It was now two weeks after the wedding and Rita was still staying with us. I noticed that my husband always left our room in the middle of the night and returned in the early morning hours. One night after we had all gone to bed, and as usual he had left our room in the middle of the night, I stayed in our bed wondering where he went. Is he cheating on me? Or maybe he’s a money ritualist? No, I don’t think so. Then why would he be leaving every night. I really don’t understand all this. Isn’t he supposed to be here with me knowing that I am pregnant? What could be more important than our pregnancy? This thought went on and on. To clear my doubts, I got up to go check what he was up to.
As I walked toward the kitchen, I noticed that Ritah’s room still had light. The house wasn’t so big and the bedrooms were close to each other. Not only was the light in her room on, there was some weird sound coming out of there as well. I decided to check and see if she was doing fine. On opening the door, guess what I saw: my best friend and my husband having sex. I was shocked, for a moment my brain stopped working and my body couldn’t move. I stood still by the door. All I could hear was my husband yelling so loudly at me to leave the room because they were still busy but I couldn’t move an inch due to the shock. He got up and pushed me out by himself and shut the door right behind me. I walked back to my room, unable to say a word or even cry. The pain was unbearable, my best friend and my husband? My mind went far to thoughts. How come I didn’t realize anything, yet it was right under my nose. I felt so suffocated, I felt as though I couldn’t breathe anymore. But my mind assured me that there must still be some explanation. No, there must be some explanation. I convinced myself that there must be a mistake. I was not ready to accept the truth though it was right before my eyes.
I waited for morning, when as usual he returned. “Do you mind telling me what’s going on here?” I asked. “Something that’s none of your business,” he shamelessly replied. I got so angry, if I had a knife in my hand? I might have stabbed him right in his chest so I could watch him die. In order not to say what I was not supposed to say, I calmed myself down and left the room. I found Ritah sitting in the living room and I asked her to leave my house. She got up and slapped me so hard and told me she’s going nowhere unless my husband asks her to. The audacity she had, oh God. Me being pregnant, I couldn’t start a fight with her, so I let that slap go. Instead I screamed, calling out to my husband. On hearing the noise from the living room, my husband came as fast as he could to see what was going on. “Can you imagine, your useless wife wants to throw me out of this house, ” Ritah shouted. “What? Did you say that to Ritah?” My husband replied. “Yes I did, she must leave my house,” I answered him back. My husband slapped me without caring that I was pregnant and asked me never to repeat that again and just left. Ritah walked away. I fell down to the ground while crying and started remembering how close me and Ritah used to be, how we would fetch water together and even helped each other out with house chores. How did she change so much, I really loved her so much so why would she do this to me oh God. I thought to myself. These thoughts pained me. Had it been an enemy doing this, it wouldn’t have pained so much but my own best friend. God, why me!
A few hours later, I heard Ritah calling out to me. I went to see what was going on. “Why isn’t the food ready yet, do you want to starve me in this house?” Ritah, who was comfortably lying on her bed while pressing her phone, shouted at me. “Get out of my room and go and get me something to eat.” I looked at her unable to understand what could have happened to change her this much. Well, I left the room to go get her food, I had to do this because I didn’t want my husband to chase me out of the house with my pregnancy. Day by day, my husband only listened to Ritah, he even started asking her for permission to go to the office. I realized that everything happening was not normal. My husband couldn’t have changed so much within that short period of time. Could Ritah have done something to him, I thought to myself. No, I think I am just overthinking. I convinced myself to find out.
To be continued……..
22 February, 2023
