Dabira's Diary

27

Thursday 24th April

Dear Diary,

This holiday was the absolute worst.

From the moment I got home till today that I finally get to return to school, there has been tension
I noticed there was a problem when Mummy came to pick me up from school alone and then when I got home Daddy was home but he left immediately he welcomed me back home

“Mummy is everything fine?”
She pretended not to hear what i had just asked so I took that as a hint to drop it, for that time at least

After the first day, I didn’t see Daddy again for like 2 weeks and I was honestly getting worried but whenever I asked Mummy about him she would either say he was busy at work or she would change the subject

I received the worst news on the Friday before Easter. Usually we have this family tradition where we fast and pray throughout that day but I woke up to see that Mummy was already eating at 8am, she never did that before and that worried me
“Mummy aren’t we supposed to be Fasting today?”
She didn’t say anything at first so I asked again but before I could finish my question
“It’s your Father’s family tradition and it has nothing to do with me anymore”

I didn’t understand what she meant by that but I could see that she wasn’t in the mood to explain further so I stood up to go back to my room when I heard the sound of a car horn at the gate and then after a while I heard a knock on the door which brother Iyanu rushed to answer and I almost fainted when I saw the people at the door

Aunty tutu came in with Daddy following directly behind her but that wasn’t the shocking part. She had a slightly protruding belly and I didn’t need anyone to tell me that it was pregnancy, even if the belly wasn’t that big yet and Daddy looked really pitiful, he had lost weight and he no longer had any light in his eyes

I turned back to look at mummy and I could tell that it was taking her all not to collapse right there and then
“I thought we agreed to talk over the phone from now on” Mummy said coldly
“That would only be possible if you actually picked up the phone” Daddy replied
“I’m not interested in talking to you just yet”
“We need to come to a conclusion because there are a lot of things at stake here”
“You are free to make your decision without me”
“We both know that’s not possible, I have to know if you’re okay with tutu joining us or…” he paused and looked at me like he just noticed I was there “Dabira please excuse us for a moment, the adults need to talk”

I stood there for a while not really understanding what was going on until brother Iyanu took my hands and dragged me out of the sitting room

“I want to hear what they’re talking about” I whined
“Then you need to be quiet”
I didn’t get it at first but eventually I realized that he was talking about eavesdropping. We went close to the door that led to the sitting room from the corridor and crouched quietly and listened

“Why are you asking me? you’ve obviously made up your mind about marrying her” Mummy’s voice was breaking, like she was holding back tears and it really broke me to hear her sound like that
“You know I have no choice”
“You had a choice at the very beginning”
“I already told you, it was a mistake and I regret it”
I could only imagine how aunty tutu would have felt after hearing that 
“Too bad regret can’t turn back the hands of the clock”
“It’s a family tradition, I have to marry her”
“And you want to know if I’m okay with you bringing another woman into the house as a second wife”
“I-I-I” Daddy stammered making it obvious that Mummy was right
“Fine, let me make things easy for you” she paused for a bit before continuing “I have no intention of living as a co-wife especially not with someone that I used to call my sister, you guys are free to live a happy life together”
“Temilade, I am so sorry that this happened”
“But let me make one thing clear, I don’t give a damn about your family’s tradition about you taking the children. Iyanu and Dabira are staying with me”
“But my family tradition makes it compulsory that the children stay with their father, that’s why I’m getting married to tutu”

I tried to keep myself from opening the door and giving him a piece of my mind but brother Iyanu didn’t mind, he opened the door and walked right into the sitting room

“You have no right to tell Mummy that”
“Iyanu were you eavesdropping this whole time?” Daddy asked but brother Iyanu ignored his question and continued talking
“You hurt her in the worst way and now you want to take the only two people in this world that would never betray her”
“it’s an Adeyemi-Davies family tradition”
“Is sleeping with and impregnating your wife’s sister a part of that tradition?”
“Don’t you have any respect?”
“I only respect people that deserve it”
“How dare you talk to your father like that” Daddy was furious and he rose his hand to hit him but Mummy stopped his hand midway and that’s when I started crying

Brother Iyanu came to my side to try to console me and Mummy had definitely had enough drama for one day
“Get out, both of you”
“We aren’t done talking”
“We’ve come to a decision, anything else we might need to talk about would be communicated through my lawyer”
“But Lade…”
“You no longer have the right to call me that, I’m Engineer Temilade to you. Now get out of my house”
“But…”
“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten already, this house belongs to me”
She called the security man to escort them out of the house and slammed the door

“Iyanu, your father will always be your father. Don’t disrespect him like that again” And with that she went to her room and slammed the door
*****************************

Resumption day was so uneventful

Mummy dropped me off at school but she didn’t come with me to get my things checked, Brother Iyanu came with us so he helped me with my things and stayed until I signed in
“Are you good?” He asked to make sure I was okay
“I’m just trying my best to be happy for Mummy’s sake”
“Me too, but it’ll be fine”
“How do you know that?”
“Honestly, I don’t” he smiled lightly “but we have to believe that everything will be fine”
He gave me a hug and rushed back to the car

I carried my things into my dorm, when I got there I realized that I was the first person to resume and I was thankful for that. It gave me the opportunity to sit down, think and plan out my term

It probably won’t go the way I’m planning it buy a girl can dream right?...