AND SO IT BEGINS

Chapter 6

Eve

The fateful day I'd been waiting for dawned bright and clear . . . yet, there was a heavy feeling in my heart.

Palpable excitement throbbed in the air, as people went about getting ready for the preparation of the upcoming launch.

The company was launching their first ever simless mobile phone and the team and I, had worked on it for some time now. We were the brains behind it, and as such, it was a particularly exciting time for us.

The launch was to take place in one of the very prestigious hotels and a lot of dignitaries had been invited.

We were also doing a merger with one of the networking companies and talks of sponsorship by a foreign company was also in the works.

This thing is going to be huge, I thought, as I gazed at the prototype of it. A drawing was pinned to a board, on the wall of my office.

The director decided to make it a family event, where all staff could invite their families so they could also share in their success. Problem with that is, I had invited Geoffrey, not realising that Eyare would be back so soon. Too late, Eyare had seen the invitation which had been addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Osazuwa. It was on the kitchen table when he got back from his travel.

He had enthused about it, said he wouldn't it miss it for the world.

Now I was in a dilemma.

What was I going to do?

I couldn't possibly tell him not to come, neither could I tell Geoffrey not to come either.

What to do, what to do.

That had become a mantra for me and I still hadn't come to a decision yet, until the day loomed bright and clear.

Sitting in front of the mirror, I put the finishing touches to my makeup. I could see the worry evident in my eyes. I still hadn't come to any decision on what to do yet.

My husband and lover at the same event was definitely a recipe for disaster.

I would handle it.

I would have to juggle getting up a lot. So far they don't get to meet, all will be well, I surmised.

I was a bundle of nerves as I tapped my foot nervously.

"Aren't you ready yet, honey?" Eyare's voice boomed from the sitting room.

Taking one last look at myself in the mirror, I shouted back. "Coming!" And picking up my clutch bag, I left the room.

All eyes turned to us as we walked inside the hall. Eyare looked at me while we were being shown to our seats. I knew what he saw as he stared, unabashed. I'd taken extra care to look good tonight.

My hair was packed high up on top of my head in a loose chignon, while a few tendrils framed the sides of my face. This drew focus to my eyes that were accentuated with black eyeliner. My lips were shiny and glossed up. He couldn't tear his eyes away from my face.

I smiled inwardly as he continued gazing.

My shoulders were completely bare. The gold - lame dress fit my figure perfectly, moulding it and showing off my full hips to perfection. The dress flared out wide from my knees down in a ball gown style.

It sparkled and shined under the chandelier lights we were currently sitting under.

The launching started and at a point, I was called to make a speech. Eyare clapped and whistled.

He was excited --- too excited.

Camera men were in a frenzy, taking pictures of my team and I. Video men went around covering the event. But as I stood on the podium giving my speech, I thought I spotted Geoffrey standing at the back amidst other people, but just then, a camera flash went off in my face, momentarily blinding me. When next I looked up, he wasn't there.

I faltered in my speech, fear clenching my insides. The rest of my speech was a blur as I stumbled and rushed through it.

After I totally stumbled through my words, I walked back to my seat where I told Eyare in a shaky voice that I needed to use the ladies. He looked concerned and asked if I was okay. I just nodded and got up. As I walked away, I scanned the bright room on the look out for Geoffrey, eyes wide with fright.

"Looking for me, sugar?" I heard from directly behind me.

I spun around to see him leaning in close, a smirk on his lips. I half dragged, half pushed him in the direction of the toilet, my nails digging into his flesh.

He allowed himself to be led, putting up no resistance. I was breathing heavily when we both got into the female toilet. I walked in ahead of him, but turned around quickly when I heard the toilet bolt slide into place.

I turned round to face him, my eyes wide with fear. "Why did you do that? I can't be missing for long. I just came to tell you that you can't stay for the event, my husband is back and he's here with me. Please Geoffrey, you really have to leave," My chest heaved with exertion and fear by the time I was done talking.

"I will leave, on one condition." he said, leering at me.

"What's that?" I asked in a fearful whisper.

