What Happened To Helen

The Beginning

It was dark outside as though it was about to rain. Helen had lost track of time, and Michael had just returned home from a movie location. He was away for four weeks and three days, working on a movie, and he was tired like he always was most evenings after spending the day working.

     Helen had been writing, as usual, working overtime as her manager and publishers had been on her neck to make her get her sixth book done. She had experienced writers' block a few weeks back, an obstacle that seemed impenetrable for most writers, and it had taken her some days to break through the barrier. Michael was expecting to come home to dinner as he had missed lunch earlier that afternoon due to his unplanned trip from Abuja to Lagos - the second time in that month - and all he wanted was to have dinner with his wife and rest but Helen would have none of that as she needed all the time she could get to finish her sixth novel. She had been like that before they got married two years ago, writing one book after another, and this had started to tell on their marriage.

     Michael, on the other hand, was away most of the time - either moving from one movie location to another, engaging in projects, or replying to his fans on his different social media accounts. They always have heated arguments whenever they were together, with Michael threatening to file for divorce and Helen running off to her friend - Nonso - with tears in her eyes. She would get back home to realise her husband had left for another movie location. Helen wished for them to have a child, Michael wanted that too but being the most sought-after actor, having a child at that moment was out of the equation for him.

     The discussion that had started well between the couple that evening quickly escalated into another heated argument. Helen looked on silently in tears as Michael tore her manuscript and smashed her laptop on the floor. She saw her once calm and gentle husband turn into a shadow of his former self. Michael was in a complete rage, screaming at the top of his deep, masculine voice as Helen just stood there, staring into space, struggling to take in everything that was happening. She loved her husband right from when they were teenagers and wouldn't forgive herself should she lose him, she needed him then more than anything else.

     Michael was burning with rage. He wanted to spend quality time with his wife but she would rather finish the fifth chapter she had been struggling to write for almost a month. To Helen, scripting novels was more important than anything else, even her marriage, and this broke Michael whenever he thinks about his wife and her dedication to writing. He loved Helen, there's no doubting that, but he felt she was no longer the woman he fell in love with and got married to.
     One day, they both admitted that their once happy marriage had fallen apart, and they silently agreed to sleep in separate rooms. Michael chose their bedroom, while Helen spent most nights in her library in the basement, writing, reading and making research deep into the night till her fingers hurt and she couldn't continue anymore. Months after their wedding, Michael and Helen had suffered a tragedy: Helen miscarried, and that had torn them. Since then, Helen was never the same while Michael was too terrified to try again, lest he make his beloved wife go through such heartbreak again.