Tunde And Ajoke

Tunde fetched water for Ajoke, scrubbed her mother's floors, and wore himself thin doing chores that should have been her own, and every morning Principal Kola chewed him out for lateness. Friends warned he was spoiling her, Ajoke's mother warned him, but Tunde believed his patience would win her heart. Ajoke saw only a brother in that faithful face, so when Chris, a wealthy Lagos engineer, rolled into the village with promises of status, she let Tunde's proposal fall flat. In Wealth Or Heart, that rejection flattened Tunde until Ayo forced him to see he was being used, and Ajoke's mother came by to apologize a little too late. He took a teaching job in Ibadan, fell into step with Lilian, an education ministry official, and their love grew into a wedding and a school they ran together. Chris's marriage to Ajoke glittered at first, but blocked fallopian tubes turned her into a disappointment in his eyes. He grew cold, then cruel, called her a deceiver, and beat her while she swallowed the pain in silence. When she crossed paths with her old school friend Lilian, the shock landed hard: Lilian's husband was Tunde. Ajoke slipped to Tunde's house when Lilian was away, begged forgiveness, tried to light up old romance, and met a wall of calm refusal as Tunde said he loved his wife. He caught the bruises on her arm, heard her sob about Chris, and told her to report the abuse and leave before Lilian came home. She did neither; she ran to Lilian with a battered-wife story, and Lilian opened her door wide. The dinner meant to corner Chris turned violent with words. Chris denied every mark, called Ajoke a liar, stormed out, sold the home, and walked away from the marriage for good. Lilian saw the manipulation at last, threw Ajoke into the night, and the crying woman's pleas for another chance brought no one running. Tunde and Lilian, expecting their first child, held each other and let the past stay dead.