episode 23

Contd..... After I spoke with Dr Musa's mum, I just laid on the bed, Tani had slept. Ever since my husband died I had always missed him and mostly at night, I had nobody to tell my deepest secrets to, my fears, nobody to share my days activities with, nobody to cuddle me and kiss away my troubled heart. I miss my husband ‎so much. I remembered the way my father came to take his wife from my room and I thought to myself my mother was the luckiest woman on earth. I moved closer to my daughter on the bed and slept off.
The next day, I had taken my bath and bathed Tani before my mum came to my room that morning. She was surprised I had taken care of myself and my daughter even before she woke up. I told her I was already used to it. My mum's eyes were swollen I guess she had cried all night. I didn't talk about what happen the previous night, ‎so I ignored her swollen eyes. Even when my younger ones were asking her what happen to her eyes, I did as if I hadn't noticed the swollen eyes. Through out that day my mum did as if nothing was wrong and I played along.
Three days later, very early in the morning I had, had my bath and that of Tani's and was dressing up for Tani when my dad and mum came to my room together and told me some people would be coming to meet me that day but before they come they need to explain some things to me. My parents sat down beside me, I had finished dressing Tani ‎so my father took her from me. My mum cleared her throat and said,
"Yemisi, I was in one of the pictures ‎​you brought home and that picture was taken 30yrs ago, 8yrs before ‎​you were born. I dated an hausa man then, his name was Abdullah Yahya. The bride in the picture ‎​you brought home was his elder sister, I attended the wedding with Abdullah. I traveled with Abdullah to kaduna all the way from ife because we were in the same university(university of ife). His sister had just finished from there while he was in his final year and I had just gained admission into the school. I didn't meet his sister until a day to her wedding. She got married to a yoruba man who was based in ife. Abdullah finished school the following year and travelled abroad promising he would get in touch with me then I was in my second year. He didn't come back until after 7yrs, I had dated other men because I didn't hear a word from Abdullah for 7yrs. At the time he got back I was dating your father who on the other hand had numerous girlfriends and wasn't ready for any kind of commitment. Abdullah was able to locate me when he came back to Nigeria because I had gotten a job in Ife after school and stayed back in Ife and he had come to visit his sister in Ife. We picked up our relationship from where we stopped, I stopped seeing your father because I knew he wasn't serious in the first place not knowing Abdullah was already married. Abdullah usually does the visiting and I visited him at his sister's place once or twice. He went back to the UK after 4months and promised me he was going to come back in a month's time. It was after he left that I realised I was 2mnths pregnant. I waited for him to come back but he didn't show up. It had been 3months since he left and not a word from him andI was 5months pregnant. I had no choice ‎then to go and tell his sister that I was pregnant for her brother. His sister explained to me that Abdullah had gotten married that she didn't know that I wasn't aware. I asked her if he was going to be back soon and she told me no that he didn't tell her he would be coming anytime soon. she was surprised that the pregnancy I was carrying belonged to her brother. She promised to get in touch with me. The day I went there I noticed she was pregnant too.
I got back home only to meet your father, he had been waiting for me. He came to apologise to me begging me that he wanted to marry me." My mum paused for awhile.
"Ha, didn't he know ‎​you were pregnant" I asked her.
"He didn't know because my pregnancy was only making me fat and my tommy wasn't that big and as a man he didn't notice until I told him everything that happened to me. He insisted on marrying me because it was certain Abdullah didn't want something good for me. I waited for two months no news from Abdullah or his sister ‎so I agreed to marry your father. 3months later, my pregnancy was 10months old and I hadn't delivered. Abdullah's sister showed up saying she had relocated to lagos that's why she didn't quickly get back to me. She was heavily pregnant too. She came with a letter written by Abdullah, he wrote in the letter that he was sorry that he didn't tell me he was married because his parents had paid the lady's bride price before he came back to Nigeria that's why he stayed in ife throughout his stay in Nigeria because he wasn't interested in the lady. He wrote in the letter that he had sent his sister to make all necessary arrangements ‎so I would join him in the Uk and his parents would have to return their own bride who is already staying with them in kaduna. After I read the letter I asked Abdullah's sister to kindly leave my house. I was angry he took them this long to tell me all this. She left saying she would come back the next day that I would have calmed down.
That night and I ran into labour and was taken to the hospital. I never saw her again and I thought she had gone back to lagos and must have told her brother to forget about me. I never knew she was the one my husband had hit. Yemisi, Abdullah's sister was your mother.
Abdullah would soon be here with his sister's husband your real father."
To be contd.