Princess Duffy's series

It has been a while. A lot has happened, but you're are still on my mind.

Been a while. Still alive. Just hibernating.

Chapter 2
~A little too different ~

Nwamma and obinna drew closer to the village square while Obinna detangled from her grip and used both hands to hold unto the basket, he avoids eye contact with her while she stares wondering how he changed in such manner.

He increases his pace so that she wouldn’t catch up with her smaller feet.
The village square is designed in a form such that it doesn’t actually make a complete square, but all routes leading to it helps define its land mast.

There are many open huts of various sizes around it, it looks almost like a round theatre where actors can perform with people watching from all angles. But designed in a manner that all four routes leading to it helps make its shape into an almost square shape .

There are people seated in the huts; different age grades but mostly, the aged and the youths. The children in the village are mostly running around playing due to the moistness of the ground.

They wore mostly different patterns of wrappers which covered the waists for the boys and for the girls a wrapper for the chest and another for their lower body.

Almost everywhere is covered with red sand but the rain helped keep the sands on the ground in place to aid movement.

Obinna quickly joins a group of boys under a hut, laughing and drinking while Nwamma lurks around without mingling with anyone.

Sochi grabs Obinna’s shoulders and raises his left arm on a bid to praise him.
‘Arms that never gets tired’, Chinedu teased.

‘Are you still hanging around your demon sister?’,Chito said while the others laughed in mockery and stared into Nwamma’s direction.

Obinna unhands Sochi and pushes Chito to the ground.
‘Another word about her and you’ll taste my fist’, he snared angrily.

‘Calm down Obi, stop acting up over nothing, you know Chito was just joking when he said those things’, Chinedu said, calming his friend who looked way taller and masculine than all three of them.

‘I don’t bring his family on the table for mockery, let him let go of mine’, Obinna said.
‘I’m sorry if you felt offended, just saying what everyone in the village whispers behind closed doors. Didn’t know it would get you upset’, Chito apologized.

Chinedu gestures to Obinna who helps his friend up from the ground, dusting his already dirtied cloth and hugs him to show their immediate reconciliation.

‘Enough of the rants,what do you have in store for us this evening?. The elders are placing their bets on you and I’m scared that they might be wrong this time’, Sochi said as he brushed Obinna’s chest lightly.

‘Sorry for not asking on time,who’s challenging Obinna this evening?’, Chito asked.
‘Agu the village bully or rather called the village vigilante’s leader’, Sochi responded to his friend.
‘Taahhhhh’, Chinedu exclaimed as he broke into a laughter together with Obinna and Chito.

‘He doesn’t stand a chance’, Obinna bragged.
‘Though i Learnt he has been cooking himself since the moment he learnt about your open bet, he bribed his way to the top and chased everyone ready to wrestle this evening with you’,Chinedu further explained.

‘Think about it Obi,The village priest is his uncle and I heard he has been lobbying to collect the title if his uncle doesn’t get a bride to produce a successor. He’ll come fully prepared with some voodoo’, Sochi added.

‘Does he know how many hills I ply everyday to mention the least of my routines’, Obinna brags again to prove he was a better match and wouldn’t loose the fight not by any chance at all.

‘Dimkpa, leave that self acclaimed wrestler, he’ll never make it this evening, we trust you’, Chinedu assures them.

Almost immediately Akwaugo who has been staring at the boys all throughout their rants and arguments broke into their midst with two other of her friends and stroked Obinna’s chest.

The other boys smile while Obinna stared at her speechless, he didn’t know when he let out a little blush as he was confused on how to respond to the granddaughter of the greatest Kingmaker in the village.

‘I heard you have a tournament this evening’, she teased as she ran her fingers down his shoulders while he shudders.

Akwaugo is the village belle and every damsel wants to be Like her because her skin shone like the sun and you can feel it’s radiance even from yards away.

Men wish to have her and women envy her tender glowing skin because they get her all the praises and all the awards for the prettiest village belle.

She is always confused for the village princess due to the mannerism in which she walks and the aura that followed was usually filled with royalty and elegance.

Her dress were embroidered and woven around its edges to display its finely and rich patterns.
Her body markings were mostly spirals on both sides of her shoulders and her forehead.

Lips were darkened with the finest coals and they shine from the finest palm kernel oil which gave her full lips a different radiance under the sun. They complemented her fair skin.

