“My daughter, kai kwanu? How are you? Hope I didn’t wake you up?” Evelyn’s sleep was interrupted by a call from Kelvin’s mother, Elizabeth Ikeduba.
“No Ma. I am fine. How are you too?”
Evelyn struggled to sit up in bed and noticed her husband wasn’t on his side of the bed. Where was he at this time of the morning? It was barely 7 a.m. on a Saturday .
“I am fine. Thank you for taking good care of us. God bless you richly.”
Evelyn had been sending a steady allowance to her in-laws’ every month in addition to a supplies of foodstuff.
“You are welcome, Mama. It is your right to be taken care of.”
“My daughter…” The woman coughed lightly, and Evelyn’s body tensed . “I know you children of nowadays like behaving like the Oyinbo but you two no longer be small pickins oo. Do quick and give me grandchildren.” There was a smile in her voice.
How could she tell the woman that she could count the number of times her son had made love to her in almost a year of marriage? It was like a button had switched off in their love life the moment they tied the knot. He practically avoided her in bed. It was either that he was too tired or that he had work to do whenever it was time to sleep. Her touch seemed to repulse him.
She had a healthy appetite for sex, and she had gone to sleep several nights, horny and craving for him. Had he gotten tired of her? Or felt ashamed to be seen with her? She didn’t know how to ignite the passion in their marriage, and wasn’t even sure who to confide in.
“Mama, don’t worry. We are working on it, and you will soon see the result.” She forced a smile.
“Thank you, my daughter. I trust you.”
They talked a bit more before the call ended, and Evelyn stared at the floor, morosely.
Rolling out of bed, she tied the sash on her robe and shuffled out of the room. Belema was in the kitchen when she got there.
Belema was just boiling water for Evelyn’s morning tea.
“Is breakfast ready? This kitchen is yet to be cleaned. What is going on with you?” Evelyn stood at the doorway, looking around the untidy kitchen.
“I am sorry, ma’am. I am not feeling well.” Belema curtseyed, avoiding her eye and inadvertently drawing Evelyn’s full attention to herself. She looked pale, and her motion was slower than usual.
“What is wrong with you? Do you want to go to the hospital?” There was concern in Evelyn’s voice.
“No ma.”
The response was too quick and a frown formed on Evelyn’s face.
“I will be fine. I have taken some medication and just need to rest.”
“If you say so. Please take the day off. I will get the cleaning company to assist.”
“Thank you, ma.” Belema gave her a grateful smile.
“By the way, have you seen my husband?”
“No ma.” Belema avoided her gaze again as she moved past her.
Evelyn watched her leave with a thoughtful expression on her face. She had lost her appetite. She might as well go and dress up and go check on her pet project. She just launched a clothing line for plus-size women, Plush Plus Line, and the project was taking most of her free time.
* * *
“Is everything alright?” Evelyn had been unusually quiet since Ayoola picked her up.
In the year since he became her regular Cabman, his admiration for the woman had only grown. She was smart, beautiful, and hardworking. She worked twice as hard as her philandering husband. Kelvin’s favourite pastime was maintaining his chain of girlfriends across the city and hopping between the newest clubs in town.
Ayoola wasn’t sure Evelyn was aware of her husband’s clandestine activities, but she never complained. She was the kindest woman he knew and treated her domestic staff like family. She had offered to take him for lunch several times, especially when they had been out for the whole day, but he always declined. Still, she always found a way to show appreciation.
She sighed heavily. “I want to ask you a question. I have always known you to speak your mind. So please don’t mince words.”
“Can you just ask the question and leave the suspense, madam?”
She laughed, and the dimples in her cheeks winked to life. Oh boy! Would he ever get over this woman? He had tried dating three different wonderful women since he met Evelyn but none worked out because he couldn’t invest in the relationship emotionally.
“Am I repulsive to look at?” Her voice was tentative, fragile as she looked at him.
“What? Where did you get that idea?” He gaped at her in shock, and the car lurched forward when his foot pressed down on the accelerator by mistake.
“Easy nah. Don’t kill us.” She teased as her hand touched his arm lightly and his muscles jerked under her touch. This woman would not be the death of him.
“I am sorry, please.” He controlled the vehicle, throwing her an apologetic smile.
“It is alright. It was my fault for asking such a stupid question anyway. Don’t bother about it.” Her smile was small, self-deprecating.
Was it possible for such a brilliant woman to feel so low about herself? Who did this to her? He took a deep breath to calm himself, to steady his raging emotions.
“You are a beautiful woman. Your skin is so fresh and smooth it begs to be touched. You have the kind of womanly figure rich and powerful men will fight and kill each other to have. Should I continue?” He stopped locking eyes with her in the rear-view mirror. Her lips parted in shock as she stared at him.
Had he gone too far?
“Are you sure? Or are you just flattering me?”
“Do I look like I am?” He held her gaze briefly before taking his attention back on the road.
“Err… no. Thank you.” She stammered, with an uncertain smile before looking out of the window.
“You are welcome.”
There was silence in the car, and he needed to make it feel less awkward, as his heart continued to thump too fast in his chest.
