They have been married for 8 years and blessed with two kids. It was a love-filled marriage where they both stood together to fight off external distractions. He is the most successful in his large family, so there’s a form entitlement from some family members. His dad had once suggested he reduces the access the wife has on his assets and bank account, but he wouldn’t yield to that advice as they trust each other so much.
The wife always shielded him from reckless spending, however, never stopped him from assisting the family the best way he could. She does not just like extravagant spending and entitled folks, irrespective of your relationship with her husband.
Some family members loves her and would always get more from their brother through her, while some feel she’s being too protective of their brother’s money. He has total of 9 siblings plus parents. She doesn’t care about what anyone thinks. She was there when they had little, and now that they have more, it’s her duty to protect it. She has her own business which is thriving as well.
That fateful Wednesday, he returns home to inform the wife he’d be leaving to Abuja the next day. A 5.00pm flight had been booked. The board of directors appointed him to represent them in Abuja, where he’d present a contract detail to investors who came to Nigeria to meet with different potential partners for further expansion. It was very important one as he stood the chance of tripling their income.
The meeting was scheduled to hold on Friday, 7am at Transcorp Hilton.
At 3.30pm on Thursday evening, the wife insisted she’d drive him to the airport which he obliged. At exactly 6,43pm, he called her to inform her their flight has been rescheduled to 7.45am the next day, which means he’d be late to the meeting. The wife immediately drove out to meet him at the airport.
Sadly, there was no other flight scheduled earlier than that. In his confusion, he was racking his brain on the best alternative. He thought about driving to Abuja, but he had not done such distance before, let alone at night.
“I will take night bus. Take me to Onitsha South Park.” He blurted.
There was shock written all over her face as she matched the brake pedal suddenly.
“Are you okay? Night bus? I think you’re going insane because of this contract”
“If I ask and they usually arrive Abj before 7am, I will take that risk. I have worked all my life waiting for this opportunity, I can’t mess it up by being late.”
“What if you get k!dnapped, is the contract worth more than your life?”
“No, it doesn’t, but what if I succeed?”
There was a long silence before they finally agreed. It was almost 8pm already when they arrived the park. Luckily for him, the bus needed just one passenger. He paid and left at exactly 8.37pm.
The wife drove home with a lot of things going through her mind. The fear of the worst that might happen and other things. She got home and they started chatting. He was briefing him as the journey progressed, making sure she catches every detail. She promised not to sleep as she was willing to journey with him, virtually.
Sometimes, the network would go off and come back in minutes. At a point, it went off for almost an hour and she waited patiently till he got back online. At around 3am, he went offline again. She concluded it could be the usual network glitch, so he started scrolling on social media while waiting for him to be back online. It was a bad idea to call, so she decided to wait, and while at it, she slept off.
She woke up at some minutes past 5am, quickly gabbed her phone to see if he messaged or called, but no sign at all. She tried calling his line but it was not reachable. She kept her cool and concluded it was network.
6.00am, she tried again and this time, it says switched off. A thousand thoughts ran through her mind, but she wouldn’t conclude yet. Quickly woke the kids up, dressed them and took them to school. She kept on trying his line but nothing different happened, still off.
She got home and opened her IG, and the firth news that met her eyes was her worst fears. It was different images of a bus in sky blue and white colour, travelling from Enugu to Abuja. It collided with a Dangoto truck and all the 14 passengers on board, including driver couldn’t make it alive. She didn’t know when she let out a loud scream that attracted the neighbors from other compounds.
When people came in, she showed them the pictures and they all confirmed the bus belonged to Onitsha south, the same company the husband used. The name and number had been covered with black paint, so she was bit confused, but somehow, she was certain it was same bus the husband boarded.
She was broken and helpless. Called all the family members she could reach to inform them what happened. Within two hours, those very close arrived and the house was turned to a mourning ground.
The Father in-law was among the first persons who came, so when everywhere was a bit calm, he asked her if he left some money so he could go to the closest Police Station in Kogi to make enquires on how to recover his son’s corpse. This request got her thinking;
“Could he come for his money and properties after the burial?”
Still in deep thought, she quickly went inside the room, checked the drawer, and thank God, he didn’t travel with his token. She logged into his account using Internet banking as she had the log in details. The amount there was 38.7million of which she moved 35million to her personal account.
She came out and told the dad that left just 3.7 million in the only account she has access to. He demanded for 100k to enable him start the process of recovering his corpse of which she gave him.
In a twist of event, at exactly 6.20pm, an uber drove into the compound, it was the husband………………………
The first people who saw him outside ran inside, screaming.
He was lost, with shock written all over. He thought something bad had happened to his family. He quickly ran inside only to get more shocked, almost all his family members were in his house, all looking gloomy.
But greatest shock was how people ran away, accompanied by the multiple “Jesus” they screamed.
“What is happening here?” He directed the questions to no one in particular. Everyone appeared scared of him.
“Where are our kids?” He asked the wife who had jumped off her sitting position, leaning on the kitchen door and ready to escape through the back door.
Still standing and looking confused, his brother approached him, held his shoulder and said;
“Bro, is this you?”
