Tiwa The Therapist (Vol 1)

fourteen: "... a minute to soak it all in"

Fourteen

"...a minute to soak it all in"

It took about a minute to let it all soak in.

'What the hell?'

"Oh! I recognize that expression," she smiled as she pointed at my face. "That was the same expression I had on my face when I confronted Rotimi about his sexual violation and his response to me was a dry, 'aren't we engaged?'" she turned around and laughed softly as she walked towards the window.

"So, what did you do?"

"What could I have done, It was my first time in Paris and he sponsored the entire trip besides, even if he hadn't, where could I have gone? who could I complain to? the same friends and family that wouldn't stop bugging and calling as soon as they saw me posing at the Eifel tower? and did I also mention that I was pretty young and stupid at the time? besides, he kept spoiling me with gifts whilst convincing me that having a baby wasn't the worst thing in the world; he was still the mysterious and enigmatic man I met at the party, so I believed every manipulative stunt he pulled. like the stupid idiot I was." She paused to rub her bare shoulder, refusing to tear her gaze from the view of the busy Lekki bridge.

"So, what happened next?"

"We didn't leave Paris until we discovered that I was a few weeks pregnant."

'Oh Wow!'

"How did you feel?" I asked.

"Think of the worst emotion and multiply it by a billion, that's exactly how I felt. You know the worst part, Tiwa?" This was the first time she called my name in a narration and it felt good to see that she acknowledged my presence because it meant that she wasn't lost in her chaos.

"What was?"

"You see,I begged this man secretly to keep the pregnancy a secret, I told him about a major gig I was praying to get and he told me that he perfectly understood; but would you believe that this man went on live TV at a conference in Paris that had reporters from all over the world to announce the pregnancy and when I confronted the psychotic bastard in tears, he kept saying it slipped and that he was just so excited. What kind of excitement makes you drop a major personal news like that on Live Tv?" She threw her head back for a minute and sighed, "Well, I should have left after all of the red flags right?"

"But you didn't, you stayed and I perfectly understand why you would. The Internal and external pressure and validation would have been too overwhelming for you to make a decision in that moment."

"Exactly." she smiled. "It's good to know that someone else understands" She sniffed back what sounded like tears and when I offered her tissue, she declined. "It's been so hard to bring myself to tears these past few months, maybe I need it to flow, thank you."

"I understand, and you can take your time to process it all before carrying on."

"No," she shook her head, "I've taken more than enough time to process it, I think I'm more than ready."

"Great. So what happened after the public pregnancy announcement saga?"

"Nothing much, except from the mere fact that I slowly began to watch my life go down the drain."