S.I.M.S Episode 16 – 17 by Opeyemi O. Akintunde

S.I.M.S Episode 16

(STEPPING INTO MAGGIE’S SHOE)
©️ Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde

I started living with my parents and in the process I picked up my business back. I was into selling of Fabrics.

After I had left Apostle’s office that day, I avoided picking his call. Whenever, he used a strange number in calling me, I would always hang up whenever I realized he was the one…

He stalked my phone for over two weeks calling every day, but I guess he got tired.
Next thing I was hearing and seeing in the news was that he was preparing to get married to Chaba. They were all over the news. I was happy for him and happy for myself. At least, I believed I could no longer enter Pastor Maggie’s shoe.

Chaba had started going with him to public functions, and underneath his smile in the pictures, I could tell he wasn’t happy one bit..

I never heard from Julius , but I later heard from a close friend of his, that he actually had a girl all the while we were dating. His friend told me, Julius said I was crazy and he couldn’t just break up with me, for fear of me killing him. He also told me, that Julius was actually lying about him not having money for my dowry. It was actually a ploy to make me frustrated so I could be the one to break up with him. He said that Julius purposely didn’t want us to do the church wedding and court wedding so he could run away whenever the opportunity presented itself. I was told Julius referred to me as the “ Crazy babe”.

You can’t imagine how heartbroken I was that day. His friend advised me to move on, since in the actual sense I was not yet married to him referring to the payment of the dowry by me… He told me, Julius had told everyone who cared to listen that he had danced to my tune of getting married so as to save his life…

I stayed indoors for days, and though I tried to hide my emotions from my mother, but you know Mothers…She was on my case asking me What was wrong…

My wall of defense eventually came crumbling down when she mentioned if I was missing Julius…

“ Missing Julius?, May God punish him wherever he is, May the Lord not make him smile? Mummy, can you imagine after everything I did for Julius, to the point I emptied my account to pay for my dowry and to get us an accommoda…” I managed to say before mummy cut in

“ Wait..You did what?” Mum asked in disbelief

I went on mute

“ You paid your dowry?, Oh my God!” My Mum collapsed on the bed and started sobbing …That act of mine really hurt her…

For days she didn’t speak to me, so I was surprised when she woke me up from my sleep very early on Monday morning….

“ Happy,Happy… breaking news oooo, this God is too much ooo, Lord I thank you ..”

“ Mum, What is it?” I said as I sat on the bed…

“ Apostle Ray is no more getting married to Chaba, the engagement has been broken! , I just heard it in the news…”

I ran to the living room, but the news was over. I picked up my phone to check one of the gossip sites, and true to my mother’s word. It was written that Apostle had broken his engagement to the lady on mutual understanding, and the Lady had returned to South Africa…

“ God, thank you!, thank you for giving her another chance!” Mum said dancing all around the living room…

“ MUM!”

“ Yes!”

“ Mum, you want me to get married to Apostle?”

“ Yes , my dear, I will be the happiest one on earth”

A beep on my phone indicating a text message and I didn’t need anyone telling me it was from Apostle…

“ I am sure you must have heard the news about Chaba and I , I got rid of her, so we can be together. please I need you in my life”

I collapsed into the dining chair and as expected Mum took my phone and read the text message. You should have seen the joy and surprise on my mother’s face…

What do you think should be my next action, as Julius was gone with no hope of him coming back and honestly thinking about it, I was not married to Julius in the first place as he didn’t pay my dowry.?

S.I.M.S Episode 17

(STEPPING INTO MAGGIE’S SHOE)
©️Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde

Our Wedding was the talk of the town. It was the wedding of my dreams. I had to pinch myself over a hundred times to be sure I wasn’t dreaming or hallucinating….

I believe you are wondering what happened so Fast, Well Let me take it slow…

After Chaba left, Apostle became a thorn in my flesh, he cared less about his status, class and popularity. He was always at my home, business place virtually everyday, sometimes with his Aides and at times especially at night he came on his own…

The “song” he always sang repeatedly in my ears was that before he lost his Wife, he had always had a soft spot for me. He told me, the moment the Lord told him I was his wife, he was excited, but his heart was broken when I got married to Julius.

“ Out of the Love I have for you, I wanted you to be happy with Julius, since that was where your heart was. It was one of the women in the marriage committee that tried to match make Chaba and I together, You know, the elders in the church feel I should not be alone not to give room for fornication…”

“ But Apostle …”

“ Ray…Happy, Please call me Ray…”

“ Hmmm.. That feels too heavy on my lips….but I will try it someday.. What I wanted to say is, Julius and I have done a traditional Engagement”

“ Your Mum has told me, about you paying your dowry, that has annulled the marriage, It is not in our culture for the woman to pay the dowry and God respects culture, besides scripturally, a man is to pay his bride’s dowry not borrowing from her to pay… I am ready to pay your dowry and even more, Happy please say Yes to me”. His smile was charming and I fell for it without restrictions….

We started hanging out, having fun. For an Apostle, he was romantic. He was completely different from the man I saw on the pulpit ministering…We chatted all day, We spoke all night doing midnight calls…. I became madly in love with him. He also was in love with me to the point that he almost made love to me at my parent’s house….

“ No… Stop it Ray…, We shouldn’t do this…”

“ Please… Just this once, Your body has been driving crazy…”

“ No, I am not about to destroy your ministry by making God angry with you… Until we get married, doing this will be fornication..”

He eventually calmed down and thanked me for helping him during his “ Insane moment” as he called it…

After about 4 months of serious courtship, with the church knowing about it, We got married on the 25th of April.

My Wedding gown was ordered from Dubia, My wedding ring from France. The wedding was classy. Apostle was all smiles…He was grinning from one ear to the other. In his eyes, I looked like a precious gift…

Our wedding had dignitaries from all over, My mother was in high Spirits, Aunt Julie was not in this world either. They were both glad I was getting married to the Apostle…

Apostle danced very excitedly at the wedding reception, he beat me hands down. I saw Joy in him, but somewhere in my heart, I felt unhappy for Pastor Maggie, at how her husband was already moving on…

We retired to a 7 star hotel, with the hope of Travelling to Barbados for our Honeymoon as planned. When we got in, Apostle got down to business and did his husbandly duties. The moment he was relieved, he slept immediately. No sweet words…No looking into my eyes like I had fantasized….

The next morning, I woke up with the fantasy that Apostle was going to be looking into my eyes, but I met him looking out through the window…

“ Hey!” I said

“ Good morning”…He said as he turned to look at me, trying to force a smile…

“ Guess you are an early bird” I said trying to start a conversation

“ Yes, you can say that..”

“ Thanks for the wedding, I felt like a princess yesterday”

“ You deserve more…” He said still standing far away from me, I stood up from the bed and walked towards him trying to get sexy with him, but as I got closer, he moved away not wanting me to touch him…

“ I need to get to an impromptu meeting today, I am not sure we will be able to go for the Barbados trip anymore”

“ Ok, No more Honeymoon” I said jokingly

“ Well, there is nothing special about the Honeymoon, since I have had a taste of the Honey already” he said sarcastically

Something was wrong!

“ Are you ok?, Did I do anything wrong?”

“ Why are you asking?” He asked

“ You are acting strange”

“Strange?, Well this is me!, I am Strange, Guess you need to cope and accept me that way” He said and after which he started packing his box, silently.

I silently packed my things as well wondering what on earth has happened.

We got to his home and I was met with a lot of shocking things….

For starters, Apostle told me, we couldn’t share the same room and also I was to stay in Pastor Maggie’s old room.

When I opened the door to her room, I ran back as a result of what I saw…

To be continued…

#OpraDre

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