s bouncing baby boy called for a glamorous celebration. People from both far and near came to share in their joy. There was enough to eat and drink and there was certainly enough to spare. For one whole week, the jubilation carried on Day and Night.
Ace went out of his way to make the ceremony one of a kind and a celebration to remember. As a happy and excited new dad, he made sure to give his son a befitting ‘Welcome Ceremony’ to planet earth. If only he knew that the joy and excitement was going to be short lived.
While Ace was head-over-heels excited for the birth of his son, Belinda on the other hand couldn’t be separated from her son even for a minute. Day and night, the happy mum stared at her new born baby and couldn’t get enough of him. The new mum couldn’t come to terms that she was now a guardian and protector of a full live human being. It’s such a beautiful feeling that can’t really be explained until experienced first hand. Life seemed as though it was falling in pleasant places for the young couple.
“Baby Baby! You deserve a push present for such a job well done. Thank you for doing me the privilege of carrying my son and first seed, I will cherish you all the days of my life, my darling!” Ace happily said one cool evening. Those words were like honey to Belinda’s ears and she blushed as she listened attentively to every word her husband said. After he was done praising his wife, a wide smile filled her face. “Baby, you are just too sweet. Remember that I wasn’t the only one that made our baby; you also played a big role and deserve some credit too” Belinda calmly said as she breast fed her son. They both complimented each other as they enjoyed a wonderful evening as a complete family of three.
A week later after the birth of the young couple’s son ‘Junior’, the jubilation and celebration ceased and everyone returned back to their various lives. Belinda was on maternity leave and couldn’t resume her business for a while because she had to nurse her son. While on the other hand, Ace had to go back to work as soon as he could.
Despite the fact that Ace had work activities to tend to on a daily basis, he never compromised family time. No matter how hectic or demanding his work was, he still made out time to be there for his wife and child.
Gifts showering became a norm in their home; as Ace always returned from work each day with a new gift or present. Belinda was always in awe of her husband and kept thanking God each day for blessing her with such a man like him. While Ace and Belinda were living their best lives with another person’s baby, their own biological son was in the arms of a woman named ‘Rita’.
Rita was a single mother in her late 30’s who got pregnant from a one night stand experience. The lady wasn’t an ideal role model for a child to grow up around because she lived a reckless and unadmirable lifestyle. Rita didn’t live the ‘glitz and glamour’ kind of life Belinda lived because she wasn’t too buoyant and well to-do. Matter of fact, she struggled all through her life and never had a break to rest. She was a cleaner for a rich family but always sold her body for money every now and then. You see why she wasn’t a good role model for a child to be around? It was quite unfortunate that this was the lady Belinda’s son was going to live and grow up with for a long time. Quite sad!
The new arrival of Rita’s switched son was such an experience that could have changed her life for good but it sadly didn’t. The new mum was equally excited to welcome her son to the world and didn’t hold back in calling a small get-together party of just herself and some few friends. She named her baby ‘David’; which I think was one good things she actually did right for once in her life. The name was one that depicts Strength, Power & Might, which showed that he was destined for greatness.
The arrival of David in the life of Rita mounted additional pressure on her to have multiple streams of income. The new mum hustled harder than before just to make sure that she met up with the demand that came with being a mother. More men patronised her body because her cleaning job couldn’t foot all the bills.
It wasn’t even up to two months after the arrival of Rita’s son and she went back to sleeping with men for money. Her body hadn’t healed fully as at then, but that didn’t stop the new mum from trading it for cash.
While Rita’s biological son was living lavishly with both parents, Belinda’s biological son was living in penury at a slump with an indecent mother. What a Sad Fate!
Despite the fact that a drastic mistake and incident such as that had happened, life still moved on regardless because no one knew what had happened; not even a single soul was aware of the switch.
Days turned to weeks and weeks to months and both kids had clocked one year old. Junior’s first birthday party was to die for while David’s birthday party was to cry for. While Junior celebrated his birthday in a lavish style, David celebrated his in a pauper style. While there was enough to eat and drink during Junior’s birthday, there wasn’t enough snacks to go round during David’s birthday. While Junior blew off candles from his numerous cakes during his birthday, David blew off candles from a flat plate that contained few candies and chewing gums. While Junior’s parents sang him beautiful birthday songs, David’s mother kept hushing him whenever he cried due to the discomfort he was feeling from the dirty and crowded environment his birthday was held.
