‘I deeply regret marrying Humphrey’ (2)

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We continue Paulina and Humphrey’s story started last week.

“When my marriage was close to a decade, what my mum warned me about Humphrey started manifesting. Initially, I didn't know how to tell her that her impression about Humphrey the first time I brought him home was right. While dad was busy puffing hard on his pipe which had his best tobacco burning right inside it, my mum was studying Humphrey. She had the gift of reading people within a short span. She was also spiritual and most members of her church consulted her for solutions to some spiritual matters. I could remember when a certain brother in our church came and told her how he woke up from sleep and noticed that some hairs on his arms were shaved. Mum told him what to do while reminding him that what happened to him was dangerous. He ignored her warnings and advice to his peril. Two weeks later, the man died.

“I behaved almost the same way as the man. I ignored mum as well and I seldom took her spiritual warnings seriously, maybe because she is my mother and we were close. That was why when she warned me against Humphrey, I refused to listen. I blatantly told her I was in love and that my mind was made. Even when she told me that before my marriage clocked 10, I would be frustrated and tired of it that I would opt out on my own, it didn't make meaning to me. Indeed, when I got tired of my husband because of his rash temper and manners, I didn't know how to go back to mum because she warned me initially,” she recalled.
Humphrey was good in giving his wife enough money to run the house. He was more concerned with the welfare of our two children than me. He enrolled them in the best school and made sure they were well fed and clothed including me.  He used to say that the mirror of a man’s family lies on his wife and children. Those were his good sides. His bad ways outweighed his good. He never allowed my friends to visit me at home. He hated my friends who were yet to be married with a passion and he showed it. He walked Mary Lyn my childhood friend out of my house because she was still single. Before he walked her out that evening, he asked me right in her presence what I would be discussing with a lady old enough to be married and she is still single. He said he was sure there was nothing we were discussing apart from how to arrange men and lure me into her own kind of lifestyle. When she heard that, she felt so bad that she carried her handbag and left with tears rolling down her cheeks. Right on the spot, she vowed never to visit me again in her life. That was how I parted ways with my good friend whose medical doctor dad was treating my parents free of charge. And even when she got married, she never invited me for her wedding,” she bemoaned.
Aside from Humphrey being harsh with some of Paulina’s single friends, he never welcomed the married ones either and he would show them to their face that they were not welcome in his house. He would tell the story of how his mother started siphoning his father’s money to her brothers who were using the money to build houses. He argued that when she had problems with her father and was later driven away because she was busy stealing his money, her brothers never accommodated her.
“I made sure I supported her to build a house of her own where she lives now though I was never in support of what she did,” he would say often.
“I have heard that story over a thousand times. And he would swear that no woman would do that to him. He heaped his mother's predicament on her friends who were also stealing from their husbands. So, for the fear of my husband, I decided not to be entertaining friends in my house. I was always going to visit them. I didn't complain much about that. The major thing I complained about was that my husband never had time to stay with his family, or chat with me his wife. He employed a lesson teacher for our kids who was teaching them at home, especially on weekends. That was all that mattered most to him, his children. He never showed me love, never pampered me or gave me attention. There was no communication or relationship between us. He could suddenly decide to travel out of the country without telling me ahead of time. All he was fond of doing was to hurriedly give me a call on his mobile phone from the airport that something came up and he was travelling out of the country and would be back after some months. When he managed to call me from wherever he was, he wouldn't be excited. He would ask me to give the phone to Jones and Kennedy his two sons. All these I endured but of course I started catching fun in his absence. I started throwing parties in my house when he was out of the country and my friends including the single ones would come with their friends. That was my way of unwinding since he wasn't always there for me. All that mattered to him was money which he pursued with vigour. I was having night parties in my house every weekend after all he wasn't always in the country and that was my own way of killing boredom. But one night, I never knew he was coming home. So, he walked into our house a few minutes after midnight and the music was blaring from the speakers. My guard couldn't alert me that he was at the gate because I guess the regular night parties were beginning to piss him off.
“So, I saw my husband walk in with fury written all over him. I knew I was in for trouble that night. I didn't even know when he sauntered in but when the music suddenly stopped playing I turned to ask the DJ what happened. I saw him and the looks on his face showed he was ready to act. He walked everybody out of his house after abusing them and calling them never-do-wells. They all stood up and left. The first question he asked me was about his kids. Without waiting to hear from me, he raced upstairs and saw them sleeping peacefully. He then rushed downstairs, pounced on me and gave me the beating of my life. He had my face so battered that I ran after some of my guests who were trying to reverse in my parking space. I hopped into the available car and pleaded with him to drive off and he did. I later lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital. It was in the morning when I woke up that I saw my face bandaged. I noticed it was Ambrose who saved me that night and brought me to the hospital. Ambrose was one of those who advised me not to marry Humphrey because of his hot temper. When I was discharged from the hospital, he took me to his house where his wife helped to take care of me for a week before I was taken back home,” she recalled.
When Paulina was driven home, she was looking frail and her kids ran down to meet her. They were all in the living room including Ambrose and his wife when Humphrey came out to meet them.

·      To be continued.