After the storm

by Osar Adeyemi

  "I want to check on Aleena." She felt she had to see her daughter right away and make sure that she was okay.

  "Aleena is fine. I tucked her in bed a few hours ago."

  Yemi continued out of the room. She got to Aleena's room and gently opened the door. Aleena lay fast asleep, clutching her favorite soft toy to herself. Yemi adjusted the bedclothes, then sat down in an armchair in the room. She did not feel like leaving the room. She just wanted to keep watch over her child.

  The door opened a few minutes later, and Akeem came in quietly.

  "Are you okay?"

  She wished he would stop asking her that. It irritated her to no end. "I'm fine," she replied shortly.

  "It was just a dream." Akeem tried again to reassure her. "Aleena is fine, let's go back to bed."

  "I'm fine here. I'm not feeling sleepy."

  He saw the determined look on her face and dropped into the second armchair.

  It had been like this for the past two weeks. She had frequent nightmares and slept badly. She still refused to talk to Akeem about the "incident," as she referred to it in her mind, and shut him off anytime he tried to bring it up. Many nights, she insisted on sleeping in the second bedroom in their suite. Akeem had begged her not to the first night she had slept in there, but she had ignored him.

  Aleena turned slightly on the bed and rolled over. The bedclothes slipped off her, and Yemi got up to readjust them.

  "Baby, Aleena is fine," Akeem said gently. "You also need to rest. Please, let's go back to the room."

  "I said I'm okay here," Yemi snapped. "You can go back to the room, I didn't ask you to follow me."

  Akeem adjusted his position in the chair and remained seated.

  She must have dozed off in the chair because the next thing she knew was Akeem tapping her gently on the arm.

  "Yemi, wake up," he said gently. "It's morning."

  She looked around, trying to recollect where she was, and then she caught sight of Aleena still on the bed. The soft yellow light of the new dawn was just creeping through the half-open drapes.

  She rubbed her hand across her eyes and got up from the chair. It was a Saturday morning, so she did not have to wake Aleena up just yet. Her body ached from sitting in the armchair for several hours, and her legs felt rubbery when she stood up. She made her way towards their bedroom with Akeem following close behind her. She walked towards the second bedroom, but Akeem held her arm and restrained her gently.

  "Why don't you stay here?" he said, looking at her. "The bed will be more comfortable for you."

  "I'll be okay," Yemi replied, tugging her arm free.

  She opened the door to the room and lay down on the bed. Akeem did not follow her, and moments later she heard the bathroom door open and knew he had gone in there. She glanced at the clock beside the bed; it was almost six thirty. Her head still felt muzzy, but she knew she would find it difficult to sleep.

  She got up and went to her bedside cabinet in the main bedroom and brought out her sleeping tablets. She was about to take them when Akeem walked into the room.

  "Don't you think that you are taking too much of those?" he asked quietly. "Let me get you some warm milk instead, or maybe some Horlicks?"

  Yemi looked at the tablets in her hand. She knew she was relying more on them, but that was the only way she had been able to get any decent amount of sleep.

  "Should I get the drink?" Akeem asked.

  "Thanks," Yemi replied.

  Akeem came back into the room a few minutes later with a glass of warm milk. She thanked him, took the cup from him, and headed back to the second bedroom.

  ∞∞∞

  "You will be a good girl at Grandma's house, won't you?" Yemi asked Aleena a few hours later. Aleena was so happy that she was practically hopping with excitement. Eniola, Ayo's youngest child, was also going to be there, and Yemi knew they would be all over the place as soon as they saw each other.

  "But I'm always a good girl!" Aleena pouted, looking at her father for confirmation.

  "Sometimes, but not all the time," Yemi replied, looking down at her daughter's face. "So promise me that you will try to behave nicely for Grandma."

  "I will try my most best, Mummy," Aleena replied solemnly.

  Akeem was watching the exchange. "Why bother?" he asked. "Kids will be kids."

