“He’s
my son too!” Mina said, heatedly. “Do you think that I would have taken those
things if I had thought for a second that they could harm him in some way?”
“Why
are you telling me all this now? You kept it a secret for so long, already,”
Baridi said, after a while. Almost immediately, he turned and cast a sharp look
at his wife.
“Wait a minute. You suddenly stopped breastfeeding Sotonye and you
also have lost an amazing amount of weight. Are you taking them again?”
“No
way! Not after what happened to me the last time I did.”
Turning
fully to face Mina, Baridi asked, “What exactly happened to you?”
“I
had taken them for about two months when I started getting headaches. On
occasion, I would become nauseous too. I even took a pregnancy test at some
point. I never thought the pills were responsible even when I started getting
diarrhea all the time. I just became more careful of where I ate because I
thought it was caused by food poisoning.”
Mina
covered her eyes with her hand as she said, “I can’t believe how ignorant I
was, really.” She paused for a while and let out a breath before opening her
eyes to look at Baridi again. “The weekend you were away in
Abuja, for an N.C.C. convention, Azuka dropped by on a surprise visit. Mrs. O.
was with Soprinye in the living room when she came so she told Azuka that I was
upstairs, in the nursery. I had been putting away Soprinye’s clothes into his
drawer earlier. Zuky came to the nursery and found me on the floor,
unconscious.”
“What!”
“She
quickly called Ada to come over, while she tried to rouse me. By the time Ada
got here, I was already conscious, even though I was still on the floor. All I
could remember was that I had experienced a sudden tightening in my chest
before my heart had started beating very fast. Zuky and Ada rushed me to
the hospital immediately where tests were run.
When I was asked if I was on any
medication, I remembered the diet pills and told them about those. It turned
out they were the culprits. They were responsible for the other symptoms I had
been experiencing all along. I was ordered by the cardiologist to stop taking
them. Fortunately, there had been no lasting damage as all those other symptoms
gradually went away as soon as I stopped taking the drugs.”
“I
came back from Abuja two days later. Why didn’t you tell me anything?” Baridi
asked, sadly.
“I
didn’t know how to tell you. I was too ashamed, particularly as Ada had to come
back here to bring Soprinye to the hospital for tests. I thank God he was fine.
I don’t know how I would have lived with myself if I had hurt him in some way.”
“Why
did you tell me this today?” Baridi asked, afraid of what he would hear.
Baridi
paced the floor of their room as Mina told him about the weight loss
supplements. At a point, he cut her off and thundered, “For such a smart woman,
how could you do something so stupid, Mina? I came close to losing you, without
even knowing it. Yet, you found it easy to do the same thing again?”
Tearfully,
Mina said, “Babe, I thought I had no choice. After our last fight about my
weight, I felt that I had to do whatever it took not to lose you.”
At
that, Baridi stopped pacing and stared at his wife who had started crying
miserably. After a while, he came over to her, knelt and pulled her from the
bed and into his arms.
“I’m so sorry I pushed you to this,” he said over and
over again.
When
Mina’s tears had subsided, Baridi stood and gently pulled her up from the
floor. Holding her by the hand, he led her to the wide ornate mirror on one of
the walls of their room.
Together,
they silently stared at their reflections till Baridi said, “I see a very
beautiful, smart and unbelievably sexy woman who did me a big honour by
agreeing to become my wife. I see the beautiful mother of my children. Mina,
you’re not just beautiful on the outside but on the inside too. You are kind
and you are warm. That’s all I’ve ever needed you to be. Don’t ever forget
that, even if a very stubborn and sometimes annoying man, who thinks he knows
it all, tries hard to make you to.”
“Hey,
that’s my husband you’re insulting,” Mina said, smiling through the tears that
had started flowing again, as Baridi pulled her into his arms for a long hug.
Concluded
Thanks for reading! Do have a great weekend
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