Marlise sat up when she heard the door of the living room open. She and Cherish had fallen asleep on the couch, wrapped in each other's arms.
Ma Eli walked in, her arm wrapped around her mother’s arm. She watched as the two women walked towards the room.
When Ma Eli came back out, she stopped, looked at Marlise and opened her mouth to say something.
"So what did the doctor say?" Marlise asked before she could speak.
"Er...its her blood pressure. It went too high so she needs to avoid stress," Ma Eli said.
"Hmm," Marlise hummed, not wanting to continue a conversation with the woman.
"I will be going now. Take care of her and my grand child," She said, walking away.
"Grand child my foot!," Cherish scoffed.
THREE MONTHS LATER
"You idiot! Iresponsible man!" Cherish's angry voice tore through the walls of the house that morning.
Marlise, Ma Mado and Jay were sitting at the table having breakfast at that time. They turned towards the direction of the noise. Marlise pushed her seat backwards and hurried towards the bedroom.
She pushed open the door and found Cherish pacing back and forth the room with a phone pressed to her ear and her face scrunched up like crumpled paper. She looked like she was about to blow steam out of her ears.
"Don't tell me to understand. You woke up and left!" She shouted.
"Cherish, what on earth? The whole of Yaounde can hear you," Marlise said.
Cherish hung up, threw the phone across the bed and glared at Marlise as with red angry eyes if she were the object of her anger
"Everyone is hearing cuss words including Jay, What is happening?" Marlise repeated.
"Is it not that foolish Levi! He is asking about his children as if he cares then he sends 350 thousands francs. Is that money? Does he know how much Viva's treatment cost?
He says he has to be away to clear his head. Is he the only one affected by all this? As if that's not enough, he says he wants a divorce. That he wants to set me free. Did I tell him I was trapped. He is just looking for an excuse to get back with you," Cherish was speaking so fast, Marlise didn't know what to say.
"You're not saying anything eh? You support his decision to file for a divorce? I knew it! You have probably been talking behind my back. I've been such a fool!" Cherish ranted, carrying her hands on her head.
"Cherish stop this!" Marlise shouted walked out of the room.
She escaped to the safety of her bedroom where her three months old daughter slept on the bed. There was a baby cot in the room but she preferred to sleep close to her child.
Placing her palm on the child's chest, she felt the steady rise and fall as she breathed. Cherish was right. 350k was small for the number of test that had been ordered for Viva.
Something undetected was wrong with her child and it worried her. She used to wheeze at night and a week before they'd rushed her to the hospital at 1am when she was having breathing difficulties. It could be asthma, it could be pneumonia, all the test were inconclusive.
One thing she didn't admit to her sister earlier is that Levi sent that money because she and him had spoken that week when the baby was in the hospital. If Cherish found out, it would break the fragile bridge they were rebuilding. She had no ulterior motives for keeping it from Cherish but she wanted to know was how he was doing, how he was taking care of himself since he was no longer running the farms. There was no scenario where Cherish would not explode when she heard that her own husband preferred to talk to her sister than her.
She remembered how his voice made her tremble the first time he called last week. She didn't know whether its that she missed him in particular or it was just loneliness. She wrapped her arms around herself, giving herself the hug she craved. She felt really lonely and talking with Levi had resurrected feelings she'd buried deep down but she had to either choose her feelings or her sister.
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