6 HOURS

THE BETRAYAL

Muhibba came on the bed and we kissed immediately. I made a contented sound while she moaned out loud. She was a screamer and a talker, and she exhibited both characters throughout the night. It was a noisy night, a night of erotic activity reserved for two inhibited animals in the heat of passion and lust.

It sickened me to know Hanan must have heard everything. What do I do now? I wondered, sweat pouring down my body in terror as I looked at my reflection in the mirror of the toilet. I had suddenly aged ten more years.

My mind also went to the many crazy conversations we had through the night. Top secret conversations, top class betrayals of confidences, information that were not supposed to be divulged were divulged. Oh my God, I thought. What a mess I was in.

I thought of calling her, but I didn't have the nerve to do it. My mind scampered around like a scared rabbit in a hole. What the f*ck did I get myself into? How do I ever get out of this now?

Into my mind came a damning exchange we had in the heat of passion.

"Am I sweeter than Hanan?" She asked. I was busy in my forbidden act, humping away, so I didn't even hear her voice.

"Am I sweeter than Hanan?!" She yelled, panting beneath me.

"Yes baby! Yes! You're sweeter!"

Oh my God! Marwan, I said to myself, you are finished. Hanan would never forgive you after this. This was the end of your marriage, I thought.

How could I have been so stupidly careless as not to check to see if the call had been disconnected? I shut my eyes in abject confusion. Why didn't I just switch off the phone all together? I didn't want my marriage to die. I didn't want to have a broken home for my twins, but I knew there was no mercy to hope for from Hanan. I had betrayed her love too thoroughly.

The problem was Hanan trusted me. She loved me in a way I never thought it was possible for a woman to love a man. It was this love that made the situation extremely dangerous. If she had loved me less, I knew she would forgive me if I told her it was a weak moment. I was not a philanderer, as far as she knew. But another problem was Hanan was very smart, it wasn't every yarn she would swallow hook, line and sinker.

"Marwan", Hanan had called my name one late night while we were in each other's arms. I turned and looked at her. She never called me by my name ever since our twins had arrived.

"What is it Mai Twins?" I asked her.

"Please! If you meet someone else you love, marry her. Okay?"

To say I was speechless was an understatement. How many times does a wife advise her husband to marry another woman?

"Why would you even suggest that?", I asked, getting up "angrily".

"Please listen and please understand, My Em. I really, really love you. But I'll be more at peace if I could see with my own eyes who I'm competing with. It will give me better peace of mind, as against not knowing who it is. I love you, but don't cheat on me please", she begged.

"Haba! I don't have any intention of marrying again, talk more of cheating on you by having an affair", I replied.

That incident happened years ago. Now here I was, caught with my hands in the cookie jar.

Whether or not she ever managed to forgive me was entirely up to her, but the thing about trust is once it is violated, it will never be the same again.

I had made a commitment to her, and in fairness to most women, they honor commitments of love and will stand by their husbands no matter what misfortune befalls them.

My only hope now was to do everything possible to get her back.

Again, whatever I do may not be enough to win Hanan's heart back, but at least the efforts and the stress and the begging and the grovelling would teach me never to ever betray someone's trust again.

I remembered again how I made a promise to take care of Muhibba when she told me the story of how she was forced into prostitution in order to make money for her mother's hospital bills. It was a very tragic and pathetic story.

"I'm so happy we met", she had started after another explosive session. "You may not believe it, but you saved me and saved my life".

I rubbed her navel, and made a circular motion around it with my forefinger. "Common! I saved your life kuma?",I asked jokingly.

"Wallahi, you saved me from certain death. If I don't tell you, you won't know what I mean", she answered.

"Tell me baby", I said.

"My father had twenty seven children whom he sired through nine wives during his lifetime. He was a layabout and a wastrel that never did any work apart from marry, impregnate and divorce to remarry again", her tone was bitter.

I was lying on my left elbow so I could see her face in the dim lighting of the hotel room.

