After the storm (24 page)

"Thanks." She attempted to walk past him, but he held onto
her arm.

"Baby,
please don't shut me out," he pleaded. "Do anything you like to me,
but please don't shut me out of your life."

She
tried to tug her hand free, but he held on tightly.

"Baby,
please…"

"Let go
of my hand, you're hurting me."

He let
go but stood there, blocking her exit.

"I have
a headache, Akeem, I need to lie down." With that, she moved around
him and walked into the second bedroom.

Chapter
13

The
tears finally came in England, and once they started, Yemi found
them hard to stop. It was as if a dam had burst open inside of her,
and she wept for days. She tried to keep her crying bouts from
Aleena, but sometimes her daughter walked in on her and would wrap
her little arms around her protectively, as if to shield her.
Aleena thought Yemi was missing Akeem and told Akeem over the phone
when he called. Aleena asked him to come and join them in London so
that her mother could stop crying, but Yemi firmly told him not
to.

Abby
called her often. Yemi had confided in her. She felt she needed to
talk to someone other than her family about what had happened, and
Abby had been like a rock to her since then.

"I'm
praying for you, Yemi," Abby said to her one day when they were
speaking on the phone. "I'm trusting God to heal your heart of
every pain."

"Please
leave God out of this, Abby!" Yemi snapped. "How could He have
allowed this to happen to me? What did I ever do to deserve
this?"

"I don't
have all the answers." Abby's voice was quiet. "But this is the
period when you need to just hold on to Him and trust
Him."

Well,
she was certainly not going to do that. She had tried to be a good
person all of her life and had never gone out of her way to be
nasty to anyone, yet she had been dealt such a raw deal: in-laws
who hated her, and now an unfaithful husband. Maybe Akeem was
right. Maybe there was no God.

Tola
visited her frequently. She attributed Yemi's dark moods to her
recent loss and tried as much as possible to cheer her up. She had
finally given in and had gotten engaged to Tobi. He came with her
occasionally, and Yemi tried to put on a brave face while they were
around.

She
struggled to understand why Akeem had cheated on her and his
betrayal cut deep into her heart. He had promised to protect her
from his family, but had not been able to protect her from himself.
She would have also felt better if there had been signs to show
that he had been cheating, but she could not think of any, and to
her, that even made it more dangerous. He could very well do it
again, and she wouldn't be any wiser about it.

But as
painful as it was, she decided that she would stay on in her
marriage. She wanted to give her daughter as stable a background as
possible. Aleena adored her father. Maybe when she grew up, she
would find out that her idol had clay feet.

Even
though she made up her mind to remain married to Akeem, she felt
she needed some sort of independence from him. She knew she also
needed to get busy because despite her resolve to stay married,
thoughts of leaving Akeem still crossed her mind several times a
day.

The
thought of starting her own fashion house began to appeal more to
her, and she did some research. Owning her own fashion house,
rather than getting a nine-to-five job, would mean a flexible
schedule that would allow her to be there for Aleena. Plus, fashion
designing was what she was really passionate about anyway. She had
made her parents proud by studying a course she felt they would
like, became a full-time homemaker because of Akeem, but from then
on, it was going to be all about her and her daughter.

∞∞∞

Akeem's
eyes swept across the grounds of his parents' country home. They
were having their annual family picnic, which always coincided with
the anniversary of his father's death. They had the picnic the day
before the anniversary and then had a more formal family dinner the
next day.

His
mother always went big on the preparations. They invited their
close family and friends, and everyone generally had a lot of fun.
He looked across at his cousins, who were sitting under a picnic
umbrella. They had already beckoned to him to join them, and he had
indicated that he would.

There
were several other picnic umbrellas, some of which sheltered other
adult relatives and under others were the younger teens and kids.
He could see Adil's boys and Nadia's son playing some sort of game.
Nadia's son was too young to follow the game, but he was making up
for it by giggling as he watched the older kids. Akeem felt a stab
in his heart as he thought of his son, but he pushed the thoughts
away. They were too painful.

His eyes
moved across the grounds, seeking out his wife and daughter. She
was sitting with Aleena. Aleena was giggling, and Yemi had an
answering smile on her face as she listened to whatever it was that
she was saying. Her sunglasses were perched on top of her head, and
she looked chic in her cropped white chino pants and orange flowery
cotton top, but then his wife always looked good no matter what she
was wearing.

For a
moment, his heart flared within him as he looked at her. He missed
her so much. All she seemed to care about now were Aleena and the
plans for her business. She froze him out at every opportunity, and
she was showing no signs of the coldness thawing any time soon. She
had initially refused to attend the picnic with him until he told
her he was going to take Aleena with him. She had argued angrily
with him, but he had stood his ground until she grudgingly agreed
to join them.

He
wanted them to present a united front to his mother. He didn't know
how she had gotten the information, but she knew that there was
more to the story of Yemi's miscarriage than what they had told
her, and she was also aware that they were having problems. He knew
her suspicions would have been confirmed if Yemi had not come with
him.

Coral
had appeared genuinely sorry for what had happened that night at
the restaurant. She had tried to call and see him several times
since then, but Akeem had declined her calls and visits. He took
full responsibility for what happened. Just three days of
indiscretion, and he had lost not just his baby, but now his
marriage also stood on the line.

Yemi
glanced at him, and their gaze locked. Time and space seemed
suspended as they looked at each other. He pleaded with her with
his eyes. She had loved him like no one else, and he wanted it all
back, would do anything to have it all back. She dropped her eyes
back to Aleena and he knew that she would not be looking in his
direction again.

