SEE FINISH BY TREASURE EZURUIKE EPISODE 34

SEE FINISH BY TREASURE EZURUIKE EPISODE 34

CHIKANMA’S POV

I told him it was okay and I wanted to leave because the atmosphere was just not right but he pulled me back and said please sit.

He said Sweetheart, look you don’t have to let anyone disrespect you because you’re a widow and I married you with your two children. 

You don’t have to leave because of what people are saying about you. I’m disappointed that you will walk away from such an insult instead of standing your ground and giving her a piece of Your mind.

I’m married to you and not Ijeoma and none of her friends have the right to insult you. 

If I didn’t see you, you could have gone home and when I get home you transfer the aggression to me instead of coming to my office straight so you set the record straight. 

Look, we are not dating anymore, we are married so start acting like it. 

Even in the media, you can’t just keep quiet about some of these things that are being said. They are very upsetting. 

I don’t have time to waste, I responded. I know how society sees people like me, a widow with two children.

I understand the discrimination that we face and I have no time to respond to such negativity, so as for the media they are free to say what they want to say.

Kenny’s mum arrived while his interview was ongoing. She had tears in her eyes. I was home alone. I let her in and her first question was are you okay? I’m fine, I said. Are you pregnant? The look I gave her gave me away. Don’t look at me like that. You are glowing. And it can’t be because my husband is taking steps to heal? I can tell the difference and you’ve been a little sluggish recently and you are protecting your belly. Ha! All this analysis in this short time. I’m sorry, I should respect your privacy. It’s fine I said, I’m pregnant.

READ-: SEE FINISH EPISODE 19

As for your place of work, you are in the spotlight and that’s the place of business. If I act crazy here it will make news. 

Your staff would record the incident and put it online giving you a bad name. I didn’t act crazy because this is your place of business.

If she spoke to me somewhere else, I would have given her a piece of my mind. Do you think firing her is a good idea? I asked Gerald? 

He gave me a look that said, “Are you crazy? Are you alright, are you sure you’re fine? 

You are asking me if I was right firing her? Firing her was a gentle thing to do. If I had my way I would have skyrocketed her away from my office.

When she landed at her destination she would receive her sack letter but since it wasn’t possible I fired her.

She’s fired and it’s final. I’m not going to change my mind. 

I’m sending a message to Ijeoma. I am sure they are going to quarrel today because she acted based on what Ijeoma must have said to her.

Now she’s lost her job. In her next life, she will receive sense and act like someone who has sense.

I doubt she has any sense at all to pick up a fight and challenge the wife of her employee.

It’s not like I’m wayward chasing after them that she will say I’ve lost my respect. 

She dared to call you a gold digger and a husband snatcher like I’ve been married to any other woman before. 

I have no remorse and I will never have. They are all jealous were his final words to me on that issue. 

I just stared at him because I did not expect him to act that way. The staff he fired was still outside pleading with Gerald.

Gerald said I’ll be right back, he went out and asked security to throw her out and the other staff looked on in surprise. 

I guess he had never acted that way before so they didn’t expect such a reaction from him. I guess everyone had learned their lessons.

As expected the staff Gerald fire didn’t go quietly. She told Ijeoma who went to the media and the story began to trend. 

“Man who married widowed mum-of-two fires staff because of widowed mum-of-two” The headlines read. 

It became a trending viral story and everyone was talking about it. The fired staff was interviewed and her interview went viral. 

She told the interviewer how I demanded that Gerald fire her.

The truth was I didn’t care because I had seen it all before. The media chased after me wherever they saw me but I just ignored them. 

I never said a word. I didn’t even say no comment. I just kept walking or doing whatever I was doing and ignored them until they got tired of me. 

One day the media accosted Gerald and asked him why he fired his staff. He took one look at them and said it’s my company and I’ll fire whoever I like.

They asked him if he didn’t think he was being unfair and he said if you think I’m being unfair why don’t you hire her, give her a job or find her a job.

It’s not about these interviews and harassing my wife and harassing me. It won’t change anything. 

I’m not taking her back and she’s unemployed. To put an end to this saga, how about all of you running your mouth give her a job?

Give her job opportunities so she gets confused about which one to accept. All you are all good at is just making comments in the comment section or post but none of you are willing to take action. 

After Gerald said that everyone became calm and sober and that was the end of that issue. 

No one talked about it again. Ijeoma and Gerald’s staff had a huge showdown.  

KIRA’S POV

What do you hope to achieve with this interview?

I want to heal and I can’t do that if my abuser hasn’t been brought to book or even named.

The world needs to know about it, so other unsuspecting victims are saved from such torture.

Now I can focus on therapy and get my act together and get my life back on track. 

Where is the evidence you have? It’s scattered all around. Now I’ve come clean if anyone needs evidence I’ll be happy to provide it.

Aren’t you scared for your life and that of your family?

At this point, I’m not scared of anything. I’m a broken man. He who is down fears no fall.

My abuser thought he had subdued me because I played along and appeared weak.

He is a man like me and we’ll go shoulder to shoulder. I’m not in prison so he can’t do anything to me.

If I never ended up in prison he wouldn’t be qualified to get close to me based on my family’s standing in society.

I’m not scared of him. I decided to be the first to speak up because I know others would follow suit.

What’s the position of the court case against the police for wrongful arrest?.

I’ve not been following the case. I’ll be honest. It doesn’t make any difference to me because it won’t erase my traumatic experiences.

The courts have been tossing us about but I hope that would stop because my mum is on their case.

How are your friends taking it? They are taking it badly. Their lives are as affected as mine. Their lives would never be the same again as mine.

I want to thank you so much for doing this. It’s not easy. I hope you get the healing you crave for and you get your life back and fall back in love with your wife, Charles said.

