So here I am again. Really didn't want to start but after a gamble for nearly two days now, I just decided to post it anyways.

It's a true life story though I plan on changing names of characters and some little details and any similitude in the characters to anyone is purely coincidental.



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All rights reserved as no part of this piece should be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the consent of the writer. Failure to comply and you are handed straight to God. I don't give too much of a damn since I just write as a hobby and free time as well. Literature isn't exactly my field but if you plagiarize my work ehn,........

Prologue

The day could have been the brightest in that year for the family save for the dull weather outside . The singular cause for a smile in the household. Their only daughter was getting married. She wasn't exactly a kid any longer. A twenty-four year old was very well an adult who could make valid decisions. Especially on obtaining a degree in Pharmacy from a renowned university. But that did little to get a smile on the face of the bride's mother. Her husband had died two weeks to the wedding as a result of sudden heart attack which he couldn't survive. They couldn't have called off the wedding then. At least the girl needed a source of joy in her life then.

" Mummy, the husband's family have arrived," Tomi, a short teenager and Deola's cousin told Adeola's mother as she peeked through the door to see the lady fully dressed and standing in front of the full length mirror.

She heaved and waved her off, " Alright. I would be out now," she told her and reached for her flat sandals. The one Tumise had sent to her from France two months before, when the wedding date was fixed. If only she had known Daddy Remi would have gone to the great beyond before he saw what should have been his happiest day. Marrying his favorite daughter off. She was the apple of her dad's eyes. The cynosure of every eye. Took after her father in every little aspect but they say man can only propose and the ultimate disposer of all things is the Almighty.

" E kaabo o," one could hear greetings downstairs as the groom's family trooped into the compound. They had brought two eighteen-seater buses with them alongside a few more cars for the ceremony which wasn't planned to be so expensive. It was a modest party to the core. The groom had been around since the previous night with his immediate younger brother and best friend. They had been around before the arrival of his parents which didn't seem like it went on well with the groom's mother.

She beckoned to her son on hearing a conversation about the couple going to the local registry earlier that morning and already signing the dotted lines,
" Tolu, you come here," she called him to the balcony at the back of the one-storey building that belonged to the bride's parents and where the wedding ceremony was also scheduled to take place.

" What is it, Mummy?" Tolu asked as he adjusted his traditional cap trying to get a good fit.

" Tolu, what am I hearing about a court marriage? Didn't we agree on just the regular ceremony? Why did you have to sign with her, Tolu?" She began questioning in a hushed tone to avoid being overheard by guests around.

" Mummy, it's no big deal. We went to court and did a regular thing. You guys were running late, so Gbenga and Tayo came with me and we just signed. Don't worry so much," he explained to her trying to get her to get off him. She could nag.

" I will worry, Tolulope," she raised her voice catching the attention of some around them including the bride's best friend who was about to call him in but paused just at the entrance to the balcony listening, " She is just another of these women. Only that she's pregnant. So why would you sign 'for better for worse' with her ehn?! What do you think you are doing, Tolu?" She nearly yelled at him notwithstanding the attention they were already getting.

" Mummy...." Tolu started trying to calm her and looking around. This woman was really going to get him in trouble someday.

" Okay, Waa ba mi ni be.....we would clear this later," she tapped her thumb and middle finger together and hissed before turning away.

Tolu sighed. This was the exact reason he never told her about the court registry. God knows what she would do now, he thought and watched her as she went to meet her guests with an all-smiling face. That was just how she was. A real chameleon.

Chapter one

Tolu held the steering wheel fast as he tried to stay in control. He was on a bridge and had to focus on driving. Now wasn't the time to recall the family's verdict to him. He had to focus on driving.

'Adeola is not your wife, Tolulope. Listen clearly, the next time I'm at your house and I meet her there, Tolu you will regret that you defied me. You have defied me once when you married her then but I let it go because she was six months pregnant already. But now, Tolu you will show her the way to her mother. I have said my own," those had been his mother's exact words to him right in front if the whole extended family in what they had termed an emergency meeting. He still couldn't believe his dad had just watched her rant on, unable to keep her in a noose.
And what had left him most confounded was that he couldn't exactly pin one offence of Adeola's to his mother. She had been a great wife all the while and he really loved her. So what would he tell to her now that would happen. His mum didn't like her? The family had made a decision? Or he had simply lost it? As it was he couldn't think clearly and couldn't dare taking a step he would regret all his life.

