• Sunday, April 28, 2024
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One More Child

One More Child

If I had my way, I’d love to have five children or even six but my body will not allow it. My pregnancies are always complicated, dramatic and life threatening so my doctors advised that I try not to get pregnant again. After my last experience, I don’t even need anyone to tell me what to do. For the most part of that pregnancy, my life was hanging on a thread.. literally. Let’s not even talk about the traumatic delivery process. That’s one route I never want to tread in my life. The pregnancies were so complicated that on both occasions I had to travel out of the country to birth my babies.

If anyone should understand what I go through whenever I’m pregnant, it should be my husband but on the contrary he lacks empathy. His milk of human kindness had ‘dried up’ and he is constantly breathing down my neck to discontinue my contraceptives so that I can have one more child. He tells me that ‘the third time is a charm” and he believes nothing would happen to me.

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It bothered me that a man who has seen me in near death situations would even suggest something like that. I mentioned surrogacy or adoption but he said I was inconsiderate to even suggest such a thing. He was constantly guilt tripping me but that wasn’t going to work. I’d rather stay alive and be hated by my husband than risk my life because I was trying to prove a point. As a matter of fact there was no point to prove. Ken and I have had issues in the past but we’re always able to talk things over and move on. But this time around, no matter what I did, Ken continued to give me the cold treatment.

I pretty much enjoyed my marriage until Ken became a member of the Golden Club for men. Their wives also formed a faction called the Golden Ladies. These women pretend to be cordial with each other but their meetings were an avenue to show off their cars and clothes and to display their wealth. After my close shave with death, I began to have a different outlook on life and how fragile our lives can be. Understanding the transient nature of life will make you channel your energy to more meaningful things, showing off my shoes and bags to other women wasn’t one of them. I only attended the Golden Ladies’ meetings because my husband compelled me to. I always sat down quietly and watched as they entertained me.

One day, after returning from a visit to one of the Golden Ladies who lost her baby, I couldn’t help but wonder how strong she was for someone who had just lost her child. She was in high spirits and handled the situation quite well. Then I remembered a couple of Golden Ladies who also lost their babies in the past then it occured to me that this was a trend. I made a mental calculation of the number of condolence visits I’ve made and I felt chills down my spine as the hairs on my neck stood.
I also observed that the fortune of every Golden couples that lost a child seemed to have tripled over time. Could this be the reason why Ken told me that having a baby is for our own good?

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and a particular Golden couple had invited us to their house warming ceremony. Ken and I attended the event but we went in separate cars because he still wasn’t talking to me. This Golden couple really outdid themselves. The splendor and grandeur of their mansion was like something from a magazine. They too had lost one of their twins after birth. The surviving twin is an adorable three year old but he was acting quite cranky at the party.

Mid way into the event, some guests started to complain that they could feel tremors in the ground…the building was vibrating. It started as something mild then it gradually escalated. There was commotion as people ran for their lives, while a few others stayed back to watch from a safe distance. These tremors lasted for some minutes, then in what looked like a scene from a movie, the whole edifice began to give way brick by brick, wall by wall… everything came crashing to the ground in one swift motion. By this time, I was in the safety of my home, following all the gist on the Golden Ladies Whatsapp group.
Then a video surfaced where the supposed celebrants were engaged in a war of words. The Golden lady was inconsolable as she wailed and blamed her husband for their predicament. She claimed that her husband had suggested that they use their new born twins for rituals purposes. After much persuasion, she allowed him to use just one baby. The instruction was to pound the newborn in a motar and gather the remains to the ritualist who would do the rest. It was a heart wrenching ordeal her husband made her go through. However, there were repercussions because the babies were twins. It was either they pound both babies or don’t bother at all because the surviving twin will one day cry out to avenge his twin and this is exactly what happened that day. No wonder the little boy was cranky and crying for hours on end. In that same video, you could hear the husband calling her names and also blaming her for not letting him follow the instructions to the letter. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe the drama unfolding before my eyes. But more disappointing was the reaction of some of the Golden ladies. While a few of them becried the pain they had to go through because of their husbands, others berated them and asked if they were not enjoying the largesse that came with the sacrifice.

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The press had a field day with the story and the social media was agog with different versions. It was clear to me that Ken’s plan was to kill our new born in exchange for more money. It didn’t matter whether I survived or not, he was only interested in the child. We were rich by all standards and we didn’t need to do rituals to have more. Ken was just wicked, greedy and irresponsible. If he can’t use his new born to achieve his evil purpose, I could easily be his next target, so before we get to that point, I will have to save myself first.

After the collapsed mansion incident, Ken knew his game was up so he tried to be nice to me. I played along and I never discussed what happened with him while I secretly hatched my plans. Men like Ken should be avoided at all cost. I do not trust him.
So, the plan was to take my children to Disney land, Florida for our annual vacation and I made sure the timing coincided with Ken’s business trip to Singapore. He’s usually gone for about two to three months so I had enough time to carry out my plans. I started by selling all the properties we bought in my name and the ones in the children’s names. I sold all our cars and house hold valuables then I moved all the money into a new account. I made sure I was very discreet and nothing would be traced back to me.

By the time I was done, I had enough money to start a new life with my children in a another country. When I arrived my destination, I reverted to my middle name and my maiden name, I also did same for my kids. I deleted all my social media accounts, changed my email and password and also cut and added color to my hair. My aim was to start a completely new life. It wasn’t easy but it was worth it.

I hear that Ken has been raining fire and brimstone and threatening to deal with my family. But I’m ahead of him. If he touches a hair on any member of my family, he’ll have the law to contend with. Before leaving the country, I made sure I filed a case against him at the Bureau for Criminal Investigation so Ken knows better than to throw threats.