INFIDELITY FILES – Ifeanyi’s Story
Tags: Marital Relations, Infidelity, Love, Cheating, Nigerian Writing

INFIDELITY FILES – Ifeanyi’s Story

Part 1

“It’s another edition of ‘Talk to Me.’ If you’re a regular listener, you know that on this show, we push the envelope. If you’re listening for the first time, then I should tell you that we boldly discuss the topics other shows skirt around. It can get gritty on here and it may offend your sensibilities, but we drop it like it’s hot. I am Kike Akinnibosun your host. Welcome to the show!”

Kike tried to suppress her excitement. The last show with Ejindu had gone well. The audience call-in and messages had been awesome. Many disagreed with his position but like he said at the end, it was his life and he hadn’t come to seek counseling.

Today she had a husband and wife. It would be really hot if the chemistry between the couple would transmit. She already had a good feeling about them.

They were the second in the series of about 4 shows she hoped to run on infidelity in relationships. As usual their names were altered and their voices would be distorted. She was pumped up and hoped that hearing the story from both points of view would liven things up.

Kike continued her intro. “Just like on the last edition, my guests tonight will tell you their personal story and at the end, we will take your questions and comments.”

Music Intro and. . . . “Welcome Ifeanyi and Oluchi. It’s a pleasure to have you in the studio. You’re here to tell us your story/confession so please go right ahead.”

Ifeanyi looked to his wife. He held her hand tight and spoke to her “Ready Babe?

She looked at him and nodded. Then he began to speak.

“My name is Ifeanyi I’m here in the studio with my wife Oluchi. We are Igbo and have been married for 11 years. We have 3 adorable children. We are both professionals. I run a business in my field of expertise which I would rather not mention because it is a niche industry with few local players and going into further detail might blow my anonymity. A slight nervous laugh escaped from him at this point. My wife works for a multinational corporation.

When we got married we exchanged the usual vows and I’m sure I speak for both of us when I say how excited we were to begin our marital journey. I was sure that I would never look at another woman other than my wife. I knew she was literally my last bus-stop. At this point, Oluchi interjected. I have to tell you that we were so naïve. I actually believed that I would never find myself attracted to another man or be tempted by another man simply by having signed on the dotted lines and exchanged those vows. She laughed without humour, “Boy, was I wrong!” No one can give you a true picture of what happens in a marriage. Firstly because no 2 marriages are alike and secondly because no two people are alike. So while we may face similar challenges, our reactions, responses and outcomes will definitely vary.”

Ifeanyi took over. “So we began our lives and it’s been a good life on the whole. But life happened, familiarity bred contempt, the mystique disappeared in the mundaneness of life and we began to take each other for granted. Then Infidelity happened.”

At this point, Ifeanyi took a deep breath as he flashed back to the recent events in his life. It seemed like only yesterday. . .

One Year Ago

He shook his head and closed the page on his Twitter feed. Truth be told, he was getting tired of social media. It was such a misleading place. Who knew what to believe anymore? Couple goals and happy pictures everywhere; who was fooling whom? Ifeanyi put his phone down on the nightstand, shut his eyes and leaned back against the headboard. He felt unutterably weary. Almost 4 months and he still hadn’t come to grips with all that had happened.

He had stopped using his Face book and Instagram accounts because he was tired of brag posts and people posting pictures of perfect lives. God knew he didn’t envy anyone their perfect life. He had been part of #TeamPerfectLife once upon a time. He’d always loved taking photos. His queen Oluchi was pretty, curvaceous and photogenic to boot. Her body had filled out nicely after birthing and nursing their 3 children. She fit the description “thick” to a ‘T.’ They had twin sons and a daughter. His children were his pride and joy. He took pictures of himself and his family on the slightest pretext and he posted many. His Instagram was a photo collage of his life. He shared their many highs. Their lows were private matters to be kept out of the public eye.

He grimaced as he remembered the day he realized he was living a lie.

Real life was so different from movies. Movies gave you a hint when things were about to take a turn for the worse. The beat and tune of the background music changed; the lighting dimmed. You had some inkling that things were about to go awry. Real life wasn’t that kind.

It had been a Saturday evening. Oluchi and the maid were giving the kids a bath while he was in the living room watching an Arsenal V. Chelsea football match he could never forget it. Her phone was beside him on the couch and he felt it buzz. Idly he’d looked at it when it buzzed and froze when saw the banner of the Whatsapp message that dropped.