Didn't his mum go to church or was she just running on cheap drugs? He was wondering why the only thing his mother could want from him was to kick his wife out. What about their son and the unborn child too? He couldn't even mention that Deola was pregnant in that gathering. They had made up their mind already and so had he. He stepped on the accelerator and breathed out, his mind in a thousand places.

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Deola watched the clock hands tick away slowly. It was moving like some deformed snail or something. She angrily got off the bed and went into the living room.
When was Tolu going to come home now? It was almost twelve a.m already and there was still no trace of her dear husband. Did he have an accident on the way or what? Her pessimistic intuitions began to surface now. He probably got kidnapped or something, she thought as she paced around the living room.

" I should go out after him," she finally said to herself and went to get her flat slippers to go out and search for her husband.

Just as she was about to pull the front door open without exactly having a destination in mind, she saw the lights from the headlamps of Tolu's car reflect on the wall of the living room,
" Thank God, " she muttered and unlocked the door but didn't go out. She would rather wait for him to come explain whatever had happened so she went to sit on the three seat leather sofa and waited for him to walk in.

" Tolu, what happened?" Deola asked immediately her husband walked in.

Tolu was an average heighted dark-skinned young man of twenty nine years and was usually skinny but beefing up thanks to his wife's great cooking skills and her never missing to serve him three meals a day even when he had lost his job three months after the wedding but only recently got another job with a steel rolling company as marketing manager. He looked at his wife who was wearing a worried look. If only she knew what was going on within him right that minute, he stared at her and said nothing to her question.

" Tolu, you really won't talk to me now. I couldn't sleep all this time thinking you had gotten kidnapped or had an accident. I was already going out to look for you anywhere but... ," Deola had already burst into tears seeing his indifferent look.

Tolu sighed. One thing that made him seemingly weak was making her cry and it looked like he was going to do that for much longer. He glanced at the dining table where Deola had had his dinner set and hesitated, turning away to their bedroom of the two bedroom flat they occupied.

" Tolu! What is going on that you can't tell me, eh?" Deola called after him but he simply walked on and into the bedroom. He could hear her sobs as she sank into the sofa. He couldn't do it after all. Kick her out, that is.

Deola watched him walk off and became more worried. This had been on for three days now and she really didn't understand anymore. They hadn't even had their second year anniversary yet and this was already happening,

" Tolu, what is going.... on?" She muttered slowly and clutched a pillow to her chest.

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The little boy rolled over in the bed he occupied probably expecting his mum to be there but only fell off the six feet bed on to the rugged floor. He began to wail as he felt his head hurt and no one was there to comfort him,
" Mummy....Mummy.....," he kept crying as he staggered up and went to the door. His hand couldn't reach the handle which he kept trying to reach to no avail. Seeing he was stuck in the bedroom and his mum was not coming for him, he sat there on the floor and cried more.

" Oh my baby," Deola said as she opened the door to the bedroom on finally hearing Niyi crying. She had been outside spreading clothes on the cloth line and didn't hear a thing.
Maybe because her mind wasn't anywhere in the right place. She picked him up and patted his back gently, shooing him into silence as his sobs died down.

" I still have cloths to wash and plenty things to do so you would keep quiet now and be a really good boy, mhmm?" She told him and put him on her back, reaching for a wrapper on the bed and holding him fast to her back with the wrapper.

She heard her phone ringing in the living room. Hurrying, she went to get the call which happened to come from her big brother in France. Smiling to herself, she answered, " Hello, I thought you had forgotten your only sister," she said into the phone and heard a short laughter at the other end.

Him calling was just great and now she could tell him how unhappy she had been the past few days. He was her closest sibling of the three of them mostly because he was next in line to her being the second born and she the third.

The last born was Tobi who was much younger than her and had made her treat him like a kid anytime he tried to claim being a male could make him dominate over her even with the seven-year gap between them.
But, Tumise was her favorite among her brothers not that she exactly had a favorite, just that he had always been there, notwithstanding the distance. Now she was going to ask him to scold his brother in-law big time for making her cry a lot. Little did she know that her ocean of tears was about to experience a real tsunami sooner than later.

Following. This story is interesting, keep it up.

Nice storyline.... Following.

