Three Generations episode 19

THREE GENERATIONS

WRITTEN BY: OGECHI ALABI

CHAPTER 19

Obi came back for when he was summoned. All the family members were present including Chinyere and her family members. Obi was adamant on marrying Isabella.

“She hasn’t come to dethrone Chinyere, she doesn’t mind being a second wife. She hasn’t asked me to divorce Chinyere, I should just marry her too. Why can’t Chinyere accept her and allow peace to reign? She called me an irresponsible husband and now I have made sure our children are well taken care of, she wants to fight my source of good fortune”

Papa Anozie shook his head as he said, “I never thought we would gather here over you, Obi. You are supposed to be the first son but you are acting so irresponsibly. You are a kept man and you are happy to be one. Who does that? How can you live off a woman? How can you be proud to do that?”

“I am not living off her. I work for her. She is a nice woman; she takes care of my responsibilities while I work for her. What is wrong with that? Instead of squandering what I make on drinks and pepper soup, she ensures my children have food to eat, they go to school, have clothes to wear etc. This is a woman that has decided to make me responsible. Why are you angry with her, is it because of what Chinyere said?”

Chinyere answered angrily, “I did all these things she is doing for you and more. I was the breadwinner of the family for years after you had wasted our resources on frivolities. There is nothing special she has done. My problem is that I can’t be in the same marriage with that woman, sharing the same man with her. Have you seen her? No way. Obi should leave her and come back home”

“You want to compare yourself with Isabella? How much have you ever given me? Did your brother buy a house for us to live in? I live in a mansion and I am treated like a king. Did you treat me like a king? Were you not always nagging me? You disrespect me even in the presence of family members to the extent Marcus had to point it out. Isabella has never disrespected me. It is because of her my children are happy when I come around because all their needs are met. I am marrying her and that is final. Nobody can stop me. If you talk too much we will do court marriage only”

“Obi never ceases to disappoint me. Because a lady is wealthy is enough reason for you to marry her?” Papa Anozie asked.

Ada answered, “Papa, Obi is not a child. If he has decided to marry this lady, why should we stop him? Chinyere had her chance but used it to fight Nwakaego. Now, she has lost out. Have you observed that all those that fight Nwakaego have serious problems? Chinyere hasn’t apologized to Nwakaego about what happened and now she has lost her husband. Uloma is in Lagos while her enemy is taking care of her child. She cannot dare to come near Nwakaego otherwise Onyedika will tear her to pieces. I believe Onyedika has been the wise one here. He knew what we didn’t know about Nwakaego and see how much progress he has made. I will also worsh¡p the ground she walks on so favour will follow me. As per Obi, Chinyere, the ball is in your court. If you can’t continue to marry Obi because he wants to marry someone else, then tell your family to return the dowry. If you will continue, accept your co-wife and live in peace with her” These words caused arguments.

Onyedika didn’t say a word. He was thinking about his life. He actually wanted to divorce Uloma but Nwakaego had stopped him many times. Why wasn’t she stopping Obi? She was aware of what was happening, why didn’t she talk to Obi not to try it? He knew Obi didn’t know what he was getting himself into. He had investigated the Isabella and knew enough about her and her illicit trade. She used businesses to cover up her main source of income. It was not his duty to tell Obi anything because Obi was a lost cause. All he saw was the money and shamelessly followed it.

Nwakaego had taken very good care of Chigozie. He heard it on good authority that Uloma had been visiting him a weekend a month without his permission but he pretended he didn’t know. Nwakaego didn’t want to separate a mother from son. It was almost a year and he hadn’t set his eyes on Uloma since then. He loved her before he married her. The drastic change only showed her true colours. He knew, just like Adanne said, Uloma hadn’t apologized to Nwakaego for what she did. He needed to shake the table a bit so Uloma would know what she was losing. He needed to threaten her. He could see how panicked Chinyere was. He knew Uloma will feel worse pain. He put his plan in motion.

That year had been a good year for Nwakaego and Nwanneka. Nwanneka had gained admission into the Rivers State University of Technology to study Marine Engineering. She was doing very well and made her mother proud. This was compensation for the rumours and attacks from Nwakaego’s people.

They wanted to know who the father of Nwanneka’s child was. When they couldn’t get any information, they asked her to cleanse the land. They said the only reason they would hide the father of the child was that he was a relative. This was true but Nwakaego insisted it wasn’t a relative. To make them happy, her daughter would go through the cleansing exercise as long as she will not be made to walk unclad in the village square. There was a lot of back and forth and then finally, they agreed.

Nwakaego convinced Nwanneka to do the ritual. She told her this will help mitigate against any negative reaction expected from her actions. She assured her she will be fine and warned her never to disclose who the father of her child is. If she does, she will have to perform the full rites and there was nothing she could do about it. Girls have committed suicide after performing some of those rites because of the shame associated with it. Nwanneka promised she would never disclose.

Later that night, before her rites were to take place, Chidi came to see Nwanneka. He asked her why she disappeared the way she did. She didn’t answer him. She knew why he was there; his conscience was pricking him.

“Nwanneka, please, tell me the truth, am I the father of your child? I need to know.”

“You are not. We did it just once and I didn’t like it. I did it with someone I liked and enjoyed it. He got me pregnant. It was a fling so I didn’t know him well. It has nothing to do with you”

“I told you not to give your body to anyone without my permission and you did. This is the repercussion.”

