To the members of our church and the General Overseer, I ‘m a Godly person but if Iyabo, my mistress who has two kids for me carries out her threat, I will be exposed.
Last week, Iyabo called amidst tears saying she was tired of being hidden away in Abeokuta with her kids while I live in Lagos. She complained about not knowing any member of my family and said she was worried that at my age she would lose out if anything happens to me.
I reminded her that she knew I was married we started and pleaded with her to give me some time.
As though they planned it, my other mistress, who lives in Ibadan, Lillian, is also insisting I must introduce her to my family. The son she has for me is named Tunji.
She burst into tears when I told her to wait. I was moved. I had not recovered from the verbal attack from Iyabo when Lillian did hers. And since I’ve been trying to do a reappraisal of my life. It has really been telling on my health. To make matter worse, the rounds of sex Lillian used as a bait to relax my nerve before lambasting me resulted in another pregnancy. She is expecting any moment from now.
At my age I should not be seen colouring the truth. I should call a spade a spade and nothing else. But can I? If I do, what’ll the General Overseer and the members of the Church think of me.
What also will Stella, my wife, and the four special kids God has blessed our marriage with, think of me? I’m really at a cross-road.
I met Stella at the office of the Corporate Affairs Commission. I’d gone to seek information on how to register a company. She attended to me in a very respectful manner. And I longed to know her better. She didn’t hesitate when I asked for her address.
A filial relationship began thereafter. And I was always visiting her at home. She observed one thing one day.
“I’ve never heard you talk about your wife…Don’t tell me at your age you are still single and searching.”
“Now that you’ve asked me not tell you I’m still single, what do I tell you then?” I said, laughing
“Okay, like you rightly observed, I’ve not been talking about a wife. You are very correct to conclude that I’ve no wife… I’m a bachelor…”
I was thirty-eight at the time. I almost decided I was not going to get married. I had lived with three different live-ins. Each of them spent about six months and when they thought they had had enough, they vanished into the thin air, taking along my money.
Stella apologised for making me remember those sordid experiences. One day Stella came to my office, looking really, really sad. I’d never seen her like that before.
I ushered her into my office and asked what the matter was. Without saying a thing, she handed me a letter. It was a sack letter. Why Stella of all people? I asked myself. I held her hands and asked for further clarification on why she was sacked.
When I pestered her, she said the personnel officer had for long been worrying her.
At the time I was employing people in my new office. I put the offer to her. She laughed.
“I can’t work for you,” she said.
“Why?”
“We are friends and…”
I succeeded in convincing her. She took the job and we began to see and know more of each other. She was a magnanimous personality. She was always winning big contracts for the company. I realised I was not getting any younger. I had to make hay when the sun was still shinning. I took her out for a lunch and dropped the bombshell.
“I think I love you.” I said after the meal. She was shocked. I never gave her the slightest impression that I was going to say a thing like that. I behaved as if it was just another lunch date.
“Please say something,” I urged.
“What do you want me to say?” She said angrily.
The following day Stella did not come to work. So, I went to her place after office hour. It was her father who told me outside that she was a bit under the weather.
When I got in, she was sleeping. I did not wake her up. Instead I went to a nearby supermarket, bought some provisions and a card. She had woken up by the time I returned.
“Femi,” she called me for the first time without adding ‘brother’, “have you been here for long?”
“Not really. Bit I decided to go get you something instead of waking you up…”
“What do I need them for?” she asked.
We got married three months later in her father’s then one-month-old Pentecostal church. Ours was the first wedding held there. For better, for worse; for richer, for poorer: we both swore.
Our first child was born exactly a year after our marriage. We were very happy. My business kept expanding. And I started travelling about. We opened a branch office at Elite Road, Abeokuta. Another was also opened at Isale-Osasami, Oke-Ado, Ibadan. I was frequently visiting these places despite having area managers. I was a workaholic, sort of.
I had gone to Ibadan shortly after Stella gave birth to our second baby, to monitor a contract we were handling. Somewhere around UI, I saw this beautiful lady. I could not control my eyes from admiring her plump stature. I beckoned on her and she answered.
That was how I met Lillian. She was then a part four student of Theater Art.
I asked her to go for lunch with me and she said yes. We went for the lunch and relationship was stamped and sealed. I never thought she would become a permanent feature in my life.
Unlike Lillian, I met Iyabo at a party at Isaga-Orile, an Egbado town near Abeokuta. I spoke to her and she fell for me. This happened a week after Lillian’s. She was then working with the Ministry of Education.
I felt I was lucky after winning her heart. But now I know I’m far from being lucky.
The other day Stella and I were watching a drama on TV; in which after the death of the protagonist, different women were showing up as the man’s wives. They all wanted to share part of his estate. But the drama climaxed with the detection that their claims were not original.
Stella’s comment on the drama was sharp and direct.
“But can a man actually have mistresses outside without the knowledge of his real wife? That man must be a very heartless person to have kept such an issue secret till death come calling… what do you think, Femi?”
I was thrown off balance by that question. To avoid any room for suspicion, I managed to say something. “God should always direct us to do that which is right. No man knows, only God has the ability to know all and do all.”
The words of the General Overseer, who also doubles as my father-in-law, always rings bell in my hearing.
“A true man should be able to stand by the truth always. No matter the condition…Even if it means losing so many things in order to protect the truth, never hesitate to do so. You can take the life of our Lord Jesus Christ for example, He lived and died for the truth. Please emulate this…”
Lillian is currently pregnant and when she is delivered, I’ll have four out of wedlock children; and the doctor keeps complaining I’m losing weight. Why won’t I?
I once thought of writing a letter, stating the details of my extra-marital affairs. The letter was supposed to reach my wife after I would have travelled to London. But the Bible forbids anybody to have extra-marital affairs. Christianity preaches one man, one wife. Why should my case be different?
I kicked against that idea to save my wife of the pains. If I were a Muslim, this would have not have created any problem. I surely ’ll find a way out. Old age, they say, is wisdom. Only pray that my wife should feel less pain.
