CHAPTER TWENTY- NINE “CONVINCED”

© Opeyemi Akintunde

Inspired by the Holy One

Teju’s POV

I went into the room quietly….Not because I was calm… but because something in me had finally gone numb.

The voices from the dining room were still echoing faintly in my ears. My mother crying. Her mother pacing. Fathers sitting in stunned silence like men whose investments had suddenly crashed. I shut the door behind me and fell on the bed, my chest rising and falling unevenly.

I was thinking about my next move.

For the first time since we got married, I wasn’t thinking about how to fix things. I wasn’t thinking about patience. Or prayer. Or endurance.

I was thinking about survival.

Then the door opened again.

Imade walked in.

That alone surprised me.

For two years, she had mastered the art of distance. Separate rooms. Separate meals. Separate lives. But now she stood in the same space with me, her eyes softer than I had ever seen them.

Remorse sat on her face.

Or something that looked like it.

I studied her quietly, wondering if the remorse was because she had been caught… or because something had truly broken inside her.

She didn’t greet me.

She didn’t ask how I was.

She went straight to the question that mattered most to her.

“How did you know about Daniel?” she asked.

My heart skipped.

“Do you know where he is?”

That was the moment.

That was when my life finally crashed.

Not at the dining table.
Not during the accusations.
Not even when she announced she wanted out.

This moment.

Because if there had been any remaining hope… any tiny fragment of belief that we could try… that we could rebuild something… it died completely in that question.

I looked at her.

Really looked at her.

And I decided to play along.

“He called me,” I said quietly.

Her eyes widened.

“He called you?” she asked, stepping closer. “He asked of me?”

Her face lit up in a way I had never seen before.

“Oh my God,” she breathed. “That means he feels exactly how I feel too.”

Something inside me split open.

She didn’t see me.

She didn’t see the tears gathering in my eyes.

She didn’t hear the sound my heart made as it broke… again.

“Teju,” she continued, pacing now, energized, almost relieved, “I’m sorry… but the truth is we were never meant to be.”

Never.

“The universe brought my soul mate to me,” she said, as if reciting a revelation. “I honestly think you should find someone else. Or even Beauty. I think she genuinely likes you. We will remain as best friends”

She kept talking.

And talking.

Words poured out of her like she had been waiting years to be free of restraint.

I sat up, tears rolling down my face freely now. I didn’t bother to wipe them.

And then… I spoke.

“Imade,” I said, my voice shaking, “you are the biggest fool I know.”

She froze.

“Your Daniel,” I continued, “is married.”

She blinked.

“He called me to tell you to stop stalking him.”

The room went silent.

Not a dramatic silence.

A terrifying one.
She sat on the bed with me.
For two full minutes, she sat there with her mouth slightly open, trying to make sense of what I had said. Trying to rearrange reality in her head so it would fit her fantasy.

I waited.

I thought she would cry.

I thought she would collapse.

I thought she would finally see what she had done.

Instead… she asked:

“Can you give me the phone number he used to call you?”

That was when my tears fell harder.

That was when I knew.

Imade wasn’t confused.

She wasn’t hurt.

She wasn’t broken.

She was obsessed and a fool.

And I… I was married to her.

To be continued…

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Inspired by the TRUTH REVEALER
Written by Opeyemi Akintunde
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