“He would always remind me that if I went against him, if I exposed anything, he would end the marriage.”
Her voice dropped even further.
“And he would take the children with him.”
Okon’s expression changed.
That part landed heavily.
“I didn’t know what to do,” Chida said. “I kept thinking maybe I could fix things quietly. Maybe it would get better.”
She shook her head slowly.
“But it never did.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“And the more time passed, the worse everything became.”
Okon said nothing.
“I knew what was happening to Mother was wrong,” she continued, her voice filled with pain. “I knew it every single day.”
She pressed her lips together.
“But I was already trapped.”
A long silence followed.
Then she spoke again, her voice barely above a whisper.
“I could not tell you because I knew you would confront him.”
She looked directly at Okon now.
“And if you did, it would have destroyed everything.”
Okon’s eyes did not leave hers.
“My marriage. My children’s home,” she said. “Everything would have fallen apart.”
Her shoulders dropped.
“So I kept quiet. Even when I shouldn’t have.”
Tears streamed down her face without restraint.
“It is all my fault,” she said.
Okon’s expression shifted slightly.
“I saw what was happening,” she continued. “I knew it was wrong, but I stayed.”
Her voice broke completely.
“I was too afraid to walk away from a man who was slowly destroying my family.”
The words hung heavily in the air.
For a long moment, neither of them spoke.
Okon leaned back slowly, taking everything in.
The anger that had filled him earlier was no longer as sharp. Now it was mixed with something deeper.
Understanding.
Pain.