‘I do’, Obinna blushed even more sheepishly as he stared at her from her crown to her heels wondering how someone’s daughter could be so blessed with beauty.

His eyes wandered around a bit and he looked at her friends too who looked although darker but also wore almost the same patterns as Akwaugo and looked beautiful in their lovely regalia.

The young maidens were also clad in the same fashion design as Nwamma but more prettier, neater and colorful as should any young maiden.

Obinna’s mind wandered about their beauty then it struck him that he left someone waiting, his eyes met Nwamma’s stare then he immediately takes Akwaugo’s hand off his body.

The other boys admire Akwaugo and her friends while Sochi left his mouth hanging in utter admiration as he got amazed at the color of Akwaugo’s eyes, down to her smooth skin. Chinedu helped him shut the mouth which was about to water like they had seen a sumptuous meal.

‘I’ll be watching Obi’, Akwaugo responds and takes off a bangle from the many beaded bangles dangling from her wrist. She knots it around Obinna’s wrist and winks seductively at him.

‘That’s my good luck charm’, she stretches over to whisper further.

‘I have a lot to tell you when you make me proud’,she added in another whisper and looked back at her friends who nodded in unison as they perceived her intention. She pulled back walking towards her friends who were already on their way out of the open hut, towards the other side of the village square, heading into another village while even the old men stared on amused.

Nwamma had been staring for awhile without uttering a word to anyone, everywhere she went people threw their face to the opposite direction and avoided standing next to her.

She couldn’t stand the fact that Akwaugo had the guts to whisper into Obinna’s ears while he smiled from ear to ear, she walked away angrily and kicked at the sand under her feet as if they were the reason for her misfortune.

‘Obinna I think I need to enroll in the next wrestling march’, Sochi said still in bewilderment.

‘Obi teach me your charms so that I can at least get that slender dark one because I know Akwaugo is already taken by you’, Chinedu chipped in as he also stared at the young maidens waist which dangled from bead to bead.

The sound of their feet could be heard because they adorned them with lighter beads which gave their legs a wonderful fitting.

‘Obi don’t mess this up like you do all the time’, Chito pulled his ears as he wished his words would sink into Obinna’s ears like his strange wrestling patterns did.

Obinna got too distracted from all the cheers he got from his friends and forgot about Nwamma.
She had moved a reasonable distance before he remembered he was walking home with her.

He threw the basket on his head and forgot to bid his friends farewell as he ran after Nwamma trying to catch up with her.

He took another turn and couldn’t find her as she had disappeared into the distance.

Chapter 2
Work work and work
The nanny had let her into the house as both parents were out for morning runs. They had to drop off their older kids in school and are already off to their place of business.

She could have sworn she heard the nanny curse in Spanish because the kids haven’t been changed from their dirty diapers.

Rosetta the nanny glances at her and whispers ‘lazy woman’, while placing the towel and making the water ready for the baby’s bath 🛀.

Vanessa giggles a little bit and remembers that the house has cameras planted in almost every corner. So she focuses on picking up the toys 🧸 littered all over the floor.

She could feel the disgust in the nanny’s face as she picks each child up trying to wipe their butt clean from the p**p 💩 which was already clinging to their butt and thighs.

She couldn’t let the nanny do all the work and somehow she has gotten accustomed to naked baby butts, wiping of dirty asses and cleaning messed up toilets so doing this routine was kind of a lay off to her.

She gestures to Rosetta who in turn leaves the babies to her as she gently picks each baby and sings into their tender ears, tapping their body with a soft sponge. The smile on their faces reminds her of when she had little or no worries.

She didn’t really envision growing bigger and doing sooo much. She had always wanted to be that little spoilt brat who would cross her feet and order her older siblings to get her snacks while she deprived them of their favorite channels, grinning like a little witch during Halloween 👻.

Somehow, she didn’t like to leave any work undone so she made sure she wiped the babies clean and changed them into their most beautiful baby wears.

And she never forgets to add a little pacifier to the tiny bibs strapped to their necks so that they would find things to nibble on whenever they felt bored.

Going back to the sitting room, she found the nanny snacking and watching her favorite soap opera which barely had any subtitles.

The overworked her would have pulled a seat to join but she felt the need to clean the places she had mopped the previous day without leaving any place out.

The nanny didn’t even bother to put in any effort like she did in previous times and Vanessa felt the need to cover up for Rosetta who might also have family members who stress her up like her family does.

