The fear of embracing the truth, somehow restrained me from calling the number. Ada even formed the habit of asking if I had called but I kept offering one lame excuse after another. But that night, I decided it was time to call. I was half-way to the land of sleep when my phone rang. His furious tone rattled me back to alert.
He wanted to know why I called his home line. He wanted to know who gave me the number. He wanted to know what I told Amanda, which got her restless. He wanted to know many things at a time. “Cool down, let me explain:’ was all I could manage to utter but he did not care to listen. He seemed to be in a hurry to drive home his point. “Edyth, let me tell you something,” from the way he spoke, he must have clenched his teeth.” I can see that you are bent on bringing problems to me. And that is what I do not want at all. Who on earth authorized you to call that number? You have been trailing me, right? Well, that’s where you got it all wrong because I won’t tolerate that. Never!” “Joseph, I just wanted to talk to you. I called to talk to you not Amanda or anyone”, I explained. “And please don’t forget that I am Edyth Eze, your fiancee.” “That does not give you the right to call the number. You know how to reach me, why did you choose to go through another channel if your intentions were not sinister?” Joseph barked.
“What do you mean sinister? Joseph, so you have now forgotten what I had to do for you to travel to Europe? It is five years now, are you not supposed to return to marry me? So what you want to use in paying me back is to scold me for calling a mere line?” I said.But that seemed to have inflamed the situation. Joseph simply exploded. I was listening to his rantings but I was not hearing. But I knew the words’ sounded like he was ready to refund me whatever I spent to get him across to Europe. I believe, he also talked about me leaving him alone to face his challenges, since I was out to be a source of distraction to him. The moment I tried to galvanize the words to harness the meanings, Joseph hung up on me.
That left a void. I don’t need to stress the fact that he had murdered sleep. I was just up most of the night, thinking. I was just pondering what my fate would be. I had placed so many hopes on Joseph right from the day he proposed to me a few years earlier. And that was why I went out of my way to arrange for him to travel to Holland. It had come with a price. And I was the person who bore the burden. From the passport to the visa to the ticket and accommodation in Amsterdam, I was the person who took charge of the expenses. I was doing that in the hope that his lot, our lot, would be improved.
