She was lying on the floor, her hand stretched out in pain. As I mentioned before, she was diabetic and took daily insulin shots. I noticed she was trying to reach out to the table where her syringe was. what I assumed happened was she must have slept off and forgotten to take her injection, and thus, she was going into diabetic shock. Her eyes pleaded with me to help her. I looked down at this woman and all what she had done to me the past few years flashed before me. With tears rolling down my eyes, I picked up the syringe and bottle where they had fallen just out of her reach and put them back on the table above her. I looked at her and whispered “I’m sorry”. The look she gave me will haunt me forever. I turned around and left the house.

When I got to the airport, I called my husband and told him I was already leaving. He wished me a safe journey. I didn’t tell him I had just “murdered” his mother. Later, when my plane had landed at my destination, he called me and told me he had gone home early and met his mum in serious diabetic shock. He had rushed her to the hospital and she was currently in a coma. He said the doctors mentioned it that she may not survive since she had been there for a very long time, and that had she been able to take the drug early enough, she would have made it. The old woman died two days later without ever waking up from her coma.

My husband was sad, but he took it as a man. Ever since his mum died, peace had once more returned to my mind. His sisters even tried mending fences with me. I’m now 4 months pregnant. My husband wants to name her after his mum if the baby turns out to be a girl. I told him I have my doubts. I've never revealed this terrible secret to him, and every now and then I keep dreaming about that day.

To cut a long story short, we overcame that obstacle and we got married. A year after our wedding, his mother moved in with us. Apparently she had diabetes and he said that he had to take care of her. The woman made my life a living hell. There was nothing I did that ever pleased her. It got to a point that I told him that he should either make his mother leave our house or I will. In our anger I slapped him. He so really gave me the beating of my life that day; I was rushed to the hospital and admitted when I started coughing up blood. On my hospital bed, he came begging me. I told him I couldn’t believe he could do such a thing to me, beating up his wife because he couldn’t stand up to his mother and older sisters. What sort of man was he, I told him. The saddest part of it all was due to the “accident” (I told the doctor I was involved in a minor accident, and not that I was beaten to within an inch of my life), I had lost my baby. Baby I didn’t even know I was pregnant. I was so heartbroken. I told my husband right there and then that I was not coming back to that house unless he sends his mother out. He wept, pleaded and begged me not to make him send her away, even went on his knees in-front of all the nurses and other patients. He made a lot of promises that he will make sure his mother changes her attitude towards me. I had no choice than to agree. The next day, the evil Jezebel and two sisters came to taunt me. They even came along with the other lady, telling me that it was just a matter of time before my husband sends me packing.

I did a lot of thinking the one week I was in the hospital. Before I was discharged, I made up my mind. I told God that whatever it was going to take, even if it cost me my marriage, I was not going to let any evil woman ruin my life because of her son. I told him that, I will not let anyone end my life because they don’t like me.

The day came when all this changed. I was due to leave for a conference one Monday afternoon till the end of the week. I had already kissed my husband goodbye that morning and told him I will be leaving from the office to the airport with my other colleagues. Just as we were all about to leave, I realized I had forgotten my plane ticket at home. I told the rest of my colleagues that I would meet up with them at the airport while I dashed home to grab my ticket. When I got home, the whole house seemed so empty. I grabbed my ticket from my bedroom and was heading out of the door when I heard someone silently calling for help. The sound came from my mother-in-law’s room. I tiptoed towards her room and peeped inside.

My mother in-law really made my life miserable. There was nothing I did to ever please her. Ever since I got married to her only son about three year ago, she had literally moved in to our house. She was always dictating to me how to take care of my husband, what meals he eats, even telling me what kind of soap I should use to wash his clothes. I tried talking to my husband about this attitude of his mother, but he kept on shrugging it aside. His sisters too didn’t help matters either, their main issue being that my husband was their “only” brother and support ever since their dad passed away over 10 years ago. Having lost my own mother at a very young age, I felt I was just being unnecessarily harsh so I left most of her antics slide while I suffered in silence.

Another thing that really made things worse between us was I didn't get pregnant immediately. My mother-in-law always jumped at any opportunity to remind me of this. She kept on telling my husband, even to my face, that she doesn't want to die without seeing her grandchild. All this she kept saying in their language (they are Yoruba while I’m from Rivers state). Even though I don’t understand a word of their language, I still had that feeling of what they always talked about.

The whole issue of their hatred towards me stemmed from the fact that they had wanted a particular friend of theirs to get married to him. Their mother had supported their decision and the girl had even been visiting her and giving her money and gifts. Her son had blatantly refused since we had been going out for about 2 years then. There was nothing these people didn’t do to split us up. They had threatened, even embarrassed me several times. I always moved around with tears in my eyes. My friends told me to forget about the guy and we had even broken up about twice because of this issue, but he always came back begging me to forgive him. I really loved him and I told him the only way it will work out is if he sorted out his issues with his mother and siblings.