DESPERATE FOR

LOVE
[Document subtitle]

Kiyem Gilead
 Chapter One
At exactly 6.30 am on Monday morning, on
the 4 of July 2008, Cynthia came into the world.
th

She’s the fourth girl child born into the family of

Mr. and Mrs. Obi Mathew. The husband,
Cynthia’s father, continued to love, cherish and
care for all his family members. But his wife,
Cynthia’s mother, was exactly the opposite of her
husband. She showed no attention to her even to
the point that she poorly breastfeeds Cynthia
properly. She was tired of having girls and decided
within her to continue giving birth until she gives
birth to a boy.
One Sunday morning, she decided to make
known her decision to her husband. Entering the
bedroom, she saw her husband lying on the fifteen
inches bed covered with deep blue mattress. The
window was exactly adjacent to the bed facing the
twenty four inches television, and well hidden
behind the light blue curtain. He was actually
reading the daily newspaper from his phone

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(Techno Spark 5) which was the latest phone at
that time.
Touching him, she said “Dear, I really think
that with a male child, the family name and lineage
will continue.”
The husband already knew where the conversation
was heading to as this was not the first time she
was bringing up the issue of having a male child.
The last time she brought it up, he was able to
escape the conversation ‘cause one of his employees
called him.
“Please don’t bring it up this beautiful morning.”
“Just hear me out”, she said, “I have decided to
keep giving birth until a male child is born”.
Angrily he said “What! Are you out of your senses,
do you mean that even if it means 50 children, you
will give birth to them just in the quest of a male
child. You are talking 1balderdash, woman.

Balderdash means nonsense

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Anyway, just keep in mind that you will be
pregnant for me one last time. And if it is not a
boy, then don’t know what you’ll do about it.
2
‘Kpachara Anya gi o!’”
The woman noticing her husband’s anger said
“Sorry, I was just telling you my decision. I won’t
bother you again.” And with that she left the
bedroom.
Mr. Obi is very rich and so he takes care of
his family financially. Because his business is full-
time he is not always around for his family and so
the children are constantly with their mom who
doesn’t care about them.
Out of all the girls, Confidence hates Cynthia
the most. This is because when she was pregnant
for Cynthia, anything she does goes bad. It was also
during that time, her best friend Sophie died. She
was constantly at the hospital. She also had to give

Kpachara anya gi o: An Igbo slang meaning mind your own business or

mind yourself.
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birth through operation, this was unlike her
previous pregnancies.
One can imagine the joy Mrs. Obi felt when she
found out that she was three months pregnant, one
Saturday afternoon. She went to different prayer
houses, thanksgiving in churches. And what was
her sole aim of doing all this? A male child. When
she went to the laboratory for scan, she was told it
is a male child. During the pregnancy, she was
very lazy. She touched no work in the house. Her
husband David, kept reminding and warning her
that by walking up and down, she’s stressing the
life of the little unborn baby. Paying no heed to the
instruction, she continued to doing what she has
been warned not to do. This often resulted in
quarrels between the husband and the wife, and if
not checked, anger on the little and innocent girls.
After much warnings and persuasions, Mrs.
Confidence succumbed3. As the last born of the
house, Cynthia did not feel happy about the
situation in the house. She could remember vividly
3

Succumbed means to agree to something after much persuasion.

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some nights when her parents quarreled and used
abusive words on themselves, and how she felt.
Some sleepless nights she and her parents had in
their separate rooms.
As seconds turned into minutes, minutes into
hours, hours into days, days into weeks, the
creature in her stomach continued to grow.
She knew it was time to head back home, and the
baby knew too, as it decided to jump up and down
in her stomach. Six hours later after she’d returned,
she felt her first contraction.
She rang her husband immediately.
‘I just had a contraction,’ she said succinctly, it’s
way too early.’
‘Your pregnancy is almost thirty weeks old,’ her
husband said, trying to be and sound calm.’ ‘I
don’t think it’s too early for a baby. You’ll be fine,
love. I’m on my way home. If the contraction
speeds up, you should get yourself to hospital.
Please, don’t drive. Call a taxi.

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‘Ah…’Confidence could already feel the grip of a
new contraction starting already. She could also
feel a trickle of fluid down her legs.
‘Honey?’ He lost any pretense of calm. ‘Are you
okay?’
‘I think my waters broke’, she said.
‘Hold on, my dear one’, he said,’ I’m calling an
ambulance right away.
‘Alright hurry up’.
‘I’m on my way with an ambulance’.

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 Chapter 2
This was the beginning, the pangs of distress
began, she was shouting and panting and looking
for breath.
The nurse voice was heard, ‘a 36 year old pregnant
woman.’
Mr. Obi sat outside on the bench silently praying
for his wife to safely deliver. As he sat there, he so
focused, in trying to look through the window to
look if he can see and understand what is going on
inside the theatre. Then the door of the doctor’s
office. With a look of joy, he turned to the doctor.
But instead of seeing the doctor’s radiating with
happiness, it was the exact opposite. Walking as if
to say counting his steps, with his face facing
down, he slowly and carefully removed his
facemask. Mr. Obi braced himself for the worst.
“Your wife gave birth to a bouncing baby girl, but
sadly she died few minutes after delivery.” The
doctor said.

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“What! Doctor do not tell me that rubbish. If you
know you love your life, resurrect her life back for
me now. Oh God! What is this? Why should this
be happening to me?”
“Please take heart”, the doctor said patting his
shoulder.

And he woke up, someone was actually patting his

shoulder. And it was the doctor.
The