CHAPTER 3:
Married woman.

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As a daughter, a woman is traditionally responsible for taking care of her parents. As a
wife, she's to serve her husband, she prepares the food, clothing, and other personal needs.

As a mother, she has to take care of the children and their needs, including education. As a worker, she has to be professional, disciplined and a good employee. And has a member of society, she'sexpected to take part in the community. Doing volunteer work, both in her town and through social organizations. But she is not to put her job before her family.

Kesi could swear she was
playing the role of a daughter, married woman, mother, and employee. But Ben, her husband, didn’t feel the same. He felt she wasn't playing her role right, he wanted her to do more. Kesi
would disagree with him whenever the topic was up. She wasn’t going to work herself to death to try and make him happy.

She didn't like the mentality he had. By contrast to married women, men have one role, to be the family's breadwinner. They have little obligation to be socially active within their community.

Bull.

It was all bull to Kesi. She believes that both parents have to play an equal role in the
family. Men and women should have equal expectations for domestic and social responsibility. Based on fair agreement and commitment.

She’s earning money and providing for the family. Not to mention, doing the daily chores and attending to the children.

These responsibilities are not solely the wife's job, it's also the husband’s. A man won’t die if he splits the weight with his wife, she shouldn't have to carry all the stress alone. She deserves to live sometimes, feel like a young woman for once. Leave the kids behind with their grandparents and travel to Dubai for vacation, visit the spa center to get her fingers manicured. Dress the way she wants and go on romantic dates with her beloved. Not letting the chores and expectations enslave her.

But Kesi knows that Ben would rather die than wash the dishes or do any chores. So since she couldn't change anything, she continued to carry all the responsibility of a woman on her shoulders; the dynamic angering her.

But the wife wasn't the only one angered by other's decisions. Ben has a problem with Kesi as well, his wife's choice of company.

"They are corrupt and not people someone should befriend." He would say during their usual arguments. "Especially that plastic doll."

Kesi knew who he was referring to as, it was Bubo's mother, Aliyah. He never liked her. From the very first day he had met her, he knew she was trouble.

From that first meeting, he
warned Kesi to stay clear from her. But of course, Kesi didn't take heed to his warnings, she didn't see any reason why he would hate someone directly after meeting them. She had asked him many times why he doesn't like Aliyah. The answer has always been the same, "She is spoilt and isn't worth calling a friend."

Kesi thought she knew why he was saying so. It was Aliyah's way of living. But Kesi doesn't see anything wrong with Aliyah's dressing sense. The short, kinky clothes worn by Aliyah weren't her concern. The reason being that Aliyah was old enough to decide or do whatever she wanted. She was married to Bubo's father, a wealthy man, but they divorced after three years of marriage, making Aliyah a single parent.

He had divorced her when he got to find out the kind of lifestyle she preferred living. He couldn't tolerate her anymore and left when Bubo was only two and a half years.

Aliyah was the money type. Everything about her revolves
around money. She flirts and dates only rich, old men because young boys had nothing to offer
her. The Alhajis she follows ravish her with money and material things. They buy her clothes, cars, land, and houses.
She takes pictures that end up on her social media and flaunts around town, giving her anything she demands as long as she satisfies them in bed.

She's the typical 'big city babe' who was always traveling out of Nigeria to foreign countries with different men. It was on one of those trips, she did surgery, the dark-skinned Aliyah turned white overnight. The second time he met Aliyah was in his office. With her new skin, green eyes, extra-long lashes, long nails, and makeup caked face, Ben knew the perfect name for her. And it stuck.

It would have been better if Kesi tried to talk some sense into her friend, but she wasn't the type to poke her nose into other people's business.

Taking a sharp deep breath, followed by slow quiet steps towards the door, she prayed
under her breath, hoping her husband wasn't home yet. She hadn't planned to stay out long, but sometimes, things don't go as planned.

Twisting the doorknob, she found that it was locked from
the inside. Remembering she asked the kids to lock the doors before they went to bed, she
checked her purse for her spare key. There was nothing there. Problem.

She bit her fingernails, thinking about what to do. She looked around the large interlocked compound to see if her husband's car was parked outside. It wasn't.

