Agony of marriage episode 4
AGONY OF MARRIAGE
EPISODE 4
.
.
.
Two weeks later, my in-laws c@m£ to spend the Easter period
with us. My husband’s younger brother and his younger sister
c@m£ to the house and I was almost relieved that at least
with the pres£nce of his siblings, he would minimize his ill treatment towards me and hopefully his chronic philandering.
One morning, I was cleaning the sitting room with a we-t rag
when the brother whom I was just a year older than c@m£ in
carrying a pile of clothes in his arms.
“Victoria.” He called me and I paused my work to look at him.
“Yes?”
“When you are done, I want you to wash these clothes.” He
dropped them on the floor.
I stared at him in disbelief. “What happened to your hands?”
He frowned. “What kind of question is that?”
“Last time I checked, you are not handicapped, which means
that you are well enough to do your own laundry.”
“And why would I be in my brother’s house and still wash my
own clothes?” He asked.
“Why should I wash your clothes when there’s also a washing
machine for you to use?”
“I don’t want the washing machine, it doesn’t wash my clothesb clean.”
“Then simply use your hands. If you cannot do that, go and
call your girlfriend to do it for you. I’m not your maid.”
His eyes narrowed in anger now. “The very day you married
into this family was the very day we owned you. I’m your in-law and a man for that matter and you owe it to me to treat
me the same way you treat my brother.”
I scoffed and then cl@pped my hands in disbelief. “If you areso desperate to be treated like your brother, why not go and
get married. After all, your mates out there are alre-ady taking up their own responsibilities instead of feeding off their brothers.”
All of a sudden, he advanced towards me and struck me on
the face with his hand. Stunned, the rag dropped from my hand as my hands flew to my face. “You sl@pped me?!” I
asked in shock.
“Yes and you’ll get a severe beating if by the time I return and my clothes are still unwashed. You gold digger! I wonder whynmy brother is still putting up with you? You are clas-sless! You
should be happy that we even accepted you into our family,
you wretched-s–t!”
I was about to retort when my husband c@m£ down the
stairs and soon his younger sister who must have heard us,
appeared from her room too. “What’s going on here?” My
husband asked.
My hand was still on my face as I stared at him with tears-
filled eyes. “You brother sl@pped me.” I told him.
He turned to his brother. “Kenny, is that true?”
His brother quic-kly explained to him and told him that not
only had o refused to obey him, I had also insulted him. My husband simply pu-ll-ed my hand away from my face and
scrutinized my cheek. “It’s not that serious. He didn’t leave a mark.”
I gaped at him in shock. “Your brother just sl@pped me and
this is all you have to say?”
“What do you want me to say? Do you want me to s£nd him
away from my house all because of a harmless sl@p? Is that
what you want, to cause a rift in my family? Listen Victoria, before I ever married you, I had my brother and there’s no way on Earth that I’ll do anything negative to him all because of you. You are at fault here. How would you refuse to wash his clothes? What kind of wife are you? Just clothes and you are
proving so stubborn
” Turning to his brother, he said, “And
Kenny, you can’t just do things like this. I un-derstand that she
can be very stubborn and unnerving but next time you want to
sl@p her or l@yyour hands on her, seek my permission first!”
Then he dismissed his brother and simply turned and walked
out of the house without another word to me while my eyes
followed him in speechless shock. I knew he was going out
and soon I heard his car leave the compound.
When both men were gone, I stood there numb and the sister sympathetically approached me, took my hand and led me to the couch where she made us sit and the first question she asked was, “Why are you still here?”
I gave her a confused look. “What do you mean?”
“Despite how my brother treats you, you are still choose to
remain here, why?”
I sighed. “I’ve no where to go.” I mumbled.
“What do you mean by you have no where to go? Can’t you gather enough money and get out of this city? Fine, I know that he’s my brother and I have tried talking to him several times but even me cannot tolerate this nons-en-se that you are taking from him from any man. He doesn’t love you, he doesn’t treat you right, he cheats on you and doesn’t even care to hide it, he beats you up at the slightest provocation and yet, you’re still here, do you want to go to an early grave?!
Can’t you grab any cash and disappear?!
“I don’t have any money of mine. Your brother did not let me
have a bank account of my own. He gives me only cash and
for only specific reasons such as hairdo, clothes and
groceries, besides that, he doesn’t give me any other money.”
“And you can’t save the least you can savage from such
money he still gives you?! You are a graduate for Christ’s sake
and yet you have refused to go take up a job all because my
brother asked you to be a housewife and promised to give you
a certain amount of money monthly, now where is that money?”
“He s£nds it to my parents monthly.” I answered.
She was taken aback. “What! Why would he do that?”
“It was my father’s idea. He claimed that the family nee-ds the
money more than I do since I’m alre-ady being taken care of
by your brother.”
