BROKEN BUT BEAUTIFUL

Standing Trial In The Rain

Barely three months into my marriage, my hubby who had always been the financial rock lost his job in the bank where he was working at the time..

No explanations or reasons were given as to why, all he remembered was getting to work that fine monday morning like everyone else and he got an email asking him to return all the bank's property in his possession and leave the premises ; all effort to speak to his superiors proved futile because they were confused too, orders came from the headquarters.

He didn't even know how to come home and break the news to me, I mean we just finished a wedding where we were practically our own financiers, we were stretched thin and living on a shoestring budget.

All these and more were the thoughts on his mind, I believe, that he didn't realize that he was roaming the streets of Lagos aimlessly till night.

When he got back looking like something the cat dragged in, I knew immediately something was wrong.

My heart sunk, I was thinking a million thoughts but nothing prepared me for the news he brought home.

'baby, sit down l have something to tell you'

By the time he handed me a copy of the email, I was literally shaking. :Oh God, not now.. I fet like I brought him bad luck. Maybe I shouldn't have listened to him when he said we should take this to the next level.

Dating/courtship was so less complcated. Lol...silly me.

I just started crying and he joined me.

I held him closely, held his hands and prayed and told him, 'sweets, I'm here and we are winning' after all I had a job that would sustain us till he found his feet again.

But in that instance what I didn't know was that the universe was about to deal.us a hand that'd shake our very core!

A few days later after hubby was sacked, armed robbers came visiting. they practically stripped us of everything and even people's monies I had in my possession. These guys came prepared, they had an emissary who took our ATM cards to the slot machine, while the others waited with guns to our heads (I have never been that scared in my life) and the monies they took according to them was ransom for my husband's life,

I didn't even think twice, even while my hubby was still telling them stories, I have handed over all our cards both activated or not. LOL

My friend, after that encounter, we went from a hundred to sub zero like from this young couple with a bright future to one without a dime to their name. We literally fed from hand to mouth that period because we had bills piled up to pay.

I recalled one of those times when things got so bad that we couldn't afford rent , I resorted to hanging around the office premises, I would roam around and when everyone had gone home, I'd stack up old cartons and sleep on the old newsroom floor,.

Then this day, a colleague who was on duty walked into me with shock and disbelief pm her face she said.,

without exaggerating, these were her first words 'heeeeey, Idara no be you just marry which day so? Now now, you don leave your husband come sleep for ordinary ground for work? Abeg if na so marriage be, ma just dey single jejely!' I laughed.

Later on when I told Emem, he cried like his heart would fall out of his chest. He kept apologizing to me that he had failed me and he was going to make it up to me.

What we both didn't know was that this was a season film and we had just started the first episode….

After we lost everything and didn't have anywhere else to go, Emem and I understood the real meaning of 'success has many friends and failure is an orphan'.

Everywhere we went to for help, we were treated like lepers.

Here we were, a young couple, no money, no friends, the rent was almost due and there was no hope of getting funds to renew our tenancy contract.

We tried everything humanly possible and when it wasn't leading anywhere, decided it was time to swallow our pride and like the prodigal son go back home to our folks.

It was a hard pull but at this juncture, it was a case of 'If we perish, we perish'.

I wouldn't even want to get started on all the drama, accusations and counter accusations plus pleas from our pastor before we were allowed back into my husband's old room, the one he shared with his twin brother before we got married.

But it was a big relief for us, I mean who are we to complain, half bread was better than nothing.

With our tails tucked between our legs and heads bowed in humiliation, we moved what we could move from the old place, gave out the rest for space and went back home.

Settling back in was hard, especially when you were being reminded of your failure at every turn.

One evening, I was resting in the general sitting room area, exhausted from thinking , working overtime and everything else in-between, I think I must have been dozed off, then I felt a hand tap me gently on the shoulder. I opened my eyes and it was my father in law (God rest his soul) , he asked me to go and sleep inside that I looked like hell.

As I moved to walk past him to our room, he called me back and said to me 'Idara, did I not tell you not to my marry my son?'

I turned around in disbelief and shock , everything in me didn't want to believe what I just heard, he didn't flinch, instead he asked me again, : 'did I not ask you to leave Emem alone and go your way?'

' I know you think hate you but I don't, you are like my daughter but I must tell you the truth, your suffering just started, you'll be his 'husband' and he'll be your 'wife' in this marriage since you have ears but you have refused to listen.'

He said it and walked away leaving me standing there like a statue with my mouth opened like a fish.

Yes, my father in law said that to me and no, it wasn't a joke.

You see I dated Emem for seven years before we got married and in that seven years, even though we sometimes had our moments, I was the sister they never had.

Everyone loved us together and they couldn't wait to see us take it to the next level.

That was why it came as a bit of an unbelievable shock to us when he officially took me home to tell his father that it was time for us get married and his father said , I can't marry him.

He told me pointedly that his son will never be a husband to me and that if I went ahead and encouraged him n that madness, I'd regret it because, he had high expectations for him and an ordinary Ajegunle girl wasn't his idea of a wife material.

And what did I do?

I decided against all odds to marry him, after all this was the love of my life. The only man I have ever known intimately. He loved me and I loved him too and I'll be damned if I let anyone tell me to walk away from this. It was like walking away without my heart, I'll die!

I refused to tell anyone in my family what my father in-law said to me , because I knew my mother would lick against the union.

We planned the marriage rites, which was supposed to take place in my hometown in Akwa Ibom state.

My father in-law didn't bother to come with us, instead, he sent his younger brother. Emem and I were too young, naive and in love to understand the implication of my father in-law staying back.

We got to the village, did the marriage rites, came back to Lagos and the horror started exactly three months later.

That saying that 'when it rains, it pours' was so apt at that point in our lives.

My hubby didn't just lose his job, armed robbers came calling in the middle of that same night , took everything we had in our savings and what's worse…I had an accident and broke my leg the very next day!

But, I was determined to beat this. I loved this man too much to leave him when he was at his lowest, especially not a man like Emem who gave me everything and always went away empty and happy.

I knew if the tables were turned, he would do the exactly same thing for me.

Many people ask why I love him with my very essence ..I'll tell you in the next chapter.