[fblike] BIBI is dead; her body was found in the bushes yesterday.” Emeka, my husband had announced dispassionately after he got off the phone.
“Aha… …! I responded noncommittally without a flinch and cradled my frail little girl tighter to my chest.
You could have imagined by my impassionate response that he could have been announcing the weather or else we were the strangest or coldest couple that you know.
Unfortunately, we are neither but maybe you’ll understand our reaction better… …..
A chance reunion between our parents who were old friends led to the recommendation that we should wed. Emeka was in his swinging thirties and I was fast turning into an old maid at the ripe age of 26 if you asked our parents. We were both coincidentally single at the time. Both of our respective parents were impatient for us to wed and produce their long awaited grandchildren.  They argued they had our best interest at heart. Honestly, I believed they did too.
The sparks didn’t exactly fly on our first meeting but we both recognized our mutual potentials. A few dates later and after the realization that we had a lot more in common than we had ordinarily imagined, we yielded to our parents urge and wed. To my surprise it was the best decision that I had ever made.
Our marriage was pure bliss, especially at the beginning. We were pleasantly surprised by our compatibility and ensuing friendship and love; more so because we were both modern and pretended rebels of sorts who had vehemently railed against arranged marriages.
We had looked forward to starting a family soon afterwards. Alas, our only child, Kokoma arrived ten years later. It was miraculous that our marriage endured through the preceding years despite my in-law’s initial insistence that Emeka divorced me or wed another. My once loving in-laws had openly turned against me after our third wedding anniversary. They swiftly advocated for an immediate divorce. My darling husband Emeka however had opted to stay with me, for better or for worse!


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