I raised her for my husband to marry
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| Credit: Freepiks |
I was at home one day when my husband of 15 years brought home a female junior high school graduate to stay with us. I knew about this arrangement. He told me he wanted to help her. When she completed junior high school, like any other graduate, she sought jobs until her results were out and placed in a senior secondary school to further. During this period, she needed to gather money to help her mother pay her admission fees. Her name is Mariya.
An acquaintance of my husband introduced Mariya to him. He had told this acquaintance of his that he needed assistance to help him run his mobile money transfer business while he was away taking care of other business. That was when Mariya came into the picture.
Everything was running smoothly. He told me how she's a good girl and very honest, unlike the previous employees who squandered his money. I was excited for him that he had finally gotten a sincere person to run the business for him. As time went by, Mariya couldn't enrol in senior high school despite getting good grades and being placed in an A-list school. My husband asked her why, and she told him her mother couldn't afford it and the money she had saved from her salaries too wasn't enough to cater.
My husband felt touched and decided to help her. He told me about it, and I didn't object after all; she has really been helpful not just with my husband's business but with my children as well.
So, together, we enrolled her at a private senior high school the following year. All was good. She picked up my children from school every day of every week after she closed and took them to her mother's place until their father or I went for them. Mariya's mother became like my children's grandmother. They were always happy to be there.
During dinner one time, my husband said he'd been thinking of bringing Mariya to stay with us to make things easier for everyone. If Mariya closed from school and she goes for the kids; she would just come home straight. This would lessen the burden of going again to pick up the children from Mariya's mother's house. I thought it was a nice idea.
One Saturday, there they came while I was in the kitchen preparing lunch.
Our home was lively with Mariya around. I loved her like my younger sister and never for once have I said no to her requests. She wasn't even a demanding person. So simple and down to earth. I would often advise her like I would my children.
Three years down the line, Mariya completed senior high school and was eager to go to the university. My husband and I discussed how to go about it since a university education is quite expensive. But suddenly, things began to change. She didn't become disrespectful but became distant. She wouldn't open up to me like she used to. My husband also began behaving differently whenever she was around. She, too, was extra shy when my husband was around. I didn't bother too much after she refused to open up to me when I asked if everything was alright with her. One day, Mariya told me she would like to go back to her mother's place and help her as she was getting weaker. It made sense and so we bid her goodbye but reminded her that our home is always open to her. She could come and go as she wished.
I was going about my day when my elder sister called. She asked me if what she heard was true. 'I don't understand, sister. What did you hear?" I asked her over the phone.
"You mean you don't know your husband is getting himself another wife?" She asked.
"No" I replied.
"Hmm, just braise yourself with what I'm going to tell you. You'll find out one way or the other" she added.
"Just tell me what the matter is" I was impatient.
"Your husband is marrying Mariya this weekend," she said briskly as if she didn't want me to hear.
I pretended I didn't hear because it wasn't what I wanted to hear.
"Of all women, he chose Mariya? For what reason?" I thought while I was still on the phone.
"Are you there? Did you hear me?" My sister questioned.
"Yes, I heard you", then I hung up. I felt numb.
That evening, my husband came home, and I served him like I usually do. I looked on as he eagerly ate his meal.
"Why?" I asked.
The morsel he was swallowing chok3d him, but I didn't bother. I watched him as he pointed at the bottle of water at the other end where I was seated. I didn't flinch.
He stru.ggled until he grabbed the water and gulped it.
When he was done, he looked at me and asked back whether I wanted him to d!e because he was getting married again?
"Of all women in the world it had to be Mariya? Someone I practically raised? You chose her to become my r!val?" I was getting ag.itat3d at this moment. I left the dining hall immediately.
Nothing about my husband's decision to marry Mariya made sense to me. I wanted to stay in the marriage but I couldn't bring myself to accept her as my co-wife. It would've been easier if it were a stranger.
After the marriage, I packed and left the house although he rented a different apartment for his new wife. I left my three children for him to raise.
Sooner enough, I was called for a meeting to talk over the matter. The elders asked me to be kind enough and return to my husband's home. They said I should be glad my husband married someone I knew already so it should be easier to co-live with her.
I felt mise.rable for these folks who don't think women have blood and water running through our veins. They expected me to be immune to my husband's betrayal. They simply rubbished my feelings. A man is entitled to four wives and so I should just take it like that.
It didn't end there. They made it clear that, indeed, my husband yearned for a male child, and I hadn't been able to bear him one. "Wow", I thought. In this era of excess information and knowledge? People still think it's the woman who determines the baby's gender?."How du.mb!"
Are female children not worthy of being called children?
You might be wondering why I'm not directing my frustr@tion at Mariya
It turned out that the girl didn't want to get married. She wanted to go to the university. But her paternal aunties opposed it. They told my husband to marry Mariya if he really wanted to help her. They told him if he sponsored her university education, how sure was he that he would benefit from his labour. To them, the best thing to do was to marry her as soon as possible.
How they convinced Mariya, I don't know.
Barely a year into the marriage, Mariya gave birth. The lord being so good, she delivered a bouncing baby GIRL. My husband has four girls now.
My in-laws came begging me to return. This time, I considered their plea and went back home. It was easy to keep my distance from Mariya since we were staying apart. I made sure I stayed in my lane and she too. But I just couldn't stand my husband. All the respect I had for him seems to have vanished. I feel rese.ntment whenever he comes close to me. I couldn't wrap my head around the whole thing. The betrayal had cut deep into my heart. I left again.
In the third year of my husband's second marriage, his new wife gave birth to another girl. By the fifth year, he had taken another wife again. She's barely 22, almost the same age as Mariya when he married her. She, too, is pregnant.
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