True story

The lady next door had started her screaming routine which had been going on for some time. The first time I heard the screams was a few days after we moved into the neighborhood. The building I lived in was a twin detached duplex, so I got to experience a routine occurrence of screams and cries.
         I had moved from Bode-Thomas Street in surulere to the high brow area of Lagos ikoyi. The family next door was Mr.  & Mrs. Nwabueze, really lovely couple. Onyeka Nwabueze owned an oil and gas servicing company on the island. Oluchi his wife was pretty and she loved to keep hair on a low cut. She was a stay at home wife and mother, she didn’t come out much or socialize but she’s easy going and rather shy. She would always wave to me every morning from her balcony on my way to work. They lived with their three children chioma, nkechi and Kamsi. The kids were in boarding schools in ogun state so they were only around during holidays. Onyeka was a very quiet and conservative young man. He would hardly talk or start a conversation with anyone but oluchi was the lively and jovial kind of lady, at least she always had a thing to chat and laugh about whenever we bumped into ourselves either at the market or home.

         Occasionally my twin girls’ bimbo and bambo would go to the Nwabuezes to play and they also retuned the visit. On one of those days I had gone to pick up my children when I saw oluchi dressing a wound on her toes which was bleeding profusely, I gestured to help and she said she was fine. She complained about falling in the bathroom and hurt her toes but she didn’t want me to notice the extent of the injury. I insisted on helping so I sent bimbo to get the first aid kit from the house and dressed oluchi’s injury. In time oluchi and I became good friends. we hung out some weekends and did our shopping together most weekends. We could talk extensively on all topics but we never talked about the running of our individual home front, I tried to be open with oluchi but she was always kept behind her shadows on some sensitive issues and so I respected that. Deep within me I knew there was something somewhere she was trying to conceal but I couldn’t pin point it. As time went on I found out her pain and the torture she was going through.

          Oluchi hailed from abia state and grew up in a polygamous home. She was brought up by her step-mum because she lost her mum when she was barely 8 years old. From what’s she’s told me her step-mum wasn’t fair one bit on her so it contributed to her shy and quiet attitude. It pushed her into an early marriage.
          She had met Onyeka during her one year industrial attachment in port-Harcourt, rivers state. She was employed in a civil engineering firm and six month into her one year IT Onyeka was transferred to rivers state to head that branch. He took interest in pretty and naïve oluchi and they got engaged after courting for eight months. During her final semester in school, Onyeka performed traditional rights and paid oluchi’s bride price. Onyeka was nice and sweet to his new wife he took her to London for their honeymoon. That was the first time oluchi was crossing the borders. Well on and on the union went really smooth until Onyeka lost himself. One year after the wedding they were blessed with a daughter chioma and the celebration knew no bounds. The kids gradually came and so was onyeka’s attitude gradually going sour. He would come home and rant about little or no issue. First of all he insisted she stopped working and be a house wife as he was making the big bucks already. Gradually he began to keep late nights and all but Onyeka never starved her on monetary funds for herself or for the kids. Nothing was right any more, he would work so late and became more controlling when she tried to confront him he would lays hands on her to keep her quiet. Onyeka was quiet but very short tempered. Some times he was sweet some times he lost control and would come begging along with gifts. Oluchi truly loved him and she was a devoted wife too but he wasn’t satisfied. He began to have affairs with ladies as she caught him on so many occasions but she couldn’t cry out. Some of which made oluchi suffer from bouts of sexually transmitted diseases. Oluchi didn’t have anywhere to run to , she didn’t have a real mum to confide in more or less a sister as she was an only child aside her step-brothers. She would always confide in me and I kept advising her to endure and keep her marriage, how I wish I told her to move out.        
            The last episode happened a year ago and this is why I write as a piece of oluchi’s voice. Onyeka had come with his normal issue and accused oluchi of sneaking out and getting a job. This wasn’t true at all she was so dedicated to him and always did his bidding for peace to always reign in the house. He confronted her and she said she wasn’t aware of what he was saying and that was how he battered her to stupor even in her pregnant state. She hemorrhaged and lost so much blood because she had been pregnant with a baby. She wanted to surprise her husband when it clocked three months as they wanted another baby after taking a break of four years after the birth of their son Kamsi. Onyeka took her to the hospital that night and she was stabilized and undergoing a surgery to take out the fetus. The beatings she received caused an induced miscarriage so she lost the baby. After that she never regained herself. She was discharged with a life threatening complication and was advised by the doctor to remove her uterus as she would put her life at risk if she conceived again. Oluchi cried on a daily basis but finally agreed to have the surgery. Onyeka objected to this because he wanted more children not minding the risk involved. A few months later she got pregnant with a baby. The first phase of the pregnancy went well without illness or any problems. Onyeka treated her nicely and was gradually becoming a better husband and father.                                                                                                                                                      
           The whole family was on a vacation in the UK for summer holidays and they put up with onyeka’s sister. By the time oluchi was seven months gone in her pregnancy. A few days into their stay abroad she fell into labor and was taken to the hospital as per the normal procedure but everything didn’t go well. Oluchi had complications and her pregnancy put her life at risk. She went into surgery but unfortunately she didn’t make it out to see her beautiful baby. Her husband and kids cried endlessly and Onyeka beat his finger, only if he had not made her keep the baby or get her off the pills in the first instance. He wanted a child more than he wanted his own wife. He knew the gravity of the risk but he didn’t blink an eye when he insisted on having an additional baby.