Chapter 43

"What!" Oluchi gasped in shock. "Nnayi, what are you talking about? How can you say such a thing?! Have I in any way desired another man besides you?"

"Shut that your lying mouth, you whore! You think I don't know? Oh, you think that I wouldn't find out the truth! You think he wouldn't tell me what you tried to do to him despite your begging him?! Father Thomas called me on the phone earlier today to tell me how you tore his cassock when he refused to sleep with you! You even went as far as dragging his manhood with him! What kind of a wife are you?! Have you no shame?! Even if you have no shame for yourself, have you no respect for me?! Despite having you circumcised, you have rather chosen to be like the other useless women in the village who are desperate to destroy the men of GOD with the poison brewing between their thighs!"

Oluchi angrily rose to her feet and yelled at her husband, unable to stand the accusations and derogatory words anymore. "Must you accuse me all the time?!" She indignantly asked and her husband who stared at her in shock because she had never spoken to him in such a tone before, let alone, stood up to him.  "Must you always run your mouth like an idiot?! 

"Oluchi!" Nduka uttered in shock. "Me?" with his hand on his chest, he slowly moved towards her and stopped. "...idiot?"

"Don't Oluchi me!" She snapped. "Don't just Oluchi me at all! And yes, you're an idiot! Your stupid devil's incarnate of a priest came into this house in the afternoon, locked my son out of the house and raped me on the kitchen floor, and all you can do is accuse me of trying to seduce him! Just how stupid and gullible are you?!

 First, you had me circumcised all because of your stupid insecurities! Secondly, you treat me like a slave! Thirdly, you refused to let me complete my education because you think women have no business with being successful, and fourthly, you have not only treated me with open scorn before our son but you have no iota of love nor respect for me! See, if this is what marriage is all about, I quit! I'm tired! NDUKA, I'M TIRED!" She vehement declared.

Nduka narrowed angry eyes at his wife as he asked slowly but coldly. "Oluchi, am I the one you just spoke to like this? And did you also just address me by my first name?!"

"And so?! Yes, I said it! N-D-U-K-A! You heard me well!... If I knew that marriage with you would only end up being this miserable, I'd have simply remained unmarried! Ahan, what is it sef? Because of you, I've no friends! You keep me locked up in this house except when I've to go to the church or the market! 

You don't even let me see my relatives or let them come visit! You deprive me of all the good things of life but yet, I remained submissive to you! Nduka, I'm tired! In fact, after what your obsession with priests has cost me this afternoon, I am no longer interested in this hell of a marriage! I'm no longer interested! 

I cannot continue to live in the same house with a man who's not only cruel but also gullible! You feed on every word from Father Thomas that you have become so blind to see who he really is! I'm tired, Nduka! And don't even start that nonsense talk about God hating the divorce because I won't fall for it anymore!"

"I don't know where you got such guts from, Oluchi, but today I'm going to beat it out of you!" Nduka hissed. "You think you have grown wings, abi? You think you are now so grown up that you can now talk back at me anyhow! Look at this wretched thing that I picked up and turned into a wife! 

I made you who you are today and yet you have the audacity to disrespect me before our son?! What did the bible tell you about submission?! What?! Did the bible say that you are supposed to disrespect your husband by talking back at him?! 

Did the Bible teach you to be unruly and disrespectful to the head of the house?! It is obvious that I've become too lenient with you, Oluchi, but this insolence will not go unpunished! I will teach you a lesson this evening!" He glanced towards the door. "Where's this boy by the way?! VINCENT!" He barked and Vincent who had been stalling outside the room, rushed in in fear, holding the three canes his father had demanded.

"What took you so long?!" Nduka scowled down at his son, snatching the canes from him. "Now, stand there..." He pointed at a corner of the room. "And learn as you watch me teach your mother the true meaning of godly submission!"

"Nnayi, don't touch me o!" Oluchi warned now. "Don't touch me with that cane o!"

"Oh, so you still have mouth!" Nduka said as he placed two canes on the floor beside his feet then straightened one by bending it a bit to test its flexibility. "By the time I'm done with you, I'd have delivered you of that spirit that has possessed you! Tonight, I'll drive that spirit that makes you think that you can be rebellious out of you!" He lifted the cane now in the air. "Now, take off your blouse and kneel down!" He ordered.

"Nduka, you'll not flog me! I refuse to be docile anymore! I'm tired of playing the fool! Don't touch me with that cane o! I'm warning you! That cane must not touch me!" Oluchi defiantly glared at her husband while Vincent anxiously watched from his end.

"You are warning me?!" Nduka asked, slapping his chest in fury. "Since this is the way you want it, so shall it be!" He swiftly brought the cane down on her shoulder.

Oluchi suddenly cried out in pain, her hand flying to the spot on her shoulder where the cane had left a red mark. "Apunmaka! Nduka, leave me alone o! don't let that cane touch me again! Ehrnnn!" She held her ear and pulled it a bit in a bid to emphasize her words.

"So, you are still calling me by my name!" He flogged her again and this time, it collided on the tender spot between the top of her left ear and the side of her head.

Oluchi's hand flew to her ear. The pain was so excruciating that she bent down and screamed in agony, also hissing through her teeth. Thinking he had already subdued her, Nduka brought down the cane on her upper back and that was when Oluchi lost it. She snatched the cane from her husband's hand and snapped it into two on her knee.

"Oh, so you broke the cane!" Nduka said in surprise at her increasing act of rebellion. "So, now you want to show me that your spirit husband has given you the strength to challenge me, right? You want to contend with me in my own house, okwia?! (right?). I'll show you who is the man of the house!" Bending down, he picked up the spare two canes.

"Nduka, if you should flog me a fourth time, I shall unleash on you!" She threatened.

"You don't scare me one bit, Oluchi!" Nduka blatantly called her bluff. "You seem to forget that you are only a woman! I married you with my hard-earned money and ever since I married you, you have been growing fat on my money without contributing a single dime to anything in this house! But today, I shall remind you that I'm your husband and I shall deal with you as I deem fit and there's nothing anyone can do to me!"

As he was about to bring the canes down on her body again, Oluchi swung her arm backward and with all her might, she landed a skull-vibrating slap on her husband's face. Her son gasped in surprise, seeing a new version of his mother for the first time. 

The slap was so thunderous that it sent Nduka reeling to the side that he collided his head with the wall. By the time Nduka moved away from the wall, feeling a bit giddy from the unexpected collision, he was too shocked at what had happened. With his hand on his cheek, he stared at his wife as if he had seen a ghost.

"OLUCHI! YOU SLAPPED ME!!!" His voice trembled and Vincent feared that for the first time he was going to see his father cry.

"Try me again!" Oluchi dares him, adjusting the strap of her bra on her shoulder. "Is it because I've been behaving soft all this time, that's why you think that you can just treat me anyhow and get away with it! In fact, I've had enough and it ends today!"

When Nduka angrily tried to attack her by flogging her again in order to save face in the presence of his son, Oluchi grabbed the two canes, wrestled them out of her husband's hands and broke them at once. Then seizing him by the throat, she lifted her arm to deal him another slap which would probably make him lose all his teeth but that was when Vincent intervened.