"Let me show you," and pulling me to him, he pressed his lips to mine forcefully, his tongue prying my lips open, his hand sliding up my dress.

He picked me up easily and carried me over to the sink, where he dumped me unceremoniously on it. He pulled his trousers and boxers down, revealing his manhood.

My eyes almost popped out as it dawned on me what he was about to do. Shock and fear made me immobile as I watched with bulging eyes as he slipped his hands up the slit in my thigh, locating my panties and ripping the straps apart. Lifting up my dress, he drew me forcefully to him.

I was jolted out of the bands of shock that held me frozen as I began hitting him with my hands. Laughing, he lazily held my two hands above my head with one of his, while with the other, held my back steady, and forced himself inside me.

Tears stung my eyes, as pain radiated through my lady parts. I had to bite down on my lips to stifle a cry. He thrust into me harder, all the while effortlessly holding my hands above my head in a vice - like grip.

I knew it was useless to struggle. I just couldn't get out of his grasp. He was too strong for me.

"Look at me!" He suddenly ordered, grabbing the back of my head, holding it in a strong hold. "Know this --- you are mine!" And with that, he grunted as he sprayed his seed into me.

Letting go of me, he pulled up his boxers and trousers, all the while breathing heavily. His eyes were wild and blood - shot and his breath reeked of alcohol.

Kissing me on the lips, he smiled and sneered. "You be good now," and with one last look, unbolted the door, peeked his head out, looked left and right and walked out of the toilet.

I slid down from the edge of the wash hand basin and landed on the ground in an ungainly heap,

crying and sobbing.

Time passed, I didn't know how long. It felt like it had been hours, but when I checked my wrist watch, only ten minutes had gone by since I had been on the toilet floor.

My crying gradually reduced to sniffles. Feeling sorry for myself, I got up and looking at the mirror, began crying again.

I looked horrible. My eyes were red and puffy, streaked with smudged eyeliner and mascara.

I tentatively touched my face. It felt swollen.

Washing my face and cleaning it the best way I could, I gathered up the shreds of my torn panties and threw it inside the bin.

I took one last look at myself in the mirror. I didn't look much better, but it would have to do. Luckily, no one had come into the toilet to witness my shame.

With one last look at the mirror, I left the toilet to go join Eyare. Luckily, he thought I was just emotional about the launching of the product, that was why I had been crying. He kept telling me it was okay to cry tears of joy and that he was proud of me.

My heart and mind were no longer at the function. We didn't wait till the end, because I pleaded a headache.

Getting home, I scrubbed my skin till it was raw and tender to touch. I was trying to rid myself of the feel of Geoffrey's roughness on me. But try as I could, I couldn't get the image of his hate - filled eyes out of my mind. I didn't understand what had spurred the assault he had meted out to me tonight.

All he had to do was ask nicely and I would have gladly given myself to him, after all it wasn't the first time we had slept together.

I silently cried myself to sleep that night.

Two weeks later

I sat in the chair, tapping furiously away, giving the impression I was taking down notes of the meeting. In all honesty, I was typing nothing. My mind was far away. I felt everything was falling apart. I would be caught if I wasn't more careful.

I was losing focus on my job more and more. The drive that had been there in the beginning was fizzling out and I was finding it more and more difficult to concentrate at work.

This isn't how it's supposed to be.

Gone was the bubbly woman who would greet everyone with a big smile and stop at their work station's to ask how they were faring.

These days, I walked about with a slow gait, always seemingly deep in thought, my eyes vacant. And it didn't help that I hadn't heard from Geoffrey either.

Anytime I called him, it would ring and ring but he never picked. That put me in an even worse mood. Eyare became worried, insisting I take time off from work. But I refused, and trudged on listlessly.

"Mrs. Osazuwa.... Mrs. Osazuwa!"

I came back to the reality around me as seven faces peered at me, their foreheads squeezed with worry and concern.

"Mrs. Osazuwa!" The director called again.

"Yes?" I blinked at him.

"Are you okay? I have been calling your name for the past one minute. Everything all right with you?"

