After the storm (26 page)

"I am,"
Yemi replied. "I'm married to his son, Akeem."

"You
don't say!" Kelly exclaimed, looking closely at Yemi. "My! So you
are the young lady Akeem married!" She shook her head in
amazement.

"You
know my husband?" Yemi asked warily.

"Not
personally. His father was a big donor to my party when he was
alive, but I know about Akeem through my younger cousin,
Michelle."

"Oh."

"Wow!
What a small world! Your husband was such an eligible bachelor, and
a lot of women had their sights set on him." Her eyes swept over
Yemi as she said this. "But my dear, you still have to sleep with
one eye open," she cautioned. "You are a beautiful woman, but some
ladies are desperate. You really have to be on your watch around
your man."

"Thank
you," Yemi said, for want of anything else to say.

"Believe
me, I know all about it." Kelly continued. "I just divorced my
second husband three years ago, and I have decided no more! Men are
not worth it." She shook her head. "But let me not pollute you with
the seedier side of life; you still look very innocent."

Yemi
smiled cynically. Her innocent outlook to life had already been
tampered with. "Let me take your measurement for the outfits," she
said to Kelly, pulling out her tape measure.

"Of
course." Kelly stood up, and Yemi proceeded to measure her. "You
are an easy person to talk to, and I got carried away."

Yemi
later sketched some designs, displayed them on mannequins on the
computer screen, and showed the designs to Kelly. Kelly took her
time to choose which ones she wanted. She was such a fusspot that
Yemi wondered how her former designer had coped with her as a
client, let alone thought of letting her employees handle her
designs. There were some people you just had to deal with yourself.
Well, unless your clientele list was full of celebrities like
Sharon Braithwaite's—then you might not care too much about an
aspiring senator.

∞∞∞

"I don't
know what you see in that woman," Akeem said, sounding irritated
when Yemi told him that she wanted to attend the wedding ceremony
of Kelly's younger brother, a few weeks later. "She is so loud, and
she's totally different from you. What's the
attraction?" 

"She's
brought me a lot of business," Yemi replied coolly, continuing to
take off her makeup with a cleanser. "I don't want to snub her by
declining her invitation." Kelly loved the clothes she made for her
and had even gone on to introduce some of her friends to
Yemi.

Akeem
didn't mind her making the clothes, but he resented Kelly trying to
get close to her. He didn't know Kelly personally, but he knew who
she was and knew people who knew her. "Well, I definitely don't
feel like attending the wedding!"

"I was
not expecting you to. I'm planning to attend alone."

Akeem
stared at her, a heavy frown playing around his eyebrows. She knew
he was surprised. She had always preferred that they went to social
gatherings together, but now she made her plans and either went
alone or with Kufre and Aleena.

"I still
don't like your relationship with her. That woman has been through
three divorces…"

"Two,"
Yemi corrected him.

"Whatever," he said shortly. "The point is that she has been
through those divorces and is so antimen in her
statements."

Yemi
stared at him for a moment. Was he worried that Kelly would
influence her to divorce him? No one could make her to do what she
did not want to do. Love had made her give her all to him, but she
was in the process of correcting that error. "It's not surprising
that she dislikes men, though," she said, moving towards the door.
"With the kind of men in today's society, I really don't blame
her."

She made
her way downstairs. She was an adult and did not need Akeem's
approval on whom she could be friends with. She wanted to succeed
in her business, and if it took hard work and even being friends
with people she would not naturally have been drawn to, then so be
it.

∞∞∞

"Hello,
sir," Kufre greeted Akeem when he walked into the house.

He hated
to ask the question but could not stop himself. "Is my wife
in?"

Kufre
looked a bit startled. "No, sir. She told me she was travelling to
Abuja."

Even
though he had been half expecting it, the words still hit him hard.
Despite his disapproval, Yemi had still gone ahead and travelled
for some women's summit that Kelly had invited her to. He felt
anger rising up within him and struggled to control it. The madness
had gone on long enough. She wasn't saying anything, but her
actions showed that she had lost all interest in their
marriage. 

"I'll be
upstairs in my room," he said to Kufre. There was no need to ask
about Aleena. Yemi had told him that she would be taking her to
Ayo's place.

Akeem
stretched out on the bed after taking a shower. He was still
furious. He could not comprehend how much Yemi had changed. There
were a few times when he was almost hopeful that things would be
okay between them again. But then she would suddenly snap again and
things would get even worse than they had been before. All his
suggestions on how they could resolve the issues in their marriage
had been met with a brick wall, and if not for Aleena, she appeared
ready to walk away from it all.

He
picked up his mobile phone and called Ayo. He wasn't going to let
Aleena stay with him. It was just a matter of shifting his
appointments around and working from home for a couple of days. Her
presence around him would help him, anyway; at least her love for
him was unconditional.

Akeem
was still angry when Yemi came home three days later. He went to
the office and deliberately stayed there late. Yemi had not
bothered to call him for the period that she was away, but he knew
that she called Kufre and Aleena often.

Kufre
answered the doorbell when he got home that evening. He walked
slowly upstairs and stopped by Aleena's room. Yemi was in there,
reading her a story. Aleena's eyelids were already drooping, but
she stirred up upon seeing him.

"Daddy!"
She smiled, sitting up in bed and holding out her arms. "You came
home late today," she pouted.

"So
sorry, sweetie." He bent down to kiss her forehead. "Forgive
me?"

She
giggled. "Course I do, you're my daddy!"

"Hi,"
Yemi said, standing up and barely looking at him.

