The Night Before....6 (Concluding Episode)

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Toke opened her eyes on the couch as she came back to the present. Indeed so much can happen in a night. Back to why she came home in the first place. She went to her library and brought out a dusty book from one of the lower drawers. She found a clean rag to dust it and removed the covers to reveal a bible. She went back to the couch and stared at the bible long and hard. It has been ages since she opened it to read. Not certain how to pick up after a long while, she decided to say a prayer first.

“Dear Lord, it has been ages but I know it has not been long with you, for a thousand years is like a day before you. Please teach me to love you again, teach me to forgive and be forgiven, teach me to believe and trust in you again the way Juwon does. Above all, accept me back to you in Jesus name. Amen.”

She felt instantly refreshed and opened her bible, she was blown away with the first verse her eyes read:

“For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life;

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”

Toke was awed at the accuracy of the scriptures. She got more comfortable and continued reading. She was so engrossed she didn’t see Ade come in. He stood at the door wondering what was going on with her. He couldn’t place his finger on it but she seemed calmer than last night and there was a certain glow to her that he could not place. Looking closer he saw she was engrossed in a bible. Toke reading a bible? Wonders! Did she think all of that would change his mind? Shioor! He walked in to shower and change cloths. While changing, he remembered the conversation with his dad at the office when he asked if he had spoken to Toke. He had filled his dad in on details of the night before and had expected his dad to disagree with his conclusion on how he wanted to pay Toke back in her own coin, but his dad had reacted differently.

Calmly the man had told his son: “You are a grown man, we can’t choose or make your decisions for you but we will be praying for you as we have always done.”

His dad response earlier today had puzzled him a bit, then getting home to meet Toke reading the bible was even more unnerving. As he wore his joggers to go out for an evening jog, he received a message on his phone from a foreign number:

“She called today and spoke with Juwon for a long time.

Thank you for allowing God use you to start this process.

I hope you get the joy you deserve.”

-Jane

SIX MONTHS LATER

“Babe, we will be late for antenatal clinic today. Remember Juwon’s flight arrives by 7pm, we still need to get some things and be on ground before the plane touches down.”

Ade looked at the wall clock at the sitting room. He had taken time off today to take Toke to the clinic, since the doctor called to say he would like to see both of them after the last antenatal session. That coupled with the fact that he was going to meet his step-son for the first time. He didn’t want anything to spoil his careful planning for today, not even Toke’s pregnancy beauty routine. She was determined to make an impression on her son but he had told her she was beautiful enough the way she was.

“Coming, Honey; just this last touch.” She looked at her reflection in the mirror.

Who says she doesn’t have anything to be grateful for? Since that fateful night, things had taken a new turn for her for the better. Especially since she found solace again in God’s word. Ade had jilted his plan with the other lady. Toke couldn’t specifically say what happened, but like Juwon would say, it was a miracle. She heard the other lady too hadn’t been comfortable with the arrangements and they had mutually agreed to call off their affair and go their separate ways. Ade forgave her, and she and Juwon led him to Christ. Since then they had been attending a faith and word based church just a little distance from the house. Then two months after, she found out she was pregnant. Indeed she would count her blessings and name them one by one.

“Omotoke oooooo…”

“I’m out, Honey.”

As she walked into the sitting room, Ade took another look at her and smiled. Her bump was noticeable now and he took pure delight seeing her transform just to accommodate their baby growing inside her. He couldn’t thank God enough.

“Shall we, my lady?”

“Yes, we may.”

At the airport, it was a grand reunion amidst tears, hugs, kisses, pats and prayers as Toke and Ade met Juwon and Aunty Janet. As they made for the car park, Toke felt a pair of eyes on her. As she looked around, she didn’t see anyone she knew but she had a feeling she was being watched.

“Are you ok darling?” Ade asked, he had been noticing her looking around.

“I’m fine, just that I have this feeling like someone is staring hard at me.”

“Come on baby, there are hundreds of people here, besides you look hot with the growing bump so I bet that is enough attraction of its own.”

He drew her closer and as they moved towards Juwon, who was busy taking in the scenery, she heard it:

“Toksy?”

The Night Before ...5

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Toke had reached the office that morning with the hopes of talking to her line manager to get some days off in order to sort out her family issues. She needed to prepare herself for the long talk ahead, so she had bought some airtime for her mobile line via Interswitch since the mobile app for her bank account was acting erratic.  She had a good rapport with Mrs. Aderemi and she didn’t suppose it would be a problem since she had never asked for such in all her years of working with the company. Mrs. Aderemi gave her the time off, asking that she filled the form to apply for a casual leave, so that she could sign off on the form for Toke to scan and send to HR for the approval. The older lady however told Toke not to worry, that she would get the form across to HR after signing off on it. Toke felt pure gratitude for the considerate woman under whom she worked. Considering how other women envy and backstab one another especially when you are considered a high-flyer, her line manager was heaven sent to Toke. Mrs. Aderemi had never been intimidated by Toke’s performance, if anything she felt proud managing Toke.