  "This particular kid is mine," Yemi replied abruptly. "And I want her to be well behaved."

  "Can I go now?" Aleena asked impatiently.

  "Yes, you can." Yemi turned towards the driver, who was going to take Aleena to her parents' place. "Please drive carefully," she told him as she strapped Aleena into her car seat.

  She went back inside the house after they had gone. Akeem followed closely behind her.

  "Yemi, please, can we talk?" he asked as they got back to their room.

  She had her back to him and did not turn around. Just the sight of him these days was enough to make her angry. "About what?"

  "About what happened that night…"

  "We don't need to talk about it. I saw what happened, remember?"

  "Yemi, I know you're still mad…" he began.

  That did it. She lost her cool. "Mad does not begin to describe it!" she cut in angrily, glaring at him. "How long have you known her?"

  "She means nothing to me."

  "She means nothing to you," Yemi repeated angrily. "Well, you and your 'nothing' killed my son!"

  "Yemi, I'm sorry," Akeem said quietly. "I did not mean to hurt you that night."

  Yemi glared at him and then shook her head as if trying to comprehend what he was telling her. "You're unbelievable! You cheat on me and yet you tell me you didn't mean to hurt me?"

  "Baby, I'm sorry."

  "I asked you, how long you have known her!" She was so angry that for the first time in her life she actually felt like hitting someone. She wanted to scream, tear at him with her fingers, and hurt him just as badly as he had hurt her. She closed her eyes and tried to calm herself. Violence would not solve anything.

  "I met her some time ago through a business associate of mine," Akeem began quietly. "And then I met her again in Abuja about ten months ago."

  She stared at him as he talked. He had encouraged her to be a full-time homemaker so that she could be available for him, but somehow, he had found solace in the arms of a strange woman when he was stressed out. So exactly what was she in his life? Maybe just a piece of furniture to beautify his house.

  "She has tried to call me several times since then," Akeem continued, "I made it clear that I had no intention of seeing her again, but she started calling and texting me again about a month ago. She had just lost her mother to cancer and was going through some financial difficulty in her business because of the medical bills that had accrued. She sounded really depressed, and the tone of her texts gave me some concern." He inhaled deeply. "She was so highly strung up, and I wanted to talk her out of doing anything rash."

  Yemi decided she had heard enough. "As far as I am concerned, you don't have a single reason for doing what you did, and you have destroyed my trust in you!"

  "My actions were inexcusable, but I swear to you, I was only meeting up with her to talk with her this time."

  "Well, I don't believe you. You did it before, and you could very well do it again." She glared at him. "I trusted you absolutely, and now I distrust you absolutely!"

  "Yemi, please forgive me. You're the only woman I've ever loved. Please…forgive me."

  Yemi stared back at him stonily. There was no way she was ever going to believe him again. "I need a break," she said abruptly. "I want to go to England."

  "No problem," Akeem replied promptly. "I will try to shift things around at the office. We should be able to go next week."

  "No, I'm not going with you. I need some time to myself."

  Akeem took in a deep breath and stared at her. His eyes searched hers. She knew what he was thinking. The thought had crossed her mind a few times as well.

  "How
long to do you intend to stay?" he finally asked.

  "A few weeks. Aleena's preschool will be breaking up next week, so I'll be going with her."

  He looked like he wanted to argue with her but changed his mind when he saw the determined expression on her face. "You'll be staying at Canary Wharf, won't you?"

  "I was thinking of staying with Tola."

  "Why stay with someone when we have our own place?" he protested. "If you don't want to stay in London, I can rent a place anywhere else for you."

  "That won't be necessary," she said shortly. She wasn't actually planning on staying with Tola. She had just wanted to torment him with the possibility that she could leave him. She needed some privacy during her time in England. Tola knew she had lost the baby but did not know the reason why. If she stayed at her place, she knew she could find herself telling her more than she wanted to, and she did not want to be pitied. "I'll stay in Canary Wharf."

