The Sweet Revenge………….Part 3

The tone from my phone startled me, and I quickly answered. Subconsciously I think I was hoping to hear Fidelia's voice, but it was Kike. "How are you doing, Femi?" she asked.

"Not so good," I replied. "She's left me."

"I heard," she said.

"You heard?" I said in astonishment. "Where? How?"

"I'm sorry, Femi," she said sadly. "Dele's been up at the clubhouse boasting about it."

"Oh, shit," I thought. "It's already started."

On Sunday I called the captain of our men's team. There was no way I was going to go up there. "I'm sorry, Akin," I told him, "you're going to have to scratch me from the line-up today. I've got some personal issues to deal with."

"Yeah, I heard," he said sympathetically. "Sorry about that. Good luck, man."

I thanked him, but I knew all I had to look forward to was more bad luck.

I spent the whole day inside. I guess I was hiding, though it pained me to admit it. The TV had a football match between Barcelona and Real Madrid on, but I wasn't paying attention. My thoughts kept drifting back to my marriage with Fidelia. Where did it all go wrong? When did she stop loving me?

I felt certain that she'd loved me when got married right out of University. We'd gone steady throughout our university years; I asked her to marry me over Christmas break. She'd majored in Health and Physical Education, and whenever my fraternity brothers would catch sight of her in workout clothes, they'd give me a hard time. She had that combination of cute, fit and sexy that's almost irresistible; I gave up trying the minute I met her.

We settled easily into married life. I landed a great job in Lagos, and she found a job as an instructor at an aerobics class. After a few years, we'd saved enough money for a down payment on a house, and we found just what we were looking for in a brand new estate .

I thought that we were really happy here at Victory Estate. I got several promotions with my company, and Fidelia decided to strike out on her own. We had enough money by that time to lease space for her studio in one of the small strip shopping centers in the area, and her business did very well. Our savings account was growing, we had a host of friends and acquaintances, especially at Victory Estate, and we had even started talking about starting a family in a year or two.

Our sex lives had quieted down some, but that hadn't surprised me. My job kept me busy, and teaching Pilates every day will tire out anyone. As I thought back about it, I began to realize that things had really slowed down in the last six months, though I hadn't noticed it at the time. I also remembered that Fidelia had seemed a bit distracted at times, as though she was off in another world. But when we had made love, it was as good for me as ever, and I had thought Fidelia felt the same way. Obviously, I was wrong.

I kicked myself mentally. How could I have been so blind that I didn't realize she had gotten involved with someone else? How could I not have been aware that she was falling out of love with me and in love with Dele Oyebanjo? The only thing I could figure was that when you love and trust someone else, you don't go looking for signs of treachery and deceit. "No," I thought sardonically, "you just have to wait until they dope-slap you in the back of the head."

I went into work early on Monday to try to get ahead of the game. Around nine o'clock I called the office of my lawyer to try to make an appointment. When the secretary asked about the purpose of the meeting, I didn't want to get into the subject of Fidelia and me so I told her I needed to make some changes in my will. When she came back on the line, she told me he could see me right after lunch.

When I got to his law office, Kunle met me in the lobby. He had been a classmate of ours back in our undergraduate days, and I had gone to him when Fidelia and I decided to have wills drawn up.

After we were seated in his office, he looked at me with concern. "Is everything OK, Femi? I understand you need to make a change in your will. You or Fidelia aren't ill, are you?"

"Thanks for your concern, Kunle, but it's not quite that bad," I told him. Then I handed him the papers that Fidelia had given me on Saturday. As he read them, he "tsk-tskd" to himself. When he had finished, he looked up at me.

"I'm really sorry to learn of this, Femi. Do you think there's any chance of reconciliation?"

"I don't think so. She's already moved out of our house and moved in with her boyfriend. She told me that they plan to get married as soon as our divorce is final."

He shook his head. "I would never have expected this. You two seemed like the perfect couple."

Then his expression changed and his voice took on a professional tone. "Given those circumstances, as your legal advisor my advice to you is to sign this agreement immediately."

"So, just like that, ten years of marriage wiped away?" I said bitterly.

He shook his head patiently. "In matters like this, Femi, you have to stop thinking with your heart and start thinking with your head. My read on this is that Fidelia has made you a very generous offer, much better than you'd get if you decide to fight over it. Part of her motivation may be guilt, but I   was willing to bet that the main reason is to give you an incentive to agree quickly so she can marry her new man. While it may feel like you're giving in to her now, the truth is that if your marriage is over, this is the best deal you can hope to get."

I knew he was right. Hell, after what she'd done, I didn't want to stay married to her anyway. But it still felt like she and Dele had beaten me in a game I didn't even know I was playing.

Kunle's tone became sympathetic once again. "Listen, Femi, I know the lawyer that Fidelia used. If you sign, we can get this Settlement Agreement filed with the court very quickly. That will pretty well lock in what she's proposed. Then, if she begins to have 'buyer's remorse' and wants to come back -- and if you're willing to take her back -- you still have thirty days to drop the divorce."

