Oyimma and her boyfriend tried different kinds of poisons. They even tried diluted insecticides but nothing happened. The gnawing pain she could deal with, but she needed to see blood.
Six weeks gone, Oyimma knew the bloating would happen any time now. Her mother who could smell pregnancy from afar was already sniffing around. She needed to do something fast or risk exposure. The truth is, she was not scared for herself. But she worried deeply for Ugwu. The moment her father discovers, his life would be over.
She sat all day expecting “the flush” after the woman at the chemist store gave her a pill. She was told she would bleed heavily for hours and then she would be fine. Oyimma was prepared. God knows that anything but her father’s wrath was better. But nothing happened.
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Two days later, Oyimma started to starve herself and tie her stomach. Nothing still. Nothing could take out the stubborn and selfish being in her womb. For the most part, she thought of it as a boy because she couldn’t bring herself to believe that a girl like her would be this cruel.
29-year-old Ugwu, on the other hand, could no longer sleep with his two eyes closed. He kept moving from one friend’s house to another so he could be far away from the Old Soldier. The love he thought he had for Oyimma had suddenly disappeared. For heaven’s sake, if she cared about him as she claimed, why did she get pregnant?! And an even better question was why now?
The next time he walked into the area, he came in with three scary-looking boys. Ugwu was ready to take out his obstacle and its carrier. He wasn’t going to allow anything to get in the way of his admission; the first one after writing JAMB for eight years.