The Lives We Lived

63: The Legend

In two years, this was the latest Kemi had arrived at the office. At 10:35, she ambled into the office on autopilot and walked to the old cubicle she shared with Ijeoma.

Seeing someone else on her seat awakened the part of her mind that had ignored her office problems. She carried herself out of the office, yawning as she ignored Kehinde’s gibberish greetings. Once she was in her new office, she took off her thick sunshades.

Sleep had evaded her last night in the guestroom of Adesewa’s house. She had tossed and turned until she fell into a short dreamless sleep.

Then she woke up.

Everything was strange.

She reached for Osa on the other side of the bed and then she remembered everything; his cheating and lies. The tears she tried to hide from her sister and brother-in-law fell freely until she dozed off with tears in her eyes.

As soon as she settled into her seat, a call came into her phone. She glared at the thing ringing on her desk, hoping it was Osa, even though she knew she would not pick his call.

He had called her all through the night so she switched off her phone. That was how she missed her alarm because she had turned off everything entirely. All sounds. All notifications. Everything.

It was Efe’s name that flashed on the screen. She wanted to ignore it because she knew Osa would  use his cousin to reach her. He had tried to use her sister but Sewa had ignored him. Sewa’s husband had told him to stay away and give her time to cool off. How could she cool off when he had betrayed her like that?

“What is it?” Kemi screamed into the phone.

“Good morning to you too, Kemi.”

“Tell him to leave me alone.”

“Shioor. Are you fighting?”

Kemi shook her head. She had never known Efe to be as manipulative as this. Was he really pretending that he didn’t know what was going on? It shouldn’t surprise her though because he had refused to tell the truth from the beginning.

“Efe, I know you know what is going on. Stop pretending.”

“I’m only calling because I did not hear from Osa yesterday. Did he get home safely? He’s not picking my calls.”

Kemi’s voice broke mid-sentence. “He’s always not picking your calls. I thought you were my friend. I saw you as my brother. Why did you not tell me Osa had another wife?”

Efe’s silence was more than enough confirmation that he knew and had kept it from her.

“Why?” The tears started to flow again. “Just why?”

“I wanted to tell you. Osa told me not to. He made me swear.”

“You should still have told me. Do you know how much of a fool I looked like yesterday when that woman came to my house and I told her she was lying? Why did you even fight for me and Osa to be married if you knew I wasn’t good enough–”

“This was Mama’s doing. She–”

“I don’t want to hear you blame Mama. She’s already got what was coming for her. But you and Osa ehn.” Her fingers hovered over the end-call button.

“Wait. Please, there’s a bigger problem.”

Kemi shut her eyes and the tears flowed down. She wiped it off with the back of her hand, wondering what other thing Efe would reveal.

“Some men from the bank came and gave us a quit notice. They said they are reclaiming the house.”

Kemi rolled her eyes. She was about to give a nasty retort when the door handle started to turn. “I’ll call you back.”