Chapter two


" Tolu! Tolu!!" Kay hailed his friend as he saw him approach.

" Kay! Kay!!" Tolu also retorted in the same manner and went to shake his outstretched hand.

" Guy, how far?" Kay gestured his friend to sit beside him. He then beckoned on one of the waiters of the open bar which was situated not far from his house and where he spent sixty percent of his free time, " Let him take your order," Kay looked back at his friend as the young waiter stood beside them waiting for their order.

" Just malt would be fine for now," Tolu told the young waiter who was a little surprised. He knew the other guy and was very sure he always consumed alcohol heavily so he wondered how they could be friends. They probably had something else in common. He had barely made the conclusion when he heard the other guy hiss, " Chuks, abeg bring three bottles of big stout for me. I would make do with that for now," he told him and waved him off. Chuks took a quick bow and left to get their drinks.

" So why have you been looking like ghost since?" Kay asked his friend who he had observed to be a little absentminded.

" Me, ghost? You are seeing things," Tolu shook him off and sat back in the white plastic chair.

" Why else would you have this kind of expression?" Kay said making a mock imitation of Tolu's expression.

Tolu had to laugh, " Crazy guy. I knew you would figure me out in no time. It's mummy again jare. And with the way things are going, Kay, I think mummy is going to win me anyhow," Tolu admitted and sat up to help Chris with the bottles as he arrived with the drinks.

" What is the problem exactly?" Kay asked him getting concerned and taking a straw for the first bottle of beer he took as Chris opened it up.

Tolu shook his head, " Mummy has asked me to kick Deola out and she said she would never let me have peace until I do so," he told his friend.

They had met in the university and since he was a smarter guy in the department, he had always been Kay's major support through academics at the university. They had different places where they fitted making him closer to Kay than Tayo, his childhood friend. Moreover, Tayo was always too serious and blunt whenever he confided in him. He had been one of the main reasons he had married Deola since Tayo helped him defy the odds and shut his eyes from his mother. Tayo was the brain behind the marriage he found himself in now and had convinced him beyond every doubt that he was in love with Deola and should marry her. He had said she was too important and he shouldn't allow her to just bypass him. Well, he was happy that he followed Tayo's advice in the first few months but at that very minute, he knew he was beginning to change his mind. One thing he always hated to imagine all his life was finding himself stuck between his mother and wife and not knowing who to choose but that was the exact situation he was in at the moment. Now he wished he had thought a little more carefully about his mum's reaction to his relationship with Deola right from the beginning.

" Hmm," Kay finally broke the silence, " And you are confused, abi?" He asked again.

" What do you expect? It's not like I can just throw her out like that. When did we just marry?" Tolu took the bottle of malt and put a straw in.

" Why can't you throw her out?" Kay threw back making Tolu raise and eyebrow,

" What?" He had to ask unsure he heard right.

" You see, Tolu. The thing is as easy as it can be. Your mother must have seen something in that your wife before insisting. A lady can't be that pretty and not have some evil spirits around her. Yes, Tolu. Maybe mummy went for a consultation and was told that Deola possesses witchcraft. For crying out loud, you lost your big job just months after the wedding and only got employed recently. Look here, your mother is looking out for you and it is better you listen to her. That is my own." Kay finished and reached for the opener to open the second beer bottle. Tolu just looked at him trying to comprehend his statements. Kay could be right after all, he found himself thinking. He might just be a victim of his wife's skilled art of witchcraft and his mum could only be looking out for him. But he wondered why his mum couldn't have given him this reason in front of the family.
Maybe Deola was some sort of high rise possessed witch who could overpower his mum's hold on his life and he needed to untie himself from her sooner than later. Tolu found himself thinking of incomprehensible things at that point and turned to his friend again for advice on how to go about it.

" You won't be able to just throw her out like that. First step is to push her to the wall and make her leave by herself when she realizes you have set yourself free from her talisman. You know I was never party to early marriage and I don't even know how Tayo convinced you to go and sign at twenty-six," Kay shook his head.
He was just giving his friend what he thought was an advice but was mostly because of the sort of life he led. He belonged to the school of thought that a woman was only there as an object on display and she shouldn't be an important part of any man's life. He was an addicted client of strumpets and didn't see one good reason his friend had gotten married. He ought to be a free man except of course he was held by a witch.