TOXIC ATTRACTION

TOXIC ATTRACTIONEPISODE SIX

That night I slept in the living room. Not that I could not stand sleeping next to Richard but it was because when I was about to join him inside the bedroom I stopped by the door and heard him sob. I thought he was just letting out his frustrations but I realized he was on phone with someone else. I stood by the door eves dropping on his conversation and even though I could not yell who he was talking to, I had a feeling it was a woman, maybe his mother or some other woman but I would place the bet on his mother because he told her everything.

When having the conversation I had with Richard a few minutes before his outburst, I felt like him telling me that I was free to leave and go wherever I wanted to go was some sort of a joke. He knew I wouldn't go anywhere with the pregnancy because my father had made it clear that I was not welcomed in our home and Richard knew I had limited options. He knew the game he was playing and he knew I would choose to stay. Hearing him cry that night made me feel sorry for him but what if it was just an act?..

When morning came, I got up from the sofa where I had slept and decided to clean the house given the state in slept in the previous night. The basin Richard had used to wash my feet was still in the living room and so was the oil and towel he used to clean my feet.

I tidied the room and then decided to make Richard a special breakfast just before I took him up on his offer of me leaving his house. If I got my phone then it meant I would call my friend Julia and maybe I could stay with her for a few weeks as I figured out what to do with my life.

I did the cleaning and when I was done, I started preparing breakfast. While frying the eggs and I held on to my tummy and for a second my mind got thinking. What if I terminated the pregnancy, it was the only thing tying me to Richard minus my father's debt wasn't it? And if he set me free as he claimed, it meant he wouldn't care what I had to do with my life or the life inside of me right?

I took a deep breath and focused on making breakfast. While still on that, I heard the bedroom door open and the sound of the wheelchair rolling out filled my ears and when I turned around, Richard was in the middle of the room watching me do my thing in the kitchen. That morning, things seemed different, he didn't call me love or even say anything to me at all. I didn't care about the name calling and stuff but my worry was the fact that I hurt him the previous night by making him feel like he was not good enough.

I reduced the heat from the gas cylinder and walked toward him but he rolled his wheelchair away and faced the opposite direction. He switched on the Tv and dropped my phone on the table.

Me: aren't we talking today?

I asked ignoring his bad mood and walking toward me. I stood before him but he stared at me coldly and didn't utter a word.

Me: so you don't talk to me but will run to mummy dearest with the slightest misunderstanding we have.

I picked up my phone from the table and walked away from him. I went back to the kitchen to check on the eggs but who was I even preparing the eggs for if he was not going to talk to me?

I was mad at him for reasons I didn't know and especially after that cold treatment. That is the thing with us ladies, if someone you don't like treats you nice, you brush them off and when they stop giving you the attention, you all of a sudden because interested in why they are not bothering with you anymore. That was me that morning. I was bothered by his coldness and I wanted him to talk to me.

I switched off the gas cylinder then perfectly presented my breakfast in a tray and went to the living room where Richard was. He was scrolling on his phone and not even me placing the tray before him made him look up at me.

Me: I made breakfast.

He looked up at me but remained silent. He was beginning to work my nerves and knowing myself, I was getting fully charged and was going to explore on him anytime. Did he even have an idea of what he was provoking within me?

Me: Richard!

Richard: stop bugging me. I didn't ask you to make me breakfast and I'm not hungry. You have your phone already, you should be on your way out.

Me: wow!

Richard: what, isn't that what you wanted, to get the hell out of here and never look back?..

Richard was playing emotional blackmail games on me and maybe, just maybe I needed to show him that I didn't need him after all.

Me: you are really ungrateful and I regret wasting my time fixing that breakfast for you. For a moment I thought you deserved it but clearly you don't. You are right, I don't have to be here. Not with this kind of attitude.

I walked out on him and went to the bedroom to pack my stuff. I also made a call to Julia who told me her doors were open and I was welcomed to her place. I smiled after the call and for a moment I felt a breath of fresh air. When I switched on my phone, I got a lot of voice mail messages and my mother had left more than enough voice messages...

On my phone, I had some cash on my mobile money and after the conversation with Julia, I called an Uber to come to get me and while waiting for it, I dragged my suitcase to the living room and towards the door when I bumped into Mark who was walking in...

Mark: whooa, are you leaving?

He asked making way for me and my suitcase then turning to Richard almost immediately.

Mark: what's going on?....

Neither Richard nor I responded to his questions and having seen me struggle to push my suitcase out, he offered to help and I let him as I went back for my other stuff.

Mark: Richard, what is happening here?

He asked sitting beside him and on my way out, I passed by the kitchen and got a cup for Mark to share in Richard's breakfast.

He grabbed my hand just as I was about to put the cup on the table and our eyes met in what seemed like an awkward silent confrontation...

Mark: sit for a second.

He said letting go of my hand having noticed Richard's eyes on us.

Me: I can't. My Uber is almost here.

Mark: it will only take a second.

I put the cup before him and sat on the other end of the seat.

He looked at Richard then at me and the silence spoke louder than the Tv.

Mark: can someone at least tell me why you are leaving, as your best man I should know Richard...

Richard: why don't you ask her? She's the one who has her bags packed.

Mark focused his gaze on me and I did not blink.

Mark: Robina?

