Choices

by Nsinem Ukpoho

  Valerie had never felt as alone as she felt when the door slammed shut and Alfred was gone. How did things get this bad she thought to herself as she lay down on the bed. She turned and lay facedown as she cried into her pillow.

  Miles away, Valentine could not keep still. He would sit down, then get up, pace and eventually sit and then get up again. He was so excited and at the same time, he felt a little guilt over what he had done. Valerie’s husband may have taken care of his son for the past seventeen years but he Valentine Owoh never gave up his rights on his son and that was something he would exert, “Oh yes”, he said out loud, “he is my son”.

  He went back to the couch and picked up his wine glass; red wine was always his favourite any day, any time. And today he was in a festive mood; although a bit perturbed over Valerie’s silence, he was expecting her to call or something. There is no point of worrying he said to himself, “they will have to respond to my summons”, he said out loud. Just as his thought drifted to Susanne, he wondered how she was faring. He was surprised at her actions. Susanne he knew, loved him too much to let go so soon and without a fight. “Well, works for me”, Valentine said aloud as he raised the wine glass to his lips.

  Thirty minutes later, he must have dozed off when the sound of his phone ringing woke him. He picked immediately when he saw the caller’s name on his phone’s screen. “Hello,” he said into the phone. Five minutes after, Valentine set the Samsung phone back on the couch. Sleep had been chased far away by what he just heard. Valentine sat up not believing the new twist. He couldn’t believe the turn of events.

  CHAPTER NINTEEN

  Papa Benjamin, as he is fondly called, must have sensed her mood because he did not say a word to her as he drove her home.

  Alfred has been giving her the silent treatment ever since he read the summons. He had stopped sleeping in the same bed with her and eating at the table. Valerie has never seen him so annoyed and as she sat at the back seat, she knew that things were far from being resolved.

  When she alighted from the car, Papa Benjamin told her that Alfred was in his private living room with his parents and the family lawyer. Valerie knew Alfred’s private living room was always used for private and extremely confidential meetings, and this meeting venue made her nervousness increase. Immediately she walked in, she was instructed by Alfred to read the magazine. The magazine was on the center table. It had her face and Alfred’s plastered on the cover. Valerie immediately sank into the cushion and opened the magazine. When she put down the magazine minutes after, she couldn’t bring herself to look at anyone in the room.

  “Valerie”, Alfred called, “I have to ask because we don’t want any more surprises. Is there anything else I need to know?”, Alfred asked. “No”, Valerie said, her voice barely audible. “I want you to listen to the Barrister because after his final briefing, he will leave”, Alfred said. Everyone turned to look at the Barrister. Barrister Peters Peters in his early 60s represents Alfred’s family. All Valerie knew about him was that he was a very stern man that knew his onion. Barrister Peters cleared his throat,” appearing in court will result in the press having more fuel for their fire. The only way the story they have now will die away is if we keep this case quiet. I advocate for an out of court settlement, I will take care of all the formalities tomorrow. Asides from the press, Mr. Valentine Owoh has legal rights over Zeal. He is after all the biological father and according to all the facts he never gave up his rights. So to ensure you don’t lose your son”, Barrister Peters said focusing his attention on Valerie, “we have to go for an out of court settlement. Is that acceptable by everyone?”, Senator Richardson Slyvester Adegbola answered in his impeccable baritone voice, “yes, it is acceptable”. The Barrister rose from his seat and everyone got up too. Senator Richardson stretched out his hand across the table and the Barrister who was sitting directly opposite took it.

  Alfred’s mother, Bimbo Richardson shook hands with the Barrister and Alfred walked over to the Barrister and took his hands and they both walked out.

  Valerie turned and faced her inlaws, “Mummy, Daddy”, they both turned and fixed their cold eyes on her, “I am so sorry about everything. I didn’t mean for all this to happen”. They both stared at her and still didn’t say a word. Valerie dropped the Chanel purse she was clutching onto earlier as a lifeguard on the floor and kneeled, “I never meant to hurt Alfred. He has been my all. I would never have...”

