Chapter 42

The children and I didn’t get downstairs until a little past 10 a.m. Last night had been a blast, thanks to my little brother, Jite, who showed up unexpectedly and asked to spend the weekend with us. I was glad for the company, and thanks to him, we stayed up later than usual, playing fun games, doing a family karaoke and binge eating from the stash of junk food he had brought along.

Thankfully, today is Saturday so we didn’t have to be up at the crack of dawn, prepping for school and work. My brother is still asleep on the couch where we left him last night in the living room. I signal to the girls to be quiet, as we tiptoed to the kitchen to make breakfast.

“What are we having for breakfast?” Asks Zino. “I’m starving!”

“Shh! Don’t wake up Uncle Jite,” Kome chastens her sister in a stage whisper.

“I agree,” I say in a low voice. “He needs to rest after entertaining us last night as he did.”

“Can we have eggs and fried plantain? Lots of plantains?” Zino says in a whiny voice. “I’m really very hungry.”

“Plantains take forever to get ready. Let’s have eggs and bread,” Kome suggests.

“At least you both agree that we should have eggs, so that’s a start,” I say as I make my way to the kitchen counter to get the eggs.

As we continue to tinker about in the kitchen, getting breakfast ready, Jite wakes up and joins us in the kitchen. Eventually, I end up making eggs and fried plantains, and toast because the plantains aren’t enough to go around. Jite continues his court jester role with his funny jokes and silly antics that has me and the girls laughing so hard. The doorbell suddenly rings, cutting into our lively breakfast.

“Are you expecting someone?” Jite asks me.

“No,” I say, confused.

The doorbell rings again, so I get off my seat to go and see who is at the door. “Who is it?” I call out as I approach the door.

“Ambassador Marilyn Inyang,” comes the reply from the other side of the door.

I pause in front of the door for a moment, stunned. Why is this woman stalking me? What does she want from me? Is Dominic ok?

That last question worries me a little, so I quickly unlock the door and pull it open. Marilyn is standing there with her hands primly folded in front of her, over her grey mini tote bag that matches her stylish silk dress. Her hair is expertly styled in a bouffant that is typical of my mother’s generation. Two bodyguards are standing on either side of her and looking at me with hard expressions as if daring me to jump their boss, so they can pounce on me and cart me away to a dungeon somewhere for proper punishment.

“Good morning,” she greets me politely. “Since we didn’t get a chance to talk yesterday, I thought it best to come here and try again.”

“Good morning, Mrs. Inyang,” I reply calmly. “I’m not going to waste our time by asking you how you located my house, but I am quite curious about why you have been trying to talk to me. If memory serves me right, you couldn’t wait to get rid of me the last time we met in Uyo. What has changed since then?”

“A lot,” she says and sighs. “May I come in?”

“Who is it, Mum?” Kome calls out from the dining room.

“Uh, a guest,” I reply to her. To Marilyn, “If you are going to come inside, you will have to tell your bodyguards to wait for you outside. I don’t want them to frighten my children.”

“Very well,” she agrees. “You heard the woman. Wait for me here,” she tells her bodyguards who look as if they might offer up an argument but thought better of it and simply respond with curt nods.

I stand aside and let Marilyn step into my house. Her manner reminds me of Maggie Smith’s character in Downton Abbey, as she walks gingerly as if trying to avoid stepping on imaginary scorpions on the floor. To my surprise, she looks around her and smiles warmly.

“Such a lovely, cozy place,” she remarks. “It’s the sort of place I would be comfortable to live in if I were not so… affluent. I could still buy a small house and recreate this homely look, I guess.”

Her whimsical expression changes when she catches the look on my face. “Oh, please, don’t be offended. I didn’t mean it that way. I was actually paying you an honest compliment, don’t pay any mind to the rest of my musings.”

“Yeah,” I mutter under my breath and indicate that she’s welcome to sit on the couch if she wants.

I wonder if I should also offer her some refreshment, even though this visit is unplanned, and I don’t presently have a wide range of options to offer her.

“I was having breakfast with my children and my brother before you came,” I explain to her. “Would you like some tea or coffee?”

