HIM, HER & I (The love Triangle) 22

PART 22

©Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde

The baby didn’t look human; it had the complete features of a baby; two hands and two legs, but the shape of the head was so absurd, I moved back in fear. The baby also had an offensive smell, like rotten fish. Though I was feeling pains, I jumped back in fear. Odi also ran out of the delivery room. One of the nurses rushed out to call the doctor. One of the nurses who was bold enough, took over the cleaning of the baby. The baby’s cry was loud and clear, telling us she was alive and breathing.

As the doctor stepped in, he was also flabbergasted to say the least, but he tried to hide his emotions. I wanted to run away from the hospital as Odi had left me there. The baby had been cleaned and put by my side. She was a girl. Her cry was disturbing everyone. I became a topic among the nurses. I couldn’t breastfeed her as I was also irritated and fearful at her sight. I knew this child was not from God; I knew I had gone to the devil for a child, and since he didn’t have the ability to create a child, he packaged a demon in a baby form into my womb. I knew Iremide was a messenger from hell to make my life unlivable.

By 6pm, Jadesola’s school started calling as she was probably the only child left in school. Odi had abandoned Jadesola. I received the call and pleaded with the school to please ask one of the care givers to bring her to the hospital. Jadesola was 14 at that time and could not find her way around. I waited till around 8pm and yet no sign of Jadesola. I started becoming apprehensive all of a sudden, and my fear was confirmed when I called the school and I was told the caregiver had just sent a text to them, that she had mistakenly taken a ritualist bus and she didn’t know where they were heading to presently.

I jumped from the bed and started screaming. The nurses rushed in, trying to calm me down. They thought I was screaming because of Iremide, but I was screaming because I suddenly remembered my dream that I had earlier that day. The dream about the strong man who wanted to seize my two kids from me; I was screaming because one part of the dream had manifested itself; the strong man had slammed Iremide on the floor and that could be the reason she came out looking like a monster; she probably had been injured. Jadesola who had been saved by my mother in the dream, had also been kidnapped physically. I screamed because unfortunately for me, my mum was not alive to save Jadesola through prayers… and worse of all, just like Odi was standing akimbo in the dream, not doing anything to save me and the baby, Odi had disappeared… I kept screaming and the last thing I remembered was me feeling a prick. I was sedated. I woke up at around 11 p.m; I looked around for Odi but he was nowhere in sight!

Jadesola! I suddenly remembered…

“Where was she? Had they found her?” I thought to myself as I didn’t want to scream for fear of getting sedated again. Rather, I called Odi, and surprisingly he picked up.

“Hello Odi…”

“Hello…” I could hear the sound of heavy music in the background.

“Where are you Odi?”

“Where do you expect me to be?”

“Odi I just gave birth, though…”

“Hey hold it; that thing you gave birth to is not a child, and I guess you got it from going from one place to the other. If you want to continue with me, you better go discard that thing, because I cannot live in the same house with that crap,” he said.

“It’s not my fault, you were the one who pushed me towards desperation,” I said as tears flowed down. I knew I had been stupid, but I had more important things to discuss…

“I told the school to help bring Jadesola to the hospital since you didn’t go pick her up, but unfortunately Jadesola and her teacher have been kidnapped…”

“What?” The compassionate Odi resurfaced. “What do you mean kidnapped?” I noticed he must have stood up from the table he was sitting as I heard the sound…

“Yes, she is not with me…!” I said as I narrated in detail, what had happened. Odi hung up and I knew within me, he was going to make some calls to his connected friends.

****************

After a week, we had not found Jadesola or the teacher. By that time, I had become a shadow of myself. I had been discharged and forcefully given the baby to take home. Odi stayed out late; whenever he came home, he would go straight to the matrimonial bed. Iremide and I were using a new room, because of her stench. No matter how much I bathed her, she still smelt like rotten fish. I asked Odi to allow me employ a caregiver to take care of the baby, which he told me he was less concerned about. He told me until the baby died he didn’t want me talking to him. I knew he was indirectly telling me to kill the child.

“God cannot blame you if you stop caring for this thing, because left to me, it’s not from God.” There were times I imagined strangulating her or killing her with a pillow, but I was scared that would be the second baby I was going to kill.

Life continued but all the caregivers I contacted refused the job as soon as they set their eyes on Iremide. By the 2nd month, the school and I lost hope in recovering Jadesola and their caregiver. I was gradually losing it; then my world came crashing totally when Odi returned one day really calm. He told me he had something to discuss with me…

“Timileyin, God knows I love you and would have loved to be your husband till old age, but it seems like God, your family and destiny are not happy with this union.” My heart was pounding…

“I was therefore thinking it will be better for us to go our separate ways, but I won’t leave you empty. For the time wasted with me and the baby between us, I am ready to give you some properties and money to start up a new life. Fortunately for us, we are not yet legally married and that means we may be able to find the best persons for us… I am sorry.” I just sat down there looking like a zombie; I came into this relationship with my daughter Jadesola and I was going out without her but with a big burden called a child in my hands as a replacement. I looked at Odi and I knew his mind was made up and there was no point begging him as I did not have the strength for it.

“Where was I meant to go next?” I silently asked myself as I kept hearing Odi’s voice saying to me… “Timileyin… Timi, do you have anything to say?”

To be continued in part twenty three…

(Story copied from another source)