I was expecting MD to be a little angry with me but I wasn’t expecting he would be this angry. His eyes were burning with rage and I could see he was barely trying to suppress his anger. But yet, I wasn’t ready to crumble before him just like that, I had to put up a fight myself and it had better be a good one.
“MD, are you here to fight me or what? Are you here to finish the humiliation you and your wife gave me back in your house? Is that what this visit is about?” I formed my own anger for him. And from the way I raised my voice, I could tell from the look on his face that he was taken aback by my reaction.
“Oh, so you are now claiming you were humiliated, right? You are now playing the victim, right?” he shot back at me, gazing deep into my eyes. I did not look away, I met his gaze and very firmly too.
“Who humiliated who?” he’d continued, his voice rising. “Do you know the humiliation you caused me, making look stupid before my wife? Do you have any idea the kind of pain you have caused my wife? She has been weeping since yesterday!”
I shook my head angrily. “And you expect me to believe that a woman that treated me the way she did in your house is now emotionally broken so much so that she’s been crying since yesterday? Oh, please, MD, spare me!”
“Shut up, Anita, shut up your mouth for a moment!” MD barked at me. “It’s not just my house, it’s her house as well! As a matter of fact, it is more her house than mine!” MD continued. “So, tell me, how would you feel if another woman came here to meet you in your house and speak to you the way you spoke to my wife, how would you feel?”
“What do you mean; it’s more her house than yours? Does that house not belong to my son too at the very least? Are you not the man of the house anymore? Why should she have a problem with the mother of your only child coming to spend some time in the house with your son?”
MD sat down furiously. “Anita, you don’t get it, do you? Or, is it that you simply don’t want to be reasonable here?” he shot at me. “You think everything must be about you and my son, right? You think that my wife should concede to you her position in my life, in my home just because you have got me a son? Is that how things work? Is that how life should be?”
He sighed heavily and with a wry smile on his face, he said to me, “I think I must tell you a bit about myself today that you didn’t know, it’s a story I have hidden from you. I think it’s time you know the reason why no woman, I repeat, no woman, can take the place of my wife!”
I was shocked beyond words. What was this man talking about? What secret was he hiding from me? This whole drama that I initiated was starting to look really scary.
“Listen to me and listen to me very well,” MD’s voice rang into my ears. “You see this man standing before you right now, I was never this rich. In fact, I was as poor as a church rat. I was a nobody. I had absolutely nothing to my name until I met my wife. I was jobless. She was from a rich family. Despite that I was below her status, she fell in love with me and cared for me with all her heart. I wanted her to be my wife but I had no job. So, I had job hunting and got a job as an office clerk, just so that her family would know I at least have a job and allow her marry me. But her father did not approve of us getting married. First, because I was the son of a nobody and I had not a dime to my name. Second was the fact that we didn’t come from the same town. It was a big problem for Elizabeth and I. Her father threatened to disown her if she didn’t forget about me and look for a better suitor but she would not let go of me.”
He continued, his voice laden with emotion. “Till today, I have never seen a woman love a man like my wife loves me. Do you know that she was ready to be disowned by her father and be cut off from his will just because of me? She moved out of her father’s mansion and moved in with me! We started living as man and wife. Thrice she got pregnant for me and each time the pregnancy came down. The last one was very serious. I almost lost her. She was only a whisker away from death. I lost my job at some point, yet my wife stuck with me in our one room apartment. Not even for one day did she think of returning to her father’s mansion. About three years after she left her father’s house and moved in with me, the father sent for both of us to come and see him. When we got there, he told me that the only reason he didn’t get me arrested for keeping his daughter in my house without his consent was because of the love he had for her. He said, now that he had seen we truly love each other, living in one room apartment together for three years without any measure of comfort, he was ready to help us.
He asked me to take over one of his companies as MD while my wife worked with me as co-MD. And from that moment, our lives took a turn for the better. Everything changed for us. Everything I am today, everything I own, my wife gets the credit. If not for her, I probably would still be struggling with life right now and someone like you would not even find me attractive enough to date me much less bear me a child. The only thing that’s missing in our home, in our marriage, is a child. And I have accepted that as my fate. God decided not to give both of us everything. But, for me, it changes nothing. The love I have for my wife remains unshakable whether she bears me a child or not. I am appreciative that God has given me a child through you but that does not mean I would now let you trample on her like she was a piece of garbage? No way! Now, let me ask you, if you were in my wife’s shoes, how would you feel if a woman came into your house to fight you and threaten you like you did to her? Answer me, Anita, would you ever forgive me if I did that to you? Would that be fair on you? Answer me, Anita!!”
…To Be Continued
