For someone sorry, he didn’t go after her. She wiped the last drop of tears off her cheek. What had she been expecting after years without intimacy and rushed intimacy? They didn’t have time to talk or go out or do anything couples did. She’d been worried, but she brushed it off. Until lately when the panic kicked in. All she wanted was to salvage her marriage. Not for herself but for her boys. She wanted to blame him for his infidelity because it was easier to blame him, but it was her fault. It was her fault that he looked elsewhere and preferred his office to home. She should’ve done better, done more.

Their house didn’t feel like home anymore. The rooms were filled with loneliness, the passageways with neglect, and the walls were tainted with infidelity. Empty walls echoed back at her when her children weren’t around. Every day she waited, hoped that he would come back and maybe look at her like he wanted her, like she was his woman and she mattered. She settled for hoping that he’d love his children, and spend time with them, but all to no avail.

Samantha carried the last of her boy’s box to her car, shut the boot, and entered the car. Good thing her children went to the park with their friends, because she didn’t know if she would’ve held strong in their presence. She would pick them and drive far from the emptiness and lies they lived in.

She rested her head on the steering wheel as she burst into fresh tears. She couldn’t believe she’d broken up with Adam and said the things she did. She had nowhere to go to, neither did she have anyone to run to. Adam made her quit her job to be his housewife. She barely had time to catch up with her work acquaintances, and neither did she have friends. She had just been his lonely rich housewife, now she was nothing. It occurred to her that he might not have loved her. She suited his list of a perfect and presentable family.

Her cellphone rang, opting to decline, but it was her mother. She stared at it as it rang the first, then the second. Her mother was unrelenting. Samantha chuckled between her sob, cleared her throat, and then answered the call.

‘Hello, mom.’

‘Hello, sweetheart. Why did you wait for me to ring thrice? But that’s not the issue. Who made my baby sad?’ Her mother’s bubbly voice turned sober.

Samantha should’ve known that her mother would figure out it immediately, hearing her voice. Aside from her late father, her mother was the only one who knew her inside out, who heard her when she didn’t have words.

‘Nothing. No one,’ Samantha replied, too quickly for anyone to believe.

‘You can do anything, but never lie to me.’

‘I’m not lying, ma.’

‘There you go again.’ Her mother gritted. ‘Spill it, or I’ll drive to your house and hang that husband of yours.’

‘Does it have to be my husband?’

‘I’m sorry he’s the father to my amazing grandkids, but have you seen your husband? I mean, if he’s cast in a horror film, the producer will be horrified, and let me not point out that he’s the most narcissistic nitwit, but I digress. So, tell me, what did he do?’

Samantha hesitated and sighed. Her mother had been right all along. The reason she disliked Adam had been beyond Samantha. Now, she understood the trite: what an adult sees while sitting, a child would not see while standing. Because her mother had hated him from the first day she brought him home.

‘Adam cheated on me.’

‘That worthless piece of rubbish!’ her mother swore. ‘I knew he was a moron from the onset. See the man my daughter was managing, cheating on her? I never understood what you saw in him.’

‘Mother.’

‘What, Samantha Chiamaka Ali?’ the older woman snapped. ‘I called you by your father’s name, may his soul rest in peace, because that’s what you are to me. Had you not talked your way to him, you wouldn’t have married Adam.’ She hissed. ‘We should cut that nincompoop’s balls and feed them to the dogs, but that’d be degrading for the poor animals.’

Samantha burst into fresh tears and laughter at the same time. ‘Momma, I love you.’

‘I’m sorry, my baby.’ Her mother sighed.

‘I don’t know what to do. I don’t have anyone, anything, or anywhere to go to. I’ve lived in this loneliness with one thing, that he was faithful and loved me.’ Tears filled Samantha’s eyes, and this time she didn’t wipe it off. She let her sadness fill to the surface and spill.

‘Now, I have nothing. I can’t stay here anymore.’ Soon, Samantha was sobbing. ‘Maybe we stopped loving each other.’

‘If you both fell out of love, and he first noticed, he should’ve been brave to communicate. There is no justification for cheating.’

‘I have to start afresh and find my way. I don’t know how. I’m taking the kids with me. I don’t know how I’ll take care of them alone. Mother, I’ve never felt so lost in this world. Adam made me quit my job and devote myself to being a full-time housewife.’

‘Samantha?’

‘Yes, mother.’ Samantha sniffled.

‘Don’t ever say that. You have someone and that’s me. You have a place to go to, and it’s called home. Your father’s house. Come back home, Samantha, to where no one will hurt you or break your heart. Come home to where you’ll never be alone. You and my grandkids are my world. Bring them home.’

Samantha shook her head, weeping the more.

‘Mother, it’s shameful. I’m ashamed of myself.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I’m a failure. I failed at everything, including my marriage.’

‘God forbid that my daughter is a failure. You don’t judge yourself by the standard the society creates for you. You’re not a failure. You’re one of the best mothers on earth. If there’s anyone to be ashamed, then it’s Adam for failing you and your children. Do you hear me?’

‘Yes, thank you.’ Samantha sighed.

‘I love you, my baby. Come home.’