“What do you mean by is this me, did anything happen to me before?”
“We got a news you dîed in an accident on your way to Abuja.”
“Accident? Who? Me? When?”
All these questions came out in split seconds. Everyone in the room looked more confused as they looked at the wife to come forward with explanations.
“Were you not in the bus?” She said with shaky cracked voice.
“Which bus? Can someone just explain what is happening here? Where are my kids?”
“They’re with my sister. She took them to her house so they wouldn’t meet so many people coming here.”
“So bro” he turned to his brother, “Who did you say dîed, who broke the news to you?”
“Your wife called to inform us the night bus you took from Enugu to Abuja collided with a Dangoto truck and there was no survivor.”
“See the pictures here” He opened his phone to show him the images she sent earlier.
He stood there speechless for a while, took a deep breath then spoke out;
“Thank you everyone for coming to be with her, can you all leave now, I want to discuss with my wife.”
He was so angry but wouldn’t want to have people around when he’d speak to her.
One after another, they all walked out except his siblings.
“Including you, I want everyone to leave. We’ll meet at the family house later.” He told his siblings.
Just before they could leave, the dad walked in with his other brother to meet the shock. They had gone to Onithsa South Park and was informed none of their buses had accident, in fact, they called and spoke with the driver in his presence. It was a chartered vehicle that was registered under their company which pulled out few weeks ago but refused to repaint the vehicle. It never loaded in their park.
“So why didn’t you go to the park first to verify?” He asked the wife.
“I, I I… I was….” She stuttered,shaking.
“You what?” He thundered.
“Nnabuike calm down, let’s thank God you are alive and fine. What exactly happened, why were you not reachable?” The dad asked.
“While I was running around yesterday, I didn’t even notice my phone was already low. I was chatting with my wife when I noticed it was just 1% left. I sent a WhatsApp message to inform her I could go off any moment, but network couldn’t allow it deliver before the phone went off.”
“I slept off in the process and the phone fell off my hand. We arrived Abuja early. I checked my wrist watch and it was 6.25am. I wanted to book Uber that’d take me to Transcorp so I could freshen up before the meeting, as I have a room reserved already. I touched my pocket and couldn’t find my phone, I was so devastated.”
“I ran back into the bus to look for it. Looked around and concluded someone had stolen it. I just informed the driver of what happened and told him I’d check back in the evening. I also promised to reward him handsomely if he helps me recover the phone. He promised to take him time and look for it in the bus.”
“I boarded a local cab in the park that drove me to my destination. Everything I needed for my presentation was in my laptop which I had in tact. Thank God I had some cash on me.”
“I was 5 minutes late to the meeting, but it didn’t change anything. I succeeded in getting the contract. I had an evening flight ticket back to Enugu. So immediately the meeting ended, I took a cab straight to the park to see the driver. It took like 30 minutes before I could locate him as he was no longer at the point he dropped us.”
“Immediately we met, he told me I’m lucky as he handed my phone over to me. I gave him 50k and promised to send another 50 when I get to Enugu. I collected his phone number and account details as well. I was almost running behind my boarding time so the cab took me straight to the airport, and thank God, I didn’t miss.”
“Now here I am, hearing I dîed when I just hit the biggest milestone in my career.”
The wife was already soaked in her tears, she has cried way more-than she did before. She was broken and disappointed in herself. Guilt and regrets engulfed her.
“Nna, I’ll see you tomorrow. Take time and fix things with your wife.” The dad said
“Bia, umunna,” he continued “Let’s give them space” He told his other kids as they all stood up to leave.
He plugs his phone and goes straight to meet the wife who was still soaked in her tears.
“It’s okay babe. Call your sister to bring back our Chizzy and her brother. I need to see them. Just be careful next time” He told her while he walked into the bathroom.
He came back to his phone which was already buzzing with calls and texts, he wanted to ignore all and message the directors first, but a debit alert caught his attention which he opened. It was the money the wife moved to her account.
“Babe, what happened? Who moved 35 million to your account?”
“Honey I’m sorry, I was going to send it back but my daily limit is 5million. I’ll go to bank on Monday.”
“Wait, I need to get this clear. You moved the money because you thought I was dead?”
There was grave silence.
“Answer me” He roared
“Not exactly, Honey. Your dad requested for 100k to visit the scene and police station for report.”
“He asked for 100k and you took our 35million from my account?”
“Not like that, he asked me if you left any money, I was scared he’d ask to have access to the account so I moved some to my account before answering him.”
“I see, all you think about is yourself and money. You were crying and in less than 12 hours your supposed husband purportedly dîed, you had moved all the money in his account to yours.”
“Why don’t you seem to understand me?”
“Understand what exactly? You have over 10 million lying in your account, my dad asked for common 100k and all you could think of was moving my money to your personal account. Account that only you will have access to if I’m no more. I think I’ll have to rethink this trust. I placed on you.”
“Did you just say that? So trying to protect your assets from others is now an issue?”
“So the 100k my dad asked for is the others you’re talking about?”
“You don’t get it.”
“I’ll never get it!”
Would he still trust her again?
What would you do if you were the hsuband?
Fiction story by Chukwuebuka
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