His Only Wife Quotes
"Elikem married me in absentia; he did not come to our wedding."
"It wasn’t easy being the key to other people’s happiness, their victory, and their vindication."
"You make everything sound so simple. I barely know the man."
"I couldn’t have been sweating that much; I wasn’t nervous, not then anyway."
"I sighed heavily, not caring that she was standing so close that I was exhaling into her face."
"We have seen a beautiful flower in this house, a bright and fragrant flower that we have come to pluck."
"You are not a child so stop talking like a child. This is not one of those telenovelas you and Mawusi have been watching."
"It’s like any normal stove, Afinɔ, you only have to wipe it clean."
"What kind of person was I for even second-guessing Aunty, for thinking that anything she planned could go badly for me?"
"Despite the smoke, the air in the kitchen was thick with the aroma of spices and herbs that tickled my nose."
"I can’t just sit around waiting for him."
"We are not ingrates and we are not foolish people."
"If you don’t believe me you can go and ask any married woman you know."
"I knew she would tell me to stop complaining and be grateful, so I soldiered on."
"We both had the same gap in our front teeth."
"You have wiped away my tears, you have removed my shame."
"I knew that he was capable of much more."
"This battle would be fought in the spiritual realm."
"The last thing I expected was a marriage proposal."
"I had been in awe of him; after all, he was Aunty’s son."
"These soft carpets could get a person in trouble."
"If only it was that easy to quell the turmoil within me."
"All you can do is find a way of cleaning it."
"She had thrown a fit when Eli tried to reason with her."
"The final straw was when the woman ejected Yaya from their hotel suite."
"I’m leaving her, I’ve had enough. I’m leaving her."
"She refused to wear any of the three suits of kaba that Eli had asked Sister Lizzie to sew for her."
"I stood up and smoothed my dress over my hips."
"My hand was so damp with sweat that it slipped off the round doorknob when I tried to turn it."
"I breathed a soft sigh of relief and stepped aside to let him in."
"I wished my mother had been there to hear him, and Aunty as well."
"But where did I have to go? My life consisted of going to school and coming home."
"I realized then that I was a married woman, who since her wedding day more than two months ago, had only seen her husband, who lived fifteen minutes away, once."
"She has started following Eli around town in her car and has paid people to spy on him."
"You can still find a salon and wash it first thing tomorrow morning."
"I knew the exact time because I was sitting and staring at the analog clock on my phone when the doorbell rang."
"It was past midnight when she dropped me off at King’s Court."
"I felt my facial muscles relax when I heard 'rice,' and skipped several unfamiliar dishes."
"I feared that anything I said would reveal my ignorance of the matters they were discussing."
"The familiar whir of the sewing machines became louder as we weaved through the tables."
"I had been praying about almost nothing but this since the day she told me that I would be marrying Eli."
"I wanted to put my arms around him and tell him that it was okay."
"I held my breath, gripped the door handle, and prayed that I arrived at work with the Camry intact."
"I don’t even know how I made it through the rest of that day."
"But last night I had bitten Eli on his shoulder. Bitten him!"
"I’m fine but my here is hurting," I said, stroking the air above my stomach and crotch.
"I'm so sorry. I should have brought you breakfast in bed. I’m so sorry."
"You can’t expect your mother to do everything when she comes."
"I’m not giving birth to this baby while living in this flat."
"Afi, please understand, this is not easy for me either," he said.
"I love you," I whispered, as though the words were fragile.
"It’s only for a short while, until I figure things out."
"You don’t understand," he said in a pleading tone.
"Eli, I love you, please don’t leave me," my tears were blurring my vision.
"I had a good time with Emefa and Vimbai," I said. We were in bed.
"I’m mad for wanting to live with my husband?"
"I am not going back. If Eli wants me to come back, he should come for me."
"I will not put food on the table; it won’t hold you at night."
"I cannot keep living like this. I cannot."
"I wasn’t going to stand for this kind of treatment. This was my house, and it was my duty to take care of my husband."
"You wanted to live in this house and I brought you in. You could have been patient like I told you to, but you refused."
"How many husbands would have done what he did?"
"I’m sorry about what happened, about Ho. It’s just that I became... I was very upset, I was very emotional. I’m very sorry, darling."
"You can’t just foist your children on people like this. Send them back. Today."
"She’s in one of their other houses, you know they own houses all around Accra."
"Ahn hahn. So that’s why he came for me? Why he’s so angry?"
"I will see what I can do, but you have to go home."
"Why are you asking? Is something the matter?"
"It worked for me, she said, when I protested the amount of butter she used."
"Look at where you were two years ago, and where you are now. You’ve come so far."
"You must be insane if you think I’m going to redecorate this house because of you."
"You have to remember that. And what he’s proposing is not ideal and it’s not common like before, but people still do it."
"You can’t be serious, Afi. Because of this?"
"Darling, I can do anything for you, but not that. She’s my family too, I can’t leave her. Just like I would never leave you."
"Because you want to marry her? You want to marry her when your mother dies."
"Was there ever, ever a moment in this marriage when you thought of me as the only one, when you wanted only me?"
"I love you and I love the life we have together. I don’t want to lose this, to lose you."
"You love us both so you will marry us both, because you’re special and deserve to have everything you want."
"Don’t say my name. And don’t you dare call our marriage an arrangement. We don’t have an arrangement, I’m your wife!"
"You should at least take responsibility for that."
"He begged me to reconsider but I refused. It was either the woman or me; he couldn’t have both of us."
"Just be honest with me. Will you marry me or not? Just for once, Eli, tell me the truth."
"I never lied to you. I never told you I was going to leave her. Never."
"I want more than that. I want him to be mine only. Is that too much to ask?"
"You have to be tough, Afi. Make sure your name is on every document, make sure Selorm’s name is on every document, so that tomorrow if something happens to Eli, you will get what you are entitled to."
"Think about that before saying that you are divorcing him and allowing that woman to come back into this house."
"It takes strength to walk away from someone you love. You were brave to say that you didn’t want to be miserable, to have your heart break every time he walks out the door."
"I still wish that he had been at our wedding, that he, instead of Richard, had given me the ring and the Bible, that he had married me, that he’d wanted me to be his wife, his only wife."