Jungle justice

Who wouldn’t be miffed?

A husband you have married for over forty years!

A man you had committed your whole life to

The father of your children

A man you married at the age of 22

Your own man!

How come she never even suspected him?

Not even for a minute?

Was it even possible?

Was it a joke? A prank?

Was she getting upset over nothing?

Of course not!

As a woman, her instincts were on full alert

Her husband was up to something!

When she got home that night

She called her children

She told the married one who lived about 30 minutes drive away to come home for an emergency meeting

She called the other two, both single and still living under her roof to return home for an emergency meeting by 8pm

They all got home on time for the meeting

She had just served her husband his dinner and waited for him to be done with his meal before broaching the topic with him

She approached her husband at 9pm

She said “I got a strange phone call today from your cousin, the one in Belgium, he told me that he was shocked one of my daughters got married and he was not invited. At first I thought he was joking, I started to explain to him that none of our daughters had gotten married and he took offence! He said he was looking at the pictures on Facebook, the Father of the bride was unmistakable, it was you! He also recognized the bride because she looked so much like you but he couldn’t recognize anybody else!”

At that point I took him seriously and I began to ask him certain questions. He spoke very freely at first but he became cagey and coy as he began to deduce that I was probing him for information. I want to ask you now, before your children, do you have a family apart from this one?

He looked at her, picked the magazine he was reading and walked out of the sitting room

He didn’t even say a word

Not one word!

The children couldn’t believe it!

How could their father not say even a word?

Their mother burst into tears

His reaction had confirmed her fears

She had been married to him for years

She knew his body language, his non-verbal communication

He was guilty!

Their first son’s heart was broken by his mother’s reaction

How could their father do this?

How could their father plot such a dramatic way to send their mother to an early grave?

He went to meet their father in the garden

They had always been best friends, himself and his father

He was hoping they could talk like men

Find a way to handle the mess!

When he got to his father

His father was on a phone call

He was so cheerful!

So happy!

How could somebody whose wife of forty years was in misery be so relaxed!

His father had never been a callous man

What had come over him?

His father patted the seat beside him, motioning to his son to sit down

He took his time

When he rang off, he turned to his son and said “Your mother has no proof! Don’t be troubled!!!

He didn’t know what to think

Absence of proof does not indicate innocence

His father was practically saying “I did it but you can’t prove it”

“What sort of man would do that?

To his wife of forty years

The mother of his three children”

WOW!

He couldn’t even say a word

He waited for a while and then he left

He had a good wife and a nine-month-old baby at home

The very next day

His mother called again

She promised she would kill herself and her husband if he does not confess his misdeeds

He took her very seriously

His mother had a fatal streak he was very much aware of

She could do and undo in her state of mind

He rushed home

He saw his mother pacing the floor

Walking frantically and talking to herself

As soon as he got close enough to his mother

His father walked down the stairs

He knew his father had been lurking in the shadows

Waiting for him to arrive so that he would use the opportunity to escape without engaging his mother

It worked

The moment his mother wanted to rush at his father

His father bolted for the door

He held his mother, “Mummy please, mummy please” was all he could say

His mother was like a raving loon

Her eyes all red

The hair on her head and body standing erect

He had never seen anything like it

His father never came back home after them

He claimed their mother had lost her marbles and she had become a danger to the society

It drove their mother crazy even more

She couldn’t be convinced he had not relocated permanently to be with his second family

She continued to heave and sigh

She was sure she would kill him if she set her sight on him in one breath

And she would cry and call his name to come home in another breath

She was really tormented by his absence

The children knew where their father was but nobody dare tell their mother the truth

The man was occupying the penthouse of one of his hotels

He claimed he cannot stay at home and simply wait for an unhinged woman to take his life

Anyone who tried to tell their mother this automatically became her enemy

She just couldn’t bear the thought of their father leaving her for an empty room

There must be a woman there

Any woman will do sometimes

But the second wife from the other family was her ultimate consolation

She would curse, swear, cry and speak woe to the day that “husband snatcher” was born

It took three months

Eventually the extended family called a meeting

They wanted to know what was going on

Their mother had done all her investigations

She had it all worked out

She would nail the cheat!

