Luckily, a young man, who was
almost getting to the cashier, opted out and asked her to take his place. Was
she grateful? They exchanged numbers and became friends afterwards.
For someone, who had been
heartbroken for a while, the constant call from a caring man was a relief.
Richard’s phone calls woke her in the morning and he made sure he spoke to her
before she retired to bed. He was too loving!
A courtship sprang up and in
two months, he proposed. She was elated and felt this was the time to make her
former boyfriend go green with envy. She accepted and they started making
wedding plans. Richard is a graduate; he worked in an oil servicing company and
lived in a high-brow area. His apartment spelt success and was any woman’s
dream. This was what Jumai prayed for—a successful bachelor.
Even her friends envied her. At
40, a young man was all over her. Richard claimed to be 38 years old. But her
father had his reservations of Richard. He believed everything was too good to
be real. Jumai waved those doubts aside and pestered her father for a wedding
date. The old man asked for more time to consult with family.
But a phone call disrupted
all her plans with Richard. Her friend, Rashidat, was ill and hospitalised.
Jumai was worried because her friend had suffered three miscarriages and was
having problems with her fourth pregnancy. So, she rushed to the clinic to
check on her. As she made to enter, she saw Richard.
Before she could ask what he
was doing there, a pregnant woman walked outside with a nurse. There was a
little girl too, who apparently was ill. Richard reached for this girl, carried
her and took her to the car. Jumai still did not understand what was going on
but the pregnant woman walked to the car too and they drove off
“Oh! Mr. Richard forgot to
take his child’s drugs,” exclaimed the nurse after discovering a parcel on the
reception counter. Then, it dawned on her. Could Richard be married? How come
she never saw him with any woman anytime she visited his apartment? Quickly,
she went to see her friend and left the hospital but not without putting a call
through to Richard.
“Hello,” who is on the line?’
asked Richard on the phone. Immediately, she knew he was acting up because of
his ‘wife’. “Richard, I need an explanation for this drama,” she said amidst
tears.
“Oh! Mr. Oke, I will be with
you in the next hour. I need to settle some family issues,” Richard’s voice
responded again. Jumai prayed that this should be a dream. But she drove to his
apartment to be sure of what was going on.
“Madam, good afternoon, Oga
don come o,” said Musa, the security man at Richard’s place.
Before she could reply him, a
man walked out of the house, gave instructions to Musa and drove off. “Na oga
be that,” Musa said.
“Oga? No be Oga Richard get
this place?” she asked Musa.
“No, na the brother, wey dey
live for America,” Musa said.
Jumai knew she had been
deceived and she made inquiries from Musa. She discovered that Richard didn’t
own the apartment; it belonged to his step brother, who was abroad but returned
to Nigeria twice a year.
But she was not convinced and
wanted to know where he worked. When she asked Musa, he replied that Richard
was a teacher, who helped manage his brother’s businesses in Nigeria! “Na him dey help oga collect rents from
tenants,” Musa revealed.
She almost passed out! She placed
a call across to him but his phone was switched off. The next day, Richard came
to her and confessed ‘his sins’. He was a 28-year-old teacher but he fell in
love with her that day at the bank. If he had told her he was married with two
children, she would not have agreed to date him.
He cried, begged but Jumai
refused. A liar would remain one. Richard is a chapter of her life that must be
closed forever. That she did but she had since been unhappy because she loves
him.
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