Some few hours later and she’s exhausted from all the cleaning, mopping and feeding of new borns.

She throws a little glance at them and somehow wishes she could start developing feelings for any guy she could find but the workaholic in her snapped her back to reality again 💭.

Few minutes later the kids walk in with their mom frowning and scolding them for getting into a fight in school.

Vanessa greets the woman and makes for her bag 💼 since her day’s work was over but the woman gestures for her to come back.

‘Seems like you don’t really enjoy nursing my babies’, she said trying to pick words out of her mouth.

‘Errrhh....’ Vanessa spewed in a confused state wondering how the woman came to such conclusions.

‘Nnem, from a nursing mother to a younger lady, I really love the fact that I got someone all the way from home to help nurse my babies but always giving rude remarks and not tidying the house properly is what I can’t really condone’, the woman said in a sharp and firm way.

A more confused Vanessa didn’t even know what to say than to rather mope into the woman’s face as she goes further to accuse her.

‘I’ve been noticing the way, the babies milk is always short, and my older kids beverages have been getting missing and somehow you are always on a diet when I’m around and have something to eat when I’m away. I really do not condone stealing and bickering from my staffs’, the woman finally settles into the cushion in the sitting room while going through her bag.

Vanessa stares at the Spanish maid who in turn acts in a weird manner wiping the couch with a towel as if she’s been cleaning 🧹 some of the furnitures the whole day.

‘I’ve been getting reports about the nuisance you’ve been causing. And somehow I would have sworn that I employed you here for other reasons’, the woman signals her by staring at the Spanish maid and looking back at her in hope that Vanessa would say something.

She only acts more confused and tries to understand what’s happening.

‘Well, I’m sorry but I have to lay you off, as you’re no longer competent enough for the duties you render’, she drops some dollar 💵 notes into Vanessa’s palm.

‘I don’t understand ma, I’ve been working all day and I’ve not really had any time to rest and......’, she keeps thinking about what her employer said without knowing what else to say in her defense.

‘Oluchi, pls leave my home, I’ve considered this and I think I’ll rather keep someone more experienced and environmentally friendly for my babies. And don’t worry, I won’t be pressing any charges since you’re illegal in this country’, she picks her older kids and heads upstairs.

‘Rosetta please bring my babies up for some playtime in their room and don’t forget to lock the door immediately she leaves’.

Vanessa rushes towards Rosetta in an inquisitive state to clear her mind and stop it from going wild.

‘What did I ever do to make you hate me this much?. I could have sworn you made nasty remarks about this household at every giving hour and everything you touched always irritated you but I never said anything about you. How am I being accused of all the things you do ? Why do I feel like you know something and you’re not saying anything?’.

‘I don’t know what you’re saying, I do my work and I mind my business, maybe you should mind your business’, the nanny retorted with no remorse in her face.

It finally dawned on Vanessa that she’s being blackmailed for the same thing the maid does, all the bickering and back bites and even side looks she gave their employer while Vanessa worked tirelessly is now being laid on her as blames and reasons for her to loose her job.

She truly should have reported the nanny when she noticed a lot was not adding up whenever no one paid attention.

She thought to herself as she shut the door behind her and walks home while recalling the last look the nanny gave her.

Truly a handful of nannies do so many despicable things in order to keep their jobs and somehow she finally pieced the puzzle.

A call comes through her phone and she answers.
‘Hello, Mmasi, good day dear’, she said trying not to let her worries scald her face.

‘Yes, I would really love to hang out but I just lost my job and now is not a good time....... I’m going home to break the news to my aunt’.

She took a turn to the next street and tries to dodge some kids walking their dogs and making a hell of noise.
‘Yes, for the second time this year and I don’t know what to do now.... pls do get back to me, I really need a job and I can’t stay without any if I have to survive these coming months. Thanks dear....’, she blows kisses into her phone.

‘I owe you a lot dear, life in this country wouldn’t have been easy without you, love you big sis’, she blows another kiss and ends the call smiling like she got an assurance over something .

She just discovered that she’s been played by the nanny who needed a raise in her allowance and somehow this stranger she met a couple of months back has just given her that elder sister talk to calm her nerves.

She needed the talk and truthfully, like Mmasi just told her, this is America and being stuck mentally to her auntie and her only kinds of jobs won’t get her any better chance of financial liberation.

She hops down the lane into the next turn which ushers her into her street and somehow she starts feeling cold and sad all over again .