He felt
so frustrated. He didn't know how to tear down the walls that she
had built between them. He still didn't know what was going on in
her mind. He had even gone to the extent of getting Sara to
try to find out what she was thinking.

"She is
hurting, Akeem, hurting and angry, but I don't think she has any
plans to leave," Sara had told him. 

That had
brought him some measure of relief, but the possibility still
haunted him.

He
watched as Adil's son walked towards Yemi and Aleena. A few minutes
later, Aleena went off with him to join the other kids. Akeem
looked at Yemi's face as she looked after Aleena. He knew she would
have wanted to hold on to her because she did not have anyone to
chat with now. She slid her sunglasses over her eyes and stood up.
He decided to go over to her but just then, he heard his name. He
turned round to see Fadel walking towards him. He waved at him
before his eyes returned to Yemi. She was now making her way
towards the house.

"Hey,
good of you to come by," Akeem said to Fadel as he drew closer.
"Where's Sara?"

"She is
taking a call in the car. She should be here soon." He dropped into
a chair. "Phew, is it hot or what!"

"Yeah,
the weather is boiling," Akeem agreed. He was happy that Sara had
come. She would be company for his wife.

"Everyone seems to be having fun," Fadel said, looking round.
"Where's Yemi?"

"I think
she just went into the house."

Fadel
looked sympathetically at him. "How is she doing?"

Akeem
shrugged. "So-so. She's a bit better but still not talking
much."

"Just
hang in there. Hopefully she will come around soon. But have you
thought of going away? Just the two of you? We can look after
Aleena for you."

"I've
suggested it a few times, but I got a firm 'no' from her every
time."

"Keep
trying," Fadel said somberly. "She'll come around sooner or
later."

Akeem
hoped so, even though he wished he were as sure as Fadel
was.

∞∞∞

Yemi
walked into the main house after asking Kufre to watch Aleena. The
weather was hot, and she wanted to just sit inside for a while. But
besides that, being with the Kadiris was not her favourite way of
spending her time. It was made even worse now that things were so
stiff between her and Akeem. She had tried to keep her countenance
happy since they arrived at the Kadiri country home the day before,
but she could hardly wait to leave.

She felt
like having a cold drink and made her way to the kitchen. The
domestic staff were in the process of making dinner. She got the
drink she wanted and went back to one of the smaller sitting rooms.
The house was even bigger and more imposing than the Kadiri family
home in the city, and Akeem's father had obviously spared no
expense in making it the palatial abode that it was.

She took
a long sip of her cold pineapple juice and leaned back in the sofa.
It had been almost three months since she lost her baby. The pain
was a little less now, but she had learnt that it took very little
for it to surface. Sometimes it was the sight of a newborn baby or
some other innocuous thing, and it would be like she was struggling
thorough a thick maze of darkness that threatened to swallow
her whole.

She had
replayed the weekend that Akeem had come back from that trip to
Abuja over and over in her mind. That was when he had bought her
that very expensive diamond necklace with the matching earrings.
Those had been the most expensive pieces of jewellery he had ever
given her, and for a generous man like Akeem, that was really
something. She now hated the sight of them so much that she had
separated them from her other jewellery until she could decide what
to do with them. But she knew that she would never wear them
again.

Yemi
looked up when the door of the sitting room opened, and she
automatically stiffened at the sight of her
mother-in-law.

"Oh, you
are in here by yourself?" Mrs. Kadiri asked with raised brows.
"Aren't you enjoying the day?"

"I just
thought that I would sit here for a while. It's a little hot
outside." She hated the fact that her heart rate still increased
anytime she saw Akeem's mother.

Mrs.
Kadiri pursed her lips as her eyes swept coldly over Yemi, but
thankfully she left the room without saying another word. Yemi was
happy to see her go.

A little
while later, she got up to use the bathroom. Just as she was about
to enter, she froze as she heard her name. She knew she should turn
around and go back, but she could not get her feet to obey her. She
recognised the voices: her mother-in-law and her mother-in-law's
younger sister, Aunt Kande.

"She has
been acting like a ghost since she arrived here yesterday." Akeem's
auntie's voice was heavy with spite. "She keeps to herself and
hardly talks to anyone."

"I know
all is not well with her relationship with Akeem," Mrs. Kadiri
replied. "I was not even expecting her to show up here this
weekend."

"Well,
it serves her right for barging into a family she knows nothing
about."

"Exactly
my feelings." Her mother-in-law laughed maliciously. "Being a
Kadiri takes more than her wearing a couple of rings on her finger.
She will never be a part of this family…"

Yemi had
heard enough. She started to walk away but stopped herself
abruptly. She was tired of being intimidated by Akeem's mother. She
had come to use the bathroom, and that was what she was going to
do. She pushed the door open and went in. The ladies fell silent,
but there was no guilt on their faces. Rather, there was a
malicious look on her mother-in-law's face, as if she couldn't care
less if Yemi had heard any part of their conversation or not. Yemi
ignored them and went into one of the bathrooms. A few minutes
later, she heard them leave.

A cold
anger welled up within her. She hated the woman just as much as the
latter hated her. In fact, not just her—she hated the whole Kadiri
clan. Yemi would have gladly granted her mother-in-law's wish to
see her gone, but she had Aleena to think about. For her daughter's
sake, she would continue to bear her marriage.

∞∞∞

"Say
hello to Sesan for me," her mum called out as Yemi got into her
car. "Tell him to pop by and say hello to us soon."