The test

Marvin and I met at a mutual friend’s party and we were paired together to play a game against another couple. We lost the game but we found each other in the process. We dated for a little over a year before we decided to take our relationship to the next level.

We got married in a quiet civil ceremony surrounded by family and friends, this was because my husband didn’t want all the noise and fanfare that came with big weddings.

As much as people perceived us as a power couple, Marvin was actually the glue that kept our relationship together. He was a very simple and quiet person… if easy going was a person then it had to be him. His threshold of tolerance and patience should be studied. But it could never be me. We were like two sides of a coin, totally different.

I won’t like to call myself a trouble maker. I like to mind my own business and if you cross my path, rest assured that I will serve you some hot verbal dish. My tongue was my weapon and I knew how to use it to its full potential.

In spite of this weakness I had, Marvin knew how to manage me anyway.
I can’t even count the number of times he walked out on me during heated arguments because of the hurtful things I said to him but he continued to love me regardless.

Fast forward to five years later and we were still trying to have our own children. I literally dragged Marvin to the fertility clinic but I refused to be tested myself.
All his tests results came out negative, there seemed to be nothing medically wrong with him but I knew that was a lie. It was probably a spiritual problem.

There’s no way the fault was mine. All my sisters had children, my mother had five children and her mother before her had nine. There was no history of barrenness in my family so I knew the problem had to be from my husband.

I accused him of tying me down in a childless marriage and even taunted him to go out and test his manhood to prove if it was really working. His only response was for me to get tested as well but I vehemently refused. Then I resorted to prayers. I was going from one prayer house to another, then to spiritualists. I was bringing all kinds of concoctions for my husband to drink. He never argued with me. He’d take them so he could have his peace of mind.

We eventually opted for adoption after a while. Well, it was actually my idea and as usual, Marvin agreed with me. The arrival of our baby sort of diffused the tension in our home. She was a ray of sunshine. I diverted all my love and attention to her and I barely had time for my husband. All these years, he couldn’t give me what I wanted, so now that I finally had it, he could run along and do whatever he pleased with himself.

So, my in-laws were celebrating the 20th year remembrance of their late mother and it was going to be a three day event. I couldn’t join them on the first day because my daughter had dance class and the next day she had to make her hair. I had more important things to do with my time than to sit with a bunch of infertile people to celebrate a woman who died 20 years ago.

The event was wrapping up with a thanksgiving service at their family church. It was a Sunday and I had free time, so I decide to grace them with my awesome presence and of course my gorgeous daughter was with me.

The thanksgiving wasn’t done collectively, instead the priest would mention names individually and they would dance out with their family to present their offering.

When the family of Marvin Ikeh was called, I danced out with my daughter and husband but I also noticed a lady dancing towards the altar with three kids. The older children… identical twin boys and their younger sister looked like my husband. The resemblance was uncanny.

I moved close to Marvin and asked who they were and he whispered back, “oh you asked me to go outside and test my manhood and that is the result”. I was shocked. I could not believe my ears. This had to be a sick joke but it wasn’t.
At that moment, my breath seized, I felt like I was drowning and everything around me began to spin. I woke up hours later in the hospital and I was told that my husband had to return to the party but he had been calling for updates about me.

I lay on the hospital bed reflecting about my life and I felt like a big fool. All this while I had accused my husband of being the cause of our childlessness, I called him derogatory names and taunted him.

He never talked back at me, not even once. Even after getting the proof he needed to vindicate himself, he still didn’t flaunt it in my face. My daughter was eight years old and those kids looked older than her. So all along, Marvin knew that the fault was from me yet he continued to love me and never maltreated me and my daughter.

I know that I’ve said a lot of terrible things but I didn’t mean them and I never expected Marvin to take them seriously. I never believed in my wildest imagination that Marvin could cheat on me, and now I’m confronted with the fact that he has another family.

Our marriage has been one big lie. Marvin and I took vows and he didn’t uphold his. He betrayed me by having children outside our marriage. He is a cheat and I liar. As I lay on the hospital bed, I began to think of ways to make him pay for what he did to me.