What are your last words? Anyone who has been abused should name their abuser.

Take advantage of the anonymous channels and get some closure. I want the whole world to know that I’ve been threatened by my abuser.

If any harm comes to me and my family I want him held accountable.

I felt so proud of Kenny. I knew it must have taken him a lot to come out like that.

I was glad it was Charles he was talking to not someone else. I know he did it because I was pregnant.

For whatever reason, I was glad he had gotten it out there and was no longer as embarrassed and as ashamed as he felt about it.

He hadn’t spoken to me about it but at least he had told not someone but the whole world.

It was over to his abuser to play his card. Kenny’s mum arrived while his interview was ongoing. 

She had tears in her eyes. I was home alone. I let her in and her first question was are you okay?

I’m fine, I said. Are you pregnant? The look I gave her gave me away. Don’t look at me like that. You are glowing.

And it can’t be because my husband is taking steps to heal? I can tell the difference and you’ve been a little sluggish recently and you are protecting your belly.

Ha! All this analysis in this short time. I’m sorry, I should respect your privacy. It’s fine I said, I’m pregnant.

When did you find out? Last night? Does Kenny know? He does. How did he take it? He wept.

No wonder. No wonder what? No wonder he came clean. He wants to get his act together before his baby arrives. 

Congratulations sweetheart. Finally some good news around here. Thank you so much for standing up for Kenny.

Are you okay, I asked her? I’m not okay but I’ll be fine. The things Kenny said in that interview hurt. How can my son go through that?

It’s not your fault. Neither is it Kenny’s. Hopefully, things will begin to look up from here.

Just then we heard a knock on the door. Kenny’s mum opened the door and it was Kenny. I’m sorry mum, he said once he stepped in.

I’m sorry for keeping you in the dark. It’s okay son she said, hugging him. Refusing to let go of him. I’m so proud of you. He looked at me as she hugged him and winked at me.

He had something close to the spark he had in his eyes when he first met me. He left his mum, walked over to me and got on his knees, and said I’m sorry.

For what? For everything, I did to hurt your feelings. Is that why you are on your knees? I’ll stay here until you say you’ve forgiven me.

I don’t know what I’m supposed to forgive you for. He stood up and kissed me. I hope you still remember I’m here? Kenny’s mum asked.

Sorry, mum Kenny said, leading me into the bedroom. Hope you don’t mind mum? I don’t mind, my husband is coming back so you can’t oppress me anymore. Please feel free.

KEISHA’S POV

If you are not in that space or in that frame of mind when will you be in the frame of mind?

Richard asked me, trying to keep his temper down. 

Why are you suddenly so upset? I said to him, Did I do anything wrong to you? 

You can’t exactly blame me.  All my life, I have dreamt of marrying a man or even dating a man in my age range. Not a man the age of my father. 

It had to take me a while to unlearn and accept that things are not really what they seem.

That things will not always turn out the way you hope. Please cut me some slack. it’s not that easy.

We’re not talking about dating here, we want marriage isn’t it? It’s for a lifetime and I can’t make a lifetime mistake. 

I have to be sure about what I’m doing. I told you at the beginning to be yourself and avoid pressure. You are pressuring me and I don’t like it. 

I left Richard’s office and headed to my office. I sat on the table and after a while, I left to see my therapist. 

Once she saw me she knew I was troubled. What is it this time? She asked. 

I told her about my experience with Richard at his office and told her I was tired of fighting off the feeling.

There was nothing more that Richard could do to prove himself to me. 

The fact that he never tried to have his way with me in his office told me he was a man of discipline. That took my ratings of him to the top.

What are you waiting for then? You already have your answer. Why are you torturing someone’s father?

Go and tell him how you feel. Tell him the truth. If your answer is no, tell him no.

If your answer is yes then tell him yes and put yourself out of this misery. You look like you have seen a ghost.

Just like I told you the first time we met for a session, what matters in life is your happiness and true love and not all this fantasy and imagination. 

I know you are thinking he may die and leave you a widow but the truth is we don’t know when we will die.

If this man was 75 or 80 I wouldn’t have encouraged you to try it but it’s 55 and you said it yourself he doesn’t look his age.

Please get over yourself. Let me ask you, is there some other man somewhere you are not telling us about? 

If you don’t want Richard, how come you’re not in a relationship with any other man? 

You told me that since you met with Richard and began to work for him you’ve never dated anyone.

You just mentioned your friend Jake and said you thought he had a thing for you but when you found out he just wanted to be friends you moved on.

Richard is about the only man that you know and you like. You have accepted that your relationship with Jake is friendship and not anything intimate.

The only other man that is left is Richard so what are you waiting for. 

I think at some point you have to tell yourself the truth. You love him but you are afraid of what people will say.

You are afraid that this is not what you thought would happen to you but it’s not such a bad thing at all.

Being with a man who loves you like you said he does is all that matters.

He takes care of you what again do you want? Other than waking up beside someone who makes you feel loved and appreciated?

That’s one of the best feelings in the world. All this advice about marrying your age mate is not bad. 

If you find someone you love in your age range why not, but when you find someone else, not your age range but who makes you happy just go for it.

Your parents’ marriage didn’t work out because of their age difference but you are not your parents.

I think this is teaching your lesson that we are free to imagine all these fantasies but God always knows what’s best for us so stop fighting. 

You are not being nice to me. I said to her, I don’t have to be nice to you. I am doing my job. I’m talking to you as a therapist now and not as your friend. 

The next time I see you I want something positive, make a move, let it be something different like we are officially in a relationship.

Or I said yes to him, just something different from I am confused and I don’t know what to do. 

I left the therapist’s office upset and headed back to the office. I met Richard outside.

To be continued

© Treasure Ezuruike.

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