“I don’t want to talk to her,” Toke heard Juwon saying to Aunty Janet in the background.

“But it’s your Mom on the phone, you have always wanted to talk to her, so why don’t you speak with her now? She’s waiting at the other end, Juwon.”

“I said I don’t want to speak with her. She is not my Mom and she has made that clear several times.”

Toke felt her heart break as she heard him struggle with his words amidst what sounded like being close to tears.

“Aunty Janet, please put it on speaker if he doesn’t want to come to the phone,” she said her own voice now shaky.

“Ok, you are on, Toke,”

“Thank you ma. OlaoluwayoriJuwonlo, my love. You have every right to be angry with me, I have not treated you right. I have not been there for you like you wanted and I am so so sorry about that. I want you to know that I never forgot any of your birthdays. I always looked forward to Aunty Janet’s posts of you on her Facebook wall just to catch a glimpse of how taller and stronger you look, or just anything different from previous photos. I know you wore a blue baseball outfit on your last birthday, while you took a picture with your team holding your birthday cake. I saw pictures from your award ceremony and I couldn’t help noticing the longing look on your face. I know you wished I was there but I wasn’t. I know you have wished for a lot as regards me that didn’t come to pass. That is why I want to make it up to you. For the past 14 years of your existence, I have never forgotten what it felt like to have you in my womb, kicking and moving around. I know you hoped to come out into a world of love but I didn’t give you that. I am sorry Juwon. Forgive me for wanting to start something I neglected long ago. Forgive me for not being there when you needed me. Forgive me for telling you that I don’t want you to be a part of my new life when you are explicitly a part of my life. I have few regrets Juwon, and one of them, a really strong one, is having you far away from me. Please forgive me Juwon. I love you, I always have and will always do. I got carried away by the bitterness I felt for what your father did to me and I mistakenly transferred it to you. I am not asking you to forgive me right away, but please give it a long consideration. I love you Juwon, I …..”

The Night Before.... 4

Ade felt Toke’s hands on his trousers, he looked down at her to see tears flowing freely down her face. She looked like she had lost something or someone.
“Ademi, please forgive me. You know I won’t intentionally hide something like that from you if I knew it was of significant importance…”
“You call having a child and not telling me insignificant? Are you so mean that you hate the one you have? By the way, when was the last time you spoke to him or your Aunty?”
“Six years ago when my aunty called to say Juwon was asking to know his mum, and I told both of them never to regard me as his mum again because I have started a new life and I don’t want him in it.” She cringed now even as the words left her. Am I really this wicked? she thought to herself and almost missed Ade’s next words.
“Well, I told Nina to put pressure on you to open up to me but since you adamantly refused to say anything, I decided I was going to pay you back in your own coin.”
She looked momentarily confused. “What, how do you mean, Ademi?”
He glared back at her, and it slowly came to her.

“Whaaaaaaaaat? You have a child too?! How? When? Where?”
Ade looked at her scornfully, “Oh so you know how it feels to have a child hidden somewhere without the other partner knowing, right? Anyway, as I was saying, I had Nina promise me that she won’t tell you I know since you didn’t want her to let me know too. But I had gotten in touch with your Aunty and Juwon.”
She waited a while as she processed that. Then: “Nooooo, that can’t be possible, how did you get their contact?”
“I got it from your diary. I checked your phone but didn’t see it, so I thought to check your diary since you also had some contacts penned down on it. I tried a couple of numbers you labelled Aunty, before I eventually got the right one. She was quite surprised to hear from me, especially since you didn’t tell her about our wedding, and I explained the whole situation to her. She opened up after series of conversations with her and corroborated Nina’s story. I never knew I could shed tears till I spoke with Juwon. Why do you hate that innocent boy so much? He is intelligent, smart and witty, just like you. Do you know he has been leading his class and he got an award for excellence with a scholarship to take him through high school? How can a mother forget her own son and turn her back on him, especially when he needs her the most? So I sought some counsel and I came to the conclusion that I was also going to attempt to impregnate another woman until I decide what to do with you.”
“Haaaaaaaaaa, Ademi! Please pinch me and tell me I’m not dreaming? Don’t do this to me Ademi. Ok, Ok, I promise, I will accept Juwon back, I will love him again as my son that he is, I will do my duties as a mother, I will…”

