Ami’s povMr. Osagie’s words in his room were a revelation. He laid out the entire plan he had made with my uncle. I had been struggling to piece things together, trying to connect the dots. But when Osagie told me, point blank, that I had to choose, I was left speechless. Is this what people without money have to go through to travel abroad? If Solomon had said this back in the village, I would never have followed him here in the first place.A rush of emotions overwhelmed me as I realized my own uncle had betrayed me. How could he put me in this situation? Lying down with Osagie would be a complete taboo, even if his wife had secretly agreed to it. Is this what city life is like? In my village, such a thing would never happen. A wife allowing her husband to sleep with another woman, an engaged woman, in her own home? It was unimaginable.I saw the surprise in Osagie’s eyes when I left his room. He must have expected me to say something, but I couldn’t find the words. I was still in
Mr Osagie’s pov The next morning, I was still lying on the bed when my wife walked into the room.“Honey, good morning,” she greeted me.“Good morning, my dearest,” I replied.“How was your night?” she asked, staring at me. Before I could answer, she added, “Aren’t you going to work today? Look at the wall clock! By now, I thought you’d already had your bath.”I hummed and stretched my legs. “Hmm… Are you going to church today?” I asked quickly, changing the subject.“Hallelujah!” she exclaimed, raising her hands in the air. “Are you going with me? Oh, Lord, this is a miracle! You’ve never been interested in anything about my pastor. This has been one of my prayer points! I’ve been asking the God of my pastor to touch your heart so it would change…”“Wait,” I interrupted, sitting up on the bed. “You didn’t even let me finish. I wanted to surprise you, but you’re too impatient to listen.”Her eyes lit up with joy. “It’s the Lord’s doing, my dear! I know this day will come.”“Do you e
Ami's POVI didn’t know how long I had slept, but for the first time in my life, I woke up feeling completely different. Both my hands were spread out on the bed, as were my legs, and every joint in my body ached. Moving was painful, as if every part of me resisted. Blinking my eyes felt strange, and the more I blinked, the stronger the feeling that something was wrong. My mind clung to one thought, my last encounter with Osagie. My thoughts were scattered, and I couldn’t piece them together. There was an unsettling awkwardness inside me.In those first moments of consciousness, I felt a sharp pain in my private area. It was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. My weak body forced itself upright, and that’s when I saw it-blood. Not just any blood, but dried, caked blood between my legs. I was naked.I felt anxious and it was far worse than anything I’d ever felt, not even my mother’s harshest scoldings back in the village could compare. My chest pounded, my breathing quicken
Osagie's POVIt felt like scales had fallen from my eyes the moment the fluid of life left my body. I pulled away from Ami and leapt out of her bed, my heart pounding in disbelief. My eyes fell on her, and then on the blood staining the sheets between her legs.“Is this a dream?” I muttered, blinking rapidly as if to wake myself. What had come over me? Why would I do something like this? The love I thought I had for her vanished in an instant. Was it even love, or just lust? How could I have laid with a girl who could easily be my daughter?What if Solomon found out? Wouldn’t this bring dishonor and disrespect? And what if my wife heard about it? Wouldn’t it destroy my home? My mind scrambled for excuses. Perhaps I had been drunk all this time. Or was it my wife’s fault for refusing to be intimate with me? No! no excuses. The blame was mine and mine alone.I rushed to my room and took a quick shower, hoping to cleanse not just my body, but the guilt and shame that clung to me. Yet the
Ami’s POVIt took seven days before I finally received an apology from Osagie. I don’t want to talk about how he apologized. Just a few sentences and he walked away. What had he been thinking all that time? That I would come crawling to him, begging for what he had done to me? I had never hated anyone the way I hated Osagie after what he did. Maybe he thought I would poison him. Why else would he insist that only his wife prepare and serve his meals? He didn’t even feel comfortable when she called me while he was around. I noticed two things: either he sent his wife to speak to me instead, or he simply walked away.For seven days, it was a silent and complicated battle. I was hurting, deep in my soul, but even more so because I couldn’t speak about it. There was pressure everywhere, inside me, around me, and especially from my mother.“Ami, when are you traveling?” she kept asking. But what could I tell her? I always gave the same answer, that I was in the final stage of processing my
Ami's POVWhen Mrs. Osagie said the word pregnant, I thought she had lost her mind. The first thing that came to me was that my body must be reacting to all the sugary food I had started eating since I arrived. My thoughts immediately went to the candies I had been taking from the store, something I had never tasted back in the village."Pregnant? How can I be pregnant? I’m not pregnant!" I snapped respectfully."Pregnancy doesn’t just happen by accident. Have you urinated this morning?" she asked, and I noticed her lips trembling slightly."Hmm… no." I answered without even thinking."Go back. In fact, I’ll follow you. Come," she said, taking my hand and leading me to the toilet. Then, pointing to a container, she added, "I need your urine here. I knew those calls you’ve been making would lead to this.""Ma, I am not pregnant."I never expected her to actually ask for my urine. I had just said no, but with her pressing me, I forced myself to pee in the container she had pointed to.W