Me: your friend set me free finally. I don't know why he is moody and gloomy.

Richard: you don't know?..

Me: I don't read minds. What, have you said anything apart from asking me to leave?

Richard: that's what you wanted right, you can't live with a cripple left alone wanting to be seen with him.

Me: do not project your anger toward me. I'm not the bull that did rounds on you nor am I the driver who knocked you and permanently put you in a wheelchair.

Mark: Robina!..

I got up and made my way past Mark. The Uber guy was already calling.

Me: talk some sense into your friend. At this rate, he will not have any woman look at him leave alone wake up to prepare him breakfast or take gin to the bus stop...

I started to walk away but I felt kike I has not told him enough and got back.

Me: thank you for freeing this bad from the cage, just so you know... I'm going to terminate this pregnancy so that it will be like you and I never crossed paths.

Mark: stop it, Robina, you are still married, what is it with you?

Me: married, mh!..

I walked out and dragged my suitcase out of the gate just in time to see the uber approach. I carried my suitcase to the back and the uber driver helped me put it in the boot...

I got inside the car and told him my destination and he drove off...

"What was that about really?"

Mark asked pouring some tea in his cup and serving Richard as well. Richard turned down the TV volume and put his phone on the table. He took a deep breath then looked at Mark and shook his head.

Richard: I can't live with someone who See's me as a burden. You of all people know how my life has been.

Mark: but she married you and choose to stay. Why would you send her away?

Richard: you don't understand.

Mark: then make me... Just the other day you were showering her with praises over the phone saying how well to you she was. What changed in one week?

Richard took a sip of his tea and avoided Marks's eye contact.

Mark: get her back.

Richard: she will come back.

Mark: you don't know that. She threatened to abort your baby.

Richard: I gave her an easy way out and she took it. The wedding was her father's idea and I regret marrying her. Do you know what it feels like sitting in a wheelchair and having everything done for you?

Mark: no.

Richard: exactly... It's even worse when now you have to love someone who will never look at you the same way you look at them. She will never love me in my condition, what's the point of keeping her here?

Mark: but you got her pregnant. You thought that would make her stay?

Richard: it was my mother's idea and not mine. You should have heard the things Robina told me last night. Let her go. I will be fine.

"Robina has finally switched on her phone"

Cleopatra said as she served Ronald breakfast then sat by the table and tried to reach her. She called Robina's line but it was engaged so she put the phone on the table hoping to call her again in a few minutes. Ronald watched her the entire time but was not happy with her excitement because he knew that Robina's marriage was not going to work if she and her mother reconnected because he needed her to stay in that marriage for his own safety and peace of mind.

Cleopatra: Nerea called me yesterday.

Richard: and?

Cleopatra: she said, she had visited Robina and Richard and they are doing well. Robina is settling into the marriage and she looked happy.

Ronald: isn't that how it's supposed to be? What else did you expect? She is even carrying his child so the marriage wasn't a bad thing for her after all.

Cleopatra stopped buttering the bread and looked at him for a while. She did not understand what Ronald's obsession with Robina's marriage was and she had no idea how deep Ronald was in debt to give away his only daughter to someone like Richard.

Cleopatra: I don't think Richard loves her. I think she fears him and would rather do what he says because she has nowhere else to run to. Did you see her arms on the day of the wedding? It had red spots like someone was squeezing her arms but when I asked, she said it was nothing.

Ronald: that is because you are reading into things that are not there.

Ronald: stay out of that marriage. In our days no one picked a marriage partner but twenty four years later we are still married. Those two will figure it out.

He said taking the buttered bread from Cleopatra and having his tea.

After the drive to my friend's house, the Uber parked by the gate to the flats and after I paid him, he helped me with my luggage and I made my way into the gate and to Julia's house. Julia was at home, being a weekend he didn't have anywhere to go and she looked happy to see me when I got into the house. She sprang from the seat and came to meet me by the door. She hugged me and offered to take my stuff to her room. Her house was a one bedroom house and we were going to share the room and the bed.

I made myself comfortable and looked around admiring the interior decorations. There were African based pictures like calabash and African women nicely hung on the wall. The house looked neat and it was totally different from the environment I had just come from.

Julia: so tell me, my friend, what happened?

Me: Richard let me go.

Julia: what do you mean by letting you go, I thought you were happily married?..

Me: not really. It's a long story but I'm glad I left.

Julia: you know I kept asking myself why that cripple in all the men that could kill to have you. There was ken who was very interested in you, Leakey who choose you over Susan but you turned him down, and even Davis. You broke his heart when you got married to...

Me: don't call him cripple again.

Julia: don't tell me you had fallen for him..you are even defending him.

Me: it's more complicated than that. I didn't Marry Richard because I wanted to but because I was forced into it.

Julia: he put a gun to your head?..

Me: no. It was more of my father than him.

They were silent for a minute.

Julia: should I prepare you anything?

Me: some tea would do. I've not eaten anything this morning and I'm kind of eating for two.

Julia: what?.... Are you pregnant?

Me: yes I am.

Julia: for a cripple!.. Robina!

She sounded shocked, more like it was an abomination to carry a child of a crippled man. I felt like hiding my face out of shame because her reaction made me feel like now I really had to terminate the pregnancy. I couldn't deal with it......