She heaved a sigh again that was of despair. “All these
happening to you is the fault of your parents. And honestly, if I
were in your shoes, I wouldn’t even have agreed to get
married to my brother in the first place just to plea-se my
parents. I wouldn’t jeopardize my future for any b©dy, not
even my family. Look, they are over there enjoying everything,
while you are being treated worse than a slave here all
because your parents chose to sell you for their own selfish
interest! You had better find a way out of this stupid mess you
have found yourself!” She finished and rose to her feet.
Read – Agony of marriage episode 1 – 2
She walked to the sp©t her brother had dropped the clothes,
packed them in her arms and said, “as for these stupid boy’s
clothes, they are going into the washing machine. You are not
his slave!” With this, she started to walk away then paused..
“Victoria, a word of advice from a sister to a sister, anytime
you find anyone who can make you happy or treat you better
than my brother, go for it, you have my full backing. It’s better
to be with a poor man and be happy than with a rich man who
never fails to remind you that he picked you from the gutters!”
Then she walked away.
A month’s later, on a Friday night, after my in-laws had left
three weeks earlier, my husband called me from the office and
asked me to dress up that we were going out for an outing. I
was surprised. He specifically instructed me to wear
something S-xy and that was just what I did. He c@m£ home
at 9:30 p.m. that night and honked outside the house and I
had to go out to join him in the car. When he saw how I
looked, he nodded in satisfaction and drove off.
We soon reached the the place and the way he was hailed by
the bouncer and some of the men inside the place made me
know that he was regular in that place. The men all gave me
curious glances as we walked past them. My husband took me
to a couch facing the dancefloor and the bar and asked me to sit down then he summoned a waiter to get us a bottle of wine.
The place felt choky and too crowded with people. A lot
of people were dancing on the dancefloor and the music was
almost deafening. The different smell of sweat and perfumes
had mixed up in the atmosphere to form something that would
have made me light headed and faint.
I saw a lot of girls in s£dûçt!veand revea-ling clothes. Some
clothes were too ti-ght or were almost nothing. s-en-sitive
p@rts of the b©dy could be seen throu-gh some transparent
t©ps and showing off of ñ@v£ls was the reigning thing. I tried
to be comfortable as I watched girls dancing s£dûçt!velyin
front of their male p@rtners. My husband lit a cigarette and
began to smoke and I stared at him in shock because I had
never seen him smoke before.
He pretended not to notice my
expression and simply focused on the dance floor. I realized
that his eyes were fixed on three girls who had come alone
without p@rtners and were dancing on the dance floor in
order to get the attention of the men.
After watching them for a while, he got up, leaned down and
whispered in my ear, informing me not to leave my sp©t then
he approached the girls. He focused on the chubby one who
was very bu-sty and began to talk to her by speaking into her
ear due to the loud music. Soon, he was busy dancing with
her and running his hands all around her b©dy. I swallowed
ha-rd and tried to look for something else to get my attention
off him. I sat alone for the next fifteen minutes, trying to
entertain myself by watching all that was going on around me
and that was when my gaze locked with his.
He was seated at one corner of that place and he held a bottle
of wine between his index f!nger and middle f!nger. The way
he stared at me made my stomach fl!pand I have never felt
such a feeling in my gut for a very long time, not even for my
husband. I nervously broke our gaze and tried to look away but
I found myself sneaking glances his way and sometimes someone would dance into view and severe my sight of him
for a moment. When the person danced off my path of direct
view again, I realized that he was still staring at me. I had
never seen him before and I didn’t know who he was but there
was something captivating about the way he stared at me as if
he could see right into my soul.
I bec@m£ very conscious of my looks just then and was
concerned about if I looked decent enough or like most of the
other girls in the club. I was trying to pu-ll the hem of my go-
wn down towards my knees when I saw him rise from his
stool, his eyes never leaving me. My heart began to race now
as I saw him move towards my direction, gently maneuvering
his way throu-gh the dance floor with his eyes still fixed on me
as if I was a prey and if he dared blink, that I would disappear.
My che-st swelled with both dre-ad and anticipation.
I placed my left hand on my knee so that my wedding ring was
in view, hoping that he would notice it from afar and turn back
but he didn’t. I doubted he even saw the ring since he
wouldn’t st©p staring at me right in the eye. I glanced around
for my husband and discovered that he was gone with the girl.
Only her two friends remained on the dancefloor and I
speculated that he had probably taken her to the corner for a
quic-kie. As the stranger drew nearer, I thought of rising and
quic-kly dashing out of the club but somehow, a p@rt of me
refused to let my feet move so I remained put till he finally
emerged from the dancefloor and I could see a clearer picture
of his features now
..
.
.
.
To Be Continued
Please like and comment 🙏