The feeling that things won’t turn out right the whole of that day and that everyone she’s been avoiding at home might actually be there looking for how to p**s her off even more or annoy her started creeping into her thoughts.

She didn’t want her auntie reminding her how lucky she was to be in America again and remind her about her mates back in Nigeria who are mere house girls and maids with no serious financial backing or even a hope of greater future.

Her heart starts to beat faster and pound harder because she knows the day won’t end well. She had lost her job and everything she’s feared and don’t want to be reminded of would definitely be thrown to her face.

Xoxo princessduffyseries 😜

Chapter 1
Little lost puppy

Vanessa toss and turns on the bed still struggling to catch some sleep, she keeps struggling with the sheets on her body as she’s neither getting up to cover herself properly, nor is she sleeping to drift back into dream land.

She also goes by the name Oluchi but somehow she let Vanessa override her tribal name due to its uniqueness and western nature.

It’s autumn, the season when most leaves 🍁 falls in the United States and all the cool breeze begins to get colder.

She’s been here for 5 years and she’s still not getting accustomed to the weather.
Somehow, the cold breeze still reminds her of motherland and the discomfort still reminds her the reason she’s been shipped far away from home.

Far from mothers arms and far from her older siblings who would have found a way to tease her and get her to cover up either by scaring her with an old horror movie character or with tales of their haunted boarding schools .

But she couldn’t forget her childhood memories especially those periods they’ve had sleepless nights in the neighborhood and everyone was on an edge, hoping for when the riots and chaos will be over and hoping their loved ones made it safe to their abode.

She was born and raised in the northern part of Nigeria, a town known for its cold and harsh harmattan which turns bike riders and commercial bus drivers into old formidable snow ⛄️ men.

The thought of all those harsh ash like dust making everyone look old and dusty makes her smile a bit because she missed those times she always teased mother and father whenever they returned home looking like the snowmen kids made for Christmas.

Those harmattan never stopped chaos from happening or people from being disoriented and firing shots at the wrong people.

There was always religious violence and somehow the little ones who didn’t really have a bigger picture of what’s going on also believed they could die if they ever stepped into the wrong neighborhood.

There’s always someone who escaped the lions den and lived to tell the tales of the horrors done to humanity. And those older kids who loved to eavesdrop and in turn tell the younger kids why everyone wasn’t going to work and why school wasn’t in session. Why they always heard the gunshots at nights and how there are people (soldiers) out there helping to calm all the storm and make sure the casualties rates are not high.

Looking back at her 8year old self who had anticipated her dad’s return home and finally receiving the breaking news that he didn’t make it, made her detest life but what broke her family further was the ill treatment her mother and siblings got when all that had died down.

The riots she still pinpointed, took her father, the best person in her life and made her the least favorite, she thought.

She’s the last child out of three. Her older brother is still struggling somewhere in the eastern part of Nigeria while her older sister is now a mother and wife to a jobless man who hits her at any reason and any given time.

She opens her eyes wide, to stare at the ceiling, the goosebumps on her skin still didn’t make her cover up, she needed the harsh reality to remind her why she was there.

A land everyone wanted to be, everyone but her. She stilll wanted to be patted on the head by daddy but he’s no where to be found. She still wants those little gossips she shared with him about mummy not sparing an extra chocolate but she’s the one doing the giving.

Any day she doesn’t work means extra deduction from her paycheck and it goes back home too because somehow she’s the breadwinner of her family.

Just as the alarm clock ⏰ on her phone is about to remind her that it’s 6am, she hits it to a stop and finally stretches out of the bed.

Another weary day with less sleep and she still has a bunch of kids to babysit.

Somehow her auntie always knows someone with a new born who has less time to spend at home, one who actually needs a sitter or a nanny to carter for the kids.

This is her second job for the year and this new employer just had a set of twin. They’ve employed a Spanish nanny but still want one of their own to watch after the nanny when they go about their daily routines.

She’s going to be late today and that wasn’t how she planned her new job to be.

She didn’t know if to blame her auntie for lying that she was going to further her education when she gets to America or blame her mother for being too trusting to the same people who took everything from her and claimed they had no hand in it.

Her auntie Margret didn’t actually have a hand in her father’s properties getting stolen and distributed to his brothers but somehow she always reminded Vanessa how much she spent bringing her to the states.

