STEPPING INTO MAGGIE’S SHOE (Part 23&24) – OPEYEMI AKINTUNDE

PART 23
“STEPPING INTO MAGGIE’s SHOE …” S.I.M.S
©️ Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde

Gabriel was stroking my hair and I was enjoying every bit of it, but at the same time the voice in my head was loud saying repeatedly

“ Do you love me?”

“ Yes Lord, you know I do!” I replied in my heart…

“ I am not a wicked guy who just wants to snatch you away from your husband, but I feel this is what you should do, Your Husband is an adulterer and the BIBLE permits divorce based on that …”

I gently removed my head from his shoulder in shock as to how he knew my husband was committing adultery. I also tried to feign ignorance…

“He is not!” I said in defense

“ Happy, you know he is, you think I don’t know he sleeps with my mother at your house? Happy, how do you cope staying in that house knowing that your husband is sleeping with another married woman…”

“It’s my cross, I have to bear”

“ No, you are not Jesus.. You shouldn’t bear any cross”

“ Who told you?”

“No one, I have the password to my mother’s phone which she is unaware of. I read her chats with the Apostle.”

“What I don’t understand is why your mother is doing this?, Adultery is a sin against God. She commits it every week and yet raises up her hands in church on Sunday.”

“ My father hardly has her Time”

“That doesn’t mean…”

It felt like I was preaching to myself. I became irritated with myself for staying in the hotel with Gabriel…

“I need to go!” I stood up and wore my sandal back

“ Go?, we just got here!”

“Listen Gabriel, as much as doing this makes sense and is justifiable, if I let this happen, I am no less like your mother. Let me see this as a cross I will bear… I have made a lot of mistakes in my past out of Greed, I am not about to compound issues by adding this to the list… You are a good person and if wishes were horses, I would have loved to divorce my husband to marry you, but divorce was allowed by Moses because of the hardness of the heart of people to let go of hurts, but I know God would rather want me to stay in this marriage and work things out…”

“Are you sure this is what you want?”

I nodded in the affirmative

“ Ok, can I at least get a last hug” he said

I drew close to him and gave him a hug, but all hell let loose. The emotions could not be controlled, we both lost our sense of reasoning, but just at the point of making the everlasting mistake I would have regretted all my life, God gave me the strength to push him off me as I ran into the bathroom crying profusely….

“ God this is not fair, not fair one bit, I know I wished for this, but if you knew this was how complex it was going to be, you should have cautioned me… God I want to have sex, God I really want to, please, please”

“ Do you love me?”

“ Yes Lord, I love you…” and the depth of that question broke me down

“ If you love me, you won’t do what will hurt me, and adultery hurts me”

I cried and cried and cried uncontrollably in the toilet throwing tantrums before God, knowing God was not giving me Gabriel. He was telling me to stay in the marriage with Ray. Gabriel kept knocking at the door apologizing but I didn’t answer him. This was between God and I.

After about 15 minutes, I heard the door of my room open and close. I knew Gabriel was out…

I stood up, washed my face and came to a painful resolution.

“ Apostle, I won’t let what you are doing affect me one bit, you have your ways to settle with God, I will be the best housemate I can be and the best mother in the Lord in the church. Mrs Beecroft and the other women you are in for trouble…”

*********

Gabriel kept calling my number on my way home, I decided to do what I knew how to do best. I barred his number from calling me.

As I stepped out of the taxi, I met Mrs Beecroft driving out of my gate. I wove her car down but She refused to stop. Apostle was standing in the compound surprised I was back…

“ Guess your lover boy disappointed you, not Everyone is good at this game!”

I felt really hurt at his show of stupid pride doing what was wrong. I didn’t have an answer for a baby like him,

but I needed to clear the air…

“ On the contrary I disappointed him, because I suddenly remembered I was not a woman of easy virtue like his mother and most importantly I remembered that nothing should separate me from the love of God, not even the emotional pain my callous husband Inflicts on me everyday”.

He was shocked and didn’t say a word as I went into the house…He followed me and asked in the living room

“ So you didn’t sleep with him?” He said like a little boy who had just won a victory

“ How is that your business?, Apostle Ray, you have brought me into your life and your home, I have certain rules if you want this home to be peaceful”

“ Ok?”

“ Our Salvation is personal and since you are not passionate about keeping yours, mine is very important. First and foremost, I don’t want to ever see any of your loose women in this house again, you can make a better arrangement elsewhere, but as for my home I don’t plan on condoling it here. The atmosphere here needs to be cleansed…. Secondly, I will prepare your food everyday which you must eat from, the day you don’t eat my food will be hell”

“ Are you crazy?” He said not believing the audacity I had

“ That is exactly the right words to describe me right now, and you know crazy can be deadly…” I said

He hissed and walked up the stairs like a little child who has been refused what he really wants…

“You think you are a naughty child, well I used to be a naughty child too, who knows exactly how to get what she wants. Apostle Ray, you will give me exactly what I want” I said and had a very good laugh

To be continued

:

PART 24
“STEPPING INTO MAGGIE’s SHOE …” S.I.M.S
©️ Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde

For a week, I didn’t see any of the women and neither did he eat my food. I wasn’t bothered about the food, because at least I had achieved the part of the women not coming over. He kept malice with me for that week, whenever I greeted he gave me silence for an answer.