I forced out a smile. "Yes!" And with more force "Yes, yes, I'm fine thank you."

"So you did you hear what I said last, right?" He asked, looking at me with raised eyebrows. "I mean, you typed it down just now, yes?" He continued.

"Yes, yes I did. Of course, of course I did. Excellent idea!" I enthused.

I was rambling and I knew it, but couldn't help it. I didn't have the foggiest idea of what the director had been talking about in the last twenty minutes.

If he asked to see what I typed down, I'm so screwed.

Luckily, he nodded and moved on to talking about other things and I made sure to listen to every word he said and typed it down too.

The meeting came to an end, soon after and I rushed to the toilet. I had been feeling queazy the past two weeks.

I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked awful. My eyes were swollen and blood shot. There were bags under them. My curly hair was in a state of disarray from repeatedly running my fingers through them.

Truth be told, I felt worse than how I looked.

My whole body ached and I was tired all the time. All I felt like doing was crawling into bed and sleeping.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say I was pregnant. But the doctor had said I couldn't get pregnant until after a month of removing the coil. It would take my body some time to acclimatise to the removal.

Ever since Eyare travelled, I had met with Geoffrey, but our dalliances had stopped as soon as Eyare got back . . .except that time at the launch when he took me by force.

I shuddered, not wanting to remember or dwell on it.

I had forgiven him, even though he had not yet apologised to me. I made a mental note to swing by the hospital on my way home.

Hours Later

I kicked off my heels and flopped unto the bed. Taking out the envelope from my bag, I removed the slip of paper inside.

My heart literally sank.

It was as I suspected.

I was one month pregnant.

But how could this be?

I opened my mouth in horror, as the realisation dawned on me that it was Geoffrey's.

I hadn't had anything physical with Eyare in the last one month.

Oh my God! I clamped a hand over my mouth. My heart raced with palpable fear.

What was I going to do?

Yes, I knew Geoffrey had proposed but he hadn't done anything concrete about it and anytime I brought it up, he'd just wave it away.

I didn't want to continue living a lie with Eyare. I felt sorry that I was cheating on him but I just couldn't help it. Geoffrey was my dream man.

What do I do now?

Little wonder I had felt tired and sleepy all the time.

Wow!

I was pregnant. I touched my stomach, marvelling at the new life budding inside.

Hey little one, mama and dada love you. I'm going to look after you, don't you worry.

I was already forming a plan in my mind. I got up, removed my clothes and stepped into the bathroom.

I took a long hot bath, using essential oils to massage my skin to make it more soft. When I got out, I lit candles on the bed side tables and put the lights off. I brought out one of my seductive looking nighties and put it on.

Checking the time, I saw it was 8pm, so decided to take a little nap. I woke up with a start, feeling disoriented. Looking at the time, it was 10.30pm. I had slept more hours than I intended to.

I looked to the other side of the bed, it was still neatly made, not a dent, then I heard the main door open. Eyare was just coming home.

He normally got back home early, what happened today?

I still had to go through with my plan. I heard his footsteps as they got closer to the room.

Laying back unto the bed, I struck a pose as I feigned sleep. One leg peeked out of the covers revealing a creamy thigh. The silk strap of my nightie slid down one shoulder, leaving it bare and inviting.

I heard the bedroom door open and parted my lips and jutted out my chest. When I adjusted into a more comfortable position, the silk strap slid lower. When I didn't hear the bedroom door close, I knew I had snagged his attention. He was by my side in a jiffy.

He shook me, and with urgency in his tone, retorted. "Do you want to catch a cold? It's freezing in here. If you have to wear this, cover yourself up or put off the damn air-conditioner."

I opened my eyes, shock registering on my face. I stared at him, mouth open.

My plan was backfiring, and very fast too.

I watched with lowered lids as he undressed and went to take a shower. Coming back out, he dressed up in his full pyjamas, slid under the covers and turned his back to me.

His soft snores could be heard some minutes later.

I tugged my nightie straps up my shoulders and got up angrily.

Who the hell does he think he is?

I matched out of the room, all the while cursing under my breath.