Thread by @GbengaWemimo

A friend of his was celebrating her 30th birthday
She had broken off her relationship eight days to the day
She was heartbroken and needed some support in order to heal
He met her at his former office
She was younger than him by ten years but she was very mature
Unlike the staff

members who worked with him in that office
She was smart and very perceptive
She knew somehow that beneath the fine suit and plastic smile was a very unhappy man who was facing hell in his marriage
How she knew he couldn't say
One day he was in the office, a day to valentines and

she popped into his office with a gift
She said "This this to your wife tomorrow, I believe it can break the ice and help you guys reconnect again"
He was caught unawares by her audacity
She had nailed the issues with his marriage on the head
He and his wife had drifted apart

neither of them was cheating but they seemed unable to stand each other anymore
When he speaks she hears criticism or denigration
When she speaks he hears manipulation and insubordination
They had only enjoyed the first year of their marriage
Ever since she delivered their baby

and invited her mother to the house to nurse the baby, everything had gone to hell
Her mother was a commandant in her husband's house and she brought the same "I am in charge" mentality into his home
He grew up with two abusive women and he couldn't bear any nonsense from anyone

He resisted her mother's totalitarianism and it became a conflict
When her mother refused to get the message and continued to howl at the moon at his expense, he told her to leave his house
Her father understood and even rooted for him in secret
Her father sent him a message

saying "Perhaps seeing herself with the lens with which you saw her would humble her a little and give me some respite in my relationship with her"
The message was pregnant with meaning
He had always assumed his wife's father was a gentleman who treated his wife's mother like a

spoilt child by letting her have her way in wisdom and foolishness
The note revealed more of a man who had only kept a facade of a good marriage while suffering in silence
His wife's mother felt very slighted
His wife was mad with him for months but even after a family meeting

called and he was made to apologize
Things never returned to normal
His wife became very touchy and patronizing
He became aloof and tuned off
That was how things remained for over two years
Then this junior colleague of his popped up with her gift for his wife
He took the gift

home and somehow forgot it in the car
When the maid went to the car to bring in some stuff, she brought the gift in and placed it on the dining table
His wife returned from the office and saw it
His wife came into their room and asked if they could talk
It was the first candid

conversation they had in years
His wife wanted them to start all over
He was very open to the idea too
Later his wife would say, she had a dream the previous night and in that dream, he brought her a gift
When she got home from the office she found the same gift on the dining

It was the sign she had been praying for
She said she was tired of their situation and had begged God to send her a sign that there was still hope for them
She even fasted and three days later he brought home the very gift she saw him give her in a dream
It was a kindling of hope

They both took it and somehow their marriage was restored
When he got to the office the next he had to specifically look for his "friend"
He invited her to lunch and they talked
He was overjoyed and she was genuinely happy for him
He couldn't explain what happened afterwards

between them
It was nothing sexual or unholy
It was a bond of friendship and protection
She would confide in him about her life goals and struggles
He would listen and prefer solutions or support where necessary
She applied for her masters and got admitted to study full time at

Unilag
She was determined to go into academics and become a lecturer
She resigned
She told him she only took the job in order to save enough money to pursue her career in the academics
They kept in touch
While her life was on a steady course in other aspects of her life
She got

hell for a prize when it came to her relationships
She would go on for seasons without anyone and then she would get into an emotional roller coaster thingy that would leave her in tatters within a few months
Love for her was like holding a tiger by the tail
Nothing but peril and

woes
He tried as much as possible to help her whenever she reached out to talk
She called him her big brother
They talked for at most five days a year but she had become the kind of person that he would walk out of a board meeting just to pick her call and damn the consequences

Her distress call that night after she broke up with her latest boyfriend was a punch to the gut
He had stumbled upon some documents indicating that his wife was planning to relocate abroad secretly with their child
Apparently, their reconnection waned after a few months and his

wife felt the best thing to do in order to keep the custody of their child was to leave the country with their child
He found the documents and the process had gone very far
He had been dealing with sudden chills and shakes from the moment he discovered the documents
His first

instinct was to seize the documents and raise hell
In the document, his wife had claimed to be a widow
A single mother of one and had even gone to the trouble of publishing his obituary in an eastern newspaper as evidence that he was dead
He couldn't talk to anybody about it and

he didn't know what to do
When his friend's call came in, he decided to listen to her and console her rather than trade heartbreak stories with her
He asked if he could meet her up on her birthday and celebrate with her
She told him it was okay
They met a week later
His wife and

son were still in Abuja
His wife told him she was going for a work conference but from the document, he saw she went for visa interview at the embassy of the country she wanted to relocate to
He neither called nor confronted his wife over the phone
He simply avoided her calls

while mulling a solution
The birthday treat was very simple
His friend wanted to spend the day in a park at Ikeja, Lagos
She said nature helps her to heal quickly whenever she was heartbroken
They talked life, laughed, and played chess and scrabble under the trees within the park

by 6pm after she had cut her cake and taken pictures she turned to him and said "I don't know if I am supposed to say this out loud in your hearing. I don't know if it would jinx what i saw a few days ago while i was sleeping! Keeping quiet about it is eating me alive and I don't

want to leave it to chance!
I saw that you and I are married and we were raising your son together
I have seen it several times and I always felt it was a funny fantasy but this time around I am sure what I saw was real. I am sorry if this ruins our friendship!
I just had to tell

you and I felt it had to be today so that if i will lose you too, i will cry and heal once and for all
My heart cannot take any more of the suspense and the waiting
He didn't know what to say, so he kept quiet
He drove her home without responding to her words
After dropping her

off, he found himself relieved
He had been thinking of committing suicide the previous week after discovering his wife's plans
Things had been that bad in his head
He needed to hear that there was a future for him with someone
A happy future and perhaps one that will be spent

with a loving woman by his side
He got home and slept like a baby
He was determined not to think about anything
The next day he got to the office very early only to discover he had forgotten his ID card in the jacket he wore the previous day
He rushed back home
When he got home,

he met his wife and her mother
They were packing his wife's belongings in secret
They didn't expect him to be home at that time
He called the estate security guys and goit his wife and her mother arrested
He called his younger brother and handed over his son to him
It was a mess

his wife said she had ordered new furniture as a surprise and was clearing out the old one in the house
She said it was a surprise and he ruined it by barging in on them while it was being carried out
As he listened to her talk, he realized she was a pathological liar
Even he was

convinced
After she had told her part of the story, he confronted her with the truth and his evidence
It was very glaring
He told his wife and his mother and the other relatives that met them at the estate's security post that he was done with the marriage but he would be keeping

his son
His wife and her family members agreed just so that they can secure their release before they were transferred to the police station
That was the end of the marriage
One year later, he married his friend
They had been together for four years
They have two other children

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