  He looked relieved. "I'll ask my secretary to book tickets for you and Aleena. Just let me know anything else that you need for the trip."

  "Thanks." She attempted to walk past him, but he held onto her arm.

  "Baby, please don't shut me out," he pleaded. "Do anything you like to me, but please don't shut me out of your life."

  She tried to tug her hand free, but he held on tightly.

  "Baby, please…"

  "Let go of my hand, you're hurting me."

  He let go but stood there, blocking her exit.

  "I have a headache, Akeem, I need to lie down." With that, she moved around him and walked into the second bedroom.

  Chapter 13

  The tears finally came in England, and once they started, Yemi found them hard to stop. It was as if a dam had burst open inside of her, and she wept for days. She tried to keep her crying bouts from Aleena, but sometimes her daughter walked in on her and would wrap her little arms around her protectively, as if to shield her. Aleena thought Yemi was missing Akeem and told Akeem over the phone when he called. Aleena asked him to come and join them in London so that her mother could stop crying, but Yemi firmly told him not to.

  Abby called her often. Yemi had confided in her. She felt she needed to talk to someone other than her family about what had happened, and Abby had been like a rock to her since then.

  "I'm praying for you, Yemi," Abby said to her one day when they were speaking on the phone. "I'm trusting God to heal your heart of every pain."

  "Please leave God out of this, Abby!" Yemi snapped. "How could He have allowed this to happen to me? What did I ever do to deserve this?"

  "I don't have all the answers." Abby's voice was quiet. "But this is the period when you need to just hold on to Him and trust Him."

  Well, she was certainly not going to do that. She had tried to be a good person all of her life and had never gone out of her way to be nasty to anyone, yet she had been dealt such a raw deal: in-laws who hated her, and now an unfaithful husband. Maybe Akeem was right. Maybe there was no God.

  Tola visited her frequently. She attributed Yemi's dark moods to her recent loss and tried as much as possible to cheer her up. She had finally given in and had gotten engaged to Tobi. He came with her occasionally, and Yemi tried to put on a brave face while they were around.

  She struggled to understand why Akeem had cheated on her and his betrayal cut deep into her heart. He had promised to protect her from his family, but had not been able to protect her from himself. She would have also felt better if there had been signs to show that he had been cheating, but she could not think of any, and to her, that even made it more dangerous. He could very well do it again, and she wouldn't be any wiser about it.

  But as painful as it was, she decided that she would stay on in her marriage. She wanted to give her daughter as stable a background as possible. Aleena adored her father. Maybe when she grew up, she would find out that her idol had clay feet.

  Even though she made up her mind to remain married to Akeem, she felt she needed some sort of independence from him. She knew she also needed to get busy because despite her resolve to stay married, thoughts of leaving Akeem still crossed her mind several times a day.

  The thought of starting her own fashion house began to appeal more to her, and she did some research. Owning her own fashion house, rather than getting a nine-to-five job, would mean a flexible schedule that would allow her to be there for Aleena. Plus, fashion designing was what she was really passionate about anyway. She had made her parents proud by studying a course she felt they would like, became a full-time homemaker because of Akeem, but from then on, it was going to be all about her and her daughter.

  ∞∞∞

  Akeem's eyes swept across the grounds of his parents' country home. They were having their annual family picnic, which always coincided with the anniversary of his father's death. They had the picnic the day before the anniversary and then had a more formal family dinner the next day.

  His mother always went big on the preparations. They invited their close family and friends, and everyone generally had a lot of fun. He looked across at his cousins, who were sitting under a picnic umbrella. They had already beckoned to him to join them, and he had indicated that he would.

  There were several other picnic umbrellas, some of which sheltered other adult relatives and under others were the younger teens and kids. He could see Adil's boys and Nadia's son playing some sort of game. Nadia's son was too young to follow the game, but he was making up for it by giggling as he watched the older kids. Akeem felt a stab in his heart as he thought of his son, but he pushed the thoughts away. They were too painful.

