Battered Wife

15

"How dare you, Lola?" was the first word I heard when I walked into the living room of Remi and I's home.

I looked away from my daughter, whom I was holding in my arms and whispering to, and looked in the direction of the speaker, Remi.

He was seated on the couch with a brown envelope in front of him on the center table while he stared at me with red-rimmed eyes.

I was going to ask him what was wrong with him but then, Adesewa's arms around my neck tightened.

"Adesewa, you go upstairs, okay? Change your clothes and get started with your homework. Mummy is coming." I said, setting her to the ground.

I watched her tiny body climb the stairs while holding onto the rods attached to the banister for support. It was only when she was out of sight that I turned to Remi who was still staring at me with red-rimmed eyes.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked, giving him an unimpressed look.

"You! You're what's wrong with me. Just take a look at those photos." he said with gritted teeth pointing to the brown envelope on the table before him.

I rolled my eyes and went to pick up the envelope wondering what he was trying to do. However, when I pulled out the photos from the envelope, my eyes widened, my hand shook and I couldn't help glancing at Remi from the corner of my eyes.

He was staring at me intently so I returned my gaze to the ambiguous photos of Elijah and I. At the hospital, I'd thought that my conversation with Elijah had been innocent enough but whoever had taken the photos had used angles and editing to make the photos look more ambiguous.

For example, in the moment where Elijah was taking me toward the hospital chair, the background had been blurred out and his grip on my wrist was highlighted. Even the photo of myself looking up into Elijah's eyes looked like I was trying to confess my feelings to him.

"Who the hell is he?" Remi asked.

"None of your business. Look, the pictures...they're not exactly what they look like. I—"

"Don't play with Omolola! Look at the way you're looking at that man in that photo. You've never even looked at me like that. How could you do this to me? How could you cheat on me?" He sounded heartbroken by the idea of the possibility that I'd cheated on him but his words only irritated me.

"Why? You can cheat and sleep around in front of me but I can't?"

"But I'm a man! Do you know how people are going to look at you? And...and at Adesewa because of this? Especially in the church." he asked, staring up at me.

I pursed my lips and glared at him. "Well, don't worry too hard about me and my daughter. We're going to stop going to your church anyway. After all, that's a church that thinks it's okay for you to cheat on me but it's criminal for me to do the same."

"Don't get defensive. Just answer this question first: how far have you gone with that man? Have you gone to bed with him yet or did you just make a mistake and fall in love with him because I neglected you for a while?"

I stared at him with chagrin, wondering why he was asking such specific questions. "What? Why do you want to know?"

"Because I can still forgive you and take you back if you just fell in love with him." he pursed his lips.

"And if I already slept with him?" I asked, watching his lips twitch along with a vein in his cheeks.

"Lola...you didn't really sleep with him, right?" he asked, staring into my eyes intensely as if he was trying to find something in them. "You..."

"Why? You can sleep around with anything working in a skirt but I can't sleep with another man?" I asked.

"What about our vows?" he asked.

I stared at him to make sure he was being serious and then bitter laughter poured out of my lips. "Our vows? So you know we said vows when we got married? Yet you cheat on me every chance you get. You support your mother wholeheartedly when she treats me like trash and you dangle your infidelity before my eyes at any chance?"

"That's not the same thing. Men are wired differently from women. I am your husband and men are not made for just one woman. Look, my father married my mother but he had several other women outside to satisfy his needs. Haven't I done well by you? I picked you out of all the girls who would have killed to marry me to be my wife. You're the one who has my name attached to your name. You're the one who lives in my main house and you're the only one I've allowed to bear my children."

He said every word so righteously that I wished I could go back in time to when he started asking me to be his wife with a video of this moment just to make myself realize what a mistake it would be to marry him.

His words even made me speechless as I finally understood a lot of things about him that I'd never understood.

"Well, I wish you would have told me the full deal before you married me because this was not what I signed up for. You never told me that I was going to be an officially stamped girlfriend out of several girlfriends. See...I would have preferred to have just had a fling with you than to have ever married someone like you."

"Lola, listen, I know you wanted me all to yourself but that obviously isn't going to work. You're not great in bed. You don't know how to make the right movements and sounds to make me happy but you keep my home organized and you've shown that you know how to care for children with Adesewa so why can't we just be happy the way we are?"

"Do I look happy to you? Do you think living with you, your mother and the housemaid you're sleeping with makes me happy? Do you think I enjoy being everyone's laughingstock because you and your lovers don't understand the meaning of discretion and respect? Remi, can you honestly tell me that you've never brought Busayo to this house? The house you claim I'm good at organizing?"

"Alright, I promise to be discrete. How about that?" he asked.

I chuckled and shook my head because I realized that it was pointless to argue with him because he was the idiot who thought it was an honor for me to be the wife of a chronic cheater. "No need. After we get a divorce, you can make Kemi your home organizer and cheat all you want. I'm sure she doesn't mind. As for me, I'm not interested in getting STDs or aids just so I can have a husband in name only."

"Divorce ke! Omolola, how did this conversation go to divorce? Shaybe I already said I won't divorce you!"

I stood up and eyed him from head to toe. "Did you think you're the only one who could divorce someone? I'm sorry to tell you this but even though women are different from men in your world. Legally, we still have equal rights."

I turned to walk away but he grabbed my wrist to stop me. "Are you sure you want to do this, Lola?"

I turned back to meet his gaze as I nodded. "Yes, very sure. I can no longer put up with you and your family."

His coffee brown eyes darkened and he nodded as he released my wrist. "Lola, if you do this, you will regret it. I will never let you get away with this. I also have evidence that you cheated on me."

"Really? Because I'd like to see you prove to a judge that a male friend guiding me out of the way in a crowded hospital is cheating." I said.

"Well, I will never let you take away my only daughter."

"Oh, so it's now you know she's your only daughter? With the way you've always ignored her and treated her, I never would have known that you knew." I mocked as I made my way up the stairs.

"Lola, you'll surely regret this." he threatened.

I didn't bother looking back at him. If anything happened to me or my daughter, the recording of this conversation was with Bisi and he would have to give account of what he'd done to those who loved me.

I was way beyond being afraid of him or his family.