She picks up her tooth brush and towel and heads upstairs as she’s been subjected to sleeping in the basement.

She tries her best to avoid contact with everyone at home and finally slips out of the apartment shutting the door behind her some 30minutes later, she always hated beauty routines.

Unlike her younger self who loved Barbie dolls, color pink and all the beautiful ribbons 🎀 women adorn themselves with, she lacks the urge to dress beautifully or even attempt to be girly in order to attract the opposite s*x.

She wore a plain T-shirt and jeans👖trouser and a black sneaker to save herself the stress of color blocking.

Three streets away from hers, she halts at number 15 maple boulevard. Exhales and knocks in the building because she knows she’s about to start another hectic day with noisy newborns who are still struggling to get used to Mother Earth.

And somehow she knows she’ll be doing most of the job because the couples are always lazy to go through their cctv footage or even pay extra attention to know that the nanny they employed really didn’t do much.

She’ll rather be quiet and let the nanny be. She wouldn’t want to be the only one nursing the new twins if they have to get a new nanny.

She plants a kiss on her pendant and silently screams, ‘here, wish me luck’ as if she was expecting a magic wand to appear and lessen her burden or rather she wanted the pendant to turn into a fairy that grants wishes and undo all that has happened over the years.

Xoxo princessduffyseries😜

Love from a mile .

A story about Vanessa a young and naive girl who faces the struggles of starting a new life abroad and being away from her family . She is forced to move abroad with her auntie shortly after the death of her father .
She finds herself in the most unseen place with an arrogant and handsome boy named Max. Max is a brat who disregards women and barely sees anyone as his equal. She tries her best to teach him all about love , commitment and friendship but he keeps pushing her away . She is his sitter and companion but he makes life overbearing for her always .
As time goes by he realizes that they both share a lot in common and that she’s not just any kind of girl . They’ve met a long time ago , she was once his muse as a kid and she is his muse even now. Will he finally let his heart love and finally treat women or rather treat Vanessa right by making her his dream woman ??
Anticipate soon

