CHAPTER FORTY ONE “CONVINCED”

©Opeyemi Akintunde
Inspired by the Greatest Storyteller

Beauty’s POV

For a moment after finishing my story to myself, my mind went quiet.

The memories had come like a flood… the club… the wealth… the coven… the blood… the deliverance… seven months of warfare that almost broke me… and finally the freedom Christ had given me.

When I returned fully to the present, I realized Teju was already walking away through the crowd of people gathered at the prayer camp.

Without thinking twice, I followed him.

My heart was beating fast. It wasn’t enough that I had told him a part of the plans the enemy had for him and Imade.

This was the moment I had prayed for many times… the moment God had shown me would eventually come.

But I also knew something else.

The full truth I carried would not be easy for him to hear.

“Teju!” I called out.

He turned.

The moment his eyes landed on me, his face hardened immediately.

The look on his face was not just anger… it was pain. The kind of pain that had been carried quietly for a long time.

I walked closer.

“I need to speak with you more” I said.

His reaction came like thunder.

“Get thee behind me!”

His voice was so loud that several people around us turned to look.

“I rebuke you in the name of Jesus!” he shouted. “Get away from me!”

The force of his anger hit me like a physical slap.

People had stopped walking now.

They were watching.

Some whispering.

Some staring.

Some curious.

He continued, his voice shaking with emotion.

“After everything you did to my life… you still have the audacity to come near me again?”

My face burned with embarrassment.

But I refused to move.

Before I could say anything else, two prayer camp officers approached quickly.

One of them placed a gentle hand on my shoulder.

“Madam… please excuse him for a moment,” he said kindly. “Let him calm down.”

I nodded.

“I understand.”

They guided him away.

I stepped aside quietly.

Then I bowed my head and began to pray.

“Lord… touch his heart.”

My voice was barely above a whisper.

“Please help him listen.”

 

Teju’s POV

My heart was still pounding when the officers asked me to step aside.

I sat down on one of the plastic chairs outside the main prayer hall.

My mind was racing.

Beauty.

She just told me some minutes ago that she was a witch and she had come looking for me at the hotel, so Imade and I would not have kids together and that the Daniel guy was a wizard. I had asked her how it could be resolved and she said prayers. I had  Peacefully walked away from her. Now! She was following me around. What on earth did she want?

I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead.

That woman had turned my life upside down two years ago.

My marriage had been hanging by a thread ever since.

And now she had appeared again… standing in front of my car like a bad memory refusing to die.

I tried to calm myself.

Then suddenly I heard a voice.

“Listen to her.”

My eyes opened immediately.

The voice was loud.

Loud enough that I turned quickly to look behind me.

But there was no one there.

I frowned.

Maybe someone nearby had spoken.

Then the voice came again.

Clear.

Firm.

“Listen to her.”

Now I knew.

This was not a human voice.

I remained seated… frozen.

Then it came the third time.

“Listen to her.”

This time it did not just sound like a voice. It felt like something had taken hold of my spirit. A gentle force pulling me in a direction. Before I even realized what I was doing, I was standing up.

Walking…Through the crowd…Past rows of plastic chairs…Past people praying loudly.

Until suddenly I stopped…Right beside her.

Beauty opened her eyes slowly…When she saw me standing there, she looked surprised.

“I am all ears,” I said.

 

Beauty’s POV

For a second I could hardly believe it.

God had answered my prayer immediately.

“Can we go somewhere private?” I asked.

The moment the word private left my mouth, I saw the alarm on his face.

Of course…The last time we had been in a private place together… everything had gone wrong.

“I don’t mean a secluded place,” I said quickly. “I mean still here… just somewhere we can hear each other properly.”

He studied my face for a moment.

Then he nodded slowly.

“Alright.”

I led the way across the large auditorium until we found a quieter section where the noise from the crowd was softer.

We sat down.

Then I began to speak.

 

Teju’s POV

At first I did not know whether to believe what I was hearing.

She told me everything, beyond just been a witch and the maths behind our  not having kids yet.

She started from the beginning of her own story…The club…The money…The witches…The coven…Kalunga…Daniel…The plan…The hotel…The flight…The manipulation and the eventual withdrawal. The Withdraw was to make her heart long for a Daniel that doesn’t exist and her heart far way from the real man with her.

As she spoke, I found my mouth opening and closing repeatedly like a man trying to process a language he had never heard before.

Every few minutes I rubbed my face.

Trying to stay present.

Trying to understand.

Finally she finished.

Silence sat between us.

Then I spoke slowly.

“So… let me understand this.”

I leaned back in the chair.

“We just became victims… because we looked happy in a photoshoot?”

She nodded quietly.

“Evil never likes seeing people happy,” she said.

I shook my head slowly.

The thought was ridiculous.

But strangely… it also explained everything.

Suddenly I leaned forward.

“Okay… fine.”

“So Like I asked earlier, can we go to my house… and tell my wife everything?”

Beauty shook her head gently.

“ Like I said earlier, She will not listen.”  Beauty said

“What do you mean she will not listen?” I asked

“She is under bewitchment.”

The words landed like a brick.

I stared at her.

“So what is the point of telling me all this then?”

Her voice became softer.

“So we can pray together.”

I frowned.

“One shall chase a thousand,” she continued… “but two shall chase ten thousand.”

She looked at me carefully.

“We can break the bewitchment through prayer.”

I said nothing.

She continued.

“When people are bewitched… they cannot reason properly. They cannot see clearly. Their minds are trapped inside a box they don’t even know exists.”

She paused.

“But prayer can break that box.”

For the first time since the conversation began…

Hope flickered inside my chest.

Maybe…

Just maybe…

My marriage was not lost after all.

To be continued

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