Please click the link below to read the story preceding the one you are about to read:
http://www.belfordscorelines.com/2021/07/part-3-crying-would-anybody-care-enough.html
Madam Cecilia’s problem with the daughter and the marriage plans started the moment she got wink of who Michael’s father is. The two older Parents (Mr. Barnabas and Madam Celina), had known each other, one may say, dated secretly in the past. Though taken aback that Celina is the Mother to the girl his Son proposed to marry, Mr. Barnabas, did not expect the twist the woman brought into it. To Mr. Barnabas, whatever they had for each was in the past. To him, the issue is not big enough to constitute any impediment, therefore, does not warrant the kind of dust Madam Celina, raised about the issue. Based on his disposition to the matter, Mr. Barnabas had granted his approval for the younger ones to go ahead with their planned marriage. This decision did not go down well with the woman, who vehemently resisted the proposal, insisting that their children must cancel the marriage.
After series of visits,
persuasions and appeals, for the Woman to allow the children
marry, she released her bomb, saying:
“I am not willing to end the
relationship between you and I. From the very moment you stepped out, I became
I shadow of myself. I did everything to get you off my mind, and my way, but to
no avail. I carried on with my life and my pride. I did this, aware you did no
wrong, and in no way caused the break that occurred in the relationship. You took
my life to a new path. Gave it a meaning, and I bungled it, but not anymore. I
waited for you to come back, unlike the gentle Man I know, you did not come
back. How wrong I was. I misread you.
“You were so gentle, that I never
knew you could walk out on a woman the way you did. Before I knew it, you had
disappeared, to where? I knew not. I sucked and died inside. And since I had
nobody to confide in, or rather, since I decided not to confide on anybody, I
had borne you in mind always, and carried on secretly, with my pains. The
street you lived, the streets you visited, and the places you fancied will bear
me witness that I searched secretly for you.
“Wherever you ever stepped your
foot on, I’ve searched to find you but to no avail. Nobody seem to know your
where about. You that everybody loved, admired and desired. Can I ever forget
how caring you were to me, your unreserved love, care, and respect? Can I forget
the story about you and your late wife?
“Looking back, I can see and
remember how you struggled to raise your children, without their mother by your
side. Entreaties by all and sundry for you to bring another woman or allow any
other play a major role in their upbringing failed on deaf ears. You proved to
everybody, you were a better mother.
“Can I forget so easily, when and
how you came into my life. You want me to forget so easily your support for me
and my daughter, who you never met, because you carefully avoided her.
“You became so close, and a
source of succor to my pained heart and grieving Soul. For no fault of mine, like
you, I suddenly loss my husband. The rest is now story. Without your gentility,
true love for humanity and respect for your words, what you say you will not
do, I would have been devoured by you. I had no control. I was naïve.
“After you left, I prayed for
many years that my husband would come back from the dead. I later changed my
name, left my former location, told different stories about my background, all
because I could not come to terms with the reality that I had become a widow
and that the only Man I cared for after my own husband had gone; and his wife
gone too, had eluded me. As far as I was concerned, my husband would work in
one day, and the real me would surface.
“My dear Mr. Barnabas, my life
took a different turn, and my story began to change, when you worked into my
life and my daughter’s. I saw my late husband in you. I got strengthened and
more convinced that one day my husband would work in.
“Who will blame me? If only I saw
her body, or new where he was buried, may be the story would have been
different, probably… who knows?
“Did I tell you? Do I need to? Should
I remind you that at a point, your presence began to dwarf the large image of my
late husband? Do I need to state the obvious, that at a time, I made move for a
relationship to commence between us, but you rebuffed it and instead said what
we were having was a date, whatever that means, till today, l still don’t know.
When I pushed further, over a long period of time, you opted for my hand in
marriage, instead.
“Like the woman I was, and still
is, I refused your proposal. I have searched my head over and over, I can’t find
any answer for refusing you, apart from the fact that I could not let you fall.
I pestered you so much that I felt you did not make that move because you
wanted it, but because you felt for me.
“What was in your mind when you made that proposal to marry me? Why did you step out for too long? Why have you come back to my life again? Could you look at me in the eyes and tell me I do not have the right or deserve to pursue my happiness after these long years of living in secret dating as you called it? Yes I rejected you, yes I rejected you after so much pressure from you. Yes, yes and yes”…
The story is continuing, keep following us
Story by Nnabugwu Chizoba
No comments:
Post a Comment