Lost Once, Forbidden Now, Episode 3

By Adebanke Abel

There was silence in the house, but it was the kind that screamed louder than words. The air felt heavy, almost suffocating, as though the walls themselves had witnessed something forbidden. Ifunanya felt it the moment Chidi walked out the door. Her mother had been distant all through dinner, avoiding Chidi’s eyes like he carried a sin from her past.It was unlike Adaeze. She was a woman who spoke her mind, stood her ground, and never hid her emotions. But tonight…she was hiding something.

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Ifunanya found her mother standing by the window in the living room, her eyes lost in the darkness outside.

 "Mom…" she called softly. Adaeze turned, her eyes glassy, her lips trembling.

"Is there something wrong with Chidi?" Ifunanya asked carefully.

 "Do you not like him?" For a moment, Adaeze said nothing.Her throat burned with words she couldn’t speak.

"I told you that I was expecting a guest and you almost banged the door on his face if not that I came to recuse him on time. You were cold towards him, you couldn't even look at him in the face all through dinner. Mom, is something going on?"

How could she tell her only daughter that the man who made her heart race after twenty-five years of emotional numbness was the same man Ifunanya was about to marry? The shame pressed hard against her chest.This wasn’t her. She had never kept a secret from her daughter.But now…she was carrying a truth too heavy to bear. 

Adaeze’s lips quivered, but before the tears could fall, she turned and walked away.
Ifunanya stood there, confused, hurt, and unsure of what just happened.

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The night breeze whispered against Chidi’s face as he drove home, but it did little to calm the storm raging within him.His heart had been at war with itself from the moment he saw Adaeze open that door. How could life be this cruel?How could fate bring him back to the only woman who ever truly understood him...only to find her sitting at a table, calling him her daughter’s fiancé? He gripped the steering wheel tighter, his mind drifting to the ghosts of his past.Two women. Two painful stories. 

The first woman...

She hid her past marriage and a child, thinking he would never accept her. "I lied because I was afraid you'd leave," she had cried. And he did. Not because she had a past but because she stole his right to choose.

The second woman...

The one he would have married if not for his own selfish lie. He was AS genotype, and he knew she was too. But he kept it a secret because he couldn’t bear to lose her. When she found out, she wept bitterly. "How could you want to trap me in a future filled with pain?" she had asked.
Chidi learned the hard way that love built on lies always crumbles. So, he made a vow. No more secrets. No more hidden truths. But now, here he was...holding onto a truth that could shatter two hearts at once.
  
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Chidi had gone back to the art gallery six times after the first day they met hoping to see Adaeze again — and that was because his phone got stolen after leaving the gallery that same day. But she never came. When he finally gave up, he told himself it was for the best. "Maybe she wouldn’t have accepted me anyway. What man in his thirties chases after a woman in her forties?"
But Adaeze wasn’t just any woman. She was the first person who made him feel understood.The first woman who saw him beyond his looks, beyond his age and success.... She saw his soul. And now that he had found her again, she was forbidden.
                 
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In the quiet darkness of her room, Adaeze sat on the cold floor, her back pressed against the bed. Tears burned her eyes as memories of that day at the art gallery flooded her mind. It was Chidi’s words that revived the artist in her. "It’s never too late to start again," he had said.And with those words, he gave her the courage to open her art gallery. No man she met after him ever cared about her dreams or her passion for art.They only saw her beauty, her elegance, her success.They wanted her as a trophy wife. But Chidi…Chidi brought her art gallery to life with just one conversation. "Imagine what would happen if I spent three months with him," she thought bitterly.

Chidi saw her as a woman who had lost herself and was fighting to find her way back. Now, she was finally ready to love again but fate had placed his ring on her daughter's finger. Her heart ached, not just for the love she lost but for the future she could have had with him."Why now, Chidi?" she whispered to herself. "Why did you come back... when I can no longer have you?"
 
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Chidi couldn’t sleep that night. Neither could Adaeze.They both knew the truth was eating them alive. If they kept silent, they would forever live in regret. But if they spoke, they risked breaking the heart of the one person they both loved the most—Ifunanya. What would Ifunanya think of her mother? Would she believe Adaeze intentionally seduced her fiancé?Would Chidi be seen as a man who played with the hearts of a mother and her daughter?

Or...

Would Ifunanya understand that love is sometimes a journey that takes us through painful paths... only to bring us back to the person we were meant to be with all along?

 
Find out in the next episode.

You can catch up on episode 1 and episode 2.
 

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