The Oath and The Horn

Episode 8: My mother, blinded by a monthly allowance, chose silence over my pain. As long as the money kept flowing money to take care for my younger siblings, she doesn't care at all, she has refused to call or even hear my cries. Every night, my aunt’s husband would slip into my room as usual, steal my body, and vanish before morning. And just like a rehearsed performance, everyone in that house would act like nothing happened. He’d show up at my school, take me to hotels, and pretend it was love. Somewhere along the line, I started to confuse trauma for affection. I hated myself for it… but I do not have the courage to confront him about raping me and taking away my first child. Before I could gather my thought, I discovered I was pregnant again, this time I was already 18years. And he told me to drop out of school, claiming it was unsafe to continue with the pregnancy, fed me sweet lies, promising we’d escape abroad, just the two of us once the baby arrived. Now he keeps calling, urging me to return home. He swears things would be different this time he says 'I'll let you go back to school, it won't be like the first time. "That one was your fault" he said. My instincts screamed at me to run, to disappear but no I did not. Instead I got a new phone, a new SIM, recharged it and went home… And the moment I stepped into their house, the locked me in again just like the first time. No contact with the outside world. No freedom. No communication. I never knew what it was to be a virgin. But deep down, I’m convinced it was him. He was the one who defiled me because I haven't been with a man before. Few days after I arrived, my aunt coldly asked how much it would cost for me to carry her baby. I said ₦3 million. She agreed she'd deposit ₦1 million, another ₦1 million at seven months, and the final balance on the day I deliver. She said she’d pay my mother her “share.” I refused. And told her "unless she will be the surrogate”. For a moment I thought I was outsmarting them, going out whenever I could. Until one day, someone in the neighborhood noticed the changes on my body and told my aunt to check that I could be pregnant. That was the end of my freedom. Of recent, her husband hasn't been sneaking into my room. I begged my aunt to get someone else to arrange someone outside so that my delivery would be smooth. But she just smiled and said, “Don’t worry, our daddy will take care of it.” To her, it was simple, his sperm, her egg, no outsider is allowed. She said, “Every three days, he’ll come to your room.” And before I could react, she brought out a cow horn and made us all swear an oath. Then, as if I were nothing more than livestock, she demanded I sell her my first daughter "Miracle". "You don’t even know who her father is,” she said. And I replied that’s exactly why I want to keep her. After endless back-and-forth, I agreed and said she should pay ₦25 million. She was like 'ehn 25 wetin' and said she would be offering ₦6 million in total, ₦2 million right away and would spread the rest for the next two years To be continued....