Sighing in relief, her shoulders relaxed. He wasn’t at home. To be sure, she pressed her ear against the mahogany door. If she could detect the faintest
sound of someone in the living room, then she had hope. She heard voices alright. But they
weren't that of her children arguing like they usually do. It was coming from the flat-screen
television that was in the living room. Someone was watching tv.

Only one of the four kids sneak
out of their room to the living room to watch Teen romance or Horror movies, Nimis. Kesi had
caught him several times on her way to the kitchen to drink water. She'd never ask him to go
back to bed. She knew it was only going to earn her a long face, murmurs, and low curses under
his breath.

Now she only hoped he wasn't in one of those moods. She prayed that he would help her get in without being stubborn.

"Nimis," She called in a low whisper, hoping he heard. "Please open the door."

There was silence. The person from inside had reduced the tv volume.

"Nimis please open the door," Kesi tried again. This time, adding a small knock.

"Who is that?"

The familiar baritone voice startled her to the extent she jumped. With her racing heart,
she wondered what Ben was doing at home without his sleek black car. It was so unlike him.

"I said, who is that?" He asked again, without making an effort to get the door.

"Honey, it's me." She replied with a quivering voice. She felt like a child caught stealing meat from a pot of soup.

"Who is honey? What's your name?" He asked.

She didn't think of rolling her eyes which she would have done on a normal day. It was obvious Ben recognized her voice and was only pretending because he was angry at her.

"It's me, Kesi. Your wife." She replied.

Silence ensued for some minutes before Ben decided to speak up again. "No wife of mine comes home at this time of night. You must be some alien parading in my wife's skin. Please go back to where you came from."

"Please babe let me in. I didn't plan to come home late. It was my client who delayed me. I'm sorry."

"Sorry for you. Next time, tell that client of yours that you have your husband and kids to take care of at home."

"I will. Please open the door." She begged.

If Ben doesn't open up any time soon, she’s going to cry. Her toes were already hurting, the heels she wore to the dinner were killing her.

"I knew that plastic doll would tell you to neglect your family and put work first. Now,
look at the time, it's almost midnight."

With teary eyes, she pleaded, hitting the door with less force. "Please..."

"No." He stated. She heard finality laced in his voice."Go back to where you came from."

With fear crawling in her mind, she began to bang on the door harder. Not caring if she
was raising hell, or disturbing the neighbors. "Open the door, Ben. Ben, please open the door. You can't lock me outside, that's unfair!"

She yelled, twisting the door handle.

She kicked the door and hit it with her shoulder. The pain rushing through her body while
hoping the door would unlock itself somehow. It didn't. Her heart broke into pieces. So this is what she gets. A punishment from her husband, all because she was trying to be a professional worker.

After pulling her hair in frustration, she took off her red heels one after the other. She
wiped the tears that leaked from her eyes to her red lips with the back of her free hand. Kesi
wrapped her hands around her body as cold began to prickle into her skin. She had on only the
strapless gown she had worn to the restaurant. She was feeling cold and the nightly mosquitoes
weren't helping either.

She had expected to come home, take a quick warm bath and relax. Her whole body ached. She was drained and tired. Tired of being a woman. Tired of her kids. Tired of work. Tired of everything in her life. Being a woman is NOT an easy thing. She crashed to the floor, killing the mosquitoes that perched on her smooth brown skin. With her head on a pillar and her legs stretched forward on the floor, she began drifting off to sleep.

Kesi didn't know how long she stayed outside before the door opened. She didn't hear the steps as the person tiptoed to her side. A pair of strong hands lifted her and carried her in a bridal style. Even in her sleepy state, she could tell the hands belonged to her loving husband. It was a
good thing Ben had changed his mind, doing this also meant he had forgiven her. She loved this
side of him. Quick to anger but forgives just as fast. It reminds her of her younger son, Laye.

A smile curled on his lips as he looked down at his sleeping wife letting a giggle escape. With
lipstick smeared on her cheek, she sure looked funny. Even if she was annoying sometimes or
disobedient, she was still the loving, hard-working woman he married. No matter what life
throws at them, he will always love her, this was the woman he fell in love with after all. Taking
a glance at her precious faceagain, he felt tempted to kiss her. When he couldn't restrain himself, he pressed his lips against hers. She responded to the kiss with hesitance, surprising him a little. He carried her carefully to the master bedroom, holding her tightly.

All the while, the couple was
oblivious to the eyes watching them.

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