"I am number two, and as soon as he had successfully produced all of us, uncared for, he promptly died of diabetes. I never imagined I could be happy about another person dying, but wallahi as soon as my mother called to tell me he had passed away, I silently said Alhamdulillah! Little did we know he had also left us a huge inheritance, a flock of debts that eventually stripped us of the two houses, a piece of land and his almost stranded jalopy of a car", she paused and looked at me. "Am I boring you?" She asked.

"No" I said. "Keep going, I'm with you".

She sighed.

"Anyway, you know how difficult it is, taking care of my mom and most of the other kids. My elder brother is no use. In fact, he was the only thing my slob of a father got right: he sired the punk in his own image. Sani behaves exactly like our father, only he had a value added service. He is a thief, always in and out of trouble with the police. There was no food, no care, no clothes, nothing. We couldn't even afford to buy sanitary pads for our monthly flow…" she paused to catch her breath.

"As if that was not enough", she continued, "mom fell sick. Cervical cancer. We had no money to even carry out the basic tests. Meanwhile, I have had propositions from men since I was eleven. I knew there was something about me that men find irresistible, so as soon as the nickel dropped, by fourteen I'd been deflowered. I needed the money to treat my mother. The man had his way brutally with me and gave me five thousand naira. He left me all bloody, in pain and bruises. That was the beginning for me", she was sobbing.

I held her close to me and kissed her. "Don't worry baby, you didn't have a choice. I understand".

"No you don't understand. Before I could take the money home, my mother died. I remember thinking it was the nemesis of my fornication that killed her. She always warned me against s*x before marriage, telling me the outcome is God's anger and eventually being thrown into the everlasting fires of hell. I killed my mother", she concluded, crying very hard.

"Baby you can't really believe that", I said soothingly. "It was her time to die, and she died. May her soul rest in peace, but you didn't kill her. She died as a result of cancer. Okay?"

She nodded and we kissed again. The passion built up again, and before long we were moaning and twisting on the bed.

My mind came back to reality with a jolt. So all that had happened went straight into Hanan's ears? Or could I have been mistaken? Maybe she didn't hear anything, maybe the network connection came to my rescue and went bad. MTN was always f****d up anyway, so why not on this occasion?

All this while, Muhibba was looking at me. I guessed she was smart enough to know I needed some time to stabilize my emotions. It was not everyday a man's wife gotta catch him red handed as I was.

"Marwan", she said. "What are you gonna do?"

I looked at her, my mind blank. What was I going to do? How the hell would I know? As we sat like statues, wondering about everything, my phone rang. We both looked at the phone at the same time.

Mai Twins Calling…

Mai Twins Calling…

Mai Twins Calling…

I looked at the phone the way a child looked at a syringe while the nurse was doing the usual ritual before the puncture. The phone continued to ring.

"You have to answer", Muhibba whispered, and stood up to enter the bathroom. I motioned her to stay close to me in the room while I answered the phone.

The phone continued to ring. I reached out to pick it up. I slid the green call sign to answer and slowly placed the phone on my right ear. What I heard shocked me to my core.

*Hello baby!" Hanan said, cheerfully. What!!! Baby? Hanan? Cheerful? But how?

"Hell… hell… hello", I stammered a little.

"How are you baby?", She asked. That was another red flag for me. She had never called me "baby". Not when we dated, not when we got married, and I certainly did not feel like her "baby" right now.

"I'm fine", I said. I was being very cautious.

"Baby please yaushe zaka dawo? I miss you", she said.

"I want to come back today", I replied.

*Oh… I said "I miss you" but you won't even say you miss me too? Haba my love!" She said, "Please come back, I swear I miss you"

*How are the twins?" I asked.

"They are fine. They miss you too", she said.

"Please give them my love. Tell them I'll be back this evening".

"But the training is not over, is it?" She asked

"No it's not", I said, "I just wanna get back. It's boring".

"Boring kuma? I thought you're having fun", she said.

We both were quiet for the best part of a minute, before she broke the silence with, "I love you Marwan, sai ka dawo".

"I… love you too", I replied fearfully.

"Do you?" She asked.

"Of course I do"

"Okay then. See you when you land. My regards to her", she said.

"Your regards to who?" I asked.

"You know better", and with that, she hung up the phone.