  “You would, you took the love he has for you for granted, you opportunist”, Dr Bimbo Richardson Adegbola cut in.

  Alfred’s father finally spoke, “Ife, there is no need to start calling names”, her husband’s words seem to have calmed her because she sank back in her seat.

  “Mummy, Alfred is my husband and I would never do anything to intentionally ridicule him. It was a mistake I swear”, Valerie said. Dr. Richardson stood up to her 5 feet 7”; a beautiful woman by all standards, she had an air of sophistication and elegance about her and the quality that was more glaring aside from her beautiful features is the fact that she was a social snob to the b. Dr. Richardson moved from her seat to where Valerie was kneeling, “I feel sorry for Alfred but maybe he deserves what he is getting. I told him not to stoop low; marrying a poor and wretched pregnant girl was something I pleaded and pleaded with him not to do. But my son defied me and married you. There is a reason why people should not marry outside of their social class. Alfred is just starting to experience the reasons”. Dr. Richardson walked out and her husband followed.

  “We need to talk”, Alfred said. She raised her tear-stained face to see Alfred sited in a cushion adjacent to hers. Alfred waited till she cleaned her face with the handkerchief he offered to her before he spoke, “I want to know everything that happened right from the time he came back into the country. Please this time, try the truth”.

  Valerie couldn’t bring herself to look at him so she looked down as she started; “ I ran into him at a supermarket. He was as surprised as I was. We decided to meet somewhere and talk. I had to know for sure if abandoning me was his plan all along. I never planned for things to escalate to this point”, Valerie pleaded. When Alfred did not say a word, she continued”, he had questions of his own. The first day we met I told him everything, from my father dying to the circumstances surrounding our marriage. He was so surprised. He told me that he was told I was pregnant and married. He never knew that the pregnancy was his” she paused but Alfred still did not contribute so she continued. “We did not get to finish our discussion because I saw your mother and panicked and left. We may have met that one time if we had gotten to finish our discussion, Alfred then cut in “so you are now blaming everything on my mother”, he asked, raising his voice. “I am not blaming your mother”, she pleaded. “It’s just that she has always disapproved of me so I just panicked when I saw her. I just felt she would read meaning to our meeting”, she sat in silence for a while, “get on with it”, Alfred said, “we don’t have all the time in the world”.

  “We met again but it was in Valentine’s hotel room. He was having a meeting there. We just didn’t want anyone to run into us again. I just wanted to talk. I wanted closure, Alfred. He told me everything that happened to him. How he sent his friend the phone, laptop and money but his friend was never around to collect on time. Months after, he got worried and came back to find me but he never did. What he heard was that I got pregnant for another man and got married”. She was not sure Alfred heard anything she just said because his facial expression didn’t change. “I was so happy to know that he never abandoned me, it was good to know that I was not imagining the love we shared”.

  Valerie got off her seat and knelt in front of her husband, “Alfred I am so sorry. You must believe that I never set off to hurt you. I don’t know what came over me. I realized what I had done after ...”, Valerie broke into tears. “So how long were you going to keep the news of your pregnancy from me. If that magazine did not publish the story of your pregnancy, would you have kept i
t to yourself?” Before she could answer he cut in, “Dear wife, don’t you know what they say about pregnancy?

  It doesn’t hide.” Alfred got up and took her by the arm and led her to a seat, “sit down, you know you are a pregnant woman so don’t kneel on my account”. When she was properly seated he went back to his seat.

  “So Valerie, tell me something, you didn’t see any other laboratory to go and take a test apart from marvel’s laboratory. Don’t you know there must have been a reason I refused to do business with him all these years? The man is unscrupulous; he has sold vital information of some dignitaries that went to his laboratory for medical tests to newspaper and tabloids. Valerie, you succeeded in washing our dirty linen in public. The whole world will now know that my wife is a whore”,

  The words Alfred uttered were like an arrow plunged into Valerie’s heart. The tears she had been holding back just rolled down her cheeks, “I’m sorry”, he said. What Alfred didn’t know was the fact that it wasn’t the name he called her that was responsible for the tears that flowed down her cheeks. What was making her heart bleed was the knowledge her actions had turned Alfred into; a man he himself wouldn’t recognize.