Troubled souls series 1
“To leave or not to ?”
Martha is seen smiling and turning in her sleep, she seemed happy and was having such a nice dream.
Another strike from the lightning and roaring thunder awakens her, followed by a heavy knock on the door. It’s been raining for hours nonstop and she managed to find solace in a little rest .
She opened her eyes to stare at the window but the window is shut with no sign of rain penetrating into the room. She tries to go back to sleep and another bang on her door finally makes her realize she actually heard a sound from the door.
Jumping out of the bed while putting on some extra cover on her body, she reached for the door . That was her room door and not the entrance to the house, so she pondered why anyone would bang loudly on her door.
Opens the door to her smiling husband who had been drenched by the rain. He starts to make s*xual advances at her while dropping each piece of clothing he had on, on the floor.
She responds back in the affirmative since that was his way of getting her to bed, he never asks and she was used to his tactics.
Laying her body on the bed she lifts her torso for support while spreading her legs for easy pe*******on, she has no underwear on.
As soon as he tries to thrust deep, she starts to feel the bed give way, it gives way Soo deep that she starts to fall back into the bed like she had been pushed into an endless pit.
The room becomes a pit of darkness as she struggles to hold her husband’s hands, she calls his name loudly out of fear for her own life, ‘Chibuzor, help me ‘.
He had his back turned while she fell into that pit of darkness that seemed never-ending while a voice kept screaming. ‘Martha, you’ll never know no peace in this life you witch and queen of darkness, until you release my son from your coven’.
She finally wakes up this time to reality, to her pregnant self and a strong voice singing and chanting, ‘Martha you queen of darkness, you’ll die in Jesus name, you and your purpose shall never be fulfilled’.
Her body was already covered in sweats as she feels her heart panting faster like someone who had been chased by a pack of laughing hyenas.
She heaves a sigh of relief knowing fully well that she was finally awake and that it was her mother inlaw’s voice that had awoken her from such a terrible nightmare .
‘Die you evil witch, die together with all your agents of darkness, die you queen of the coast, die you evil witch’, Ifeoma her mother inlaw continued chanting.
Martha finally realized her kids were not laying properly on the bed, Nonso, her 4 year old had half his body parts on the floor because the bed was low and he’s a reckless sleeper while Chidimma who’s 2 was already at the foot of the bed, almost losing balance.
Her protruding tummy didn’t make it any easier for her and the kids to manage the mattress.
So, she gets up picking each kid and dropping them properly on the bed, each with a light kiss on the forehead. She’s crouching because her pregnancy is already due for delivery.
She takes part of her two piece night wear off as she finally remembers that she’s still soaked, then rushes to the bathroom for a leak.
A thought ran into her mind to get changed in her husband’s room but the sound of die, coming from her mother inlaw’s chambers scares her back to sleep.
She didn’t even struggle to get back to dream land.
A wave from the standing fan sends and drifts her to yet another dream, scarier than the one she had encountered.
She finds herself in a room filled with snakes 🐍 all trying so hard to bite her, she tries to find the handle of the door only to find a sleeping tiger by the far end of the next room.
Managing to tiptoe through the room to another pathway, she shuts the door in a very quiet manner but she finds the tiger waking to the shut door.
Pants even more as she tries not to breakdown from all the taunts she’s getting all at once, she holds her mouth so as not to let out a cry.
The entire pathway starts getting darker and she hears her mother calling for her, ‘Martha my dear, come let’s have dinner, Martha, Martha ,Martha......’
Finally, there’s a light coming from another door slightly open in the pathway. She opens the door to find everyone in a celebration mood.
It looks like her traditional marriage day, with all the guests in the same position, her husband at the far end of the hall, her mother and father smiling back at her as her younger sister walks towards her.
She stares back to her nightwear only to find out that they’ve changed into her traditional dress, she now has a cup of palm wine in her hand and everyone’s attention was on her .
Her sister pulls her towards her husband while she calls out to her mother, trying not to trip from the high heels she wore.
‘Mummy, I don’t want this marriage anymore, mummy pls help me’, she lamented .
Her mother had her face turned towards her father and the other guests.
Turning to see where her sister had taken her to, she finds her husband’s arms stretched towards her, reaching for the palm wine, he had a friendly smile written all over this face.
She looks back to her mother and finally wakes up to herself calling out to her mother again, ‘mummy pls help me......mum’.
Another fresh sweat has soaked her body and she cries profusely and places both hands to her mouth so that no one hears her, or rather, so the kids won’t wake and find her crying.
She starts reminiscing back to when Chibuzor had married her newly and all the praises he had showered on her, the first time she undressed in his presence he didn’t let her shyness overcome the situation. He was a soft and sweet man who showered her with love and buys her anything she asks of despite knowing she had content.
The first time she had s*x with him and bled on the sheets he took her carefully in his arms, showered her and cleaned up the room.
He always sang to her and made references of how his friends didn’t have a wife half as beautiful as she is. He always acted so nice to her and even cooked on some occasions to commemorate their Union , she met him through her father’s friend and by recommendation.
She tries to smile to those sweet memories only to be reminded of the argument they had last night .
She had craved a plate of peppered meat and her mother inlaw rebuked her for trying to squander her son’s money on some flimsy and meager things.
Ifeoma had presented the rice they ate all day to Martha for dinner but Martha turned it down as she always noticed the woman adds extra oil to her stew.
She once caught Ifeoma adding anointing oil to her meal , she told hubby and he supported his mother by stating that they were for cleansing from spiritual demons.
Her tummy rumbles due to the hunger she slept with. She craves a bowl of soup but finds it difficult to get up. All those nightmares had drained her and she just remembered that she was hypertensive.
She remembers telling her mother of all the taunting nightmares she’s had and her mother said dreams were different from reality’s and that they had no effect to what happened in real life .
She tries one more time to distract herself from her environment only to be taunted by yet another memory of how Chibuzor had pushed her to the floor when she was pregnant for Chidimma.
Her sister inlaw had visited them and littered her kitchen, so she tried to get the lady to assist in tidying up the kitchen instead an argument broke out.
The lady called her a leech and said that she was milking her brother dry, that’s why he didn’t have enough money to give her for school upkeep. She’s older than Chisom with a gap of two years but Chisom always made her short stays nightmares for Marthua by always cooking up troubles and instigating other members of the family to hate her.