“Oh, don’t bother with that, dear,” says Marilyn. “But thank you for the offer. May I sit down?”

“Yes, please. If you don’t mind, I’d like to go and check in with my daughters and my brother in the kitchen. They might be wondering why I haven’t come back to rejoin the breakfast table.”

“Aww, I am so sorry to have interrupted your breakfast,” Marilyn apologizes. “Please, convey my apologies to everyone.”

“Uh, sure,” I say, even though I am anything but sure right now. This woman’s change in attitude seems quite odd to me, compared to how unwelcoming she had been to me the first and last time that I saw her. What has changed? Why on earth is she here? What does she want from me of all people?

“Hey troopers,” I say cheerfully when I return to the kitchen. They are all done eating but waiting for me. “Sorry for abandoning you guys. I have a visitor and I need to go and find out why she’s here. But in the meantime, you guys can clear up the table and head back upstairs until I’m done in the living room.”

“Who is it?” Asks Zino.

“Um, a guest,” I answer.

“What kind of guest?” Asks Kome.

“A normal guest,” I reply with a shrug.

“A normal guest?” Asks Jite, puzzled. “What’s a normal guest?”

“Ugh, you guys! Just clean up and go upstairs, ok? I’ll join you guys once she leaves. Deal?”

“Deal,” they all reply in unison.

“Thanks,” I say with a grateful smile and return to the living room to join Marilyn who is sitting on my couch with a straight back and a blank face. “Sorry to keep you waiting. I had to make sure the twins and their uncle are carrying on fine without me.”

“Oh, please, don’t apologize to me. I am the intruder here I should be the one to apologize to you and your family for interrupting your breakfast.”

“That’s ok,” I mutter and sit across from her on my other couch.

“I’m not going to beat about the bush here, so I’m just going to go straight to the point,” she says without preamble. “I know you are wondering why I came here to see you after how I spoke to you the last time, we met in Uyo. To be honest, I never thought this would ever happen, but I now realize that I made a very terrible mistake because of my selfishness.”

“What do you mean?” I ask in confusion.

“I mean that I caused the break-up between you and Dominic simply because of my prejudice against you. I didn’t see how delighted Dominic was, having you in his life. He was content, happy, but I ruined it because I thought I knew what was best for him. Sadly, I was wrong. I was so very wrong, and I have paid a high price for it.”

To my surprise, I find myself feeling sorry for this same woman who berated me and made me feel like a second-class human being in her home. Now here she is, apologizing to me and trying to make amends. I may not like her, but I admire her ability to own up to her mistake and apologize for it.

“I accept your apology, ma’am, but if I’m being honest, you are not entirely to blame. I didn’t break up with Dominic because of the things you said to me or about me. There was another reason why I chose to end things with him.”

“I know,” she said quietly. “I know what happened, Uzezi. Dominic told me all about it.”

“He did?” I ask, surprised.

“Yes. He told me that you walked in on him and Pamela kissing. That also was my fault.”

“You can’t possibly take the blame for that too,” I tell her. “That was not your fault. You had nothing to do with that.”

“Actually, I did,” she confesses somberly. “I encouraged Pamela to keep trying to win Dominic over, even though he was in a relationship with you. You see, Pamela has been in love with Dominic for quite some time now, but he never knew about it. She didn’t tell me about it either, but I am a woman who has lived many years on this earth, and I could tell from the way she looked at him, tried to get his attention and generally pandered to him, that she loved him, but he wasn’t aware of it. When you came into his life, she assumed that it would be like his previous relationships and things between you two would soon fizzle out in a matter of weeks, but that was not the case.

“You see, Pamela and I are very close, so she talks to me a lot and tells me things. I saw how she was suffering emotionally because of her unrequited love for Dominic, and I felt concerned for her. It pained me to see her pine for him year after year, relationship after relationship, without the slightest hint of recognition on Dominic’s part. It was as if fate was dealing a cruel blow on her and I couldn’t just sit back and watch her take it. I felt she deserved a chance to be with Dominic in a romantic way, and who knew, they might actually hit it off with each other and you know…”

“Get married eventually,” I finish her sentence for her.

