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The Child Bride – Chapter 10

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The Child Bride – Chapter 10
The Child Bride – Copyright of AryEmber
CHAPTER 10
LAST FLASHBACK
Ayisat glanced at the wall clock again, 2’o clock and he was not yet back? Was he coming home at all? A yawn escaped her, she contemplated going to bed but each time she stood up to go to her room, a voice asked her.
“What if he returns the second she fell asleep?”
No, she would wait no matter her sleepy she felt. He was pissed at her already; she needed to show him that she was worried about him.
She jumped up from the staircase the moment she heard his car honked, he was finally back at ten minutes after two. She went to the window and watched, it took a while for him to drive in because their gatekeeper was already asleep.
Ayisat watched him barked at Saliu and winced; he was definitely in a foul mood. The sleepy man apologised but he ignored him and started walking towards the front door. She walked back to the staircase and waited for him.
Khalid unlocked the door and on entering inside, he saw a figure standing. He closed the door and locked it before switching on the light.
“Good morning,” she greeted softly.
He was surprised and it showed on his face. “What are you doing up Ayisat? What aren’t you sleeping?”
She wanted to roll her sleepy eyes at the ridiculous question, what did he think she was doing?
“I was waiting for you…. I was worried about you Khalid,” she replied.
He looked at her and scoffed, “worried about me? You sound like my mother Ayisat.”
She ignored his attitude and moved nearer. “You have never been out this late; I did not know where you were and was worried something might….”
“Well I’m back now, aren’t I? And as you can see, I am perfectly okay.” He said curtly.
She did not know what to say or do pacify him, she looked down and muttered. “I am sorry.”
That irked him and he said loudly. “What exactly are you sorry for? What are you apologising for?!”
She moved back a little. “For whatever I did to annoy you.”
“Did I tell you that I’m annoyed at you?”
She wanted to reply him when she realised his breath smelt of alcohol.
“Did you drink?” Her worried expression was back on.
“I am not drunk if that’s what you are implying….”
“But you never drink! Y… you told me that was you are keeping to Allah’s rule of no alcohol…”
“For his sake, let me be Ayisat! What is to you if I drink anyway?” he barked.
“Of course I care! I…I am y…your w..wife and I…”
He was the one who moved close to her this time. “My wife? You think you act like a wife to me? You behave like I am your brother or uncle a lot of times and that is when you are free around me and not acting scared….”
“You are the one who treats me like a daughter! You look at me and see a helpless girl who needs help; I came to your room and begged you to take me but you…”
“Is that why you invited your boyfriend to my house? You know I could have you punished for that?”
“See? You make me scared of you and you blame me! And Ibraheem is my friend not my boyfriend, he visited me and i was too shocked to….”
“So you don’t wish he’s your husband instead?”
“Allah forbids! He is just my friend! We were the best of friends back in school and I might have ….”
She did not get to finish her statement before he covered her mouth with his; she was so shocked at first that she froze for a second. She later closed her eyes and kissed him back but she could not catch up with him.
Khalid had stopped listening the moment she forbade his accusation, he just couldn’t help himself. He only stopped when it seemed like he was suffocating her and to catch his breath. She opened her eyes and they both stared at each other, no one said a word.
The air around them was thick with passion; Khalid saw it in her hazy eyes, she wanted him just as much as he did but he was battling with himself inwardly.
“Love me Khalid, make me your wife.” She pled softly.
He wanted to, badly but he kept telling himself this was wrong….too wrong.
“Don’t think, just love me please.” She said and stood on her feet to kiss his neck, still pleading in between her kisses.
He stopped thinking and kissed her with everything he felt, he carried her and she wrapped her legs around him immediately, he continued to kiss her as he made his way up to his room.
May be he would regret this when the sun rose but for now, he didn’t care.
PRESENT
She walked into the restaurant and as expected, he was there already waiting for her. She walked to his table and sat opposite to him.
“Ayisat, I am glad you came. Faishat told me not to bother that you would not come, did something happen between the two of you? She seemed angry.”
She shrugged and replied nonchalantly. “She called me a slave, we fought.”
Ibraheem looked confused. “Why would she call you…..”
“I can’t Ibraheem,” she suddenly said.
There was silence for a while; they both stared at each other.
“Can’t? What’s so hard that you can’t do?”
She shook her head. “I can’t do what you are asking me to do.”
“What I am asking you to do….. I am asking you to free yourself from him Ayisat.” He looked at her like she had suddenly grown horns.
“You are asking me to lie against him, to accuse a man of what he didn’t do. I can’t do that.”
“Well, it’s not a lie really! He got engaged to you before you turned eighteen, you only have say that he touched you…”
Ayisat frowned. “Raped me you mean? I told you already, he did not touch me at all! He was not even there when his mother brought the gift, I only met him a day before our wedding and he ignored me then. You want me to lie against him but I can’t!”
