The silence in the room was deafening. He wished he could teleport himself right out of there to another point in time when he was still the honorable man everyone thought he was. Now, for the first time in 10 years that he had been married, he was going to need people’s help and intervention to settle a marital dispute and perhaps save his marriage. The relationship he had with his wife had always been a very cordial and close one. When they had disputes, they spoke about it and settled it immediately. But this particular situation needed a lot more than that.

How did he get himself into such a mess?

He sat in his favorite chair but everyone could see that he was not at ease at all. To his right were his Pastor and one of the Deacons from the Church. His Mum and Mother-In-Law sat together right opposite him. Modupe, his wife, sat to their left. They were all seated in his living room waiting for the Olori Ebi [Head of the Family] to come out of the bathroom and start the proceedings. He was taking too long.

When he finally appeared, everyone stood up, out of respect and allowed him to sit before taking their seats.

“Good afternoon everyone”, said Olori Ebi.

“The reason we are here today is to prevent a good thing from turning bad and address an indiscretion which is threatening the stability of the home of our children”

As Olori Ebi made that statement, Bayo’s mind went back to the day he wishes he could relive.

He had met Mope at work where she had come to sell a proposal to him. After her presentation, they had exchanged call cards and that was how their friendship started.

She would call to follow up on the proposal but after a while their conversation drifted into more personal issues. Then they started chatting on instant messenger and facebook and that was when the relationship took a dangerous turn.

He had seen one of her photos on facebook and had commented on how sexy she was looking. That singular comment and her response led to a lot of cyber conversations which he wouldn’t want anyone to read.

Lunch was the natural progression. They met for lunch a couple of times before deciding to take the relationship to another level.

They had everything well planned. They were going to take the day off and head off to Ife, from Lagos, spend the whole day together and return to Lagos the same day.

That morning he had told his wife he had an early morning meeting and he needed to leave home earlier than usual. At work, he had told his boss the day before that he had a family emergency to sort out. For someone who had never missed a day of work, his excuse was believable and his boss granted him the day off.

Everything had gone according to plan.

They had gotten to Ife as scheduled. Having spent 5 years in Ife as an undergrad, he knew all the ‘kurukere’[Runs] Guest Houses they could go to without running into anyone he knew. As an extra precautionary measure, he had rented a car from AVIS instead of taking his own car. He hadn’t taken anything for granted. Once they were in their room, he immediately put his phone on silence and got down to business. He didn’t want any disturbances. That was his undoing.

If he had heard his phone ring, he would have spoken with his wife and found out that his wife Modupe, who works for an NGO had been told to accompany some Poultry farmers to Ife to learn about some feed preparation techniques from their counterparts in Ife.

But he didn’t hear his phone ring and there was no way he could have known he was going to walk out of the hotel and walk right into his wife.

Olori Ebi: Bayo! Bayo!!

He was so deep in thought that he didn’t hear Olori ebi call out his name.

Bayo: Yes Sir!

Olori Ebi: “You have wronged this woman deeply but she is willing to forgive you because of the love you have shared this past 10 years and also for the sake of the children”

So what do you have to say to her?

Bayo: Modupe, mo de sa fun e to o. { Modupe, I still can’t believe you caught me after all the precautions I took]

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