*"Couples Issue" - Chapter 2: Second Chance*
1329 Words
*Tags: Drama, Serious, Urban, Second Chance*
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The first night without them, the flat sounded wrong.
No Kemi asking “Daddy, story time?”
No Kunle running and bumping into the wardrobe.
No Amaka in the kitchen arguing with the gas.
Just generator noise, and Tunde’s breathing.
He sat on the floor of the bedroom at 3am and looked at the empty side of the bed. Amaka’s wrapper was still on the chair. Her perfume was still in the air.
He called her 14 times. It went to voicemail.
He texted: _“Babe I’m sorry. Come back. Let’s talk.”_
Delivered. Not read.
Chike was snoring in the parlour.
---
*Week 1: The Cold*
Tunde went to Ngozi’s house. Big mistake.
The gate man told him “Madam said you should call before coming.”
He waited 2 hours outside in the rain.
When Ngozi finally came out with an umbrella, she looked at him like he was dirt.
“She doesn’t want to see you, Tunde. She’s staying with me and the kids are in school. Don’t come here again.”
“Is she okay?”
“She’s better than she was with you.”
He drove Chinedu’s Uber all day and cried in traffic at CMS. A passenger asked him “Oga are you okay?” He said “AC is cold.”
Amaka moved her hair stock to her mother’s house in Ibadan. She posted on her IG: _“Taking a break. Will be back soon.”_
Customers started asking: _“Aunty are you okay?”_
She didn’t reply.
---
*Week 3: The Church*
Tunde’s mother called from Benin.
“Your wife called me. What did you do?”
“Nothing, Mama.”
“Don’t lie to me. A woman doesn’t leave with two children for nothing.”
He went to church on Sunday. First time in 2 years.
He sat at the back at CCC Surulere and held his head. When they did altar call for “broken homes,” he stood up.
Pastor prayed for him. People prayed for him.
After service, one elder, Baba Segun, pulled him aside.
“Brother, marriage is war. But God gives second chances. Go and do 40 days prayer and fasting. Go and see a counselor. Show her you’re serious.”
Tunde did it.
He fasted. No food until 6pm. He wrote Amaka letters and didn’t send them.
He fired Chike from the house.
“Pack your things, bro.”
“Ah Tunde, where will I go?”
“Anywhere. I’m tired.”
Chike left with one Ghana-Must-Go and anger in his eyes. “You’ll regret this.”
---
*Month 2: The Meeting*
Amaka agreed to meet him. Public place. Chicken Republic, Ikeja.
She looked different. She cut her hair short. She was wearing trousers. She looked like the Amaka he met in 100 level. Strong.
The twins were with Ngozi.
“Babe—”
“Don’t ‘babe’ me.”
Tunde put an envelope on the table. 90,000 naira.
“School fees. I borrowed it. I also paid for next term.”
Amaka didn’t touch it.
“I got a job, Tunde. Sales rep. 120k. Ngozi’s husband’s friend.”
Tunde’s chest dropped. “So you’re leaving?”
“I’m thinking.”
He told her everything. The therapy. The church. Chike being gone. How he was driving and saving.
“I messed up. I know. But give me a second chance. Not for me. For them.”
Amaka cried. First time he’d seen her cry since she left.
“I don’t trust you.”
“I know.”
“I’m scared you’ll do it again.”
“I won’t.”
She took the envelope.
“I’ll think about it.”
---
*Month 3-6: The Rebuilding*
She came back.
Not all at once. First, weekends. Then she moved 2 clothes back. Then she slept one night.
It was awkward. They were like strangers paying rent together.
Tunde cooked. He learned how to braid Kemi’s hair from YouTube. He took Kunle to football on Saturdays.
He didn’t drink. He deleted all the girls’ numbers. He gave Amaka access to his phone.
Amaka was still doing her sales job. She came back late. Tunde didn’t ask questions. He just warmed food.
For 4 months, it worked.
Neighbors said “Ah, they’ve settled.”
Pastor said “God has done it.”
Even Ngozi stopped calling for 3 weeks.
Tunde proposed again. Not marriage. He proposed _us_.
“Let’s start over. New budget. New rules. No secrets.”
Amaka nodded.
They took a picture. Same spot as their wedding picture. They put it beside the old one.
---
*The Rot Returns*
But a nest with a snake in it doesn’t become clean because you change the sheets.
Chike didn’t disappear. He was bitter.
He moved in with Tayo, Ngozi’s husband’s younger brother in Magodo. And he started talking.
First to Tayo: “My brother is beating his wife. That’s why she left.”
Then to people at the bar: “Amaka is selling hair with another man’s money.”
Then he made a fake IG account and commented under Amaka’s business page: _“Don’t buy from her. Her husband is a cheat and a thief.”_
Amaka’s sales dropped 60% in one month.
“Who is doing this?” she asked Tunde one night.
He didn’t know. But he suspected.
He went to Magodo to find Chike. They fought in the street. People recorded. Police came.
Bail was 50k. Tunde used the money he had saved for rent.
He came home that night with a torn shirt and a black eye.
Amaka looked at him and saw the old Tunde. The angry one. The one who couldn’t control things.
“I thought you changed,” she said.
“I did! That’s my brother! He’s trying to ruin us!”
They didn’t fight. They just went to bed facing opposite sides.
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*Month 7: The Last Good Days*
They tried to pretend.
They went to Kemi’s school PTA. They smiled for pictures.
They planned Kunle’s birthday.
Tunde even took Amaka to Lekki for ice cream.
At night they would lie in bed and not touch.
“Are you happy?” he’d ask.
“I’m trying to be,” she’d say.
The second chance was hanging by a thread. And both of them knew it.
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*The Night Before The End*
It was a Wednesday. NEPA took light.
The estimated bill came: ₦18,700.
Tunde had ₦3,200 in his account.
Amaka had ₦11,000 from sales.
“Why didn’t you pay it?” Tunde asked.
“I thought you did. You said you collected money last week.”
“I used it for bail!”
“And I told you not to go and fight your brother!”
The twins started crying because the fan was off and it was hot.
Tunde raised his voice.
Amaka raised hers.
“YOU’RE JUST LIKE YOUR FAMILY! ALWAYS CAUSING PROBLEMS!”
“AND YOU’RE JUST LIKE YOUR FRIEND! ALWAYS TELLING YOU TO LEAVE!”
Tunde lifted his hand. He didn’t slap her. But he lifted it.
Amaka flinched.
In that second, 6 years, 40 days of fasting, 90k school fees, and all the ice cream in Lekki meant nothing.
Because she saw fear in her own eyes.
Tunde dropped his hand. “I didn’t—”
“Don’t touch me.”
She walked to the room and locked the door.
Tunde sat in the dark.
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*End of Chapter 2*
The next morning, Amaka was gone again.
But this time, she didn’t say “second chance.”
She said “I’m done.”
She left the wedding picture on the wall.
She took the new one down.
Chike moved back into the parlour 2 weeks later.
And Tunde learned that a second chance only works if both people believe the first one was a mistake.
Not a pattern.
- Writer