“I miss you Baby. Monday at the Oriental by 11. I can still taste you from yesterday.”

His blood had run cold. He was sure it was a wrong number. But how could it be when the sender was obviously a contact? He had never snooped into his wife’s phone and had always felt disdainful of men and women who snooped into their spouses phones. He and Oluchi had exchanged passwords early in their marriage in case of an emergency. He decided this qualified as one.

He clicked on the message and saw that it was a number she was engaged in an ongoing chat with. There were several other messages along the same lines. In addition, there were some casual conversations, affectionate chats and other more blatantly sexual messages. His blood ran cold. His own Oluchi was having an affair? No way. He loved her and he was sure she loved him. They had a good marriage. Yes, they had their disagreements; which married couple didn’t have differences of opinion from time to time. But this? No way. Ifeanyi was filled with bloodlust. He wanted to do something terrible to whomever this man was that dared to be so intimate with his wife. At the same time, he wished that he could unsee what he had seen and return to his previous state of blissful ignorance. He toyed with marking the message unread so that Oluchi wouldn’t know that he had read it. But why should he? He had nothing to hide.

His head felt like it had swelled to 10 times its size, shrunk and swelled repeatedly. He heard a loud ringing in his ears. His face felt hot and his hands were clammy and they began to shake uncontrollably. His skin felt tight. Ifeanyi wondered if it was possible to jump out of his own skin. Even as all these things were happening, he felt like he was outside his body observing things. He couldn’t stand being in the house. He got up on unsteady legs and walked out of the house. He didn’t know where he was going. He just walked and walked. The next time he came to, he realized that he was in front of the Law School at Victoria Island and he had no idea how he had got there. He had walked from his house in the Agungi area of Lekki. He was exhausted and considered calling a taxi to take him to a hotel. But he realized that he didn’t have his phone and he didn’t have his wallet either. He had little choice but to return home. As he trudged home wearily without any of the adrenaline which must have propelled him this far, he saw an Okada and hailed it. It took him home. When he got there, he asked the rider to wait while he went in to get some money to pay.

It was almost midnight. Oluchi was in the living room looking agitated. She jumped to her feet as soon as he walked in. He ignored her, took his wallet off the coffee table and walked out to pay the bike rider.

She was standing in the living room wringing her hands and looking nervous when he walked in again. He ignored her and went to the guest room. He was terrified of the rage he felt roiling within. He had always considered himself a man of temperance and self – restraint; yet in that moment, he understood why some men beat their wives. At the same time, he knew he didn’t have it in him to do that. Despite his rage, his overwhelming feeling was weariness laced with a sense of failure and resignation. If Oluchi could cheat on him, then anything was possible. Flashes of their lives went through his mind. He knew without a doubt that they were happy. Oluchi loved him. He would have sworn on a stack of bibles. So how? Why?

Ifeanyi was perplexed, it was dawning on him that until you were in a situation, you didn’t know how you would react to it. If someone had asked him what he would do if he found out his wife was having an affair, he would have answered unequivocally that he would shame her Jezebellian arse, disgrace her and kick her out. Oddly enough, now that he was in that situation, his most urgent desire was to ensure that no one else found out. He laughed sardonically at himself. He knew that he didn’t want to confront her. Confronting Oluchi would make it unavoidably real and he might have to listen to soul-destroying details of her affair. He also knew that for now at the very least, he wanted to maintain the facade of his life and preserve it. That might prove difficult if he listened to the details. He didn’t know why this was so important to him. But he was suddenly filled with dread that anyone should find out that Oluchi was cheating on him. He felt ashamed and guilty. As though he was the one who had failed. He couldn’t understand it.

He wasn’t a saint. But he’d refrained from doing anything to jeopardize his life. There was that time when he had chased that youth corper in his office and had been crazy to have her. He couldn’t remember how but he had come to his senses and it had fizzled out.

The other big risk he had taken was the time around the 10 year mark of their marriage when he had given in to temptation and reignited an affair with his ex-girlfriend from campus days. It had been so good with her those years ago on campus but after several of months of seeing her, he decided that it wasn’t for him. The sex was still spectacular but he realized that the risk of emotional involvement and her wanting more than he was willing or able to give wasn’t worth it. She had still been unmarried and that made him nervous. Since then, he had eschewed other women and focused his energies on his marriage. Now this? What was the point?