Stronger Than Pain

Chapter Twenty

“Mum, why are you always making excuses for his behavior?” Mum asked perplexed.

“I’m telling you the truth my daughter. Forget all those fantasies of knight in a shining armour, floating like angel Michael and sweeping you off your feet. They are just fairy tales Nneka, and don’t exist. Welcome to your reality! This is the sweetness of marriage nwa m (my child), at least you both will have something to talk about when you grow old; you'll also draw inspiration and strength from this all so you can advice your daughters when they encounter such in their marriages. You will remember all these hurdles my dear and will be so proud that you came out victorious”

“I wouldn’t want to remember this in my old age because this memory will make me kill him” Mum said boldly and ended the call.

She was loosing it, I'm so sure of that. Since everyone was aware, aunty Mma made it a point of duty to come every evening to keep us company and to fast track my birthday stuffs. We had put everything on hold since these issues began.

Aunty contracted a baker who would also handle most of the things. She accompanied mum and I to the mall as I shopped for my birthday, my outfit and Zara's.

In fact with aunty Mma, the birthday took shape within two days. Dad came home just as he promised and we left to the new apartment that evening. I was sure mum never confronted dad about the trending photos just as grandma had advised.

We arrived at the new house which was overwhelming. A duplex standing boldly on a small hilly area. It's outside was painted burnt orange with tiles- a mixture of black and orange- carpeting it's base. The double cylindrical pillar, which was painted dull-green stood from the upper balcony down to the floor. The entire compound was interlocked beautifully with a black zinc adoring the roof of the building.

Even though I'd taken in so much beautiful detail of the house, I still was so sad to show my happiness.

Mum was most interested in the children’s room and kitchen, all through the journey that's what she's been talking about excitedly.

As dad showed us in, mum hurriedly went to check out our room. It wasn’t what she had asked.

The wall painting was pink instead of purple. There were no flowered mini trees nor cartoon drawings, and most annoyingly, no footprints of Zara and I.

Mum exploded. Dad rushed in.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” he asked, a big smile plastered on his lips.

“This is not the color I asked to be painted here, not the paintings I specifically requested for. What happened?” Mum asked, anger written all over her face.

“Oh, the purple wasn’t working. Eby and Tee suggested pink so I okayed it. And as for the paintings, they believed  it would take a lot of energy and since we were running out of time I asked them to make a good choice and just design the room with it” He explained still with a smile. “But it’s cool and I believe it works better than the purple. By the way it’s a girls’ room and girls love pink right?”

Mum was quiet, gently walking away and into the kitchen. That was worse. Everything was changed. Nothing she asked was ever done. The entire house breathed Eby, every single spot.

She cried.

The room was simple but seeing it wasn’t what mum and I had initially planned, I told dad I hated the room and would need it repainted if he wants me to happily move in with them next week. He tried to cajole me but I wasn’t having it, reluctantly he agreed just to please me.

A new designer was brought in almost immediately who promised to start the repainting and redesigning early morning the next day. And he delivered and redesigned the room just the way mum wanted it. Dad took us back to inspect it two days later and I loved it even more. It was far better than the former design, I was practically in awe. The kitchen was redone as well and everyone loved it, dad inclusive.