Ibraheem reached her hands on the table. “It might not have to come to that, hopefully if we table your story right with the help of the lawyer I told you about, you might not have to lie at all.”
“You don’t get it Ibraheem, I have thought about it and made up my mind that I don’t want to be in any part of you and your lawyer friend’s plan at all!” she said and snatched her hands from his.
He was angry now. “I am trying to help you Ayisat! With this plan, you will not only be free of him but get enough money to take care of you and your brothers! Don’t you want out of that awful marriage? I know you have a kind heart but you don’t have to worry, he would definitely let you go and pay whatever we demand to keep quiet. It might not even get to court before he settles you, don’t you want that?!”
“I don’t why you keep using the word free; I am not in any bondage. I am married and my husband is good to me….he has always been good to me, I told you that.”
He folded his arms and shook his head. “I see now. It’s not that you can’t, you don’t want to!”
“No, I don’t want to!”
“Faishat is right after all, tell me? Have you fallen in love with him? Is that it?” he asked, clearly disgusted.
She shrugged again. “That wouldn’t be so bad now, would it? He is my husband, he deserves my love and respect and not me going behind him, plotting to do evil to him.”
“Wow, this is so romantic. Do you wish worship him now also? Are you his little slave?”
“You were once my good friend Ibraheem so I’ll let that pass, I also know you want to help me but I am fine…”
Ibraheem’s expression softened. “I thought you wanted to be free of him, what changed Ayisat? You had big dreams you used to share with me, you wanted to so important in life that guys would beg you to marry them. Do you remember telling all this?”
“I still have big dreams and I plan to achieve them all with Allah’s and my husband’s help, I have not given up on them. You want to know what changed. I realised that everything that happened to me happened because that is how my creator wants it. I have a good husband who treats me, who wants to help! Do you have any ideas of what girls like me go through in the hands of their husbands? Girls far younger than I am and they are treated far worse but I got lucky, I got married to a good man and I am staying with. So he’s older, yes but I stopped seeing him as someone who could father me and he adores like a wife.” She stopped and took in a deep breath.
“What happens when he gets tired of you and chases you out? What if he finds a better younger girl and throws you once you’ve served your purpose…..or his mother decides you have over stayed in his house and toss you out, what happens then? Do you even know why he married you? Someone as big as he is, what if he’s a ritualist?”
She nodded as if she agreed with him. “You are right; I don’t know and have never given much thought to it. Thank you Ibraheem, I am going to ask the moment I get back home…”
“And you think what? That he will smile and nod in confirmation that he is truly a ritualist? You are so naïve Ayisat” he shook his head.
“Well I have been living with him for a couple of months now….close to a year and I am perfectly fine, I am not dead yet and have not seen anything odd in the whole house so I am ruling that out,” she shift back the chair and stood up, “don’t worry about me because I am fine and even though you probably hate me now, I still consider you my friend. Good bye Ibraheem.” She gave him a little smile him before walking out of the restaurant.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
She walked into his study room quietly and watched him for a while; he was reading a piece of paper.
He looked up and gave her a small smile. “You are awake, did you sleep well?”
Ayisat nodded. “I slept like a baby.”
“I saw that, I did not want to wake you when I returned….you seemed tired.”
She smiled and moved nearer to him, she tried to look at his face and not his desk. The last she entered here, they made out on the desk and lost their baby the same day.
He had lost weight, she noticed. He looked thin and worn out, those were too much change considering she was only gone for a couple of days, more than a week perhaps but certainly not up to a month.
“I would say you are not looking bad but I’d be lying, you’ve lost so much weight my love!” she exclaimed and touched his face.
Khalid was surprised and he did not hide it, she had never called him that. Was this truly Ayisat?
“I am fine Ayi….”
“No, you are not! Were you eating at all? You were not like this before.” She pouted.
Before you left, no but after you did, I became miserable. He thought and sighed, he should tell her now.
He removed her hand from his face and looked into her eyes. “There is something you need to read and sign Ayisat.”
She watched him place the paper he was reading when she entered in front of her; she looked at him in confusion.
“Read it Ayisat,”he urged with a nod.
She took the paper and read what it entailed, she took his read while reading and when she finished reading, she read the paper all over again.
“You want us to separate?”
He swallowed hard. “If you read it well, you will see that I … “
“You want us to separate?” she asked again.
He looked at her and wondered why she looked shocked, was this not what she wanted?
“Yes and if you…”
“You want to separate with me? You want to toss me out?” she asked, raising her voice.
Khalid hate that she would not let him finish what he was saying.
“Ayisat, I am not tossing you out. I am doing this for your own good and if you just let me land with what I am saying…”
“This is for the good of me? How?! “
“I want you to go back home and be with your family like it should have been!” he shouted in frustration.