“Well, yes,” she agrees unapologetically.

“Why are you telling me this now?”

Marilyn exhales. “As I said earlier, I was wrong. I had this grand fantasy that Dominic would fall head over heels in love with Pamela and he would marry her, and she would become a permanent part of our family. But it turns out that I am very terrible at playing cupid. Dominic was appalled by Pamela’s confession of being in love with him, and he was very mad at me for knowing about Pamela’s feelings and even encouraging her to pursue him without letting him know about it sooner. And then he told me the unthinkable – Pamela is bisexual!”

“Oh,” I say in a small voice. I can’t say that I am surprised by this revelation, judging by the tidbits I’d heard during the conversation between Dominic and Pamela that morning in Uyo.

“Now, I don’t have a problem with queer people in general, but how would I ever not wonder if I see Pamela with a woman? You know, how can I tell which female friend is just a friend, and which one is a lover? Don’t you think that would be agonizing for everyone, especially Dominic?”

“Well… that’s not for me to say,” I reply quietly.

“And poor Dominic, he only saw her as a friend and a sister. Imagine how shocking it was for him when she confessed her feelings for him and even followed it with a kiss!”

I sigh. “So, you came here to plead your son’s case?”

“Yes,” she admits instantly. “And also to let you know that he misses you so much. He didn’t send me to tell you that, but I feel you have to know. I admit I am not the best mother in the world, but I have done my best to be a good mother to Dominic and in return, he has been a very lovely, obedient, and agreeable son to me and his father all these years. I have always been involved in any important life decisions that he has ever made, so that was why I felt that I should have a say in who he chooses to be in a long-term relationship with.”

“Our relationship wasn’t exactly long-term. We only dated a few months,” I say defensively.

“Dominic gets bored with women quickly, so for him to have dated you for more than two months was record-breaking for him. He has strong feelings for you, Uzezi, and they are sincere. I apologize for butting into your relationship, and I would like to apologize to you for all the unwholesome things I said about you in the past. Can you ever forgive me?”

I am surprised. Dominic’s mother, Ambassador Marilyn Inyang, is in my house begging for my forgiveness. Am I in a dream? Am I imagining this?

“I – I don’t know what to say,” I stutter.

“Say what is on your mind. My son is so unhappy and angry with me, and it is all my fault. His happiness means a lot to me, and I know that you still care for him, if not, you wouldn’t have let me into your house or even listened to what I had to say. Please, Uzezi. Forgive us. Come back to Dominic. Don’t let me be the one to ruin what could become one of the most beautiful relationships we’ve seen this century.”

Her appeal gets to me, but I still feel hesitant. “But what about my status as a divorced mother of two children? Doesn’t that matter anymore?”

“Honestly, it never did, as long as Dominic was happy with you. I was only concerned because I thought he hadn’t really given his choice a thought, but he had. I keep forgetting that Dominic isn’t a little boy anymore and that he’s a fully grown man who knows what’s best for him and is quite capable of making his own decisions. I have learned my lesson and I will no longer stand in your way. I promise.”

I don’t know why I still feel like I am being pranked. Could this truly be real? Does Dominic want me back after I cut him off again so abruptly? Is his mother genuinely concerned or is she trying to set me up? Why am I doubting her like this after everything she has said?

“I know you have doubts about my motive, and I understand completely,” says Marilyn as I continue to ponder her earlier statements in silence. “It’s okay, you can take your time but please, don’t take too long. Dominic is miserable, and I know you’re the only cure for that. I wish you could just look beyond my errors and try to restore what you and my son had together. It was beautiful but I couldn’t see it then because of my selfishness. Now, I know better.”

“You are right, ma’am. I have doubts, but I don’t think you would come all the way here if it wasn’t serious,” I say.

“Please, call me Marilyn. I believe we have gone past formalities at this point.”

I smile in response, knowing that the mother of the man I am in love with won’t accept no for an answer. I can’t even lie and say that I am not excited by the prospects of seeing Dominic again, but what would his reaction be? What if his mother has been exaggerating and he isn’t as miserable as she claims? What will I say when I see him again?