I looked at his wife from the corner of my eyes. She looked so old and unhappy. I had obviously cut her down to size.
But MD truly touched a chord in me when he said she accepted me from day one. That was true. I won’t deny that fact. But what happened now? Why the sudden change of attitude? Could she be confirming what Aunty Meg said to me? Is she trying to let me know neither me nor my son have no right to own anything in that house? Or could it be that she also owns a large chunk of all that belongs to MD? So many questions, so little answers…
Okay, MD, I must admit you have a point,” I began, looking straight into his eyes. “Yes, Aunty Elizabeth accepted me from day one and I never took that for granted. I really appreciated that about her, which is why I warmed up to her and took her like my big aunty. We have got on ever since then, haven’t we? So, I am just as surprised as you are with the attitude she gave me since the very moment I stepped foot inside the house today,”
I turned to Aunty Elizabeth. There was a scowl on her face. She wanted to say something but MD motioned to her to hold her peace and let me finish with a raise of his hand. That was quite some relief. For a moment, I was starting to think he was a man who had no balls whenever he was in his wife’s presence.
“Aunty Lizzy, I am sorry I acted the way I did, you know I have never been this rude to you,” I said to her. She was obviously shocked at first when she heard me apologise to her. But she quickly comported herself and acted as though she was still very upset with me.
“I know how you took me as your younger sister at first,” I’d continued. “You welcomed me into the family with open arms and took my son as yours. I was happy and thankful that you accepted me as part of the family. But your attitude to day is what I couldn’t understand. You just became cold and hostile the moment my son and I stepped inside this house. But, for whatever it is worth, I apologise for the way I reacted.”
There was silence. Aunty Lizzy remained unmoved, she just sat there with her arms folded across her chest. She was not saying anything. MD turned to her. “You heard the young lady, she has apologised to you. You have to say something,” he urged her to speak.
“Look, I don’t know what you want me to say,” she’d snapped at her husband, her eyes laced with anger. “She came into my house, insulted me, and was even ready to beat me up….”
“But she just apologised to you, my dear…she just told you she is sorry.. ” MD interjected, trying to get her pacified.
‘Okay, so now, you say she has apologised to me, am I supposed to get up and start dancing because your favourite bride has apologised to me?” And right in front of MD, she hissed very loudly, muttered the word, ‘Rubbish,’ and stormed out of the room!
MD glared at her as she stormed out of the room. “Elizabeth! Elizabeth!” he called her but she ignored him, not even looking back for a moment to acknowledge him.
I could tell MD was pained that she could disrespect him the way she did, storming out from his presence and worse still she could not even show him some respect when she called her to return to the room.
He turned to me. “Why is she behaving like this? What has come over her?”
I shook my head slowly, mildly shocked by her action. “Is she always like this?” I asked quietly, genuinely surprised she acted the way she did.
“No, not really, I am surprised myself,” he answered. Then, he gazed at me for a few seconds and then said, “I think you also deliberately got under her skin and I must tell you that I don’t like that one bit,” he said almost in whispers in a cold, firm voice. Then, he got up and went inside to meet his wife.
I got under her skin? Of course, I did. She got undermine first. There was no way she would behave the way she did towards me and I will let her get away with it. She couldn’t just treat me whichever she wanted because I was in her home. It was also my home because the father of my child owned it.
Few minutes after, MD emerged without his dear wife. His face was expressionless. I couldn’t tell from the look on his face what had transpired. But it didn’t look good either. And I wondered if this was how they both lived together, with Aunty Lizzy always getting upset and storming out of the room and MD always going after her to beg her.
MD sat down in the chair opposite me without saying a word. He looked pensive. He looked like a man with a heavy burden on his mind. He had something to say, I waited patiently for him to say what he had to say.
“Anita, it’s so unfortunate that things took off badly between you and Lizzy,” he’d begun, looking slightly away from my gaze. “I didn’t expect things to turn out this way, especially with the fact that both of you had got along fine together before now.” He cleared his throat and continued. “Elizabeth is not happy at the moment, she is heartbroken…I will need you and Junior to leave in the morning!”
…To Be Continued