Silence scrawled in as they both stared at each other. Khalid figured he should use this opportunity to explain now before she started pouring out her mind.
“Please understand that I am not chasing you away Ayisat. You are going back to your aunt like you have always wanted but you don’t have to worry about money anymore. I have arranged everything with my lawyer; you will never have to….”
“You have planned and arranged everything right?”
He nodded, wondering what she had in mind. Had she thought about it and ready to sign just now?
Ayisat took the pen on the desk and walked out of the room. He watched her walk in confusion, why could she not sign here? Perhaps she wanted space to think of others things she’d like to request. He could not think of what else she might want; he already arranged a large sum of money to be given once they separate. He even opened a separate account for her to further her education so what else could she want?
When he waited for her to come back but she didn’t, he stood up and went to look for her. He found her in his room, the room that would have become theirs if they had not lost their baby. She sat on the floor, staring at the paper.
“We never took any pictures on that day, it felt more like a funeral than wedding,” she paused and looked at him, ”I wish we took pictures…. Even if it is one, I love pictures.”
He looked at her like she’d grown a horn or many horns, why was she telling him this?
“Have you signed it, Ayisat?” he asked.
“Why did you marry me Khalid? You wanted nothing to do with a teenager but you married me, why?” she asked instead.
He was startled by her question and it showed on his face.
“That does not matter anymore, have you signed?”
“It matters to me. You know why I agreed to marry you but I don’t know your reason, why did you marry me Khalid?” she repeated, still staring at him.
Khalid didn’t want to tell her, he did not want her to know the kind of man he was before, he did not want her to know he married her because he was not a real man. It would make her hate him; she would probably be disgusted by him but was that not what he needed right now? He wanted her to sign that paper right? This would make her run far away from him and that would be for the best…… right?
He cleared his throat and walked to where she was, he sat on the floor.
“My grandfather was a wealthy man; he owned a lot of properties and was quite famous among the people. He had two wives, my grandmother was his first wife and he took a widow with two daughters for his second wife.
Grandmother was only able to give birth to mother before she died and fortunately for grandfather, his second wife was not able to birth him any child. Naturally, mother was pampered because she was an only child….you could say she was over pampered even, she had everything she wanted.
Mother and grandfather started to quarrel when she met and insisted she would marry father. Father was only a poor orphan from nowhere; grandfather wanted someone better for his daughter but mother did not want any other man.
She disobeyed grandfather because he started to treat her stepsiblings equally with her; mother believed she was superior to her sisters because she was his only child.
Grandfather was angry and cut ties with mother for a while but he could not bear seeing his daughter suffer for long. He started to provide for both his daughter and her husband, he even assist father in furthering his school and father didn’t disappoint, he got out with good grades and got a job. Everything went smoothly for years, mother had me shortly after father got employed and opened a supermarket for. I was taken great care of, loved as the only child I am.
Mother was not able to give birth to any other children before father died. I think she later came to love father because she was devastated after his death, she never remarried. Grandfather was always with us then to console mother, one would believe he had completely forgot and forgiven mother. She could have never guessed he already took her off his will.
We got to know this after his death and the day his will was read. He wrote it himself that it was for mother’s disobedience, mother was furious of course, she blamed her step sisters and accused them of brainwashing her father.
Grandfather put a clause in his will, mother may not have his properties but his great-grandchild may inherit It all…. If I have one before I turn forty.“ He paused and chuckled, “he was a wise and vengeful man. He could have willed all his properties to me but he didn’t…. not that I deserve it, he probably watched the way I was living my life and decided I was not worthy.”
Ayisat nodded thoughtfully. “You didn’t have to marry me for that and mother did not have to frustrate my life to give birth quickly.”
“Grandfather was a cunning man, he must have thought of it all. He made it clear that the child has to be two years old at least and he has to be my legitimate child, all these before I clock forty. Mother looked for a way to bend the clause a little, she made it possible that our child might still get even though he was going to be few months late….
That was before the miscarriage of course.”
That was no longer possible; he only had a year and few months to go. Even if she got pregnant now, the child can’t turn two by the time he clocked forty.
“That still does not explain why you married me, you could have married any other woman….rich ladies like yourself, why marry me? Why didn’t you reject me, didn’t you have someone you wanted to be with?”
It’s confession time; he could not hide anything from her now, he had to tell her everything.
“There’s something you should have known before we got married but you are not the only who don’t know.”
“What is it?” she asked.
“I used to be a philanderer, I loved ladies…broke a lot of hearts. I used to drink a lot then and I smoked once in a while.”
Ayisat swallowed hard, she had heard similar things before their marriage but that had not bothered her. How was that her business? She was only to bear him children and in return, her family would be taken care of.