Ami's POV"When I told you to stop talking to men on the phone, you thought I didn’t know what I was saying," Mrs. Osagie burst into my room, holding a pregnancy strip in her hand. She raised it in front of me."Look! These lines show you're pregnant."She kept moving towards me, her face filled with anger, an anger I had never seen before. She had never hit me before, but the first thing I felt was a slap. I turned to look at the lines she was showing me, but before I could react, another slap landed, snapping my face to the side."You are pregnant. Look at your life! You keep sleeping with men. Does that mean you bring them into this house? My house?" She clutched her chest. "Or do you meet them somewhere else?""No, ma, I didn’t bring any man here," I struggled to say those words."Then how did you get pregnant? Pregnancy is not something you eat with your meals! If you didn’t bring a man here, then explain how this happened!"She was growing more impatient. Her hands flew at me, h
Mrs. Osagie's POV“Am I the one to do it?” I asked as we stood in my room, having spent over an hour crafting our plan.“You can't,” Mrs. Esewe replied firmly. “I’ll do it myself.”“In that case, I’ll hide in one of the guest rooms downstairs and watch how it goes.”She shrugged. “No problem. But first, go wash your face.”Without hesitation, I turned and went into the bathroom. As I splashed water on my face, I caught my reflection in the mirror, my eyes were red. Taking a deep breath, I composed myself and stepped out.Together, we made our way downstairs. I slipped into one of the guest rooms while Mrs. Esewe headed to Ami’s room. Moments later, I heard her knock on Ami’s room. A few minutes passed before Ami emerged.“Ami,” Mrs. Esewe greeted warmly. “Can we talk in the sitting room?”I couldn't hear Ami’s response, but she must have agreed because, within seconds, they both entered the sitting room. From my hidden spot, I had a clear view of them, though Ami had no idea I was wat
Ami's POV:I can’t explain it, it was beyond words. From the moment I left my baby boy at home with Jovita, my heart wouldn’t stop racing. It was an awful, gnawing feeling, like a storm Looming in my chest. Every time my breast milk began to flow, my mind spiraled: Is Odion crying right now? Are they feeding him? Or are they just leaving him alone, helpless and forgotten? The questions clawed at me, relentless and unanswerable.I felt like I was losing my mind, muttering to myself as I balanced a large bowl of drinks and water on my head, my little girl strapped tightly to my back. If only I could find a way to scrape together the nearly seven hundred thousand naira I owed, I would have handed it over in a heartbeat. But how? The amount was staggering, and I didn’t even know how "Madam All-Whether" had conjured it up. I was too scared to ask, too afraid of her icy glare and the way her lips curled when she spoke of my debt. It wasn’t just the money she’d given to the two men I had onc
Ami's PovI couldn’t understand what Madam All-Whether and Jovita were thinking. Did they really believe I would give away any of my babies, even if I had quadruplets? Never. Each child was a part of me, a piece of my soul. I would never let any of them go.When I refused their offer, Madam All-Whether was furious. She lashed out at me, saying, “This is why people don’t help others anymore. Is this how you repay us? How long will it take you to pay back all the money you owe me? I don’t even want to see you here after you give birth!”Her words felt like a storm of curses. Then, while we were still in the backyard, she turned to Jovita and said, “Take her to the room and shave off all the hair in her private parts. She’ll start selling water and drinks now.”Jovita grabbed my hand and dragged me inside. She scolded me, “You’re so strange! I thought you wanted a baby. Now you have two, can’t you give one away and save yourself all this stress? You’re not just stressing yourself; you’re
Solomon’s POVIf Ami knew what her disappearance had done to me, she wouldn’t have thought of leaving. How am I supposed to pay off my huge debt? A debt I got myself into by investing people’s money in a new crypto coin that eventually crashed. This was an unexpected but golden opportunity to free myself from the burden I was too ashamed to talk about. I felt like crying, this was worse than anything I had ever faced. The only thing giving me hope was the thought of Ami finding her way into Osagie’s house. But my heart pounded with fear.As I sat on the stool in my small one-bedroom apartment, a place I had never shown Ami because I feared she might tell her mother how miserable my life in Lagos was, my phone rang. My first thought was that it was one of the investors calling to ask about their money. The call ended, but a few seconds later, my phone rang again. This time, I pulled it out of my pocket. It was Ami’s mother. My heart skipped a beat. She must have been waiting for my cal
