‘Is there anything wrong in marrying our housemaid?’ (1)

My name is Derex. I come from a very wealthy family. I am the fourth of five male siblings and we live in Lekki, in Lagos State. Right from my childhood, we had everything at our beck and call.

My father owns companies in Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna and Port Harcourt and as a golden rule, immediately after your National Youth Service, you must work in one of the companies in any state of your choice.
However, we all settled for the company in Lagos. Before we started working, my father paid us monthly salaries while we were still in school aside from our monthly allowance at the end of the month. He said he did not want us to lack anything.

I was the most stubborn of all my brothers. As a rule, I only dated girls and made friends with people in our social class. I looked down on those I considered to be below my class. Because of my attitude, some of my extended family members consciously avoided coming close to me when they visited our house. I would describe myself as pompous but as I grew older, all that changed as I realised that life is what you make out of it.

At the age of 18, I started dating a childhood friend, Claudia. Both parents encouraged and supported our relationship. Fortunately, we gained admission into the University of Lagos the same year to study Mechanical Engineering. In our department, they knew us together as a couple. Our friends and family members all believed that our relationship was destined by God as we were inseparable.

The only thing that separated us was our compulsory one-year National Youth Service. While I was posted to Abuja, Claudia served in Lagos. However, despite the distance, we communicated a lot through the telephone and face book. Aside from that, we exchanged visits every two weeks throughout the duration of the service year. When I eventually returned to Lagos, I started working in my father’s company while Claudia got a job with one of the oil companies in Lagos as well. I made sure I picked her up after work every day since we both live in the same area. Sometimes, she spends the weekend with my family because my parents love and adore her a lot.

After one of such weekends with us, my mother told me that she had something very important to discuss with me. “Derex, my son, now that you have started working, why don’t you think of settling down with Claudia? Your three elder brothers are married and your younger brother is in the university. We all know she is a well brought up lady. Aside from that, everyone in the family likes her,” she said. I smiled and said, “Mother, I think you read my mind because I was thinking of proposing to her next weekend so that we can commence our marriage plans. I have waited for eight years to have her as my wife. I hope she will accept me?” “Of course she will. Claudia loves you as much as you love her,” she assured.

The next weekend, I took Claudia to her favourite restaurant and proposed to her. She accepted without hesitation. This made me so happy and we both agreed to officially inform our parents. About a month later, both families met to start discussing about our wedding plans. It was however agreed that the wedding should take place in the next six months, exactly on Claudia’s birthday. Both of us had no problems with that. I looked forward to walking down the aisle with the woman I love so much. But I later noticed that Claudia was not as excited as I was. I know that nobody is perfect but Claudia was too superficial and she cares only about herself. I felt with time she would change but how wrong I was.

Some weeks later, I fell sick and was hospitalised. I spent about eight days in the hospital but Claudia only came to see me once. That was on the second day. She did not even bother to call to find out how I was faring. Iwas shocked, I must confess. Whenever I called her cell phone, she did not pick my calls. If she did she would simply say, “Please I’m busy; I will call you back later.” But she never returned my calls. Throughout my stay at the hospital, it was our house help, Shaki, who took care of me generally because my parents travelled out of the country. Shaki had always been a hardworking and caring girl and we all like her personality, although she had to drop out of secondary school when she lost her parents in a car accident. Shaki prepared my food and brought same to the hospital for me. Sometimes, even when I had no appetite to eat anything, she encouraged me to eat and even spoon-fed me if I needed, so that I would have food in my stomach to take my drugs. It was during that period that I came to like her even more. Claudia’s parents too came to see me once at the hospital too.

When I was finally discharged, I told the driver to take me straight to Claudia’s office but Shaki tried to discourage me. “Brother Derex, why don’t you go home straight and rest? You can see her tomorrow,” Shaki suggested. But I didn’t listen to her. When I got to Claudia’s office to enquire why she only visited me once and never bothered to call nor return my calls, she said that she had been very busy. “Sorry, Derex, I have been too busy. I will try and come and see you at home on my way home from work. Anyway, when were you discharged?” she asked. “I just left the hospital and I am on my way home but decided to see you first,” I emphasised.

She gave me a hug and a peck and I left. Surprisingly, she did not come to see me as promised. Even when I called her phone, she did not pick up nor did she send a text message to explain why she couldn’t make it. I was feeling downcast but Shaki tried all she could to cheer me up. The next day, a Saturday, I went to their house and her parents informed me that she went out with a friend. I complained to them about her attitude of late and they told me, I should talk to her because they cannot tell me anything. “Well, I will advise that both of you should sit down and talk,” stressed her mother. “When she does not even pick my calls nor come to see me, how do we talk?” I questioned. All my efforts to get Claudia and to sit down and talk proved abortive. I loved her so much and really wanted to know why the sudden change in her attitude towards me and our relationship.

To be continued