His Other Family

Chapter 3

Ivy

I woke up exhausted, that what happens when you spend majority of the night thinking about where your husband is instead of sleeping. I can’t be late for work, I need to hurry up and rush to work. Today is going to be a very busy day for me, I have multiple births happening. Being a successful obstetrician at one of the biggest hospital in the country can be very stressful and at the same time very fulfilling. Yes, I have been able to achieve my dream of becoming a doctor, I can’t say it was an easy journey, but I thank God for seeing me thru and for providing people along the way who supported me in various ways. Looking around the house I realizes Sean didn’t come home last night, he doesn’t know I know about them, then again there are a lot of things Sean thinks I don’t know about and some things he doesn’t know about me, but such is life. Do we ever know the person we are living with completely? During the first year of our relationship, I was going to tell him about the money I received from my parents’ accidents but my best friend, Liz, advised me against it. “Hey babes, how is school and everything going?” Liz asked me as soon as I picked the call, I chuckled, it just like her to rattle off questions as soon as the call is connected. “Everything is fine school wise, but I have been debating about telling Sean about how rich I am but for some reason I can’t bring myself to tell him” Liz was silent after hearing what I said, which was quite unusually for the talking bee. “Liz. Liz are you there” I inquired thinking maybe the call had dropped or something. “Am here Ivy, just thinking about how to say what I want to say nicely.” I shake my head remembering how Liz doesn’t really care for Sean, she has her views about him and she hasn’t been shy about letting me know how she feels about him, so am quite surprised she is thinking about how to say something nicely about Sean. Now I was very curious to hear what she has to say. “Ivy, you know how I feel about Sean, I truly believe you can do way more better than him. I feel there is something not quite right about him, but let me ask you this why do you think you haven’t been able to tell him? Is it that you don’t trust him?” Liz questions had me thinking, why haven’t I been able to tell Sean about the money, is Liz right do I not trust him enough. “I honestly don’t know Liz, part of me is scared about how he will react and treat me, and maybe there is some trust issues there too” I admitted to my friend. “Well, I will tell you not to tell him, he might show you his true self eventually” I laughed, this is so like her, so distrustful of the male species after her first boyfriend cheated on her with one of our friends in high school. “You’re right am just going to keep it to myself for now and see” I tell her, that was almost 19 years ago and I still haven’t told him up to now.

I barely made it to work for my first appointment of the day, but thank God traffic wasn’t too this morning. The hospital was so busy that I was on my feet the whole day I couldn’t wait for the day to be over so I can go home and enjoy a nice hot bath. The day went by fast and soon enough I was on my way home. I still haven’t heard from Sean, knowing him, he will be home pretending everything is fine. We have been pretending in this marriage for a long time that it has become second nature. Me pretending I do not know about his other family, it really sad how our lives have come to be. I remember when we finally got married, I had so much hope and dreams for us, dreams of filling our house with many children, but after years of trying we still haven’t been able to have a baby. There is nothing I wouldn’t give to have my own baby, life is truly unfair sometime, we have done all the medical testing in the world and the results are always the same, there is nothing wrong with either of us. Then why can’t we conceive? This question has been on my mind all the time. All the medical doctors advised us to try In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) around 10 years ago but Sean had been against it since then. Always coming up with excuses as to why we should be patience and trust in the Lord since there is nothing medically wrong with either of us. In the beginning I felt so loved by him and was so happy that he wasn’t in a rush for us to have kids and he was contented with it just been the two of us while we wait on the Lord. Looking back at it right now what a fool I have been, off course he was contented he knew exactly what he had planned to do. I pulled into the driveway and get out of the car and enter the house. Sean is in the living room watching the news, I look at the wall clock to see that is 7pm, I walked pass him and go upstairs for my much needed soaking bath. I know he will be upset that I ignored him but at this point am not interested in having another fight over where he was last night, it not like he is going to tell me the truth anyway. As I was getting my bath ready I hear foot steps coming up the stairs, I prepare myself mentally for what to come. “Didn’t you see me in the living room?” he started. I looked at him for awhile debating which route to go with this line of questions, I decided to play the fool to see how far he will go with it. “I did see you..is anything the matter?” I asked him. He looked at me with confusing on his face. “why didn’t you greet me then” is he seriously asking me that, wasn’t he the one suppose to welcome me home since I came home to meet him there. When he come home and am home already am the one that always welcomes him. “is there any reason why you wanted me to greet you?” I asked him feeling exhausted with him already. He looked so upset after my question I thought he was finally going to leave me alone, boy was I wrong. He started screaming “what is the matter with you Ivy? Why are you trying to cause a fight?” I was shocked by his outburst how am I the one trying to cause a fight, the last I checked, he wants to play games alright lets play. “are you doing all this because you didn’t come home last night?” the shock on his face after hearing my question was priceless, I had to really control myself so I wouldn’t laugh. “Ivy, I know you are upset that I didn’t come home last night, but as a caring wife have you bothered to find out why I didn’t come home?’ Is he serious right now as a caring husband did he sent me a message to tell me he wasn’t coming home? Looking at him right now is making me quite upset. “Are you seriously trying to flip this on me? I was home waiting for you! You decided not to come home or send me a message! Listen am not doing this with you right now okay” He looks at me like it the first time he is seeing me, and honestly I do not blame, usually when he pull these kinds of sh*t I just ignore him, which I was planning to until he decided he wanted to act up. “I’m..I’m.. Ivy am sorry about last night, I was entertaining clients and lost track of time, I should have called you or send you a message.” This fool must really think I was born yesterday for him to give me this lame a*s excuse, seriously that is the best he can come up with. “Hmmm, interesting” Sean looks confused, I guess that wasn’t the response he was expecting but at this point am over this pointless conversation and his lies. “Is that all you are going to say?” what else does he want me to say, does he want me to tell him where I knew he was last night. “Listen honey, am exhausted, had a busy day at work I need to relax not fight with you about your where about last night okay, let me soak for a bit then come and make some dinner for us okay?” I tell him wanting him to leave me alone. “Don’t worry about dinner I have made your favorite, hurry up with your bath so we can have dinner, and Ivy love am sorry” he tells me, I knew he already had dinner ready I could smell it when I first walked in the house. “okay dear I won’t be long” I hope my breathe and pray he will leave the room. He walks out and I let deep sigh, why is he always sorry but does it again, am honestly getting tired of the game we seem to be playing. I get into my hot bath and try to relax for a while before going down to dinner. As I enter the dinner room I see the table has been set with candle lights and wine. With one eyebrow raised I asked him “are we celebrating something?” Sean chuckles “No dear, I wanted to have a romantic dinner with my lovely wife?” here we go with the pretenses, acting like everything is normal. “hmm. Okay, can we eat am starving” we eat dinner and he tries to have a normal conversation with me but honestly am too tired to pretend we are okay. I finished my dinner and offered to do the dishes but Sean asked me to go relax seeing how exhausted I am. With a nod of my head I get up and head upstairs, as soon as my head hit my pillow I was dead to the world.