After this story of mine, I believe nothing would have the capacity to make you feel such shock like I felt when God chose this last December to reveal my greatest enemy who has been my biggest cheerleader as found in the person of my mother’s mate and co-wife.

My father was constrained to marry two wives because it pleased God to delay my mother’s fruitfulness. Being an only son, my father was forced by his now-late parents to bring in my mother’s cousin as second wife with the blessings of my mother. Yes, it might interest you to know that this grand aunt of mine didn’t behave like Peninnah irked the heck out of Hannah in the Bible where my mother was.

And so it happened that my mother’s co-wife conceived and bore a set of male twins of non-identical kind. We were overjoyed and kept on living in good relationship as both my maternal grandmother and my mother’s co-wife’s mother came to look after my mother’s co-wife as is the practice in Igboland – omugwo – which helped cement the love in the larger and nuclear families.

Then two years after, my mother took in and gave birth to a set of male and female twins. I happened to be that female among this set of twins. My mother’s joy knew no end.

Permit me to explain the settings in my family. My father in his wisdom has separated his two wives. My mother lived with him at Enugu where we all grew up while the second wife lives inside my father’s house in our hometown.

My father would travel for our hometown once in a month to spend quality time with his second family and spend the rest of the month with us living with him at Enugu. Nobody was complaining as the arrangement pleased all. My mother would take care of my father’s business as he is a trader who deals on building materials. My father had to consider my mother’s suggestion to have another branch of his business floated in our urban-center hometown for my mother’s co-wife so that he would always keep busy whenever he’s in our hometown instead of gallivanting from one end of our hometown to another. A cunning suggestion you will agree with me, but nevertheless, one that helped stabilize the peace of a polygamous family. My mother has always been my father’s sweetheart when they were growing up and though he never liked the practice of polygamy, he did it his way and it has been working for him and his wives and children unlike other polygamous men who wouldn’t pick a cup of water to drink and have the nerves to drop it afterwards as a result of bickering and fighting among his wives and their children.

As the good Lord would have it, my mother’s mate and my mother couldn’t conceive after the set of twins blessed them. My father became the happiest man on earth as he ended up with three sons and a daughter even when the enemy had projected him to die childless so that his inheritance would be forfeited through the custom and tradition of our people known as iri-ekpe.

Last year 2017, it happened that my father had my betrothed pay him a visit and as our tradition and customs demand, he encouraged the young man to go to pay our hometown a visit so as to make enquiries about our family background as he would do same for him so that none of us would end up with the wrong partner and/or wrong families.

But on getting to our hometown, my heartthrob decided to drive into my father’s compound having completed his assignment. It was there that my mother’s mate showed her true colours when she told him that I suffer from epilepsy of all afflictions. Shame to Satan and his human agents!

The day we expected Obi back from our hometown, he was nowhere in sight. When I placed a call through to his line, it was switched off. Hian! I was exasperated and in a great flap. The introduction would be in December and I wouldn’t want anything to stop it so that I and my slay babes would set fire on our hometown as it is the spirit during the festive period.

After three days, I went to his house out of desperation as it wasn’t my place to go after my man as our customs demand. It was there that I met Obi with puffed eyes as a result of many tears already shed as a result of the scandalous tale dropped on him by my mean-soul step mother. He couldn’t open the door to me but told me to come pick his corpse when he dies as a result of the pains I caused him. This got me crumbled. I called my mom and she called her sister in-law to-be. It was my mother in-law to-be that let it slip what my step-mother said about me.

When my mother called me back to come home and not talk to Obi my heartthrob, I asked her why but she insisted on sharing the findings of her investigation with me only when I’m safely under my father’s roof. I can’t still recollect how I managed to depart from Obi’s door with hot tears stinging my eyes and the emotions racking my brains like crazy. I looked up to the heavens and my help came to me. I strolled into a nearby Anglican church in Obi’s neighbourhood and made a passionate plea to God to save me from such a disgraceful outing Obi’s action was out to rake me through.

On getting home, my mother was already looking pensive and in a fret while waiting for me. she wrapped me in her arms and started shedding such passionate tears while bemoaning what fate had dealt her through Agnes her sister, for that is my step mother’s name.

My father was already waiting inside our sitting room with Obi’s parents when my mom and I cried into their company. It was there that my father calmed all down and shared what his second wife did to ruin the future of his only daughter for no just reason other than that since she has no daughter of her won that her cousin should throw it into her face when she starts visiting me on omugwo. Hian! Uwa umu nwanyi!

Eventually the two families decided that Obi accompany me to a medical doctor of their own choice to see if he could diagnose epilepsy in my system.

Well, to cut the long story short, I betrayed my anger for Obi the day he came filled with remorse asking for my forgiveness. Obi is such a darling and super-rich if you care to know. We went for the time with his family doctor. I came out in flying colours of course!

Our wedding will be this coming Easter.

I want to reassure you that no designs of the enemies will come to fruition in your life as this year 2018 is your year in Jesus’ name. Amen!