Patricia closed her eyes and counted to ten before she reopened them, hoping she was dreaming, or that it was all a joke.
She had smiled at the surprise arrival from work by her husband in the middle of the afternoon. His words threaten to take her smile away.
The look on David’s face was the same, he was serious. Her husband of over two decades have just confessed to her that he has been cheating on her for the past five years, and that he was tired of cheating. He wanted a divorce so he could be free to be with Linda his colleague.
Patricia had met Linda once at a birthday party of one of the company’s executives. She remembered the timid looking, introverted lady who had a calm aura around her. She couldn’t believe that she was the one who was about to break her home. What hurt her more was that David was allowing her, David who had told her that he hated people who were silent and introverted.
“Yo… You have to be kidding. You are kidding me right?” she stammered, letting out a humourless laugh. “You can’t be serious about wanting a divorce. We have been married for twenty-five years. We have children, we have built a life together. David please don’t do this to me.”
She hated herself for begging, but if it will take begging for David to take back his words about wanting a divorce, she would beg. She would do anything for her world not to fall apart.
“David please. We can talk about this, we can see a counsellor, even if you want to ke… keep her as your mistress, you can. Just don’t destroy what we have built over the years. Please just…”
“Stop!” David thundered. “Just… Stop. It is so typical of you to think this is about you. Did you hear anything I said? I said I am in love with her. I want to stop hiding and make it public. I decided to be straightforward with you before I inform my lawyer.”
Patricia almost laughed, but she was sure if she opened her mouth, the sound would come out as a bawl. One of the reasons she fell in love with David was because he was a straightforward man. He, like her, did not believe in games or cunningness. He made everything clear from the onset so everyone knew where he stood, and where they stood with him.
For the first time, she wished he was the opposite. She wished he would lie, or keep cheating and not crash her world with his insensitivity.
“You are in love with her? What do you feel for me, your wife of twenty-five years. Tell me David, what you feel for me?” her voice rose with each word and at a point she knew she didn’t make any sense, but she continued shouting anyway.
“We have built a life together and all you can stand and tell me is that you are in love with some timid, fragile Idiot. You…”
“Don’t you dare,” David interrupted calmly, too calmly. “Don’t you ever insult her. This is between us, so don’t involve her.”
“Well excuse me!” Patricia shouted. “You should have thought of that before sleeping with her? What kind of man are you? What will the church say when they get to know that we are getting divorced? People look up to you, what will the children say. Please David have a rethink, we can repair this. It doesn’t have…”
“There’s nothing to repair,” David interrupted her for the third time in ten minutes, and Patricia knew he was a different man.
“I have told the Pastor,” he continued. “I am leaving the church to avoid any unnecessary talks. As for the children, they are adults and should understand that things change. I am free to do as I like.”
Each word he uttered felt like rocks hurled at her. Her heart felt so tight, and hurt so much. She was close to tears and knew she had to leave his presence. She might beg him, but he would never see her cry.
Everything he said revealed to her the man hidden in her soon to be ex-husband, a man whose mind was made up.
Leaving him still standing, she went in and took her handbag and car keys.
Walking straight to the door, she ignored his questions as to where she was going while he was still talking. He could leave when he was done, he was never around anyway. At least now she had an answer to what was taking so much of his time.
She had only one destination in mind, Ngozi’s salon, The Ladies’ Sanctuary.
That was the only place she knew she could relax, not just because of the special touch of Ngozi and her workers, but also because of the atmosphere. The place truly felt like a sanctuary. She felt she could spill her guts there and no one would judge her.
She also knew she would get a shoulder to cry on from Ngozi.
While she drove to Jubril Street, where the salon was located, she thought about the last twenty years of her life, wondering if she had wasted it.
The children had come immediately she got married to David, and after five years, they had stopped child bearing. She had devoted her time to the kids, and to making a home. Maybe she had devoted too much of her time that she had none for herself.