Ami’s POV It felt like they were secretly plotting to destroy my integrity. Madam All-Whether, Jovita, and the other pregnant women saw no value in me as long as I was pregnant and living with them. To them, I was just proud and useless. Yet, even though they considered me worthless, Madam All-Whether refused to let me leave the house. She believed I needed to repay everything I had received, especially the food and shelter. At first, she made me wash all the dishes, but since that chore didn’t bring her any money, she quickly decided it wasn’t worth it. She was desperate for cash, and seeing me as a burden only made her angrier. How could she expect me to sell my own child and just walk away as if nothing happened? For me, that would be a decision that would haunt me for the rest of my life.A month after Raphael stopped paying my debts, Madam All-Whether called me into her room again. Every time she summoned me, I knew exactly what was coming. “How do you plan to keep going like
Ami’s POV“Ami, it’s been four months now, and you still won’t sleep with me. What more do you need? I’ve paid almost a hundred thousand naira of your debt. I even stopped sleeping with the other pregnant women two months ago, you can see that for yourself. In case you don’t know, I pay Madam All-Weather for your daily meals. What else do you want from me? I love you. I’ve never met anyone like you, you’ve changed the way I think. Please, let’s be together. I don’t even mind marrying you, even with another man’s child.”Those were Raphael’s words every evening as he pulled me aside whenever he came. Apart from Raphael’s persisting words, there was also a significant change in the house we were living in. The house has been fully fenced, and a gateman controlled who came and went. Life here had completely changed in the past four months, a kind of life I had never imagined. A life where young women willingly sold their own babies for money. Every week, at least one pregnant woman arri
Mr. Osagie’s POVIt has been days now, and still, there’s no word on Ami’s whereabouts. Her phone hasn’t gone through even once. Each passing day, I felt more exhausted, noticing her absence more than her presence. Maybe I should have shown her more care, not because I wanted to sleep with her again, but because she truly deserved kindness. A part of me knows she left this house with anger in her heart. If she had told me she was leaving, I would have given her a large sum of money to at least help her.But where could she have gone? Had she returned to the village, back to the fiancé she once mentioned? If so, why did Solomon receive word that she was not there? The thought of her out in the world, alone and possibly in trouble, gnaws at me. What is happening to her right now?Lost in my thoughts, I didn't notice my wife's soft footsteps descending the stairs.“Honey…?” Her voice pulled me back to the present, and I turned to face her.She walked closer, a small frown on her face. “A
Ami’s POVIdara’s words cut deep, like thorns pressing into my skin. Without thinking, I stepped away from her. She didn’t just see the hurt on my face, she understood it in the way I pulled away from her embrace. My heart felt crushed. Seeing her a few minutes ago used to be a comfort. Now, it wasn’t. I said nothing and walked out of the room, determined not to cry in front of her again. It was frustrating how easily doubt crept into my mind, making me question everything.As I stepped outside and headed to the back of the house, I noticed something I hadn’t before, a fence, and a small gate. The back of the house was quiet and everyone was inside. I stared at the small gate, my chest tightening with the urge to run. Run far away. Away from Idara. Away from this place. Away from someone I had thought wanted to help me. But where would I go? This wasn’t my home. I didn’t know this state, these people. I had no money to return to my village. And Lagos? That was no longer an option. Mrs
Ami’s POVIt happened in an instant. I didn’t know where my strength came from, but the sight of a man trying to force himself on me filled me with rage. Without thinking, I shoved him with all my might. He stumbled backward, crashing against the door with a loud thud. My heart pounded. I expected him to get up and slap me. He wouldn’t have fallen so hard if his trousers hadn’t stopped him from steadying his feet.“What’s going on in there?”Madam All-Weather’s voice rang from outside the room. The noise must have echoed through the house.“Oh, thank God. She’s coming to save me,” I whispered as I felt relieved.But she wasn’t the only one who had heard the commotion. Other pregnant women, including Jovita, rushed into the room. Raphael scrambled to pull up his trousers as the door swung open, his movements frantic and obvious. Madam All-Weather stepped in, her sharp eyes scanning the scene. “What is happening here?” she demanded. Tears burned my eyes as I pointed at him. “Ma, he tri
Ami's POVWhen I heard the word documentation, I thought they were just going to take my name and other basic information. But at the baby care center, it meant something entirely different. I followed Jovita into a small room, much smaller than the others. The first thing that caught my attention was a large red cloth covering an entire wall. Where I came from, such a display usually meant something related to divination. There was only one chair in the room. Jovita sat down and asked, “What has Idara told you since yesterday? This is the first place you should have come before even resting your head. But since you arrived late and came from far, I decided to let you rest instead of stressing you with your pregnancy.” She paused, looked at me, then continued.“Now, back to my question. What did Idara tell you yesterday?”“Ma, she didn’t tell me anything.”“Are you sure?”“Yes.”“Okay then. In that case, I want you to take off your pants.”For a moment, I thought I had misheard her.