The story..
Anne sat absentmindedly as Den drove through the ever busy Aka-Etinan road.
She wasn't herself that morning. Many things has happened recently which has left her with so many unanswered questions as far as her relationship was concerned.
Worst was that she didn't tend to understand the mystery surrounding her man's struggles with life despite being such a promising guy.
From all indication, it was obvious Den was serious with her, at least judging by how she felt completely safe in the relationship, and as such she didn't need anyone to tell her that he was actually the right person for her.
As she stepped out of the car, she forgot to bade him goodbye due to countless thoughts that wrestle in her mind that morning.
Approaching her office, she noticed that her secretary wasn't on her sit. She felt maybe she was to report late to work that morning perhaps due to circumstances beyond her control.
As she took a step forward to open the door to her office, all staff of the logistics department emerged from nowhere with a birthday cake, and a rendition of a birthday song.
"Happy birthday ma'am", Bibiana, her secretary said joyfully, placing the cake on her table.
"Happy birthday anniversary, ma'am, Mrs. James, the newly wedded lady in the logistics department said with a cute smile 😊 on her face.
Anne, smiled back at her but her expression was that of mixed emotions as Mrs. James wishes reminded her of how old she was, especially when the new bride was much younger in age.
Throughout the day, the euphoria of her birthday was overshadowed by the fact that she did turned 32 and as such she wasn't getting younger indeed.
At the close of work, Den came around to picked her up for her birthday 🎂 dinner that evening.
Den was a young man of middle thirties, a first class graduate of University of Port Harcourt.
Just as you would have expected in a country where getting a job to match your qualifications has become a problem, Den, a petrochemical engineering graduate only managed to secure himself a job with Hamzard Insurance Company as a Regulator. A job that comes with penny pay.
The penny pay and the dwindling flow of income delayed his plans with Anne. While hoping for his fortune to turned out good, Den, in his little ability made sure Anne was okay in the relationship.
That evening, after her birthday dinner which turned out horrible due to how the whole day was like, Anne decided it was time to end it with Den.
For the past few months, her displeasure over the persistent delay and Den's none charlatan attitude towards thier marriage plans, had made her started taking having second thoughts and this had led her to picking Simeon's calls.
The following day at the close of work, Simeon, her long time admirer right from her days in the university picked her for a date.
Simeon was in his middle sixties, a wealthy man and also the GM of Deexle Groups of Companies,
He was a keen admirer of Anne and he had been on her trail since school days.
Anne never considered Simeon an option before now especially when she learnt he was divorced by his third wife on the grounds of domestic abuse and cheating.
Her relationship with Simeon ended on social media over the years with Simeon trying fruitlessly to get Anne to see him in a different light.
While in Simeon's car, several thoughts bombarded her mind.
From how hurt Den was going to feel when he finds out to how life has been so unfair to her when most of her friends were happily married, send tears rolling down her eyes.
"What didn't work for others doesn't mean it won't work for me," she has said to herself, struggling to dry her teary eyes with her handkerchief.
When she returned home from a date with Simeon, Den rage only presented Anne an avenue to walk away from the relationship for good.
Days run into weeks and weeks into months, a once peaceful relationship moved from worst to worst as Anne attitude became what Den couldn't understand.
Words submerged in hatred became order of the day and Anne finally succeeded putting an end to her three years relationship with Den.
A month after they have separated, Den learnt from a friend that Anne was getting married to Simeon in a week time.
The news broke him into pieces as he couldn't deny loving her despite everything.
After about year in marriage, Simeon became an untamed beast. They argue and fought over everything in the house. Marrying who was ready had resulted Anne in becoming a subject of domestic abuse.
Her marriage was an illusion of what it wasn't.
Months later, Anne discovered what shocked her to her marrow.
While arranging her husband's room on a Saturday evening after he left to who knows where, in a drawer beneath a medium size table just close to their matrimonial bed, her eyes met an envelope with a court judgment that was addressed to Simeon.
Curiously, she opened the envelope with fear, only for her to discover that Simeon was charged for murdering his first wife but what she didn't understand was how he wasn't convicted by the law court.
The fear of what she discovered sprout out goosebumps on her skin. Simeon never mentioned to her what happened to his first wife.
The following morning, Anne decided to move in with a friend, Kyle, in other to escape what had befallen her husband's first wife.
Patrick Ekong ©️
Beautiful
ReplyDelete