“Where are we going now?”
“I want to check on Tiara Her name is Tiaraoluwa but we called her Tiara. She is an experienced boutique owner who specialised in creating and selling women’s clothing, but on a smaller scale. Titilola introduced us to each other when I came up with the idea for fashion line and I am really impressed with her unique designs and creations.” Her voice grew animated as she continued.
“We have been working with a couple of plus-size models, and it is amazing what a well- styled outfit can do to a woman’s body.” Her enthusiasm was contagious.
“You are doing a great job, Eve. You also need an online presence.” He glanced at her as he drove.
“You are right. That is partly of the reason I am seeing her today. We are engaging a few influencers and generally testing the market. It should be a success, right?” Her voice was tentative, it wavered between hope and fear.
“It is a success already, Eve. I trust you. You are the business guru.”
“Thank you.” She grinned .
“You are welcome. I may have to come back to get you. I have clients waiting for me at the gym.”
“Really? Are you an instructor or an owner?” She turned, fully facing him now. She always paid attention to people and listened. It was one of the things he admired most about her.
“Both.”
“Pray tell, how many businesses do you own?” She gave him a mock glare.
“Which other business do I do that you know of?”
“The cab business.” It was his turn to look surprised and she laughed heartily, disarming him. Her laughter always did things to his heart. “You think I don’t know?” she continued. “How else would you find time to pick me whenever I called? Plus, I noticed the driver who came to meet you at the bar the other time. He is one of your drivers.”
“It is alright, madam. At least you can patronise me whenever you need my services.”
“I will always be your number one customer. Trust me!”
* * *
“Who is this, please?” Kelvin barked into the phone. He was taking his bath when his phone rang, and he had rushed out of the bathroom, soap lather dripping down his body, to stop the incessant ringing before it woke his wife. There was no caller ID.
“Calm down, baby. Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed?” A husky, seductive but slightly familiar female voice laughed at the other end.
The sound washed over him like aged, sweet wine.
“I’m sorry, I lost most of my contacts. Who is the owner of this beautiful voice please?” There was curiosity in his voice.
The woman laughed again; her voice tinged with wicked amusement. “You are a professional flirt, Kelvin. I can bet my beautiful ass that you can’t remember who is speaking.”
“Who are you then, mystery woman?”
“Check your messages on WhatsApp, Sugarplum, and we will talk later.”
The phone went dead.
“Hello?” He had heard the voice before, but he couldn’t remember whom it belonged to. The pinging sound of messages caught his attention, and he opened the chat messages. Dizziness washed through him, and he dropped onto the bed like lead.
It was the lady he had slept with at his bachelor’s eve party. He couldn’t remember her name, but he could never forget her face or her sinfully curvy body or what the body did to him that night. It had been the best night of his life !
Now the evidence stared him in the face in the form of pictures and video recordings of their time together. He was in a deep pool of trouble, and he knew it.
What did she want from him?
He panicked as he dialled her number, but it was switched off. Desperate, he contacted his friends who anchored the party, but none of them remembered anything about her or how to contact her.
The soap lather dried on his body, dried as he was now sweating profusely inside the cold room; Evelyn stirred awake. “Are you alright, darling? What is wrong?” Her voice was deep with concern.
“I am perfectly alright, baby. It was a crank call from an idiotic friend. I rushed out of the bathroom.” His laugh sounded forced, even to him.
Evelyn’s frown deepened as she studied him closely. “If you say so. Please hurry up. We promised your parents we will be visiting them today.”
She rolled out of bed and headed to her walk-in closet
“I will be out in 2 minutes.” He hurried back into the bathroom, clutching his phone tightly.
The mystery lady called him again exactly two weeks later.
He was jittery with nerves, and livid with rage. He had jumped each time his phone rang, and his wife had begun watching him closely.
“How are you, Kelvin?” Her sultry voice stoked his temper.
It was a Saturday evening. Evelyn had just come home from wherever she had been going every Saturday and was lounging at the poolside.
He hurriedly headed for the gym room, before answering.
“Will you keep your niceness to yourself, bitch? For your information, those pictures meant nothing. It was my bachelor’s eve party, and I am entitled to do anything for that day.” He had discussed the issue extensively with his closest friend, Philip, and the latter assured him there was nothing she could do with a bunch of pictures or videos that were taken without his consent.
“Really? Do you think your father-in-law will think so too?” She paused.
Sweat beaded on his forehead, and his fingers tightened around the phone. “That is apart from the fact that I am carrying your baby. Do you remember how you carried on, even after we noticed the condom had torn?”
“You are lying, bitch. You can’t be pregnant.” He screamed in panic. He lowered his voice immediately as he glanced around furtively.
“I can send you the test result, or better still, I can send it to your father-in-law if you prefer. The decision is yours to make.”
“What do you want?” His voice was subdued with defeat.
“You will pay me five million before four p.m. tomorrow. That is the first instalment.”
“Where do you want me to get that kind of money in twenty-four hours?”
“That is none of my business. My name is Lydia Bach, by the way. Talk to you later, baby.”
The line went dead.
He sank to the floor in despair.
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