  His eyes moved across the grounds, seeking out his wife and daughter. She was sitting with Aleena. Aleena was giggling, and Yemi had an answering smile on her face as she listened to whatever it was that she was saying. Her sunglasses were perched on top of her head, and she looked chic in her cropped white chino pants and orange flowery cotton top, but then his wife always looked good no matter what she was wearing.

  For a moment, his heart flared within him as he looked at her. He missed her so much. All she seemed to care about now were Aleena and the plans for her business. She froze him out at every opportunity, and she was showing no signs of the coldness thawing any time soon. She had initially refused to attend the picnic with him until he told her he was going to take Aleena with him. She had argued angrily with him, but he had stood his ground until she grudgingly agreed to join them.

  He wanted them to present a united front to his mother. He didn't know how she had gotten the information, but she knew that there was more to the story of Yemi's miscarriage than what they had told her, and she was also aware that they were having problems. He knew her suspicions would have been confirmed if Yemi had not come with him.

  Coral had appeared genuinely sorry for what had happened that night at the restaurant. She had tried to call and see him several times since then, but Akeem had declined her calls and visits. He took full responsibility for what happened. Just three days of indiscretion, and he had lost not just his baby, but now his marriage also stood on the line.

  Yemi glanced at him, and their gaze locked. Time and space seemed suspended as they looked at each other. He pleaded with her with his eyes. She had loved him like no one else, and he wanted it all back, would do anything to have it all back. She dropped her eyes back to Aleena and he knew that she would not be looking in his direction again.

  He felt so frustrated. He didn't know how to tear down the walls that she had built between them. He still didn't know what was going on in her mind. He had even gone to the extent of getting Sara to try to find out what she was thinking.

  "She is hurting, Akeem, hurting and angry, but I don't think she has any plans to leave," Sara had told him.

  That had brought him some measure of relief, but the possibility still haunted him.

  He watched as Adil's son walked towards Yemi and Aleena. A few minutes later, Aleena went off with him to join the other kids. Akeem looked at Yem
i's face as she looked after Aleena. He knew she would have wanted to hold on to her because she did not have anyone to chat with now. She slid her sunglasses over her eyes and stood up. He decided to go over to her but just then, he heard his name. He turned round to see Fadel walking towards him. He waved at him before his eyes returned to Yemi. She was now making her way towards the house.

  "Hey, good of you to come by," Akeem said to Fadel as he drew closer. "Where's Sara?"

  "She is taking a call in the car. She should be here soon." He dropped into a chair. "Phew, is it hot or what!"

  "Yeah, the weather is boiling," Akeem agreed. He was happy that Sara had come. She would be company for his wife.

  "Everyone seems to be having fun," Fadel said, looking round. "Where's Yemi?"

  "I think she just went into the house."

  Fadel looked sympathetically at him. "How is she doing?"

  Akeem shrugged. "So-so. She's a bit better but still not talking much."

  "Just hang in there. Hopefully she will come around soon. But have you thought of going away? Just the two of you? We can look after Aleena for you."

  "I've suggested it a few times, but I got a firm 'no' from her every time."

  "Keep trying," Fadel said somberly. "She'll come around sooner or later."

  Akeem hoped so, even though he wished he were as sure as Fadel was.

  ∞∞∞

  Yemi walked into the main house after asking Kufre to watch Aleena. The weather was hot, and she wanted to just sit inside for a while. But besides that, being with the Kadiris was not her favourite way of spending her time. It was made even worse now that things were so stiff between her and Akeem. She had tried to keep her countenance happy since they arrived at the Kadiri country home the day before, but she could hardly wait to leave.

  She felt like having a cold drink and made her way to the kitchen. The domestic staff were in the process of making dinner. She got the drink she wanted and went back to one of the smaller sitting rooms. The house was even bigger and more imposing than the Kadiri family home in the city, and Akeem's father had obviously spared no expense in making it the palatial abode that it was.