Mr. Smith was in terrible pain, he quickly dialed the native doctor’s phone number. The time was 3:00am so the native doctor told him that he will come by 6:00am.

When the native doctor finally arrived, he looked at Mr. Smith and shook his head.

“Why did you do that?”

“I was so angry,” Mr. Smith told him.

“You are so angry that you forgot the consequences of your action. Anyway, 10 years has been deducted from your life span.”

“Ha! Baba please show me mercy,” Mr. Smith pleaded.

“It is not my decision. It is that of the god’s,” he said firmly.

The native doctor quickly gave him an antidote to drink. It helped to stop the pain.

“This is the last time you should try such thing. You are lucky. If not that you reached me on time and I neutralized the effect of the charm. you would have died.”

“I will not make such mistake again. Thank you so much for coming to my rescue. But that girl cannot go scot free; I need to teach her a lesson.”

“I warned you earlier, I will warn you again. Be careful of that girl. If not, your life will go for it. Since she has completed her assignment, you have to send her away quickly.”

“But I didn’t really want that girl to leave this place alive. She knows a lot. She might betray me.”

“You used that girl as a sacrifice to renew your life. Any day she dies, you will die too. Remember that you are yet to renew the sacrifice with the new girl.”

“That is why I am angry. I hath set the process in motion, I was just waiting for 6:00am. The stupid girl spoilt everything,” Mr. Smith lamented.

“It has already happened. There is nothing you can do about it. Meanwhile that girl is already free. Don’t hold her back against her wish. Unless she decided to stay.”

Back in Bob’s room, the odour was becoming unbearable. But none of them was able to come out because of fear. At a point, Nnenna could no longer bear it. She decided to make a move.

“I want to go out. I can’t continue like this let me go and face the consequences of my action,” Nnenna announced.

“Nnenna please don’t go anywhere, my husband will kill you,” Mrs. Smith warned.

As she was still talking, Nnenna had already ran out so they ran and followed her. She went into the main building and met Mr. Smith in the sitting room.

Immediately her eyes jammed that of Mr. Smith her body got stiffed because of fear.

“You; this useless girl. So you are the one that defied my orders. Go and thank whatever you are serving. If not for one thing, you would have been a dead person by now. Get your properties ready. You are living my house today.”

“Thank you sir.” Nnenna murmured.

“Get out of my face. You should thank your creator, not me.”

He turned and faced his wife. “Linda, do you know that you are a fool. Why were you running? Nnenna was the person that committed the crime. So why did you run with her.”
His wife kept mute.

“Please leave my presence. Dress up and take that useless girl to wherever slump she came from.”

Nnenna was happy about the turn of events. She was happily arranging her clothes but Joyce laid on the bed weeping. Her tears could not allow Nnenna to concentrate on what she was doing.

“Joyce this weeping is getting out of hand. You have to stop,” Nnenna pleaded with her.

“I cannot stop. I want to leave this place. I can’t do this work. It’s either they allow me to go or they should kill me.” Joyce told her.

“Don’t allow oga to hear what you are saying. I will advise that you should be patient. God will see you through. Please try as much as you can to take care of Bob. He is a nice guy is just that he is a victim of circumstance.”

“Nnenna, let me tell you the truth. I cannot do that work. His mother should be prepared to do it.”

“Madam is ever ready to do it. But it’s like they warned oga that anybody that does that does that work can never touch the food he eats. That is why he doesn’t allow madam to clean the wound. Bob himself cannot do it too. If he tries removing one by himself, the maggots comes back in thousands. You know that this is a spiritual issue.”

“Nnenna, I am not ready to lose my womb. I will rather die. So that work is what I am expected to do. You want me to be doing that every day. How do you expect me to eat food after doing that thing? Never! I will not do it,” Joyce vowed.

“I know that it is not easy. But if you start it, you will get used to it.”

“I have told you that I cannot do it. Don’t bother yourself, preaching to me,” Joyce told her.

After packing her load, Nnenna bade Joyce farewell in tears before entering her madam’s car. She had already made arrangement to stay with one of her friends.

As they were moving, Mrs. Smith was in tears. Nnenna could not understand why she was crying. She continued weeping to the point that Nnenna could not endure anymore.

“Ma, what is the problem?” Nnenna asked.

Instead of answering Nnenna’s question, she increased the tempo of the cry. Nnenna had to beg her to pull over the car to avoid colliding with another car. She obeyed and parked the car, but she kept weeping.

“Ma, please stop crying. What is the issue?”

” Nnenna you have gotten your freedom, when will my own freedom come?”

“It’s okay ma God will help you. You don’t deserve what you are going through.”

“Nnenna is a lie. I deserve everything I’m passing through and even more. I am even afraid to seek God’s mercy because I feel that I don’t deserve the mercy of God.”

“Ma please don’t say that. You didn’t do wrong by getting married. It is just that you married the wrong person. No woman is supposed to be maltreated by her husband.”

Mrs. Smith smiled bitterly, “Nnenna, you don’t understand me. I know what I am saying. I opened my eyes and walked into fire. My worst regret is my son. Ah! my kind hearted son.”

She started weeping again .Nnenna tried to console her.

“Nnenna, my son is reaping the fruit of my iniquity. I don’t know who to run to, for help. My friend told me that I will suffer. She told me that I will die a painful and slow death. I thought that it was a joke. Look at me today, I am dying slowly. Smith is killing me.”

“Who is this your friend? Why would she lay such a curse on you,” Nnenna asked out of curiosity.

“Her name is Olaedo. She is Mr. Smith’s first wife.”

“Are you trying to tell me that you snatched……” Fear could not allow Nnenna to complete the sentence.

“Yes. I betrayed my friend. Olaedo was my childhood friend. She loved and trusted me but I betrayed her. This was how it started……