Husband Snatcher?

It was her friend’s husband that reached out to her.

(She said she wanted this to be emphasized)
She was not the kind of woman who loves to share her man or who would stoop to the point where she would be labelled a husband snatcher!

Her friend went to the UK for a two weeks course,
and refused to return home after two weeks, claiming it would be a waste of her six months visa and ticket money to return home so soon.

The poor man was left all alone to cater for three children.
He drove down to her house, asked her to intervene.
“Please help me talk to your friend, she needs to return home, our children are suffering”
She listened to him, saw his frustrations.
She called her friend
“Friend, what are you doing? Your husband is hanging by the thread here. When are you coming home?”
Her friend laughed off her concern.
It brought tears to her eyes.
There she was, a lover of children with a strong desire to have a good home, she had neither.

 And her friend whom God had blessed with such a gold hearted man was taking all her blessings for granted.

When she got to their house the next day, she found him bathing his two year old daughter! The four year old twins were struggling to dress up by themselves. 
The man was practically teary eyed!
She helped him dress the children while he ran to the kitchen to dish their breakfast. 
By the time the children were set for school, he had dozed off!
She could only imagine what he had been through all night. 

She left him there at the mercy of Hypnos and took the children to the mall. One day away from school won’t hurt them!
He was still asleep by the time they returned four hours later.

She helped him tidy the house and cook some meals.

When she got home, she called her friend and told her the state of things.
Her friend apologized and promised her she would be home within the week.

Her friend stayed put in the UK.
It got to a point that her friend’s husband took her to the children’s school and registered her with the School authority as a guardian with the mandate to drop them off and pick them up after school. 

At first the children kept saying stuff about their mummy. “When my mummy comes back, she will take me to such and such’’, “My mummy will buy me this and that from the UK’’

As days rolled into weeks, the children spoke less and less about their mother.
She was the one who sacrificed her time and adjusted her architectural business to suit the needs of the family.
 She was the one who bathed them, helped them with their homework, told them bedtime stories. (Whenever their father was out of town and she had to stay over), she nursed them when they fell ill.

Finally! It was six months,
Her friend still did not return.
“What are you doing? Why are you doing this?”
Her friend never had any tangible thing to say. Sometimes she would blame her country and the government and state of the nation, comparing everything she left behind with the wonders she was experiencing and how much she wouldn't dare return home, if she could help it.
The first time her friend’s husband looked under her hood was by sheer happenstance.
They had been drawn close by the proximity of their condition and it was inevitable that social spaces would be shared. 
She was a little bit under the weather and didn’t turn up to help him with the children that day. Immediately after he dropped the children at school, he came over to her house. He acknowledged the role her sacrifice for him and the children must have paid in her illness, and promised to find a solution soon.
She was tired of defending her friend by that time. What could she say?
He was about to leave when he caught her longing look in his peripheral vision.
She really didn’t want him to go.
She didn’t say anything.
He sat down!
She offered to make him some tea and quickly raced to the kitchen.
She needed to collect her thoughts.
What was she doing?
Before she could breathe in and out and settle into “My Friend’s Husband” mode, he was behind her, he turned her around slowly and kissed her.
It felt so good!
It felt so bad!
She kissed him back!
He pressed home his advantage.
She wanted him too.
Within the hour, the hood was open and he was tinkering with all of nature’s beautiful delicacies.
She cried afterwards!
What had she done?
They were both adults
It would be just that once.
It wasn’t so.
His pitcher kept coming to the river to fetch and her river continued to flow in abundance.
By the time her friend had been gone for one year, she was three months pregnant!
They moved to another neighbourhood and explained the development to the children.
They loved it
She was their new mummy and they will be having a younger one soon!
Somebody told her friend!
Her friend remembered she had a husband and children at home.
Her Friend returned!
But there was no home for her friend to return to, there was no husband and she had become a stranger to her own children.
Many people started calling her names on the social media. Her friend kept ranting and raving and cursing! Nobody bothered to ask her friend why she deserted her family if she really cared.