When someone you love dies – Part I
THE DAY BEFORE MY WEDDING
“Yo man! Your phone is ringing”, Luke screamed from the living room. “Answer it, tell the person I’m taking my bath, so I’ll call back later”, but I quickly changed my mind, “Luke wait, don’t answer it, check whose calling”, he screamed back at me, “Corona Virus’”, “Noooooooo don’t answer that call, ignore it or put it on silence, I dey beg waa”.
“Yo fam why have you saved someone’s number as Corona Virus? That’s crazy”, we laughed at the name and I said, “Its Emily, she was the one calling”, “Wow! Emily? The Emily? Your ex Emily?”, Luke looked very surprised. He then asked me why I asked him to ignore that call and I told him, “She’s been calling & texting for weeks now and I don’t know what she wants…
…this week has been the worst, I’m sure she heard I was getting married soon but I don’t want any distraction from no crazy woman or ex so I changed her name to that and I have been ignoring her since, bro I’m getting married tomorrow I don’t have time for any ex of mine”.
Luke looking confused, wondered, “Aren’t you at least curious to know what she wants? Maybe she just wants to congratulate you or something, bro, back when you guys were dating, everyone knew you guys were meant for each other, until you dumped her for Maureen, you no try koraa, why did you guys even break up sef?, you know what..it doesn’t matter, I guess everything happens for a reason.”
WEDDING DAY
“Hey man wake up!”, Luke kept yanking my legs on the bed, I opened my eyes and asked him what time it was, he said, “It’s almost 7am, do you want to be late to your own wedding? Lazy man get up!”, I was feeling very lazy to get up, Luke and I stayed up very late when we went out for my bachelor’s night party, and we came home at dawn.
There were lots of people in my house preparing for the wedding, everything was going according to plan until my security guy came to my room and delivered a handwritten letter to me, he said a lady came to the gate and said I was waiting for this letter. I excused him and he left.
The letter had no label on it, I thought it was a bank cheque, I figured someone wanted to send my wedding gift anonymously so I opened it.
CLEDRE WHY HAVE YOU BEEN IGNORING MY CALLS AND TEXTS? I’M GIVING YOU 1 HOUR TO MEET ME AT DE COCO LOUNGE DOWN YOUR STREET, COME ALONE, WE NEED TO TALK OR ELSE DURING YOUR WEDDING I’LL STORM THE PLACE AND TELL EVERYONE INCLUDING YOUR WIFE TO BE HOW YOU SLEPT WITH ME, GOT ME PREGNANT AND DUMPED ME. WE HAVE A BABY GIRL TOGETHER BUT YOU’VE REFUSED TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY, CLEDRE YOU KNOW ME, YOU KNOW WHAT I’M CAPABLE OF, I DON’T LIE AND I DON’T MAKE EMPTY THREATS, YOU HAVE LESS THAN AN HOUR TO SHOW UP OR HELL’S FURY WILL DESCEND ON YOU – EMILY.
Luke took the letter from me when he realized I was in shock, I started sweating, Luke sat me down and asked the $1 billion question, “Cle, you have a daughter?”, I didn’t know what to say, I had no answer to that question.
There’s one thing about Emily that I like, she’s never lied to me before and she never makes empty threats, so to some extent some part of me believed I might have a daughter somewhere. Emily and I shared a secret about something that happened between us 2 years ago, because of this secret I fear what she said might be true.
I started to panic, sweat dripping down my chin, I was literally feeling hot even though the AC in my room was working. I kept whispering to myself, “Why me?” “Why today?” “I can’t tell Maureen” Luke tried keeping me calm, “Calm down bro, she could be bluffing”, I pushed the curtains aside to check whether anyone heard us talking, thankfully there was no one there and I went back to panicking, “Bluffing? Who cares if she’s bluffing? Aren’t you paying attention? She said I have a daughter, Luke, a daughter, she’s accusing me of being a deadbeat father to a daughter I didn’t know existed until now”, I took off my shirt, my sweat was soaking it up.
“I’m getting married, I don’t need this right now, I love Maureen, I want to marry her, maybe Emily is bluffing, she could be bluffing for once, maybe she’s jealous, maybe she still has feelings for me, telling Maureen is a bad idea…” pacing the room to and fro.
“I’m going to ask you one last time, are you sure you want to do this?” with a stern focused face, Luke stared at me, I was so confused, I didn’t know what to say, I looked away. “Hey get your shit together, we have to find a way out of this, Maureen must never find out, especially not today”, Luke shouted at me.