  When she had stopped crying and had cleaned up her face, Alfred spoke again, “are you still in love with him? Is that why you did it?”

  Valerie decided to choose her words carefully because what she said next might make things worse. “Alfred when I set my eyes on him for the first time after all these years my intention was not to cheat on you. I just wanted to know what happened. I was curious, I wanted to know if my heart deceived me. If the love I thought he felt for me was all a lie”, Valerie said avoiding Alfred’s gaze that was fixed on her. She looked down at her hand that was clutching her bag to her tightly. She continued, “for God’s sake, I was in love with the man all through my childhood. I wanted him to tell me why the love he professed to me countless times died like that. I swear to you I never planned on sleeping with him but when I met him I couldn’t stop myself I was drawn to him. I tried to fight it with everything in me, I even ignored his calls and text messages but it was stronger than me. The day it happened I went to tell him he should stop contacting me because it was affecting my marriage but things went out of control that day. I meant to tell you about the pregnancy but I wasn’t sure ...” her voice trailed off. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything else. The sound of silence was even more difficult for Valerie to bear; she lifted her head and met Alfred's eyes that were still fixed on her. “Let's get one thing straight”, Alfred started, “I am not going to let go of my son without a fight. I love that boy, I raised him. Where would that lover of yours find him. If I had not stepped in and taken care of you and the entire members of your family? He should have at least come to see me and talk to me like a man. This issue could have been resolved peaceably if he had acknowledged me and respected my family, except Zeal is not the only person he wants to claim. So I ask you again, are you still in love with him?” When Valerie opened her mouth, she couldn’t utter a word, Alfred shook his head. Tears just flowed down her cheeks and the disappointment and disgust that was clearly visible on Alfred’s face broke her heart.

  “So why then did you ask for a DNA test? Wasn’t it obvious, he slept with you once and you got pregnant. What made this time different. Is the difference the fact that you are legally married to me and you slept with both of us during the period of your ovulation. You disgust me right now”, Alfred said getting up from the chair. He strode to the door and with his back to her, he said,” I don’t care where you go but I don’t want to come back and see your face”.

  Alfred’s words landed like a bomb. In a few seconds, she was beside Alfred pleading, “please forgive me, I didn’t mean to do it. It was a mistake. I don’t know what came over me. Alfred, please don’t throw me out of our home”. Alfred turned to face her and Valerie’s heart broke at the sight of Alfred’s tears-filled eyes. “I should not throw you out of your home, do you think you belong here after what you have done?”

  I also thought I had a place in your heart; I went against my mother’s wishes and married you. I turned a deaf ear to all the advice my siblings gave concerning my marriage to you. They all had different reasons but it all boiled down to the fact that I could do better. I can’t still understand what also came over me. I married you, adopted your son and took care of both of you and your family. You have disgraced me, Valerie. How do I face my peers, they will now know that the boy I have been dotting on all these years is not my son. They will all think me impotent. Please, just leave so that I can think clearly on how to keep my son, I can’t think clearly with you in this house.

  Alfred walked out and didn’t look back, Valerie walked back to the cushion and sank into it. She sobbed, all the composure she had mustered during the meeting peeled away and she sobbed silently the way she did eighteen years ago when her father passed on.

  Zeal knew he was privileged, even though most of his friends were within his social circle he still knew that there were people that were not born with silver spoons. What Zeal never experienced was the unpredictability of life because his life had always been stable but today it shattered in ways that shook him down to his soul.

