Room For Loyalty

Distressed at home, Chioma prays and mutters before asking her husband Frank to shelter her sister Oby, who has fled a turbulent marriage. Frank refuses outright, insisting his house is not a refugee camp, but Chioma's soft-spoken persistence, along with the intimate way she tends to him that night, wears down his resistance. Dazzled by the modern house when she arrives from the village, Oby receives a tutorial in city manners and household rules from her sister. That arrangement, a fragile bargain in 'Room For Loyalty', cracks when Sonia, Frank's best friend, lets herself in and treats Chioma as hired help, criticizing her cooking and ordering her around, until Oby urges Chioma to resist. Taking Oby's advice, Chioma pulls five hundred thousand naira from her secret savings and hands it to her sister to start a business, a defiance Frank reads as theft. The quarrel simmers until Frank spends an evening at Sonia's place, and a jealous Chioma locks him out of the house entirely. The shouting match that follows ends with a reconciliation and a promise that Sonia will no longer set foot in their home. Just as the household settles, Oby's husband Chinedu phones Frank, accusing him of harboring a runaway wife and threatening his life. Fear for his own safety overrides any brotherly feeling; Frank orders Oby to leave at once. Oby packs her things without a scene, telling Chioma that she came to fight for her and will return whenever she is needed. To make amends, Frank cooks a meal for Chioma and declares she is the best woman in his life, offering her anything she desires. About to answer, Chioma is interrupted by her phone: Oby's son Chukwudi, cheerful and unaware, announces he wants to come for the holidays. Hardening at the thought, Frank's face reveals that his home has become a way station for his wife's relatives, and the idea of another guest brings him no joy.