HIM, HER & I (The love Triangle) 15
PART 15
©Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde
“If you like, bring a man who doesn’t love God to my house…” My mother would always say… At this point in this story, I know a lot of people would have called me names, but people are so judgmental when they are not the ones in the spotlight… I had a reason behind my actions; I wasn’t just desperate for a good man for no good reason. I had a past I was trying to correct with a good future.
At the age of 15, I got pregnant because of my wayward ways and gave birth to Jadesola, who now lives with my parents. I had disappointed my parents, especially my mother who was not happy with her own marriage. She had always wanted me to have a good marriage, marrying God’s will for my life. So, it was highly disheartening for her when I got pregnant. She therefore constantly rang it in my ears to get hooked to a born again, tongue speaking brother, unlike my father who she constantly told me was not the will of God for her… You should therefore understand why I was desperate to marry Bro Kennedy as soon as it was obvious that Papa was not going to marry me. I sent a text message to Papa in reply to his message to me…
“I am on my way to your place to discuss this with you…” Almost immediately I got his reply…
“My home is off limits to you Sis Timi; that was my initial mistake with you. Let’s meet at the fellowship center.”
“Fine…” I replied. Mmesoma did not utter a word as I helped myself out of bed. “I am going to the fellowship center,” I said to Mmesoma who didn’t give a response…
“Good riddance to bad rubbish,” I said to myself. Kennedy was mine!
I found my way to the empty fellowship center. Papa was already seated, reading his Bible. He couldn’t look me in the eye as he greeted me… I looked around to be sure we were the only ones around.
“Welcome Sis Timi; we are the only ones around…”
“Better, so what were you saying?”
“Proverbs 28:13 states: ‘You will never succeed in life if you try to hide your sins. Confess them and give them up; then God will show mercy to you.’ This is from my Good News Translation; how does your version put it?” Papa said.
“Does it matter? Papa what is your point?” I said with a serious attitude as I was ready for battle.
“I just read it in simple translation so that it won’t be complex. For us to succeed, after this great sin we have committed in private, we need to come out openly, confess it, so we don’t go back to the sin again, so we can obtain mercy… Satan thrives in secrecy.”
“So if I get you correctly, you want both of us to stand in front of the whole congregation of students and tell them we committed fornication and I got pregnant thereafter annddddd… I terminated the pregnancy?”
“Yes… that simple?”
“Oh! You think it is simple? Yes it is simple for you as a guy, but it is not simple for me as a girl who will be seen as the seductress, the loose girl, and worse, the murderer! You will go ahead to marry someone else and I will end up as an old mistress no one will want to get married to, because the gist would have travelled round… Do you know if my future sister in law or brother in law would be seated in that congregation?” I said raising my voice.
“I have thought about all this, but mercy will speak for us…” Papa said.
“You are being insensitive!” I said angrily.
“On the contrary, I am trying to be sensible… However, in case you don’t want to do the confession, I will go ahead to do it without you, and I promise not to mention your name!” He said.
“And you think people will not know it’s me…?” I said.
“Well, I have made up my mind to do what is right, and no gate of Hell can stop me.” At this point, I knew he was serious about it and I needed to calm down the mad spirit in me… I knelt down beside him…
“Please Papa, don’t do this to me, please; I promise to stay away from you but please cover my shame…” I kept pleading but all of a sudden he stood up.
“I give you two weeks to think about it; I want us to make the public confession at the last assembly at the end of the semester,” he said and walked out, leaving me on my knees… I broke down sobbing. Almost immediately, Bro Kennedy bumped into Papa at the entrance, but Papa didn’t wait to explain things. Bro Kennedy saw me crying and he tried making sense of the scenario but he didn’t understand. He walked up to me…
“You told him?” Bro Kennedy asked.
“Yes!” I said sobbing.
“And…?” He asked.
“He is disappointed that I went for an abortion without telling him; he said I am a sinner and that he doesn’t want to have anything to do with me…” I said still sobbing.
“Did you tell him you were raped?”
“Yes! But he is more concerned about the abortion…” I said.
“No… Why would he say that? It is not your fault… Stop crying Sis Timi. I promise to stand by you, even if the world turns their back against you… And if it means me marrying you to prove to them that your being raped and the abortion mistake doesn’t reduce who you are… I will.”
“Oh my God!” I wept at how I had judged the original wrongly. I had focused on the fake because of my past. I was looking for a Christian brother who I could force my life on. Papa didn’t know I had a child; my plan was to tell him after marriage, but if only I had considered Kennedy, he was the kind of man who would have accepted me with my child… I wasn’t going to let Papa take Kennedy from me. Mmesoma was inconsequential… If she proved too stubborn, my cousin, Gbade, would deal with her… Mercy had found me; I had a second chance with Bro Kennedy and no gate of Hell was going to stop me… I returned to the hostel to find an empty room and a note from Mmesoma.
Mmesoma had vacated my room…
To be continued in part sixteen…
To follow up on other stories from the author, follow the author on Facebook @OPEYEMI OJERINDE AKINTUNDE-OFFICIAL or Instagram @Opeyemiakintunde. Feel free to share this series but please do not edit out the credits and details of the author. Let’s be mindful of others. DEEP THOTS NOVELS.
INSPIRED BY THE HOLY ONE
