Marriage Roommate

Chioma, a former bank marketer, lives in Lagos with her husband Chidi, a creative director, and their two daughters. Chidi mocks her affirmations, enforces a meal timetable, and wants her career set aside. Their marriage is a cold roommate arrangement in which he comes and goes. When Chidi brings his colleague Deola to the house, he orders Chioma to cook, serve, and buy wine. On that errand, Chioma meets John, an electronics dealer who helps her get a phone and urges her into real estate. Chidi calls her a prostitute and threatens a DNA test. One night their daughter Claire burns with fever, and Chidi ignores his phone, so Chioma calls John. John takes them to the hospital, and Chidi walks in to see him. In the confrontation, Deola appears as John's wife, and Chidi's affair is exposed. Chidi screams that Chioma is his property, but she packs the children and leaves while he sleeps. Chidi wakes to an empty house and goes to the compound of Chioma's brother, Chukwudi, demanding his family because he paid the bride price. Chukwudi berates him for arrogance and orders him off, and at work, Chidi cannot reach Chioma for weeks. She meets him transformed, with her own place and a real estate business. She says she is not ready to go home, maybe in a month or a year, and asks him to prove he has changed. He pleads, but she holds her ground. Then Chioma admires her reflection in a mirror, confident in the woman she has become outside her marriage.