Chibuzor came home to them exchanging words, he heard the last line Martha had uttered to Chisom, she called her, ‘a nut case’. Chisom had seen her brother stepping into the house and she faked a cry immediately. Chisom had been in a mental institution when she was younger, she was administered a wrong drug which almost killed her. It took her half a year to recover.
Chibuzor had been settling cases and trying to understand the situation beforehand but hearing his wife call his little sister a mad person after having a stressful day didn’t go down well with him, he slapped and pushed her to the ground with her pregnancy. He had always tried to see reasons with his wife but he misunderstood the situation more as Chisom cried louder and said she wasn’t staying with her brother anymore.
It took a lot of family members and scheduled meetings to finally get his family back together. He threatened to send her back to her family but was reminded that she was expecting and needed a sane environment to bring into existence a new life.
That made it the last time Chisom stepped into the house and trust Chisom, she exaggerated the issues and made sure her mother heard every single forged detail. That issue brought Ifeoma (Martha’s mother inlaw) into the picture immediately after Martha’s mum had finished nursing Martha and her newly born daughter.
She tries to remember the last time her husband cuddled her but could only be reminded of how he’s distant, passworded his phones and gave her strict warnings never to take his calls . She had tried to get intimate with him some months before she took in for this baby and was greeted by a message from his phone.
The message had popped up as she was going through the pictures of work sites he showed her in his phone. She managed to read a line before he remembered that she had his phone and that a message just came in . It read, ‘baby I miss you’, from someone named Shakes.
She tried to know who it was but it didn’t end well. He denied the context of the message and goes on to tell her how she had thrown him off mood with unnecessary bickering.
A call came in and he headed for the bathroom. She could hear him giggle and ask the person on the phone to show him her b***s.
She tried to eavesdrop and heard a response from the caller saying , ‘why don’t you look at your wife’s b***s?’, and his response was, ‘come on, those things are fallen and can never be compared to yours, you’ve got premium b***s and they drive me insane’.
She cried and retired to the kids room as soon as she realized she couldn’t win any argument with him, her simple nature didn’t let her.
She was too obedient for her own good she thought . She hardly raise her voice at anyone and when she does it’s only when she feels the other party had a habit of mistreating her.
She had tried on countless occasions to get her mother to see that the environment wasn’t friendly.
She could have gotten a job with her degree in economics but her husband refused to employ a nanny because he didn’t want any case of the kids getting abused.
She recounted running back home twice to her parents, once with the husband’s car and the second time using a public transport as she dragged both kids with her. She didn’t even to take any belonging .
Her father said she didn’t have any tangible reason to leave her marriage as Martha confessed that Chibuzor had only laid his hands on her once. He said the only ground for a divorce was if he hits her again or if he starves or throws her out.
Martha’s mum always asked her to put him in prayers because he never treated her badly when he newly married her, in fact, he was the best son inlaw for about a year because he always sent groceries and money for upkeep to her family.
Her grandmother had once called her and told her to endure because men change a lot and that the kids will definitely make him stay home and treat her right .
Her family never had any case of divorce and her mum was such a staunch Christian that the thought divorce always irked her.
Her parents lives about an hours drive from her home.
She had tried to reason leaving the home without listening to anyone but her parents had kids they spent all their time on.
Her eldest brother was deceased and his wife left his three kids to the care of her parents as soon as it clocked one year he had passed on.
She just couldn’t add to her mothers worries. Her mother always believed everything has a solution and it’s usually, prayers.
She feels a slight pain in her waist and tries to sit up on the mattress.
Yet another memory of her mother inlaw dragging her to a spiritualist for prayers due to her husbands setback in business, came to her. She had followed this woman to not less than three churches without knowing what they prayed for half of the time.
Ifeoma only told her she was visiting and has stayed for a year and half. She never stood a chance against her mother inlaw as Chibuzor never confronts his mom. She was his weakness and she always used the death of her husband to invoke sympathy and make Chibuzor choose to stand with her over and over again.
Whenever Martha complains about his mother he saw no wrong in her. His mother is a leader of the women’s group in church and was made a matron to the youths in church . So he always believed she meant well .
Martha once had a confrontation from Ifeoma when Chibuzor was out, she had asked Martha to confess about all the covens she had taken her son to. That all the spiritual houses she’s been always mentioned Martha to be ill-lucked and evil, that she had wanted him dead so that she could inherit his properties as he’s the breadwinner of their family. He owned the apartment they lived in and travels on business trips regularly but what his mother didn’t know was his recent cheating escapades, his lavish way of life with other women and his lack of love for his wife.
She told Martha that his father (her husband) was a cheat and a wife be**er and seeing Chibuzor grow up to detest hitting a woman was a great accomplishment.
She also bragged of how she lived after all those abuse and mistreatments, how she embraced God and become a whole new woman. She urged Martha to pray and get herself out of her evil coven, and had once gotten her beat up by a deranged spiritualist who claimed he was casting out her spiritual husbands who are crippling Chibuzor’s business.
Martha didn’t bother to tell her mother because she believed they served the same purpose, even her sisters envied her because she had a car to herself. Her mother never believe s there’s extreme religiousness and that people hide under religion for their own interests.
Martha finally comes to and a new thought immersed. She thought of dragging her kids into the bathroom, drowning them to end this emotional torture.
Another glance at her sleeping kids reminds her of the pains she went through bringing them to life, they laid Soo cute on the bed with little worries.
Nonso giggles in his sleep and it melts part of her worries away.
Another wave of pain caresses her waist sending her in labor, it isn’t a Braxton Hicks, it is contraction and she’s been having them all this time while reminiscing in sad memories.
The contractions increased and she lets out a big cry. Ifeoma rushes into the room with a smile, thinking Martha had been suppressed by her prayers, she was expecting a possessed Martha only to be disappointed by her water broken by the doorstep.
She calls out to her son Chibuzor who heard all the sounds but was busy ma********ng to his naked lover on a video call.
He shuts the phone in a hurry and puts on a shirt while rearranging his already standing p***s in his boxers.
‘Martha is in labor’, his mother screamed. He ran back to the room grabbing his clothes and the car keys while his mother looked for Martha’s maternity kit in the room.
They were off in no time and Ifeoma stayed back to watch over her grandkids sleeping .

