CHAPTER 54

Rainbow dropped a ticket on the table and said "Jacqueline I want you to accept this as my congratulations on your new freedom from your husband. This is a ticket of an all-expense-paid trip to Paris. Whether you believe me or not, the truth is that for you to be able to think clearly, you need to take a break from everyone and everything. You need to get away from the environments that you're used to and get yourself lost somewhere so that you can discover yourself again. You need to explore new things and new places to be truly inspired. If you don't take this opportunity of an escape and make the most out of it, you might think back to this day someday just like you are about your marriage, and regret it. You've been through a lot and I think that you need a breath of fresh air which you can't get in this place because this is the country where all your misfortune happened. The trip is only for three weeks and I will like you to think of this three weeks as the three weeks of self recovery. You need to go out there and rediscover who you are because you can't build anything good on rubbles and a faulty foundation. You need to clear out the rubbles and destroy the old foundation so that a new and stronger one can be made. You need to start up your life on a new note and for that, rediscovering yourself is the key. "Ima's mother wanted to decline Rainbow's offer but after listening to everything that he had just said to her, she decided to accept the ticket as she told herself that she really needs to rediscover herself because she has stayed in captivity for too long and has also forgotten how to stand up for herself. All those months in detention and away from her husband has really made her see how much he has suppressed her all these years. He made her see him as her God and her only source of livelihood as she never thought that she could become anything other than his wife and the mother of his child. Even though she denies it most times, the truth is that she is afraid of exploring as she feels that the freedom which she has is too much and she knows that this feeling comes from many years of being suppressed.

She picked up the ticket as tears began to run down her cheeks. She cried because she remembered that there was a time when she had dreams and wanted to explore the world but she wanted a shortcut which landed her where she is today. She couldn't believe that she who wanted to explore the world before is now afraid of being free because for over twenty years, she never knew what freedom was. For over twenty years, she was living under the tyrannical rule of her husband and never saw herself like a person who was in slavery because she thought that she was in love.

She breathed out and laughed at herself as she began to ask herself if love was worth all the stress that many people go through. She asked herself many questions before she raised her head and asked Rainbow "is there anything called true love? Don't you think that love is another word for slavery without us even knowing it? Is love really worth the tears, the pain, suffering, and the heartbreak that it brings with it? Don't you think that love and marriage are overrated? Those who do not have them are made to feel less by the society and those who have them, are struggling to get free or struggling to keep them. After all the love that I showed to my ex-husband, what is my gain or what do I have to show for it apart from a child who is mentally unstable and also a psychopath?" 

Rainbow walked up to her and told her "the fact that love did not work for you does not mean that it is not worth it. Remember what I told you a while ago about experiences? Our experiences matters a lot. Our experiences are the things that can make or break us most times. You only saw the other side of Love which is the terrible part but you've never been shown the great parts of it. The parts that has made cities to fall and brought great men to their knees. I believe that love is anything that you take it to be. Love can be a force for good or evil, it can be a tool for creation or destruction and it can also bring life or death. I believe that love and marriage are not overrated only if they are done with the right intention by both parties. When you married your husband, you knew deep within you that you wanted to use him as a way out of suffering. You saw him as a ticket to greatness and he also saw you as God knows what. Both of you went into marriage deceitfully and you both got your rewards and as you can see, love was not responsible for all of that, rather both of you were. Sometimes before we go into relationships and begin to commit ourselves to our partners, we already know the kind of person that they are but we deceive ourselves with the phrase that says "love conquers all." We try to deceive ourselves by saying that if they love us, they will change because of us and we forget that nobody can change because of us as people only change because they want to change. We have made many wrong decisions which we end up blaming on love. Most times what we feel for people is infatuation or obsession and not love. Many people are in the situations which they are in today because they fail to tell the difference between love, lust, infatuation, and obsession." 

 After Rainbow shared his understanding on love and relationship, he turned around and left the house. A few minutes after he had left Ima's mother was still standing at the same spot where he left her as she kept pondering on the words which he said because they were all true. She married her husband and the claims to love him but the truth is that she also married him with a hidden agenda but now she's blaming it all on love. She looked down and whispered to herself "if only all of us will look deep within our hearts and see that we are marrying someone or going into a relationship with them because of something that we fancy about them and not because we truly love them, we will make this life a better place. Rainbow was right about everything that he has just said and I've just learned to think twice before telling anybody that I love them because love is deeper than we think and most times, we do not even have love in our hearts for ourselves let alone having it for someone else."

