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I’m never accepting Mr Thompson as my husband.
Before the day I walked in on them discussing, I was sitting out with four of the young women that evening when one of them spoke of how she had missed her home.
“My parents died as soon as I was brought into this house”. She lamented.
“Same here oo”. Another screamed.
“Me too”. Said the third.
At the end, it dawned on me that mr Thompson has a hand in those deaths.
“Mr Thompson killed them all”. I thought out loud. But then, everyone stood up and started heading for their respective rooms.
I wasn’t surprised by their actions. Mr Thompson has trained them in such a way that no one speaks a word of his evil act around the house
“C’mon, he isn’t around”. I called.
” Do you not know that the walls have ears?”. One of them managed to reply before closing her door behind her.
That night, I cried myself to sleep.
I thought of how to avenge myself but I wasn’t getting any ideas.
So that evening, I had gone into his cabin to remind him to send one of the servants to buy diarrhea syrup for my son when I saw him with those strange men.
He felt so comfortable still speaking with them even with my presence because he wasn’t aware that I was an NSCE holder.
My father had told me of how he(mr Thompson) was opportund to work for the white men before he returned to oppress the villagers.
From their discussion, I learnt that my husband was a keeper of stolen treasures…no wonder his abundance of wealth.
He further exposed himself by revealing the particular time he leaves every night to bury them.
“No one will ever find out, I have been in this business for years, I’m one of the most trusted”. He was boasting to them
At exactly the time around midnight, I snuck out from my room and hid behind the barn.The moon was very bright that night.
After some minutes, he came out from his room, carrying a big leather bag. I watched him peered around for any movement before proceeding to going to the backyard.
I waited for few minutes before I followed behind. He walked unsuspectingly into the bush and, then he stopped . I hid behind a tree.
I watched him unearthen some grasses, brought out a bunch of keys from his pocket and unlocked something under the grasses. After that, he put the leather bag into the place and closed it.
He replaced the grasses to space, making it look as though nothing has happened
This old man is a genius. I thought.
After he was done, he dusted his hands and went back to the front house, following another entrance to the house.
I crept back much later.
I made up my mind to expose him to the world.
It took me two days to map out my plan.
I left the village on the third day with the pretence of going to watch the market women. After the death of my parents, he no longer monitor me the way he did when I was newly brought there…. I guess it’s because he knew he had automatically become my only family.
I placed my sons under the care of one of my co wives before embarking on the journey.
During one of our school’s excursion, I had observed a police station in a neighboring town and that was where I had in mind.
I arrived the village by evening because I was on foot coupled with my condition.
I reported the incident to the police officers, starting from how we were forcefully taken away from our various homes, how he muddered our parents and then… the treasures.
“I have enough evidence”. I said to them.
That night, I arrived the house in police van.
He was standing with the other wives in the middle of the compound by the time we entered. They seemed to be worried about my safety.
He looked shock, seeing me in company of police officers and couldn’t hide his confusion.
With me leading the way, they pulled him to the backyard and there I unearthen the grass just the way he had done the other night and he was forced to unlocked the safe he had half buried into the ground.
So many bags of money were recovered. He was taken away together with the bags.
As soon as they left, I turned to the my co wives, expecting them to congratulate me for taking such a bold step but I was shocked by the responses I got.
“What have you done?”. One of them asked.
“I got him arrested”. I replied, confused.
“You shouldn’t have done that.. now, those men have taken with them the treasures.. how do we feed our children?”. Another complained.
At that point, I felt I had behaved foolishly.
I shouldn’t had called the police on him. I thought to myself.
I held my boys and went into the house, feeling like a fool…
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#Story from Joy Ifunanya