I knew that wasn't going to happen. "Can I borrow your pen?" I asked.


On the way home that evening, I stopped at a neighborhood restaurant and picked up some dinner to go. But when I got home, I found that Fidelia had been there during the day and packed up everything she wanted. Of course all of her cosmetics had disappeared, but I was surprised to find a number of items of clothing left behind. However, when I examined them more closely I realized that they were things she didn't wear anymore. "I guess I get to haul them off to Goodwill," I thought morosely.

Further investigation revealed that the bedroom was not the only place she had raided. Our good china was gone, along with most of the serving pieces we'd received as wedding presents. From the kitchen, I noticed that a number of utensils and our set of good carving knives had also been carted off. Several pieces of furniture were missing, and when I went into the den, I saw that large chunks from our CD and DVD collections were also gone. As I prowled through our belongings I noted that she'd left our wedding album untouched. Somehow that was more depressing to me than all the things she'd taken with her. It was as though she wanted to expunge any memory of life with me.

I went back in the kitchen and stashed the food I bought in the refrigerator. I had no appetite left after discovering her incursion. I made myself a mental note to have the locks changed. "Damn it to hell, how do you go from being happily married to a single lonely divorced man in three days?" I asked myself. It all seemed so damned unfair.

I spent the next week in virtual isolation, starting work early and leaving late every day. Otherwise I stayed in the house. The humiliation of having Dele Oyebanjo steal my wife was excruciating, and the fact that there was nothing I could do about it was almost unbearable.

I'll admit that I entertained fantasies about assaults with planks or wood; other times I daydreamed about hired killers and car bombs. But then I   came back to the real world. Did I really want to ruin my own life just to get back at a skirt-chasing sleaze ball and a wife who couldn't keep her legs together?

By Friday I decided it was time to come out of my cocoon. I  had done nothing wrong and there was no reason for me to hide. I called Kike. "wadup, partner, don't we have tennis match scheduled for this weekend?" I asked, trying to sound upbeat and positive.

"Oh, Femi, I'm so glad to hear from you," she said quickly. "I thought about calling you so many times, but I thought maybe you'd prefer to be alone for awhile."

"Thanks, Kike," I replied, softening my tone. "It's been a rough week."

I went on to tell her everything that had happened; then I asked her what was going on at Victory Estate that I missed. She hemmed and hawed for a few seconds before admitting that our situation was the talk of the area.

"You'd think they could find something better to discuss," I said sharply.

"They might," Kike allowed, "but Dele and Fidelia don't make it easy. They've been socializing at the clubhouse every night since last Saturday. Dele is all but openly bragging about how the better man won, and Fidelia hangs on him like an infatuated school girl."

I could hear the anger in her voice.

"It's just sickening, Femi. I quit her Pilates course straightaway and told her I couldn't be her friend anymore," she said. Her loyalty made me feel a little better.

"What about the others, Kike? What are they saying?" I asked.

"I guess it's what you'd expect, Femi. There are some who are pretty unhappy with Dele and Fidelia, and they try to avoid the lovebirds as much as possible. Then there's the group that always hang around Dele. They're all lauding his prowess, if you know what I mean. But for the majority of people it's just a sad, awkward situation, and they try to stay out of it as much as they can."

Rationally, I   knew that that would be the situation, but a part of me had wished the community would tar and feather Dele and Fidelia and ride them out of town on a rail. But I was determined not let my disappointment hold me back.

"Be that as it may, I'm not going to spend the rest of my life in hiding," I told Kike. "We're scheduled to play on Saturday, and unless you'd rather not, I intend to get out on the court with my partner," I told her.

"I'm glad, Femi," she told me fervently, "You can count on me."

I deliberately drove over to the tennis courts a little late so as to avoid conversations about topics I didn't want to discuss. It didn't help much: as I walked up to the tennis pavilion I could feel the eyes of my neighbors and teammates on me. I could understand their curiosity but I still hated the feeling.

When she saw me, the captain of our mixed doubles team came rushing up to me. "Femi, I'm so sorry. The other team made a last-second change in their line-up, and some of the matches have already started, so I can't change it. If you don't want to play, I'll understand."

"What are you talking about, Mary?" I asked. "I don't understand."

"It's Dele," she said. "You and Kike are scheduled to play Dele and his partner."

"Oh, crap," I thought. "That's the last thing I wanted."

Just then, Kike came up, and when she realized what was happening her face went gloomy. She pulled me aside and whispered, "We don't have to do this, Femi. It's no big deal: we'll just forfeit and play somebody else next week."

"No!" I said, loudly enough for Kike to jump. "I am not going to hide from that bastard the rest of my life. I'm going to have to face him, and it might as well start now."

Kike looked at me worriedly, but I turned back to Mary. "It's fine," I told her. "Kike and I are here to play."

To be continued................