The next day, as early as 7 am, Dr Ken had reported to the estate. He came in his rickety saloon car with his medical equipment and drugs loaded in it. He packed one side and came to meet the attendant at the estate gate to be confirmed and given a permit card to go in. Most of the estates where rich families reside are gated. Visitors must clear themselves first before they are allowed to go in, for security reasons. It is a Sunday and several families are going to the church, so the estate street is quite busy with more people driving out than in. Dr. Ken is facing a bit of a challenge, the guard manning the estate gate cannot get across to Neche to confirm and give permission for him to enter. He has been waiting at the gate for close to an hour now. The guard had been dialing Neche’s line and it had been ringing, but he hadn’t answered. Neche is still in bed and fast asleep, owing to the stress that he went through last night. At 3 am, he was still asleep watching over his wife, even though he had been dozing for a long time. As nature cannot be cheated, he was snatched away by sleep. The gate attendant keeps dialing his line. Two hours are gone now and everyone is beginning to get bothered. “You sure say your Oga and im wife still dey alive?”, the guard asks Dr. Ken in pidgin English. “God forbid”, Dr. Ken rebukes the guard. “What do you mean, if he is still alive? Of course, he is alive. Yesterday was their wedding and they must be very tired. That could be the reason. Keep dialing”, Dr. Ken tells him.

He dialed again and it was picked. “I will be like say, I dob pick”, said the Guard to Dr. Ken. “I told you ” Dr. Ken replied him. It was Obiageli who was with the phone, Neche was still asleep. She swiftly woke him up and handed the phone to him after explaining who was calling. Neche confirms Dr. Ken and approval is given for him to come in. He drives in and in a matter of a few minutes, he gets to Neche’s house. Dr. Ken is taken to the guest room where he will stay and do his job. A few minutes later, Neche calls him out to the sitting room; he comes without wasting time. Obiageli sits close to his husband, while Ken sits on the cushion directly opposite them.

“Doctor, it’s good you are here early'”, Neche starts narrating their last night’s ordeal. “You can’t imagine what we went through last night. My wife fainted again and even passed on. She would have been gone if not for that God intervened. This……”, Obiageli pinches him hard, a sign for him to stop talking. Dr. Ken is inquisitive and wants to hear more. But Neche is not speaking further, instead, he changes the topic thanking him for his services so far. Ken is such a smart young man, he catches the game and never bothers them again. He had wanted to hear the full details as that would help him in planning the right medication for Obiageli. But as it is, there is nothing he can do, he just has to comply. He is only a worker and will work according to the directives given to him. Ken is beginning to look at Obiageli with a double eye. He thinks that she is already wielding excess power and control over her husband, which to him is not good enough. “Why is she controlling him like that? This nice man has brought fire upon himself in the name of wife”, Ken says in his heart.
Ken begins to lecture the couple on the dos and don’ts when a pregnant woman is placed under bed rest. Neche thinks that the lecture is apparently to prepare them ahead since he isn’t aware his wife is already double.

“Bed Rest is prescribed to limit physical activity during pregnancy when the pregnancy is threatened with abortion”, Dr. Ken tells them. He continues, ” It can last a few weeks or even months. It may be at home or in the hospital. Your doctor may put you on partial bed rest or full bed rest. Partial bed rest usually means it’s okay to sit, stand, or walk around for short periods. It is sometimes called modified bed rest.

Full bed rest usually means you need to lie down most of the day except when you go to the bathroom or take a bath or shower. But every woman and every pregnancy is different. So the amount of activity you can do will depend on your doctor’s recommendations”, he teaches them. He is about to continue when Obiageli interrupts, saying she needs to ease herself, and demands Neche to accompany her. They stayed longer than expected. When Dr. Ken could no longer wait, he retired to his room. While in the bathroom, Ken told Obiageli how uncomfortable he felt when he heard Dr. Ken spoke as if she was already pregnant. He said that made him doubt if he is a competent doctor as people think about him. “Is your prayer that I won’t conceive early? Why do you always behave as if you are not expecting us to be pregnant in time? For your information, what we did last night is enough to make me pregnant, because I was already ovulating” said Obiageli to Neche, who laughed himself out. “Keep laughing, I have told you”, she told him. She said it’s likely Dr. Ken is in the spirit and prophesying about her pregnancy already. Neche does not want any problem, so he just accepts for peace to reign. Also, further argument would mean putting his wife under unnecessary stress. That he doesn’t want. Obiageli is capitalizing on the ignorance of Neche about women’s reproductive health to brainwash him. Neche isn’t a woman type at all. Since his life, he has engaged in only one affair, the second one is with Obiageli. A boy-girl friendship is not on his agenda one bit, he devoted most of his time to his business, the remaining to church activities.