Can you just pause for a minute and imagine how devastating and heartbroken you would feel if your child was switched with another person’s own? How half dead you would feel to know that your own flesh and blood is getting less than they deserve somewhere, while you are giving your all and all to another person’s flesh and blood? It’s a different case if you are aware, but a total different one if you aren’t aware. Believe me when I say no one on earth wouldn’t feel devastated if mistakenly found in such a situation as this. Poor Belinda!
As time went by, the boys grew up too. They both turned out to be smart and handsome; despite the fact that they received different treatments. At 5 years of age, they were very smart and that made their switched parents proud.
Despite the fact that Rita couldn’t give David the best things of life, she tried her best to make sure he was doing fine at least. He went to a public school but yet did outstandingly in his academics.
The manner at which David turned out to be a promising child gradually made Rita to change form her wayward ways and become a responsible woman. She started cutting off ties with her numerous lovers and focused more on her work as a cleaner. Life wasn’t too fair to them unlike Ace that provided his son with top-notch education standard and privileges. He made sure Junior had the best education as a 5 year old and was ever ready to spend more to ensure that his son got the very best.
However, things began to go south after some years. It turns out that Belinda and Ace had been trying to have another child but it wasn’t just happening. They kept trying to give Junior a sibling but all to no avail. After Junior clocked 6 years old without a sibling yet, they couple began to get worried gradually.
To Ace, everything wasn’t just adding up because he saw no reason why his wife couldn’t birth another child after birthing the first one. He carried that uncertainty in his heart for a long time but never talk about it. They kept trying and trying to have another baby but was always disappointed every month whenever Belinda saw her menstrual flow.
After several years of trying, the couple decided to be contented with what they had till God decides to bless them with another baby. Everything went on smoothly till one fateful day.
On that day, Ace’s colleagues at the office where discussing about ‘DNA Test’ and how important it was for a man to know if he is truly the father of his kids. “Guy, I must do DNA Test for all my children because these women are not to be trusted” One of his colleagues voiced out, “Me too, I second the notion because evil things are just happening these days” another colleague said.
As they conversed, Ace listened attentively from a distance and nodded his head in disbelief as his colleagues discussed the DNA issue. After about few minutes of being mute, he chipped in from afar; “How can you do a DNA Test solely for the reason of finding out if your child is yours? That simply means you don’t trust the woman you said your vows to and that is disheartening” he said.
Immediately Ace said that, his colleagues jumped at him and gave him multiple reasons why a DNA Test was going to be a compulsory thing for them to conduct on all their future kids. On seeing that their opposing opinions were strong, he gently redrew from the conversation and stopped trying to prove a point; but it was already too late because a seed of doubt had already been sown in his heart.
All through that day, Ace kept thinking of the word ‘DNA Test’. He tried to waived it off because he knew for sure that his wife would never cheat on him nor bring a false child to his home and deceive him into believing that the child was his. No Way!
But you know what they say about the devil being the most deceptive creature that ever liveth? The devil knows how to make a person nurture a thought and then bloom it. The devil already knew that Ace’s colleagues had succeeded in planting a thought in his mind so the best thing that could be done by the devil was to magnify that thought.
It got to a point where Ace couldn’t successfully come online on social media without seeing a post or an article that talked about DNA Test. It felt like the whole universe was in sync with passing the information across to him. Every post or article he saw magnified the thought and made him more vulnerable to actually conducting the test. He tried to fight it but just couldn’t and finally succumbed one fateful day.
On that day, Ace arrived at the office and walked straight to the office of those his colleagues that were discussing about ‘DNA Test’ the other day. He was fortunate enough to meet one of them and after exchanging greetings and pleasantries, Ace took a deep breath and shamefully said; “Bro, I want to conduct a DNA test for Junior, do you have any link outside town because my wife must never know about it”. Immediately he was done talking, his colleague burst out in laughter and shouted; “Boss, so even you?”. Ace smiled fainted and nodded ‘Yes’ afterwards.
After laughing for over a minute, his colleague smiled faintly, looked at him and said; “Count me in, I will help you right away!”.
Written by Sonia Okehie
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