Ibrahim was sitting with his hands together and his shoulders raised, as if he was taking an everlasting breath in. Saheedat had been watching him for a while. He had barely even eaten the food she ordered for dinner. Finally, he exhaled and looked at her. “I need to talk to you.” “What is it?” She closed her laptop and sat up. “You look troubled.” “I’m going to say something that will annoy you, but I want you to know it came from a good place and I never meant to hurt you.” Saheedat’s mind was racing, wondering what it could be. Her thought settled on one idea. He was marrying another wife. “When?” “Yesterday.” “So why are you just telling me now? You didn’t think you should have told me before you did it?” “That’s why I’m telling you now. I haven’t been able to sleep. I’ve felt so guilty.” “Well, how do you think I will sleep?”
“Saheedat…” “You are very selfish, Ibrahim. You promised me this would never happen!” Saheedat began to shed hot tears even though she had not summoned them. “I am so sorry. I just had to. Let me just explain…” “There’s nothing to explain! You’ve done it already, haven’t you?” “The woman needed it…” “Oh, so now it’s about her?” “You would have done the same thing, Saheedat.” “Never! I will never betray you.”
“Please don’t overreact. God will provide another one for us…”
Saheedat stopped. “Another wife?” “Wife? Who’s talking about a wife?”
“Isn’t that what you did? You married another wife?” “No…I borrowed someone money from our IVF funds.” Just then, they heard a loud bang and raced to the window. Someone had crashed into the gate and the fence. Ken raced out of his flat to see who had crashed into the compound. It was a white truck laden with sofas, a fridge, and other things. A young man dashed into the compound, headed for the passenger’s side of the truck and started yelling at the driver. Ken was speechless. A truck had lost its brakes and crashed into their compound, and a strange young man was fighting with its driver. The driver’s colleague alighted from the vehicle and started begging the young man. They reminded Ken of the bike rider and his comrades who pleaded with him until he was left with the entire bill of repairing his car.“ It’s okay. We go talk later. Just start packing the load into the house.
It’s the apartment upstairs.” That was when Ken snapped out of his reverie. Which house? “Gentleman, which house are they packing things into, please?” “That one.” The young man pointed at the house he and Babatunde had just rented out to Ebube.“Young man, maybe you have things mixed up. Someone else has just rented it. As a matter of fact, it was
just two days ago that we rented it out.” “You must be Mr Ken. Yeah, I’ve heard about you.” “Sorry, do I know you?” “You know me now.” He held out his hand. “The name is Ope. I’m Ebube’s roommate.” “Roommate? He never told me he was co-renting.” A car pulled up in front of the compound. Ken watched Babatunde help Mr Kosoko out of it. “Ken?” “Sir?”
“Who is he?” “The name is Ope. I’ve rented the apartment up there.”
“Which… apartment?” “Daddy, let’s go in.”
“No. No. Which…?” He turned to Babatunde and back at Ken. Then he looked up at the apartment in question, noticing the driver and his colleague who were carrying a fridge to the door.“My house?” Mr Kosoko’s hands shook.“Sir, please take it easy. It will not be good for you to relapse.” Mr Kosoko looked at the apartment and shook his head slowly.
Saheedat could not sleep. She was partly relieved that her worst nightmare had not happened, but the reality of Ibrahim’s decision to delay her dreams was crushing. He said he had done it to help a widow and her children, but it did not appease her. Ibrahim constantly found ways to put the needs of others above their family’s, claiming they could make the money back. At this rate, she would not be able to afford the IVF unless she did something drastic. The current balance on her EasyInvest app was ₦1.5 million. Ibrahim had given away half a million naira. Meanwhile, the exchange rate had skyrocketed, meaning she would need even more money.
On the other hand, Ibrahim had invested in real estate as he’d wanted to. It shocked Saheedat that he could not see how much he was jeopardising her dream in the name of charity. It was now clear to her that she would need to make the money inaccessible to Ibrahim. He had a kind heart, but his inability to prioritise their family’s needs meant he couldn’t be trusted. We can always make it back, he often said. Saheedat wondered if Ibrahim was subconsciously punishing them for their wealth by sabotaging their happiness.“
I knew you shouldn’t have rented out that apartment. Look, if anything happens to Daddy, it’s your fault.”Babatunde stared at his brother in disbelief. “Really? How would we have paid all those bills? If you didn’t like it, you should have brought money, now.” “There were other ways you could have gotten that money. You know the reason he landed in that hospital in the first place was because you were stressing him about the rent here. How do you think he will be feeling now?”
Babatunde decided he wasn’t going to argue anymore. There was just no point.
“And you even rented out the place with Daddy’s trusted aburo.” Bolu started laughing. “It’s funny how you guys didn’t even see how pissed he would be.” Babatunde plopped on the bed and stared at the ceiling. “At least someone saved his life while the other person was partying and getting high,” he murmured. His words stung, but Bolu refused to let it sting further. He walked about of the room, but not before he swiped his brother’s wallet from the table next to the bed.
“But Daddy, why are you so angry about this? We needed money to take care of you.”
“So…so you don’t have money?” Babatunde was tired of explaining something that was
common knowledge. His father knew he was constantly broke. Where did he think he was going to get hundreds of thousands of naira from? To make matters worse, they had no health insurance, so all the bills had to be paid completely out of their pocket.