Chukwudi, Nkeiru and Ifechukwu were her world, but with them as adults and away in school she had started thinking of a way to make something of her life with David. With a divorce, that would be impossible. The loneliness would be extra hard on her.
She didn’t know how to be alone.
She always had someone giving or demanding for attention from her. In her young years it had been boys and suitors, until David, then the children and briefly it was David again.
At forty-six years old, she doubted that anyone would need her, or even have time to give her attention.
Wiping the tears off her face, she parked in a free space close to the Salon and went in.
As expected, the place was brimming with ladies, most of them patiently waiting for their turn, while some of them, like her, were just there for the company. She took a seat
Ngozi’s smile was like the sun peeking out after a rainy day, but the clouds remained.
“Are you okay?” Ngozi asked after she and the workers greeted her. Patricia noticed a new girl.
“New employee?” she asked Ngozi with a gesture towards the new girl, knowingly ignoring her question.
“Kinda,” Ngozi replied. “She is my first apprentice. Her name is Ire.”
“Good afternoon Ma,” Ire greeted shyly.
“Ire. In igbo, Ire means tongue. Are you an igbo girl?”
“Patricia, you have not answered my question,” Ngozi interrupted before Ire could reply. “You look like you have been crying. What is it?”
“David wants a divorce,” Patricia replied before she burst into tears. The tears flowing harder when she heard sympathetic sounds from the rest women. Some of them were genuine, most of them were just a reaction to a juicy news.
Ngozi quickly rushed to her, after taking excuse from the lady whose hair she worked on.
“It’s okay,” she said, sitting by Patricia’s side and taking her into her arms. “It will all be fine again.”
“I don’t think so, Ngozi. I don’t think so,” Patricia said, sniffling. “I wasted my time with him. I gave everything, my time, my life, and now, when I should be reaping, he is leaving me for a younger woman.”
As Patricia said the last words, she realised that was what made it hurt so much. She remembered being envious of Linda’s firm skin with her face almost free of wrinkles.
“I hate him so much now, Ngozi. I hate him,” she said, gritting her teeth.
“You don’t mean that. Hate is a very strong word, it is even a stronger decision to make about someone.”
“I do meant it. I wish he would die. For this pain he caused me, I wish he would die.”
As the words left her mouth, causing a gasp from some women, Patricia knew at that moment that she meant it with every fibre of her being. She wished David would die for this pain he caused her.
* * *
“I told you I will do it today,” David said to Linda as he sipped from his champagne. They were in the suite where they usually met. This was Linda’s favourite meeting place. She loved the view.
It was expensive, but could still afford it.
He was proud of himself, he never thought he would be brave enough to end his old life and begin his new life with Linda. Linda was a representation of everything he missed from his youthful days.
“You mean she accepted without a fight?” Linda asked. “That seems unlike her from your description of her.”
“I was also surprised. She just walked out on me. Stupid woman.”
“What if she went to plan an attack?” Linda asked feeling uneasy.
“What kind of attack? Patricia is a woman who acts immediately. If she didn’t act then, she will not act again.”
“Are you sure? You just told her you are leaving her for me. What if she changed?”
“Stop being paranoid, Linda.” David was feeling less proud of himself. He had never liked timid women, but Linda was young, and made him feel alive again. “Look, everything is alright,” he concluded just as a knock sounded on the door to the suite.
“That should be our order,” he said, standing up to get the door. Hopefully the food would make Linda less timid.
He had barely opened the door when he felt a sharp pain in his neck.
He knew he had been stabbed to the neck when the knife was withdrawn by the figure, and his blood gushed out soaking up his white shirt.
The figure wore a mask, and was covered in black.
His last view, as he fell to the floor was that the person even wore black socks, no part or skin was visible.
His last though was the knowledge of the fact that he still died while in his old life. He was still married to Patricia.
#1: https://mspsteem.com/fiction/@djoi/the-sanctuary-1