The Night Before... 3

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Nina, do you need me to repeat the question? ”
“I heard you loud and clear Ade. I’m just trying to be careful with my next words. Does Toke know you know?"
“I assume that means that the news I heard is true. ” Ade felt a sharp pain pierce through him as his heart started beating fast.
“It was a very unfortunate incident because Toke was naïve at the time and Yele took full advantage of her. OMOYELE AGORO, hmnnn! We all went to the same JAMB Tutorial Centre back then in Ibadan. He was a very rich kid, richer than the average rich kid and he had most ladies eating out of his hands” she smiled as she remembered how Yele used to be the talk of the Centre then, especially when his dad’s driver dropped him off in different flashy cars. 
“Toke never liked Yele because she felt he was using his dad’s privilege to get things easily, but Yele took an interest in her because she was brilliant and didn’t seem swayed by his show of wealth. One day, we were given an assignment and nobody, not even I could get the answer. We were not bothered because we felt our teacher would work it out when he realized no one had the answer to the question, but Toke won’t settle for that. She went out of her way to meet another sister of ours in the area who was in the university at the time by name Beatrice and she helped us out. So when the teacher asked who did the assignment and no one else did but Toke and I, Yele was very impressed and tried to get to know us better, especially Toke because she called his bluff when he initially tried to talk to us. Long story cut short, Yele pestered Toke until she eventually gave in and thus began their friendship which blossomed into a relationship”

All the while Nina had been talking, Ade had been trying to put her words into pictures in his head. He could imagine his Omotoke calling Yele’s bluff because the scenario looked similar to how they met. He had also met her at a friend’s baby dedication. He was attracted to her immediately he saw her helping out with the serving, his friend’s wife was her colleague at her former workplace. He smiled as he remembered how he had tried to get her attention but she had given him a cold shoulder all through the party. He later found out that he had not been the only one trying to get her attention at the party, and she was at her wit’s end as at the time he came to her also, hence the cold shoulder treatment. He got back from his reverie to hear Nina say;
“…and that’s when she got pregnant”
“Repeat that please Nina”

The Night Before.....2

"Toke, are you listening to me? He looked at her, wondering why she was frowning. She looked like she had seen a ghost, was it the news or was it something else? 
“Yeeeesss” she stuttered, “I’m all ears” even though she was sure she couldn’t hear any other thing except SECRET and 2 years!
He cleared his throat as he brought her back to the reality of their situation. “It started after our 6th wedding anniversary and Joe (his bosom friend) told me he stumbled on some facts about you. One of his friends had organized a bachelor party and he went there with another friend. In the course of the merriment and drinks, his friend introduced him to another friend Yele, who came to town trying to locate his former girlfriend”

Toke paused at the sound of the name “Yele” why did that sound so vaguely familiar?
Ade continued “Intrigued by Yele’s search for a long lost lover, Joe moved close to Yele in the bid to mockingly ask him questions about this lover he came to town for and then he mentioned her name and even showed Joe her picture. According to Joe, he felt like someone had knocked the life out of him when he saw the picture of the lady in question. He asked Yele why he sought this particular lady when he could have any other lady in the world and Yele told him that they had a child together. He also narrated how he had maltreated her when she was pregnant for him but now he regrets his decision and wants her and the child back”
At this point, Toke had started sweating, the room suddenly seemed too small.
“After the party, Joe called me and said we needed to talk, I wondered what the hurry to talk was about till we eventually met and he told me the story. I couldn’t understand why the story was important to me until he told me the identity of the lady, at first I didn’t believe him but he had wittingly snapped the picture Yele had on his phone to further convince me” 

The Night Before..... 1

Toke entered her house tired, as she dragged herself to the couch, she made a mental note to change the air purifier as a stale smell drifted to her nose. Dropping her bag on the plush rug, she reclined into the couch and closed her eyes for some minutes, who would have thought that she would feel elated this morning after all that happened the night before...Hmnn, the night before she sighed as the memories came back to her fresh.

At 9pm, she sat to listen to the evening news as she waited for Ade, her husband to come back from work. She had taken her time at the shower after returning from the office, because she had some things running through her mind. Ade had called her earlier at the office, to tell her that there was something urgent and important the needed to discuss once he came home. He had refused to go into details but promised her he would be home early. As the water flowed down her body from the shower, so many thoughts ran through her mind. What was so important that he wanted to discuss? Did he get a promotion at work? Well, he would have just said it and they would make plans to hang out for the night to celebrate...no! it couldn't be that, then what? Ok, maybe it was a health issue, he had gone for a check up during the week, maybe the result was out and there was some bad news from it. Maybe he had a.....No,no, no! Toke waved the thoughts away and ignored her racing heart. "I'll just wait till he comes, I can't come and kill myself before my time" she said as she stepped out of the shower in her bath robe, moving towards the quiet room to pick something comfortable to wear before she headed to the kitchen.