Broken | ✓

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE: IRONY

                              Ireti
Plot twists has to be life’s favorite part of its existence. Like the name, it twists you and sometimes snaps your neck. That was how I felt when I saw that scar on Jide’s back. I could tell that scar apart in a sea of people. After all, I had slept with it since the incident. It had haunted me every night ever since, reminding me that the person who ruined me was roaming free while I lived imprisoned.

“Ireti, Ireti” Ifeoma shook me, sprinkling water on my face.
I opened my eyes slowly, took a minute to soak in where I was.

“Are you alright?” she asked concerned.

I shook my head, standing up.

The taxi man was still there, he carried a horrid look.

“Can you please pay him?” I motioned to the taxi man, stepping in.

I collapsed on her three-seater cushion.

“Ireti” Ifeoma tapped me and I began to cry.

How was I so close to my rapist that I couldn’t figure him out? I always thought if I were to ever be in his presence, I could fish him out but then again, I had no memory of his face just the scar on his back. When I sighted the scar, everything came running back to me, the structure of his body and the back of his head which was exactly Jide’s because he was the one who raped me.

“I saw that scar” I broke the silence.

“Where?” her eyes flew out of her sockets.

I heaved a breath.

“You know you can tell me” she persuaded.

“On Jide, it is Jide’s”

“Who is Jide?” she appeared confused; her brows furrowed. She was browsing through her memory files.

“Jide” she gasped, her hands on her mouth. She finally got it.

“And I slept with him” How ironical.

“What if it was just an awful coincidence that he has the same scar as the man who raped you?” she suggested.

“I wish to God it is, but the policemen did say the scar was unique to him and when I watched him walk out that door, it was just like that night Ify” I shivered.

How could it have been that the Jide who searched my eyes earnestly for consent last night was the same one who denied me consent five years ago. Was I in a parallel universe and this Jide belonged to this universe?

I thought I had finally found my one, the missing piece to complete the puzzle that was me. Maybe that was why he didn’t care about me being a rape victim because he had raped someone before. Was I the only one? He did say he had a rough past and was a drunk, maybe his rough past included his rape victims.

“I don’t even know what to say” she was tongue tied.

“What are you going to do now?”

“I don’t know” I answered. I was in love with this man, he caused a ruckus in my stomach. What was I going to do?  I had been harboring the idea of killing him when I found him and when I did find him that idea crept out of my system leaving me blank.

“Shouldn’t we at least confirm?”

“The scar is enough confirmation Ify” I half yelled.

“What if he wasn’t at that bar that night? What if the scar was a recent one?” I could tell that she too was hoping that we were both just stuck in a nightmare.