ADSactly Short Stories - Let Nothing Put Asunder

Let Nothing Put Asunder

"What God has joined together, let no man put asunder," Reverend gentlemen like to say at weddings. They often forget to add, "nothing" in the equation because more often than not, it is little things that put asunder, whatever that word means. You would probably not hear about it anywhere else except in weddings and wedding literature.

Mr and Mrs Justin Laja were married a few years. Justin worked in a commercial bank while the wife was a lawyer in a law firm. Their three children were growing up so fast, and they both hardly spent enough time with them. Knowing the importance of communication, Justin made it a point to ensure each child had a cell phone with which he could communicate with them since he and his wife often had to work long hours.

When the children were younger, the couple elicited the help of nanny and or babysitter to take care of the children so as they could focus on their work. And that is why when the opportunity presented itself to ship them off to boarding school; they did not hesitate to do so.

However, it was not the children that Justin was worried about recently. It was his wife. Right, he left home early morning by four to enable him to beat the traffic on his way to work. The wife Mrs Beauty has her firm in a not-so-far-away from where they lived at the time so she could afford to leave later.

Justin often closed work by 6 pm, but he could not leave the job at that time and be able to make it home in less than three hours due to traffic. 6 pm represented a rush hour because most offices closed at that time and traffic was always heavy. That means he will be stuck in traffic for close to two or three hours depending on the condition of things.

He realised that leaving around 9 pm would ease the stress of having to sit in the car for three hours because, by that time, the road will be a little freer. While he sat in the office, he often made efforts to catch up on the lives of his family. He was often frustrated that his wife was hardly available when he needed her.

Most nights he will come home tired, and this is not exclusive to him but also his wife. But this is not the crux of the matter as even Beauty, his wife, in a sense enjoyed that situation because of the kind of person she was.

Recently, her husband noticed she was being very secretive and was known to give her husband little details of her activities unless the husband pries. And when he did, he often became frustrated.

He was worried that his wife could be confiding on some other person other than him. Suddenly it seemed to him that they were merely two people sharing an apartment.

As time passed, both grew in rank and got promotions in their respective companies. While Justin kept being open to his wife with regards to his salary and other matters, his wife continued being reticent.

Little did the husband know that she earned like three-time his salary, but she declared very meagre amount and hardly took responsibility for anything domestic. She ensured that her husband paid for upkeep, even collected money from the husband to do the most basic things.

Justin loved his wife and took pleasure in caring for her in any way he could.

Recently, Beauty got transferred to the same part of the city where her husband worked, and the stress of commuting to and fro through heavy traffic was starting to tell on her. Justin realised that they would have to move to that part of town but the rent was so expensive, it could make him broke for a whole year. However, he decided that it was worth the cost since they would be living close to work.

One day Justin came back from work earlier than usual because he was not feeling well. He was in the bath when her wife came back. Beauty did not know that he had returned. Her phone rang, and from what Justin heard, she was discussing with a real estate agent. The real estate agent wanted to know if the house would be due for rent as he wanted to know before contacting some clients that were looking for accommodation. The wife replied that it had been a week since she consulted the engineer doing the finishing touches on the building.

Beauty, after that, placed a call to the someone else and was clarified about the status of the house in question.

Justin was intrigued by the calls and the mention of an agent and a building engineer in the conversation. What more, the house in question was in a location close to work.

He did not know about the wife's business with any building project at work, and these things aroused his curiosity.

He came out of the bath, and the wife was surprised he was already back, but since the Justin did not mention anything about her phone conversations, she thought perhaps he heard nothing.

Mr Laja did not waste time to steal the last two number off his wife’s phone. He reverse-searched the numbers and found the names of the owners. He placed a call later to the real estate agent and asked if there was any new house available for rent with emphasis on the word new. The agent answered in the affirmative. Justin booked an appointment with the agent, saw the house and they agreed on the price.

He requested and received the account details for payment. He got the account number of his wife, and he was almost knocked down by surprise even though he had suspected as much.

He decided to pay the agent by postdated check which would be payable in three days time.

He has to do something fast even though their present rent had not expired. He told his wife he had gotten a better accommodation close to work and that there was no need to wait until their current lease expired. He hired movers and moved their properties to the new home, and the wife was shocked that it was her house.

She asked, "Darling have you paid for the house already?" He replied yes but that he reversed the instruction to his bank to pay when he found out that the good Lord had blessed them with a house through his wife.

She pleaded with the husband saying that it was not that she planned to keep him in the dark forever about the house but she intended to make money from the rent for at least one year before letting him know since their rent was still running in their current accommodation.

What would you do if you were Justin?