“We’ll talk about it later, my son. First come and drink something.”
“No, Mama. I want to understand. Tell me what she is doing here.”
“Listen, this girl claims to be pregnant by you, and she has been living here with us for over six months. I sent her away immediately when she came here, but your father gave her a room so she could stay here.”
While they were talking, Emeka heard his father calling him. He went out to greet him. After the greetings, he followed his father inside.
Meanwhile, Ogei was in the room crying her heart out. What had happened to Emeka? He had always told her he loved her and had always promised her marriage, and now he was speaking to her as if he had never known her. She sat on the floor looking lost and desperate.
A few minutes later, she heard Baba calling her to the living room for a family meeting.
“Emeka, this young girl has been living with us for some months now. She told us she was pregnant and that this child is yours. What do you say about that?”
Emeka sighed, and after a few seconds of silence, he replied, “I admit I slept with her once, but I didn’t know she would get pregnant.”
His father replied, “Very well. Now that you’re old enough to sleep with girls, know that you will also have to take care of her. It’s a good thing that now you have a job in the military. From now on, you must take care of all her needs and all the needs of the child that will be born. I am done.”
After a few weeks, Emeka had to return to the military base for work. Before leaving, he handed a few coins to Ogei and left as if nothing had happened, without even speaking to her.
The next day, while Baba was out, Ogei woke up with terrible stomach pains. She felt so bad that she did not have the strength to cook. When Emeka’s mother entered the kitchen and saw that the pots were empty, she went into Ogechi’s room in anger.
“You’re still lying down at this hour? And since morning you have prepared nothing. Am I supposed to serve you in my own house?”
Before Ogei even had time to justify herself, the woman threw herself at her and beat her mercilessly with a broom, without taking into account her pregnancy. She beat her so violently that Ogei fainted.
When she woke up, she found herself in the hospital. The doctors had to perform a cesarean section to save the child’s life. She gave birth prematurely to a baby girl.
She went back again to Emeka’s parents’ house. Even though Emeka’s mother made her life miserable, she had nowhere else to go. Since the birth, Emeka had never come to visit her and had not even thought of seeing the child.
When the baby was ten months old, Baba called Ogei. He gave her a small envelope with Emeka’s address and some money so she could go see him at the military base.
“You have to visit him. This is also his child, and he must see her.”
Ogechi nodded and packed her things. She went to the bus station with her baby tied to her back. She took a taxi and went to the address written on the paper. After three hours of travel that felt like eternity, she arrived at the camp where Emeka worked. An officer accompanied her and led her to Emeka’s room.
When she arrived, she noticed a pair of high heels at the entrance. She suspected what it meant, but she knocked anyway. Emeka came out of the room looking surprised to see her.
“You again? How did you get my address and why did you come here?”
“I came to tell you that I gave birth, and this is how you welcome me and your daughter?”
“Listen, this is not the time to make trouble. Take this money and go back home. I will come and see you at the end of this month.”
Ogei did not know what to say. She was almost in tears.
Suddenly, a young woman came out from inside, looking confused.
“Honey, what are you doing? Who is this girl?”
“Don’t worry, she’s just my sister. She came from the village. I’ve already given her money to return home.”
He took the woman’s hand and they went back inside, then shut the door, leaving Ogei alone outside.
She did not know what to do anymore and began to cry, while her baby cried too. Tears welled up in her eyes and she sat right on the ground to breastfeed her.
“I should have listened to my parents,” she cried on the ground under the sun.
Suddenly, Emeka came out again looking angry.
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