The morning Mass is over and people are coming to look for Neche in his family house. They did not know that he no longer stays there and Neche didn’t tell anyone either, except his nuclear family members. People are concerned about them after what happened the previous day. Also, they were supposed to go for Thanksgiving during the Morning Mass which is the common practice by most newly wedded couples. Saturday is for the wedding, and the next day Sunday is for Thanksgiving. But due to what happened on the wedding day, the thanksgiving was canceled. Part of the reason the people are coming is also to know the new date for Thanksgiving. Neche’s mother and her remaining children are around. Every one of them came to the wedding. They are busy assisting their mother in attending to visitors. After informing the visitors that Neche no longer lives in the family house, they start leaving one after another. Neche’s mother assured the visitors that they would be duly informed about the new news at Thanksgiving.

The following day, Monday, by the time Obiageli woke up, Neche was nowhere in sight. He has gone to his shop, and his wife is not finding it funny at all. But food, snacks, and drinks had been delivered for Obiageli by an online kitchen as ordered by him. “This is the very reason I never wanted to marry him. Business, business, business, no time for his wife. We are supposed to be enjoying our honeymoon, but as usual, he is nowhere”, Obiageli lamented. Neche does not joke with his business. He is among the early birds to report to the shops, even though he is a boss of himself. He would leave the house around 5 am to attend Morning Mass in the Church close to his business area, and from there, he would proceed to the shop. He did that every day. That is to show the level of seriousness that he puts in his business and he has been reaping the rewards as his business keeps increasing. Obiageli does not like this kind of life, he wants a man who’ll give her time. It was because of this that he loved Richard. Richard indeed has the time, and he gives it out lavishly to Obiageli. But the more he abandoned his business to satisfy Obiageli, the more his business collapsed. It continued that way until nothing was left in his shop. He started surviving by collecting goods on credit and paying them back after selling them.

Obiageli does not know that those who are rich make costly sacrifices to be who they are, and her husband might not be wrong in his ways. He only needs to adjust himself to start spending a little more time with her, not to close the shop to keep her company.

Dr. Ken is also awake, he comes to the sitting room to greet everyone, but only Obiageli is around. “Good morning madam”, he greets her. Obiageli appears to be lost in thought. Dr. Ken greets her again, shouting this time. She feels alarmed and responds suddenly. ” It is my husband again, this is the second day after our wedding and he has started going to the shop already, not caring about the honeymoon”, Obiageli reported in anger. Dr. Ken tries his best to calm her down and also promises to talk to Neche when he returns home. He continues, “But madam, you need to take things easy now. Your condition doesn’t need stress at all. You don’t need your husband’s presence that much because you are meant to be on bed rest. Your assignment is to bathe, eat, and go back to bed. No intimate relationship with your husband”, he tells Obiageli who mopes, without uttering further words.

Dr. Ken checks her blood pressure. “It is going up but still within normal range. Blood pressure isn’t supposed to be high during pregnancy. If that happens, it is called preeclampsia and is among the leading causes of maternal mortality. Women who have preeclampsia are not allowed to push during delivery. They are in delicate condition and the only way to save their lives is through a CS. So, you must avoid anything that would get you too excited, stressed, and worn out, to enjoy a healthy pregnancy”, advised Dr. Ken. It is an interesting learning session for Obiageli and she is enjoying every aspect of the discussion. They both ate part of the food ordered by Neche; Obiageli lays on her bed after taking her bath; Dr. Ken also moved in to relax in his room.

Neche returned after 8 pm. He opens the door and comes in. Straight to their living room, Obiageli was asleep already, but since she was not a deep sleeper, she woke up immediately. “Forgive me, my love. It’s the traffic. Do you know I left the shop around 4?”, please pardon me. He brought her a lot of edibles including suya, fruit juice, cucumber, and banana. Obiageli for the first time is calm and not creating a scene. Dr. Ken had spoken some sense into her. Neche comes closer and kisses her. “I love you baby”, says Obiageli to her husband, smiling. Both come to the sitting room, with Neche holding her waist. Dr. Ken is invited to be with them. Obiageli happily shared the good learning sessions that Dr. Ken put her through while her husband was away. Neche was impressed as he thanked Dr. Ken exceedingly. Obiageli gave part of the things her husband bought to Dr. Ken who took them to his room, bidding them goodnight.

The next day, before Neche would go out, Dr. Ken approached him and told him the need to bring someone who would be around to assist his wife while he was in the shop. He said, “Your wife needs more of your love, care, and affection to pull through this difficult period. Most importantly, there should be someone around to assist her since she is still on bed rest and not allowed to perform any strenuous tasks. That person will also be the one to call to alert you in case of any emergency”. Neche bought the advice 100 percent and made up his mind to bring in a house help later.