Lily's father was really mad at Lily as he felt insulted by Jay. He looked at his daughter and told her "you went out there and gave yourself freely to this man by dishonoring yourself and your family and like that was not enough, you still brought him into this house to insult your father? After everything that I have done for you since you lost your mother, so this is how you want to pay me back with insult and disgrace. You wicked and ungrateful child, haven't I been providing for you? I know that you have always been jealous of your step siblings as you feel that they should not have a share in your father's love. Well, I will not be the selfish man that you expect me to be and since you have proven not to be accommodating to your step siblings, you can get your bags from outside where they've been placed and get out."

Lily began to cry and beg her father not to throw her out of the house. "Dad I'm sorry if I have been acting like my step siblings are not welcome in this house or if I have been feeling entitled to anything here. Please don't throw me out because I have nowhere to go. This is the only home that I have known all my life and I don't want to leave. I promise that I will be more respectful to my step mum and my siblings also." 

While Lily was acting all that drama, Jay was just standing behind her and smiling to himself as he couldn't believe that the person who he was fighting for is bringing herself so low as to beg for a space in her father's house. He felt like giving Lily a knock on her head so that the knock can bring her back to her senses and make her understand that she does not need to beg her father to live in his house as that is his responsibility. Jay was so angry that he pulled her up from her knees and shouted at her. "What is wrong with you!? Are you supposed to be begging him? Can't you see that the decision has been made already and your bags have been thrown outside the house? Why do you need to humiliate yourself more than you already have by cleaning, washing, and cooking in your father's house? Haven't you served long enough as a maid in this house? Who taught you to beg those who have offended you instead of bringing them to judgement? This man here does not see you as his daughter and I think it's high time you knew that already." 

Lily dragged herself from Jay's grasp and ran towards her father as she fell at his feet and was begging him. Her father laughed and pulled back his feet before her hands could touch them "I wonder why you are still begging me to forgive you when your lover here does not feel any remorse for what both of you have done. Lily, I have always known that you are as pretentious as your mother. Always claiming self righteousness when you are as filthy as a pigsty. You gave yourself to a man and instead of giving yourself to a wealthy one, you went ahead to give yourself to a poor alley rat. I have always known that you are also as classless and tasteless as your mother and this further proves that you are not my daughter because no daughter of mine will associate themselves with low class nobodys. Lily, I know your type and I know that if your lover here is capable of shouldering your responsibility, you wouldn't be here begging me rather you will come here to rub it in my face. I bet you refused to come home last night because you thought that he was wealthy but after discovering this morning that you were mistaken, the first thing you did was to run back home and start begging me to accept you back. Well, I've got news for you so open your ears and listen properly because I will not repeat myself. Henceforth, you are no longer welcome in this house and in this family because I hereby disown you. Any day that I see you around this building, I will call the police to arrest you because from today, I do not know who you are. I know that you think that your stepmother is punishing you by making you do the house chores instead of you to see it as a good training which your mother never gave to you. You should thank your lover here because he made me understand that everybody sees me as a wicked person who has been maltreating you all these years so dear Lily, I am freeing you from the maltreatment that you have been enduring for so long."

All this while that the whole drama was playing out, Lily's stepmother and her children were inside listening and laughing. They felt that they have finally won because they have succeeded in kicking Lily out of her father's house. Lily's step-siblings were itching to come out and give her their final words before she decides to leave. All these years they've been trying to put up with her because their mother told them to. They really wanted to see the face of the man that she spent the night with so that they can taunt her more. They believed that if the man was someone that she could be proud of, Lily wouldn't be wasting her time begging her father to take her back rather she will come and pick up her bags with pride.

While Lily's father was busy disowning her, Jay was recording everything and when Lily's father was done talking, Jay decided to speak to both father and daughter. "I can't blame you for not knowing who I am because you are an old man who do not listen to music anymore. And I do not blame you for not listening to music because you have lost your joy. I am proud to say it to your face that I took your daughter's virginity last night and I am not some poor alley rat as you mentioned a while ago. I can give your daughter everything that you could never give to her but I only came with her to beg you because I do not want to be the person who will come between a father and his daughter. In fact, this period is the lowest of my life as I have never stopped so low in my whole life, to follow a girl to beg her father as I have many beautiful women at my beck and call. I would like you to Google the name Jay so that you can know who I truly am." 

When he was done talking to Lily's father he turned towards Lily and said "what's been done has been done. You can either remain here and keep begging a man that will not change his mind about you or come with me and live a better life than the one that your father has ever given you. If you want to live long enough to take your revenge on them for everything that they have done to you and your mother, you need to come with me so that you can put yourself in that position because if you keep staying here, I am sorry to say this, but you will soon end up like your mother. You have three minutes to decide, else I will walk away from your life forever." 

When Lily's stepsisters heard the name Jay, they both struggled to run out and see if it was the real Jay or an impersonator.