“Something happened seven years ago; I met a lady on the road side one day and took her to have…fun. She acted strange and I should have sensed something was not right but I was too entranced by her beauty, it turned out she was on a mission. She told me she was sent to take my prowess as a man; from then on I would not be able to take any woman to bed.
I did not believe her of course, I thought it was a trick for me to offer her a large sum of money so I threw some money on the bed but she didn’t take any of it before she left. I was worried for a while but when nothing happened the second day, I called her a bluff.”
“But she was truly bluffing, right?” Ayisat asked, she looked shocked and confusion.
Khalid winced. “No, she was not. The process was slow at first but after months, I could not do anything at all. I went everywhere and anywhere for help but nothing worked, I avoid going for treatment in places my friends or acquaintance might see me and told none of them of my problem…I was ashamed.” He paused when he noticed that she wanted to ask him something.
She was still shocked. “I..I don’t understand, you were married b before and you were able to ‘do it’ with me.”
He smiled wryly. “I had resigned to fate and believed that I was to go to my grave that way, then grandfather died and his will was read. I could not tell mother, she would kill herself. Shortly after, l ran into Kodijah again or rather, she came looking for me. She was one of my many paramours, she told me she got pregnant for me after our last meeting and had given birth to a boy.
I was happy; so happy I didn’t reason the boy might be mine….I was not going to my grave without a successor after all but I was wrong. I got to know he was not mine when he fell sick, one of the tests showed that I could not have fathered him. Curiosity made me went for a DNA test behind my wife’s back and I was shocked to find out that there was little to zero chance of the boy been mine.
I confronted Kodijah and she didn’t deny it, she threatened to tell everyone my secret if I didn’t accept the boy like that. I think I would have eventually accept him to have a child who bears my name at least and for Kodijah to keep shut but I was so furious that night I told her to pack out.
She was on her way to tell my mother first when she had an accident and died.”
Ayisat closed her eyes, “what happened to her son?”
“He survived the accident and lives with his grandparents now. His father came to claim him shortly after but I did what I could to help him before then.
Honestly Ayisat, I didn’t and still don’t know how I got healed but after years, I was able to feel again…with you. I married you to get mother off my back, I planned to wait till my two years runs out then I would annul our wedding but that night when you came to my room.
I felt what I had thought I would no longer feel anymore, I wanted to take you then but I could not get the thought of how young you were off my head. Well, I could not resist you for long; I was jealous of your friend and angry. I went out in anger and.… “His voice trailed off.
She opened her eyes and held her breath. “You slept with a woman that night, right?”
“I am not going to lie to you Ayi, I wanted to…. I was about to but somewhere in my brain remember how I got into my problem in the first place.”
“So you didn’t? You didn’t cheat on me?”
“Although I didn’t think about the promises I made half-heartedly on that day, I did not Ayisat and I have never.”
She exhaled in relief and closed her eyes again, smiling.
“Now you know why, I wanted a lady I could reason with, someone I would offer money for her to keep lying to mother. I didn’t think she would bring a young girl as yourself, I should have rejected you… should have stop mother from controlling my affairs. It’s all too late, I know but you can still leave now Ayisat. You will enough money to continue to funding your brothers…”
“I don’t want your money! That’s not what I want from you!”
He was astounded at her reaction, “Ayisat, I am doing the best for you! Don’t you want to get far away from me after all I’ve told you?”
She shifted closer to him and rose on her knees; she looked at his face affectionately.
“Do you want me to leave? Tell me this yourself, don’t tell me what’s best for me. Say you want me to go and I will; do you want me out of your life?”
He gazed into her eyes, how could he want her to go? Didn’t she know what she did to him? How bad he needed her?
“It’s not about what I want; it is about what’s best for you.” He sounded out of breath.
She placed her forehead on his and whispered. “You don’t want me to go, tell me you don’t.”
He started to reach for her lips to kiss her but she won’t allow, he groaned. Damn him!
“I don’t want you to go but you need.…”
Ayisat smiled and kissed him on his right hair. “I want a number of things; will you do them for me?”
He was finding it hard to breath. Allah! He missed her.
“What do you want?” he managed to ask.
“I want to go school…” she kissed his neck.
“I want you to go too, that’s not a problem.”
“Good. I want the freedom to have friends; I want to be treated like a wife and finally, I want a proper wedding with lots of pictures.”
He smiled. “Where do I sign?”
She chuckled and kissed him lightly. “Worry not, I already have a lawyer to draft out the document, he’ll add the other things I want. Now it remains just one little thing.”
He was willing to do anything. “What little thing?”
She took the paper he gave her to sign and tore into pieces; she threw the torn pieces away and watched them scattered on the floor, she leaned closer and whispered into his eyes.
“I want to be on top.”
It took him a while to understand but when he did, he groaned and slammed his mouth on hers.
Ayisat took that as a yes and kissed him back just as hard as he did.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
“C’est fini!”
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