********************************************
After two hours of battling in the theatre to get the baby out, the doctor described the new development to Chibuzor.
The baby is in a breach position and is losing strength, they need to cut her open if they need both baby and mother alive.
Chibuzor calls his mother who rebuked and discouraged him from accepting the doctor’s terms. She said her prayer ministers were on the matter and they asked him not to spend another dime on Martha if he still wanted to stay wealthy.
But he knew the truth, he couldn’t even afford two hundred thousand for her operation, he had developed a new lifestyle that didn’t help his situation.
He has all his siblings on his neck both married and unmarried, they were all on his pay roll. He had recently managed to return the money he stole from his firm in order to give his new girlfriend a good time in Dubai some weeks back .
He kept delaying the matter and never called Martha’s parents to disclose the current situation.
Another two hours of battling in the theatre and Martha births her little son. He didn’t even stay up to two hours and finally gave up the ghost.
Martha’s parents came when they heard the news that she had delivered only to meet the a dead baby and their weak daughter. She was struggling with her unstable blood pressure and now the doctors were on their toes to keep her alive.
They were warned not to disclose the news of the deceased baby to her but her mother inlaw still found time to gloat in the ward Martha laid. She told Martha that the evil she had inside of her was no more.
Martha ran into shock and they had to perform an emergency operation on her instantly, she had blood clots in her womb and they needed to clean her up properly and stop the internal bleeding.
She went through series of pains all over again and was finally discharged a week later .
She had made up her mind to leave her marriage even if no one saw reasons with her .
She remembered her once happy youthfulness and August was around the corner. She is going to clock 26 in a 5 years old marriage and a more depression lifestyle.
She couldn’t even remember what she was wanted for herself and the life she had wished to have at 26.
She stared back to her 20 year old self in a picture and wished she didn’t say yes, she wished they didn’t let her marry someone she barely knew. They all thought he meant well, or maybe he did but he stopped thinking about his family, he stopped compromising and understanding, he didn’t even know all the responsibilities he shouldered as the breadwinner and head of his family.
Chibuzor felt rekindling his old life of dating and living a carefree life was a way to ease stress. His mother didn’t deem it fit to tell him how responsible a married man should be , she’s caged in the box and mentality that it’s only the woman’s duty to put the home together, all the man had to do was provide.
But Martha was determined to leave, she started with a family planning to keep her away from unwanted pregnancies. She wanted to be sane again, and not a deranged woman . She only wanted love and affection from her husband and to put her family together.
Where will she start from in telling him they weren’t enemies, they are both on the same team but mother inlaw is too religious and will rather spend her time looking for faults in her . Faults she didn’t bother to search for in her son.
But why blame other people ???? He should have known what baggage came with marriage, he should have remembered he
made a covenant to treat her better and be her better half. She’s getting a better life with or without her family’s support to save her from dying unfulfilled.