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” 



He turned to her now to see her squirming uncomfortably on the couch. 
“Omotoke, I couldn’t mistake the face of the lady in that picture even if all I was knocked out cold. It was undeniably a younger version of you. Why did you hide that part of your life from me, Omotoke? How could you even think to do such a thing? I thought we agreed not to have any secret between us, so how could you have hidden it so perfectly and even now that we are 8 years into the marriage, I’ve waited each day hoping that it would be the day you would tell me, knowing that we have not had any child for 8 years now”
He moved to the far end of the sitting room as he remembered that exact evening he had seen Joe. He had wanted to confront her immediately but he had to get his facts right. What if she denied? Should he try to locate the Yele guy? Nooooo! That will be going too far, he didn’t want another person coming to share his woman. His woman? Would his woman keep such a big secret from him for 6 good years without as much as a hint? Where was the baby sef? How can toke hide a whole child from him? Where could she have put him/her? He went home that night so depressed but he decided what he must do. 

Omotoke was an orphan but she had a childhood friend, Nina. Maybe Nina could help, God help him if this story was true. He sent a prayer up to heaven, something he had not done in a while.
He called Nina when he got to work this next morning and fixed an appointment with her for later that week, although he would have wanted to see her immediately, but she was out of town and he knew it wasn’t a phone matter, he wanted to see her expression when he asked her, that way he would know if she attempted to lie to him.
“I got here as soon as I dropped off my bags at home, hope all is well? What of my friend? How is she doing? Nina queried as she sat on the chair next to Ade at the restaurant they had agreed to meet. The way Ade was looking, she could swear something was wrong.
“Your friend is fine, she travelled for a training she was nominated for at her office in South Africa. She will be due back in 2 weeks, she’s been gone for 2 weeks already”
“Wow, a whole month? These people should let my friend rest o! So how have you been coping in her absence?
“Well, I was doing just fine until I heard a news over the weekend, which brings me to why we are here. Nina, you are the only friend I know with Toke whose friendship has spanned for years and I know there’s hardly anything you both hide from each other. I have a question to ask, I would appreciate if you can help me shed more light on it as I am totally in the dark”
Nina was now a bit agitated, as many thoughts started flying through her mind, but was cut short by the next question from Ade.
“Has Omotoke ever been pregnant? Does she have a child I am not aware of?
“Huhhhhh”, the look on Nina’s face didn’t look good but the look on Ade's was worse. 
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