Then he asked me, “When was the last time you saw Emily?”, “I don’t really remember, about a year or two ago at a mutual friend’s party, I didn’t k now she was gonna be there, us meeting that time was just a coincidence and after that day I never saw her again, something crazy happened when we met but it was an accident, I know what I did was wrong and I don’t want to make excuses but Maureen and I weren’t that serious like now, if Maureen finds out I have a baby, she’ll definitely call off the wedding…”
My tear ducts were getting heavy, I couldn’t hold onto my tears any longer, “…I know saying this might make me look like an idiot, but the truth is, I love Maureen, I really do and that’s why we’re getting married in less than five hours from now, I know marriages are built on honesty and I don’t want to lie to her, this bombshell is heavy but I don’t want her to cancel the wedding either, my parents would be disappointed in me, especially my Mom, she’s really fond of Maureen, plus I don’t want to test Emily”,
“Hey man, there’s no time for Mr. Lover Boy and the emotional shit you’re going through right now, we still have a decision to make right now, either tell Maureen you got another woman pregnant or call Emily’s bluff about storming your wedding, which by the way starts in less than five hours from now, if I were you I wouldn’t tell Maureen anything, I’d get married first and deal with Emily later, but it’s your call” Luke advised.
I sat in silence for about five minutes, then I said to Luke, “I’ll tell Maureen the truth, I know my marriage is at stake but I also don’t want to lie and hurt her, I don’t want our marriage to be built on lies, I don’t want to do this to her, I want to face the music and see what happens, in a way it’ll be like a test to see how deep her love for me is, Luke, you’ve been my best friend since high school, you’re practically a brother to me, you’ve always been there for me, you’ve given me some decent advise in the past but this time I’ll trust my guts and tell Maureen the truth, I made this bed so I must sleep in it, I made you my best man on this special day and I know you want what’s best for me but I have to show maturity and tell Maureen the truth”
MAUREEN’S CONFESSION
Luke looked at me in a way he has never looked at me and said, “Man… you’ve earned my respect, I just wish I was more like you, that was real talk right there, I won’t lie to you, you do all but if ebi me anka, charle I’ll get married first and tell the truth second”, just then the door opened, then Maureen walked in.
She had this emotionless face on, it was difficult to guess her facial expression, so I asked her, “Hey babe, what are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here, they say it’s seven years bad luck for the groom to see his bride in her wedding dress before her wedding”, Maureen was still walking towards me and staring at Luke, then I asked again, “Babe, what’s wrong? Did you hear anything? Were you behind my door eavesdropping? How long have you been standing there?”, just when I ended my sentence, Maureen jumped and flew across the room, opened her arms and gave me a tight hug, I almost fell down from the impact, then she started sobbing.
I was confused, so I asked her, “Babe, what’s going on?”, she answered, “I love you so much, I heard everything, all that you said, the decision you made got me teary, you decided to tell me the truth, and for that I really respect and want to get married to you right now”, I was stunned! I couldn’t believe my ears, I felt like a burden had been lifted off me, I kissed her and said, “Babe I love you, I love you, I really do, you’re so beautiful, I want to marry you right away, if a priest was in this room right now we’d get married and forget the ceremony, gosh you’re so beautiful even when you’re crying! You’re God sent my love”
I sat her down, “Babe let’s get this straight, I cheated on you and I just found out I have a baby with another woman and you’re saying you’ve forgiven me? She smiled and said, “Yes I forgive you, we’re imperfect beings right? We all make mistakes that requires forgiveness right? You wanted to know how deep my love for you was right? Well… now you do ‘cos babe I love you to the moon and back”, her voice was symphony for my soul.
THE BOMBSHELL
“Dre, babe, since we’re all being honest here, I want to tell you something I’ve been holding back for some years now, I feel it’s about time I told you, it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t tell you, and since I’ve forgiven you, I hope you’d do same…but please I’d need you to sit down first before I tell you”
I told her it wasn’t really necessary to sit down because I was brimming with happiness and I’m sure whatever it was, it couldn’t be as bad as what I did, but she insisted.
“Please take a seat”, she held my hand and looked straight in my eyes and said, “I also have a son with another man, he’s 3 years old”, I screamed, “WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTT!”
“Babe please calm down, please I need you to stay calm, especially for what I’m about to tell you next”, then Luke said, “Cle, I’m going to the washroom”, I ignored him and wondered why he would tell me that, when Luke left Maureen said, “Luke is the father of my son”
The first words out of my mouth were “Are you crazy? Maame gyae ruff na agro bi tumi ma nipa fᴐn”, she looked at me dead in the eyes and said, “No I’m not crazy! I’m so sorry babe, I’m just sharing my secret with you”
I got up for a second, walked around the room for like two minutes, I needed time to process the epiphany I just heard. I stopped pacing and sped off to the washroom, my first thoughts were to find Luke and beat him with my bare hands before asking him for explanations.
I remembered Luke saying he was going to the washroom so I followed suit. Maureen sensed my anger and what I was about to do so she followed me to the washroom but the door was locked, but that didn’t stop me, I kicked the door down only to see Luke’s lifeless body hanging from the ceiling, Luke was dead.
