“What is it sir?” Inspector Onu asked rushing into Inspector Dele’s office; Inspector Dele was a very tough man but the news he had just received made him weak. The tears came with each word that he spoke.
“We have been asked to go and identify a body” he was not ashamed of the tears, his sorrow did not give a damn
“Whose body sir?” Inspector Onu was shocked to see his supervisor cry “Inspector Rebecca Amodu” he replied waving his hand as a sign that he was done talking and Onu grasped the message quickly and left the office already knowing what to do.
As he walked to his car, a thousand and one unanswered questions troubled his soul ‘What happened?’ ‘Was she murdered?’ ‘Was she ill?’ but Rebecca was full of health a day ago when he was arguing with her about one of her crazy investigative ideas. Just as he entered his car, he dialled his phone and the person on the other end of the line answered.
“Did you have anything to do with it?” “Do with what?” the person was genuinely confused and Inspector Onu proceeded to explain the current situation to the person “I swear on my children, I did not send anyone to kill your colleague; I have been staying put like you said to” the person explained and Onu believed his cousin… Bishop Chukwu’s killer.
Abel sat in his living room watching his wife Ene carefully, she was setting the dinner table and getting the house ready for guests. They were expecting guests that evening, the remaining elders of the church were meeting with Abel to discuss and come up with ways to appease Rita.
Rita was on a firing spree, she had let go of five elders and was planning to replace the remaining ten and for some unknown reason; she got a lot of support from church members and leaders of other big churches in Port Harcourt. She knew how to play the helpless widow card and people ate it all up.
Abel watched Ene go about the living room instructing the maid to put everything right, he watched her set the plates and cutlery on the dining table and thought about how he got so lucky to be married to a woman as submissive as she was. Ene was a very meek woman who did everything Abel wanted; from the day she met him it was as if she was created to please him and fulfil all his desires. She did everything to fulfil all of Abel’s desires successfully but there was only one thing that she couldn’t do; she couldn’t turn herself into Rita.
Three years before Abel met Ene, he saw Rita in the congregation from the pulpit as he preached; and fell in love instantly but there was one problem she never felt the same way about him and he didn’t care.
He did everything in his power to get her to agree to date him “Love will come, the love I feel for you is enough for both of us” he often told her until she agreed to date him. He was the happiest man in the world. Everything went very well or so he thought until he introduced her to Bishop Chukwu then all hell broke loose.
Rita dumped him for Bishop Chukwu and it is safe to say that Abel never got over that experience; he continued working with Bishop Chukwu because he believed that one day Rita would realize herself and come back to him. He met Ene and thought that once he married her, Rita would feel very jealous and come back to him but it never happened; instead she was happy that he was now another woman’s problem.
Abel watched his wife thinking about everything they had been through and how she never wanted to leave his side; there was a time he thought he was done with their marriage but Ene held on. She begged all the church elders including Bishop Chukwu to talk to him; listening to Bishop Chukwu tell him about the sanctity of marriage made him want to bit his head off. Bishop Chukwu was the one who had no regard for marriage, with the way he treated Rita; it killed him every time he noticed the bruises Bishop Chukwu left on her body but he couldn’t do anything but hate him.
The guests started to arrive, all the elders except one came with their wives and as he spoke with the elders; Ene kept their wives busy. Abel was very distracted that evening; watching his wife talk to the guest he was in no mood for made him question why he never loved her the way he did Rita.
He excused himself for a moment and went to sit in his study just to be alone but typical Ene didn’t give him up to five minutes alone. It was as if she was on suicide watch, always monitoring his steps “the guests are waiting” she said interrupting his quiet time “if they wait will they die?” he snapped
She was taken aback by his answer because Abel was always calm and gentle but the past few months was manifesting a different person “you can go and keep them company since you don’t want them to wait” he finished waving her out of his study and she obeyed.
Abel sat there thinking about Rita, he wanted her more than he had ever wanted her and now that Bishop Chukwu was dead; the only thing standing in between them was Ene. He thought about getting a divorce but he had tried that before and she didn’t let him leave; so he came to the conclusion that only one thing could free him from this marriage… death. “Till death do us part”.