  He wasn’t one to read gossip columns but when Benita dropped her Samsung tablet in front of him while he was reading at the amphitheatre he wished gossip magazines should be banned, but after meeting his mother at his uncle’s house he felt faint. Even with the AC on, he was still feeling disoriented and hot.

  The look in her eyes and the words she uttered to him will forever be imprinted in his mind; he didn’t understand the look he read in her eyes. Was it regret or was it anger or shame? His father had refused to take his calls or his now step-father with the recent chain of events. How is it possible that he could go to bed, Zeal Alfred Adegbola and in a twinkle of an eye the whole world now knows a different story from what he had been told his whole life. If his mother had not confirmed, he would have gone to the office of the publisher of that magazine to confront the person. When his mother confirmed the story, he broke into sweats, with his father out of town and his mother at his Uncle’s, Zeal already felt as though his family has been torn apart. The conversation he had with his mother just kept on replaying in his mind, “Zeal, I am so sorry you had to find out like this”. “So it is true”, Zeal cut in”

  “My son, it is true that biologically another man fathered you, but Alfred has been your dad, he has been the one that took care of me and my family when my father died. He was the one that went out at night to buy me ‘bole’ when I had cravings for them during your pregnancy. He was there with me on your first day at school. He has never missed your birthdays no matter how busy he is. He loves you, pampers you and disciplines, you like a real father would. Sometimes I think he has forgotten you were not his biological child. We never discussed when to reveal the truth concerning your paternity, it just never came up. Please, my son, don’t let this affect you, or cause you to resent your father. Hate me, take out all your frustrations on me but not your father”. They both sat in silence for a few minutes, Valerie was seriously worried and wondering how to get through to her son. It was evident in the way she kept clasping and unclasping her palms nervously. “So what about the pregnancy, when I read that article I was so ashamed, I felt naked...”, he burst into tears Valerie let him cry, she didn’t try to hold him, pride was something Alfred and Zeal both hard in common.

  When he had wiped his tears away and his sobs had subsided, Valerie cleared her throat and spoke, “I am so sorry that you had to find out about that issue in this manner, I am so sorry. I am pregnant...” she paused not knowing what to say, “I promise my dear, everything will be alright, I will sort this out with your father. All I need from you is your forgiveness and prayers...” Zeal’s thought was interrupted by a message alert, he stretched his hand and took the phone. It read, it is completely inexcusable of me to avoid your calls, especially now that you need answers. My em
otions are all over the place and I want to speak with you when I am stable. Hang in there, my son. I loved, love you and always will.

  His father’s words brought tears to his eyes, the tears just flowed freely. Zeal could sense that trouble was looming and he felt helpless that he could not evade it. He was sure as death, that he was at the centre of the looming disaster. With that thought, he dozed off.

  When Valentine drove out for work he had to stop at the newspaper stand to get a copy of the magazine he had heard so much about. His friend, Patrick, had called to find out what he was going to do about it when Patrick realized that he wasn’t aware of the new development, he told him to get a copy of the magazine. When Valentine saw the front page, he was hit with a mixture of emotions. At first, he was astounded, then he was a bit happy then he finally felt sorry for the woman he loves. He knew she must be in a lot of trouble at the moment. When he got to his office, he realized he had missed his father’s PA’s call. King Mba had worked with his father for over forty years. His job description was not defined and his loyalty to Valentine’s father was unshakeable. Mr. Mba's call was to politely instruct him to make himself available for a private meeting with his parents and Barrister Clement Ifeanyi, the family lawyer.

  Valentine knew that whatever made his parents come down from Abuja must be very serious and urgent.When he got to the house by his instruction his parents had already been ushered into the building. After exchanging pleasantries they walked into his sitting room, everything Valentine saw and touched bore witness to the fact that his parents were about to discuss a very important matter with him. Senator Vincent Ifeanyi Owoh wasn’t one to mince words so he got down to what brought him all the way to Calabar.

  “Chibuzor”, his father called, ”Yes, father”, he answered. “It has been brought to my notice that you have charged a Mrs. Valerie Alfred to court”.