"Hi."
His eyes moved over her. In her blue, knee-length denim shorts and
pink top, she looked like an older version of Aleena. Cute. He knew
she was aware that he was looking at her but deliberately averted
her face.

She
stooped down to kiss Aleena's cheek. "I'll leave you with your dad.
Sleep tight, sweetie. Love you."

"Love
you too, Mummy," Aleena replied, clutching her soft toy to
herself.

She
smiled down at Aleena before looking fully at Akeem for the first
time since he had entered the room. "I'll be downstairs," she said,
walking past him towards the door.

He sat
beside Aleena and read her another story. Before long, she fell
asleep. Akeem turned out the lights and walked to his bedroom. He
wondered why he was feeling so tired. His day had been relatively
light. Maybe it was a mental kind of tiredness and also somewhat
dreading the showdown he knew might happen with Yemi today. He
wished she would just apologise and make it easy for him. He was
tired of their fights. He missed her and wished that they could put
the past six months behind them.

Thirty
minutes later, he walked downstairs. His dinner was laid out on the
dining table, but there was no sign of Yemi. He walked back
upstairs to the study. She was looking through some designs on her
laptop.

She
glanced up when he came in but went back to working. "Your dinner
is downstairs," she said to him after a while, looking up at
him.

"Is that
all you have to say to me after spending four days away from
home?"

She
frowned. "I was away for three days, not four. And I told you where
I was going and when I would be back."

"And I
told you that I did not want you to go. But obviously that didn't
mean anything to you." Her attitude was getting to him. So much for
him thinking that she would apologise.

"Akeem,
please, I'm not in the mood for this. I've had a very stressful
day."

"You've
had a stressful day? Well, I've had a worse one! And not just one,
but four days! Wondering how my wife could actually go ahead with
her plans knowing fully well that I didn't approve of
them!"

"Approve?" Her lips curled scornfully. "Have you ever asked
me for approval for any of your trips? Well, I have a life now, and
you're going to have to give me some space!"

She
stood up and attempted to move past him, but Akeem blocked her
exit. "I'm not finished yet!" he said through gritted teeth. She
made an attempt to move around, and he held her by the
arms.

"Take
your hands off me!"

"When
I'm ready!" He could see that she was angry, but he didn't care
anymore. He was tired of the silent treatment, tired of everything
she had been dishing out to him. "What space are you talking
about?"

"Get
your hands off me, Akeem."

If he
weren't so angry, her attempts to break his hold would have made
him smile. He could easily hold two of her hands in one of his.
"Quit struggling, Yemi, you're not going anywhere."

She
pursed her lips. "So now you are resorting to violence,
right?"

He
stared at her, frustrated that he could not find that place in her
heart where they used to connect. "No, my dear wife, as much as you
have provoked me beyond what I'd thought were the limits of my
endurance, violence is still not my thing."

She was
still struggling to break his hold on her. "Then let go of
me!"

He moved
closer to her, pinning her hands between them. Her soft, feminine
fragrance invaded his senses. He was not happy with her, but he
could not resist her closeness anymore. He pulled her into his arms
and wrapped his arms around her. "Why are you struggling with me?"
he whispered. She continued to push against him. "Stop fighting
me." It was not just about the physical struggle she was putting up
right now, but he needed her to drop all the emotional resistance
she had mounted up against him. "Baby, please stop fighting me," he
repeated, pulling her closer still. He bent his head and tried to
kiss her, but she turned her face away, pushing against him
angrily.

"Take
your hands off me! It's all about physical satisfaction to you,
isn't it? So long as your base desires are fulfilled, you don't
care who you are with!" She pushed at him again, her eyes flashing
angrily. "Well, some of us don't just follow our instincts. We are
a bit more selective and definitely more disciplined!"

Her
comments stung him. How long was she going to continue to throw his
affair in his face? "You can select all you like," he said grimly,
releasing her. "But that's only ever going to be in your mind. You
have only one choice: me!"

"That's
what you think," she replied angrily.

"That's
what it is. You are my wife!"

"Something I regret every day!"

He
stared at her. She had said it again. She had said it many times
since they lost the baby. Different variations of the same message.
She regretted marrying him. Regretted the day she had met him. The
only thing she had not yet said she regretted was their daughter.
But maybe someday she would throw that at him too.

"You are
fast turning into a shrew, a bitter angry shrew." He knew from her
expression that she was furious at his words, but he was past
caring. "And you know what? It's not an endearing quality in a
woman. It certainly kills whatever attraction there is about
her."

"I don't
want to be attractive to a man like you!" she replied. "You can
keep your attentions to your mistresses outside! It's totally
wasted on me!"

He
almost recoiled at the anger and bitterness in her eyes, and he
stood staring at her. But well, she had pushed him enough. He was
not prepared to live like this anymore, continually dreading what
she was likely going to do. He would face it, and the next time she
tried this nonsense of leaving the house the way she had just done,
she was going to meet a different guy when she got back.

He
glanced at her again before walking out of the study.

Chapter
15

"You've
got to try and work on your marriage," Abby said, looking at Yemi
with a sober expression on her face. "You can't continue like this.
It's just not healthy."

The two
of them were meeting for lunch and before she knew it, Yemi found
herself telling Abby about Akeem and their constant fighting. She
was tired of it but seemed unable to help herself. She was feeling
even worse at the moment because of the news her doctor had told
her the day before. He had spoken to her about the results of a
hormonal assay that he had asked her to retake. He said there was
some hormonal imbalance. Her FSH, whatever that was, was rather
high, and her progesterone was low. The doctor assured her that the
hormonal imbalance was not necessarily linked to her recent trauma
but yes, it could make conceiving another baby challenging if it
remained persistently high.