When I saw Mrs. Beecroft in church on Sunday, she didn’t pretend to be happy with me as she eyed me anytime our eyes made contact.

“Shameless Woman!” I thought to myself as simultaneously I saw Gabriel walking towards me on the Altar. I quickly moved away from the person I was speaking to and made way to my office. I could perceive he was following me. As I got to into my office with the hope of shutting the door behind me in a rush, he put his leg in the door way…

“What do you want?’ I asked

“You started this whole thing making me crazy about you, and suddenly you think you are just going to discard me like that!”

“I was trying to get back at your mother for sleeping with my husband!”

“Then let’s say, I am trying to get back at your husband for sleeping with my mother!”

“Stop It, Gabriel, this is not you, don’t try to play dirty like what I was trying to do, please don’t make the same mistake I made, other people’s shoe have always been attractive to me, and out of greed , I have found my leg in one that is way too big and uncomfortable for me…Don’t try to get me by all means, you might hurt yourself…Just accept things the way they are. See me as the woman you could never have, and I will see you as same. Move on and Let God find you a good girl who deserves your undiluted and drama free love…”

“I don’t want any other woman, it’s you I want…” he said

“And you can never have her, because she is my wife” Apostle said as the door to my office opened…

Gabriel jumped up from his seat and you could still sense some respect for the Apostle as he had his head bowed…

“Good Afternoon Sir!” Gabriel had said

“Good Afternoon Gabriel, Have a seat….” Apostle said to Gabriel who obediently sat…

“Gabriel, I know what it feels like , when it’s another man’s wife that interests you, so I don’t condemn you, but you are about to end your life, because my wife is off the rack, I can sleep with other women, but no other man can sleep with my wife, you know just like the kings of old, like King David..” Apostle said this and pulled me closer to himself, which was a way of silently telling Gabriel, I belonged to him…

“I strongly disagree sir, if you can commit adultery what stops your wife?”

“I can’t and won’t commit adultery not because of him, but because of Him who is God” I said as I got myself rid of Apostle’s hands…

“With all due respect, Apostle, I would love to be left alone” I said as I went to my table

“I know exactly how to get Happy out of your grip, I will have your story told on every newspaper” he said threatening Apostle

Apostle laughed out loud

“ Remember to include your mother’s name in the story, and watch how you will be labeled as the son of the woman sleeping with her pastor.” He said walking out laughing .

There was a brief moment of Silence as Apostle’s threat made sense to Gabriel and I. Exposing Apostle was like causing damage to Gabriel’s personality as well… I shook my head in pity at how cocky Apostle was sounding..

Gabriel stormed out of my office colliding with Mrs Jaiyesimi, one of my husband’s sleeping partner.

“ Good Afternoon Pastor Happy” She said not trying to maintain eye contact with me

“ Yes!, Mrs Jaiyesimi, how may I help you, are you here to insult me?”

“ No, I am here to apologize for what I have been doing with the Apostle. It was my husband who pushed me into this, his lack of care made me close to the Apostle. It started casually by way of me calling to report my husband to him. I started finding succor in him, till one thing led to the other. When Pastor Maggie was alive, she was very supportive as she would prepare food for me anytime I was at your place, I felt I wasn’t doing what was wrong since it was my husband that pushed me out, but looking at how you handle the situation calmly despite seeing me coming to your home every week to have intercourse with your husband, you are still sane and on fire for God…I really feel ashamed of myself and stupid for letting my husband’s lifestyle push me in to sin…, Please Forgive me , pray for me and I promise to stay away from him…”

“ Hmmm…, it’s ok ma… I am not the one who should forgive you, once you make your way right before God, You are free of guilt…”

“ Please keep this as a secret between us”

“ It is fine!”

I stood up and gave a sisterly hug, as I understood no one was a saint.

We drove home with the church driver, with no words said in the car. This gave me time to think about the statement, Mrs Jaiyesimi had made about Pastor Maggie supporting Apostle in having extra marital affairs under her roof…

“Was that Christian Like?” I asked

myself

“ Was That been a good wife?,”

I was ruminating on this in the car, so I didn’t know when we got home, until Apostle touched me…

“ Honey, we are home.”

The moment the church driver left, all hell was let loose…

“ So you have taken Mrs Jaiyesimi from me right?, you will regret this” he said angrily like someone having a fit

“ Me… take Mrs Jaiyesimi from you?, how?”

“ Yes!, she just sent me a text in the car, telling me she had spoken to you and it was over between us”

“ Ok?, so is that a bad thing?”

The next thing I felt on my face was a loud and painful slap….

Emotional pain was one thing, but I didn’t know Physical abuse was part of what Apostle had for me in this shoe called Marriage… Hmmm.. Maybe this was one of the reasons Pastor Maggie kept quiet, and maybe this was why Sapphira in the Bible Lied alongside her husband, Ananias…

Should the fear of my husband make me condole and support evil?