“It was wrong of you to take advantage of me. What we did was against our tradition. You being the older person should have known better. Should I tell my mother you raped me so you can perform the cleansing rite and let me be? I’ve told you, you are not the father, but if you want to be, feel free to tell the elders and my mother what you did”

“I can’t believe you are talking to me like this. I thought we were friends. What happened to change you? You are so bold and disrespectful”

“What happened to me? You introduced me to a world I was too young to be a part of and suffered the repercussion. Was I supposed to be having s€× at that age? I ran to you for respite because of insults and the negative attention I was getting from men. What did you do? You took advantage of me. You deflowered me. Why should I respect the cause of my woe? Do you deserve respect? Bia Chidi hapu m. You have not added any value to me but took away from me. I wouldn’t want my mother to hear this conversation. Bye-bye”

“Nwanneka, it is I, Chidi, you are talking to”

“Maybe I should call my mother” Chidi quickly took off.

It was obvious to Chidi Nwanneka was bitter about her pregnancy and delivery. Why she was angry at him was baffling. From her explanation, he wasn’t the father of her daughter, so why was she still angry? Why was he to blame for the mistake? He had a bad feeling about this. There was something not right but he couldn’t pinpoint what it was. He had looked at the child Nwanneka bore and she looked nothing like him. He believed her.

Nwanneka performed the rituals without any grudge or display of annoyance. She knew she had to fulfil this tradition so she could be at peace. It was still a shameful procedure to go through but she coped because her mother was right by her side urging her on.

The villagers expected her to hide her face in shame for what happened, rather, she carried her shoulders even higher than before and bragged about her admission to study a course many have never heard about. She was committed at doing well academically and she started on the right foot from day one.

Nwakaego was invited home for the Christmas holiday. She didn’t want to attend but she had no choice this time as the invitation was from Obi. She came back home with the family. Onyedika was expected home at that period. Nwakaego had gotten a young nanny to cater to Chigozie. It will be easy to transit him to his father with the help of the nanny.

Uloma had asked if she could have Chigozie for the holiday but Nwakaego advised her to rather have the discussion with Onyedika. Even though she allowed her to see her son as often as she desired without Onyedika’s permission, she couldn’t release him to her. She would need to pick him up from Onyedika herself.

Uloma had never apologized to Nwakaego for all the troubles she caused her. She still had airs when she came to visit her son. She never brought him anything. Chinyere told mama Anozie that Uloma said, since Nwakaego wants to waste her money on a child who isn’t hers, she should go ahead. She never appreciated what Nwakaego had done for her child so far. Nwakaego was patient, Nwanneka wasn’t.

They had a heated argument during one of Uloma’s latest visits. Uloma was complaining about something concerning her son. It had become a habit for her to have a complaint on each of her visits. Nwakaego wasn’t home so she raised her voice in the complaint. Nwanneka came downstairs to find out what was going on. She asked Uloma, Uloma ignored her. Then she asked the nanny. The nanny explained to her what happened. It was a very minor issue but Uloma must make a mountain out of a molehill. Nwanneka told the girl to take Chigozie upstairs to his room. If Uloma had complaints, she should take them to his father.

“What nonsense? What insult? She should take my child away? Who are you to stop me from seeing my child?”

“Did anybody speak to me?” Nwanneka asked nobody in particular.

“Are you making a caricature of me? It is not your fault if you were well brought up, would you have spoken to me like that? Focus on your fatherless daughter and leave my son alone.”

“Which son? Son, you have to sneak to our house without the knowledge of the father to see. You came to my house; we are actually doing you a favour. You can’t overstep your boundary with us. My mother might ignore but I won’t tolerate your rudeness. Any day you come here and show any form of disregard, I will throw you out and stop the security from letting you in. Go to uncle Onyedika for permission to see your child if you won’t show us respect”

Uloma was silent as she watched the nanny take the child away. She knew she didn’t handle this well. Nwanneka wasn’t her mother who would take her insults with smiles. Nwanneka had cut her to size. She didn’t want to lose contact with her child. She wanted to redeploy to Rivers state so she could be closer to Chigozie but this loudmouthed Nwanneka was going to be a stumbling block.

She knew she had to humble herself and behave well to get what she wanted. She apologized for her earlier behaviour and asked if she could spend time with Chigozie. Nwanneka looked at her from head to toe and walked away. She sent the nanny downstairs to allow Chigozie to visit with her.

Nwakaego came back while she was still home. They exchanged greetings and she went up to change. Chigozie was crying to go upstairs with Nwakaego which broke Uloma’s heart. Nwakaego carried him briefly and left him with his mother before going upstairs again.

When Uloma was leaving, Nwanneka came downstairs to meet her. She asked, “Have you thanked my mother for allowing you to visit with Chigozie?”

Uloma was shocked. She had never done that before. Why was Nwanneka getting involved in their matter? What concerned this child?

“If you refuse to, you will not be allowed in,side this house again. If I am told you didn’t thank my mother for allowing you to see your child without permission from his father any other day you come to visit, that will be your last visit. Kufre, go and tell mummy mama Chigozie wants to see her.”

Nwakaego came down the stairs tying a wrapper on her dress with a worried expression. Uloma looked at her and said to her, “Thank you for allowing me to see Chigozie. You are doing a good job with him”

Nwakaego couldn’t believe her ears. Tears flowed from her eyes as she mumbled the thank you. She never expected any gratitude from Uloma and hearing this made her very happy.

Uloma was surprised at the tears. So, Nwakaego wasn’t aware of Nwanneka’s antics. Well, she will be sure to tell her and warn her about her daughter. She was going to set a trap for Nwanneka and she will definitely fall into it.

Tbc