The D-day came

The meeting started

Their father arrived quite early

He was unruffled

Their mother surprisingly comported herself

She didn’t throw any tantrums

The family members came

The head of the family arrived last

He was eighty-six years old

The meeting started

Their mother spoke first

She had gathered evidence

Their father had a factory in Benin

He went there almost every fortnight

That was where he met and married the strange woman

The woman had three children for him

The woman’s first born was a few months younger than her own second child

The illicit affair had been going on for over twenty-three years

The first child of that union got married recently

Her husband was there to give away the bride

He also spent so and so amount at the wedding

Her husband had cheated on her for over twenty years

He had a second family

He had other children

She would like the elders to judge if she had been treated fairly

The elders listened

When it was her father’s turn to speak

He was all smile

He said “I must confess that I have put my family through a lot all in the name of fairness,

I wanted so badly to do the right thing that I found my own neck in a noose of my own making!

Why are we here?

My wife, my own wife, the woman threatening to bring down hell on my head for siring other children with another woman in Benin knows for sure I am not the biological father of my three children!

She thought I would never find out

But I did!

I met my wife through my elder brother

He was the one that promised me heaven and earth if I married her

As you all know my elder brother was a man of means

He was a millionaire by the age of 24

I was just finishing from the university at the time

My wife was his secretary

I fell in love with my wife and married her

But I didn’t know that my elder brother and I were tending the same garden

I travelled to Benin one day and met a beautiful woman

She wanted to be with me

But I was married!

I rushed home to be with my wife

I guess I arrived home too early

I saw her and my elder brother on our bed

She told him she was pregnant with his second child

They both laughed and made plans

I got into the car and drove back to Benin

I also had a ready lap waiting for me

I never made mention of it

Not even to my elder brother

As you know, my elder brother’s marriage didn’t produce any children!

I inherited all he had after he and his wife died tragically in a motor accident five years later

He told me the truth on his death bed

He made me promise that I will treat her and her children as my own

He also included the instruction in his will

I was instructed to hold everything in trust for my brother’s children

And I did

As soon as the first child clocked 25 and the last clocked 21, I handed over their properties to them

I was merely a caretaker

I cared for my brother’s properties in his absence and also for his children

My own family was in Benin

Starved of my presence and affection for this woman and my brother’s children whom I love and consider as my own

God had blessed me too in the course of the last twenty years

I had built my own businesses and God blessed me with a kind woman

So, I gave off my daughter in marriage!

Since when was that a crime?

I had patiently waited for the opportunity to spend time with my wife

I knew if I leave a moment too soon, this selfish woman could harm her and my children

She had grown more and more selfish over the years that all I do is pity her

But now that everything is out in the open, I know my wife and children will be safe”

Nobody said anything afterwards!

His “wife” had suddenly lost the urge to seek redress

She sat there, lost somewhere inside herself

The children were shocked!

WOW!

The eighty-six-year-old elder waited for like five minutes

He didn’t say anything

He walked slowly back to his car

One by one all the family members left

Only the five of them remained

Their father, legs crossed with a wry smile on his face

The children whose realities were turned upside down in one afternoon and

Their mother whose sudden Peter like tears streamed down like Ikogosi waterfalls

Their mother: So while two of my own children are still unmarried, you were marrying off your own children

Their father: Hahahaha

He: Mummy, shut up!!!! (He didn’t know where it came from, it just came!) He had more respect for his father than ever before! Rarely would one see a brother so faithful!

Any other person would have done everything to keep all the properties to himself and maltreat his unfaithful wife!

His father didn’t do that

He kept the properties for them and he really brought them up as if he was their father

He walked to his father and prostrated “Thank you sir”

His sister followed suit, they knelt down and thanked their father

Their father then did something shocking

He went to their mother and hugged her!

She cried bitterly

He cried too

It was obvious that they really loved each other

She couldn’t imagine life without him

But he was way beyond her reach!

He left later that night!

Ps: He remained their father

They couldn’t see him in any other light

Their mother found a way to cope

It really hurt her to be without him

He came around once in a while

But things were never the same between them

Their mother still couldn’t bring herself to accept his wife and children

This event happened in Akure, Ondo State