His father was out of the hospital, but the therapy to restore his functionality would cost a substantial amount of money. Some of the money Ebube and Ope had paid was still in his account, and he wondered how he could multiply it. He thought of his conversation with Saheedat. Awkward as it had been, he had gleaned some valuable information from her. Will she be offended if I text her to find out more information?
Mrs Coker, on the other hand, had been texting him non-stop, telling him to return to her and expect a hefty reward. He had ignored her messages. Her last one had said he had one week to return to her or be replaced. Four days were left to decide whether he would do her bidding or not. Mawon, on the other hand, was becoming more desperate to find a better job to solve her problems. Babatunde thought she really needed to speak with Saheedat, but he couldn’t imagine setting up the conversation without it getting awkward.“Bolu?” His father wanted to know where his brother was. “I don’t know.”Bolu had never been available when needed.
He only showed up when he needed money or when he was exhausted from partying. Above, the new tenants were scraping the floor with furniture, and he could hear afrobeats music pounding through the ceiling. For a moment, Babatunde wondered if he hadn’t made a grave mistake.
Three weeks had passed since Mr Kosoko returned home from the hospital and the new neighbours moved in. Saheedat had found out their names from Layo. Ebube was the quiet, reasonable one, while Ope was the opposite. On the nights when Ebube wasn’t back from his job, Ope played loud music and had loud friends over, shouting over football or something else. Ope was the one who had gotten into a fight with Kosiso over the trash disposal. Layo told her that Ken was moping about the house, regretting his decision to rent the house to the men. He had spoken to Ebube several times about his friend, but that had yielded no results. In the end, they were grown men who could do whatever they wanted. It was now clear why Ebube wanted to move in as soon as possible — they had likely exhausted their chances at their previous home. Ibrahim was happier than ever that he had bought his own land, and Saheedat could tell that he would want them to start building the house as soon as possible. Saheedat was glad that she had moved the funds for the IVF away from their joint account into a fixed deposit account. Ibrahim had not been pleased when he found out.
“Why did you move the money without telling me? Is this because of what happened with the widow?” “That and other things. You’ve shown me you don’t care for my dreams as much you do about yours. I moved it to a fixed deposit account; at least, I’ll get some extra
change from the interest. Also, I’m not going to be putting anything in that joint account until I have enough money for the IVF. Don’t worry, I’ll provide you with a statement of account, so you know I’m not hiding anything from you. When we do the IVF successfully, I’ll consider going back to the joint account.”
It had been hard for her to take any of those steps, but she knew it had to be done. As much as she loved Ibrahim, she simply could not trust him with their money.
“But you could have told me…” Even as he was speaking, he knew he didn’t have a leg to stand on. He had broken her trust. This had created a gulf between them that had not been
there before. Saheedat didn’t like it, but she knew she had to make those hard decisions for their future. Thinking of hard decisions, her thoughts went to Kosiso.
Kosiso’s eyes were swollen when Saheedat reached her door. “What is the matter?”
“Nothing.” Kosiso put on a smile that wrinkled her red face. “You’re lying.” Saheedat stepped into the building and made herself comfortable on the couch. The TV was on, loud enough to make Kene oblivious to her mother’s crying. Kene got up from her toys, hugged Saheedat, and caressed her hijab. Saheedat promised her a treat and asked her to go into her room for a while. Kosiso rubbed her arms, and Saheedat could tell that she was debating whether to share her burdens with her or not. “Whatever it is, you can tell me, Kosi.” “You’ll udge me.” “That’s not fair. I never do, and you know it.” Kosiso looked Saheedat in the eyes and whispered. “I’m pregnant.”
“Wow.” “I don’t know how it happened.” Kosiso burst into tears. “I was careful while we were on the trip. I didn’t want this to happen.” Saheedat was confused. “Did you change your pills?” “No…” “So why would they suddenly fail?” Saheedat wondered aloud. “Have you told him?”“Yes. Saheedat, he was so happy. He spun me around and told me I had made him the happiest man. He even said he would change my car if I gave birth to a boy. He wants me to have the baby abroad.” “So why are you crying? Everything seems good…”
“He hasn’t yet set up the trust for Kene…” Even though it surprised her a little, Saheedat wondered what that had to with the matter at hand.
“He was too happy, Saheedat. So happy that I suspected something. I kept thinking about the times we were together, then I remembered that he gave me my pills one morning. When I went back to count my birth control pills, I had an extra one.”It took Saheedat one second to figure it out. “Oh my goodness! He gave you something else?” Kosiso nodded.
“He wanted you to get pregnant?” Kosiso nodded again.
“When I told him I was pregnant, do you know what he said to me? ‘Now you’re all mine.’ It didn’t make sense to me at the time, but now it does.” Saheedat sighed. “Okay, Kosi. I know you’re upset but we need to start figuring out what you’re going to do. Whether your theory is correct or not, you need to be ahead of this guy. And I can tell you now, if he hasn’t done the trust fund for Kene, he has no intention of doing it. ”Kosiso started crying but Saheedat shook her arms. “This is not the time to cry. This is the time to think. How much money do you have? You need to start planning your freedom from this man. No more random shopping or frequent trips. Any money that comes to you now, you need to save or invest. I’ve given you Victor’s number. My financial advisor? You need to call him as soon as possible.”
