By Opeyemi Akintunde
Apostle bent his head on the table, obviously shocked at what I had just said... I saw him raising his head and picking up his phone. I knew what was next... he was about to call the Police on me, I didn’t care, my life was of no point...
“Hello ma’am, good afternoon ma. Happy is here with me, and she is acting quite
strangely and saying things she has not done. I will keep her here so she doesn’t say the wrong thing to the wrong people... ok ma... very well ma...”
“Apostle, I am not insane. I did all these things.”
“Chaba, please, can you give me some minutes?” he said to his fiancée.
“So finally, he wanted us alone,” I thought silently.
After the strange Chaba left us, Apostle walked up to me and held me by the shoulders and looked me straight in the eye, “Are you saying you did all these things?” he asked.
“Yes!”
“Why? You love me?”
“No, I don’t love you, I did it out of greed!”
“Then why did you marry Julius instead?”
“Like I said, I don’t love you; I was just fascinated by the idea of being your wife. Julius was where my heart was. I never knew the feeling wasn’t mutual,” I said.
“And you are not afraid that by confessing, I will hate you and have you arrested?”
“If you hate me, I can deal, but if God is not happy with me, I can’t deal with that.”
“I need you in my life...” he said as he hugged me so tightly, like someone who was hugging his mother. The Apostle Ray I held in high esteem suddenly felt like a baby, but back to what he had just said about needing me in his life...
“What?”
“I need you in my life,” he said again, and this time around, I pushed him away from me.
“I am married, and you have a fiancée, sir. Besides, what exactly are you looking for? Your wife died barely 6 months ago, and you are out to get a new wife by all means.”
That’s why I need you...”
I was scared at the way the Apostle was acting; at that point, I didn’t know who was actually psychotic, the Apostle or me. Chaba barged in on us. Thank God I had pushed him away from me.
“Ray, I am really famished, are you not through with your counselling?” Chaba said.
“Really? Are you planning on being the Apostle’s wife, because if you are ma, you
will need to learn some patience when your husband is having counselling
session, ” I said as I stepped out.
“Happy… Happy...” Apostle said, calling my name, but I wasn’t in the mood to
answer him. I had made my confession, and I was free of any guilt. God has forgiven me, and I needed to start a new life.
************
My phone rang, and obviously it was my mother. “I said you are going home with me.” Mum had come over to my place with the hope
of taking me back home.
“I am in my matrimonial home.”
“Matrimonial home indeed!” My mother gave a ridiculous laugh. “So you think you actually got married? No sweetheart, you didn’t..., you are as single as you were a few months back.”
My mother was already packing a few of my things, and I knew I couldn’t win this battle. My phone beeped, indicating I had a text message: “Happy, now that you have no man in your life, please let me be that man. You don’t know how much this means to me, that God is giving me another chance with you. And if you don’t plan on marrying me, I can make do with a secret affair.”
“Secret Affair?” My eyes popped, and I said it loudly.
“What?” my mother responded.
“Nothing,” I hid my phone as I began to think about the text silently.
“Apostle Ray was definitely psychotic,” I concluded in my heart.
Or what do you think?
I started living with my parents, and in the process, I picked up my business again. I was into the selling of fabrics. After I had left Apostle’s office that day, I avoided picking up his call. Whenever he used a strange number to call me, I would always hang up whenever I realized he was the one. He stalked my phone for over two weeks, calling every day, but I guess he got tired. The next thing I was hearing and seeing in the news was that he was preparing to get
married to Chaba. They were all over the news. I was happy for him and happy for myself. At least, I believed I could no longer enter Pastor Maggie’s shoe.
Chaba had started going with him to public functions, and underneath his smile in the pictures, I could tell he wasn’t happy one bit. I never heard from Julius, but later, a close friend of his told me he had actually had a girl the whole time we were dating. His friend told me Julius said I was crazy, and he couldn’t just break up with me, for fear of my killing him. He also told me that Julius was actually lying about him not having money for my dowry. It was actually a ploy to
make me frustrated so I could be the one to break up with him. He said that Julius
purposely didn’t want us to do the church wedding and court wedding so he could run away whenever the opportunity presented itself. I was told Julius referred to me as the ‘Crazy babe.’
You couldn't imagine how heartbroken I was that day. His friend advised me to move on, since, in the proper sense, I was not yet married to him, referring to my payment of the dowry. He told me Julius had told everyone who cared to listen that he had danced to my tune of getting married so as to save his life. I stayed indoors for days, and though I tried to hide my emotions from my mother, but
you know, mothers... She was on my case, asking me what was wrong. My wall of defense eventually came crumbling down when she mentioned if I was
missing Julius...
“Missing Julius? May God punish him wherever he is. May the Lord not make him smile. Mummy, can you imagine after everything I did for Julius, to the point that I emptied my account to pay for my dowry and to get us an accommoda...” I managed to say before Mummy cut in.
“Wait...you did what?” Mum asked in disbelief.
I went mute.“You paid your dowry? Oh my God!” My mum collapsed on the bed and started sobbing. That act of mine really hurt her. For days, she didn’t speak to me, so I was surprised when she woke me up from my sleep very early on Monday morning.
“Happy, Happy... breaking news oooo, this God is too much ooo, Lord I thank you.”
“Mum, what is it?” I said as I sat on the bed.
“Apostle Ray is no longer getting married to Chaba; the engagement has been broken! I just heard it on the news.”
I ran to the living room, but the news was over. I picked up my phone to check one of the gossip sites, and true to my mother’s word, it was written that Apostle had broken his engagement to the lady on mutual understanding, and the lady had returned to South Africa.
“God, thank you! Thank you for giving her another chance!” Mum said dancing all
around the living room.
“MUM!”
“Yes!”
“Mum, you want me to get married to Apostle?”
“Yes, my dear, I will be the happiest one on earth.”
A beep on my phone indicated a text message, and I didn’t need anyone to tell me it was from Apostle: “I am sure you must have heard the news about Chaba and me. I got rid of her, so we can be together. Please, I need you in my life.”
I collapsed into the dining chair, and as expected, Mum took my phone and read the text message. You should have seen the joy and surprise on my mother’s face.
What do you think should be my next action, as Julius was gone with no hope of his coming back, and honestly, thinking about it, I was not married to Julius in the first place, as he didn't pay my dowry?
