My Sweet Revenge on Richmond Howell

Octavia sat in front of her vanity, combing her lustrous, wavy blonde locks. She stopped for a while and stared at her reflection in the mirror, the blue eyes staring back at her harboring a mix of sadness and determination.

She had to do it today or she feared she might fall ill with the mental illness of chronic depression.

She looked at her expression again and the blue eyes, once filled with the light of love and happiness, now bore the weight of five years of turmoil in this thing she called marriage.

Octavia gently placed her hands on her stomach, where a new life was growing, lovingly rubbed her stomach and said, "No one has to know about you till I leave this prison, little one, that's my way of protecting you. I will birth you into a world filled with joy and love, not the hellhole I am about to say goodbye to."

She had been pregnant for weeks but kept the secret to herself. Richmond or his family did not deserve this good news because it was a lack of it for years, that made life unbearable for her in her husband's house.

Octavia remembered the early days of her marriage to Richmond, it was pure bliss. Richmond had been her best friend, lover, and confidant. They had been madly in love with each other and couldn't bear to be away from each other for hours.

But as the years flew by and Octavia was unable to conceive and give Richmond and his family the child they desperately wanted, he changed.

The once sweet man had changed into a demon who had exchanged his tongue for a sword as he said so many cruel and hurtful words to her about her inability to conceive that they cut deep within her.

Over the years, she had had many lonely, tearful nights and even days because his cold, cruel and bitter mother, Dame Betty, had not made things easier.

She always reminded Octavia of her failures as a woman and as a wife. Dame Betty always thought Octavia beneath her and always looked at her with disdain. It was soul-crushing.

Octavia had found out about the bundle of joy growing in her stomach about a month ago. She had been feeling feverish and nauseous so she went for a medical checkup to catch the flu before it became serious.

Pregnancy never crossed her mind for the short time she sat waiting for the result, she remembered the conversation.

"Hello, Mrs. Howell. The doctor will see you now." The nurse at the receptionist stand explained.

"Thank you, Theresa," Octavia responded after reading her name from her tag.

Octavia moved slowly into the office, still feeling funny.

The doctor looked at her, smiled and said, "Truly, you are a walking miracle, Mrs. Howell."

She laughed nervously, wondering what her doctor was going on about until he gave her an envelope and said, "Congratulations, Mrs. Howell."

Octavia's hand shook vigorously when she accepted the envelope from the doctor. She opened it and, while checking the content, looked up sharply with immense surprise at her doctor, who was smiling and said, "Yes, you're two weeks pregnant, ma'am."

"What?! How?!" she tried to remember because Richmond had not touched her in a very long time, and even when he did once in a blue moon, it was just quick, rough, and meaningless sex, and then he was off till the next blue moon.

That once-in-a-blue-moon sex happened last month.

Octavia didn't know whether to laugh, cry or scream, but the only response that came was, "Can you do me a favor, Doctor?"

"Sure, Ma'am."

"This news must not get out of this room. My husband is going through a lot now with work and all, so I will wait for my own good time to tell him," she lied.

"Oh, ma'am. Of course, you know that one of the reasons why our clients loyally patronize us is our commitment to confidentiality. We don't mingle in anybody's business unless they ask us to," the doctor assured her.

"Good, thank you, Dr. Michael." she shook his hand and left.

Octavia didn't want to go home for a while, so she booked a hotel room and when she got in, she cried for a long time.

She cried with ache in her heart for all that she had endured with her husband and his family, then she cried with joy for the new life within her, and that was the day she resolved to leave the miserable toxic life she was in, which was sucking life out of her.

She wanted to start life on a fresh slate with her unborn child, who she didn't want anywhere near the Howell family.

While still in the hotel room, she had called her friend, Marietta, who lived in Mexico, as she had not heard from her best friend, Sophia.

Marietta had often urged her to visit, offering a place of safety whenever Octavia recounted her ordeal to her. It was about time she made that visit, although it was a permanent one.

After the call with Marietta, she started carrying out the departure plan and carefully carried it out with the money she had secretly saved for years.

She retained the hotel room she booked and started buying the essentials she would need for her travel and immediately she got there. She didn't carry any items from the Howell house apart from her documents.

She wanted nothing to do, with any Howell property.

She bought the ticket to Mexico too and kept the items in the hotel rooms she booked because her mother-in-law had a maniacal habit of going through her stuff and to date, she had not told Octavia what she sought.

Octavia looked at herself in the mirror in her vanity, took a very deep breath and said, "It's time for a fresh start, Octavia. Are you ready?"

She donned a normal jogging outfit, pretending to go for a morning run.

Good thing Richmond was not at home, as he had traveled for a work conference but she left her departure letter in his home office, where she was sure he would find it.

Octavia jogged down the stairs as quietly as possible, pretending to be in the mood for exercise.

She got to the bottom stairs to see Dame Betty giving the house staff instructions for breakfast and any other business.

She had taken over this duty, deciding that Octavia had failed as a wife and therefore was not fit to run a household, and this decision she took loudly in front of most of the, if not all, the staff.

Dame Betty looked at Octavia and said, "You want to go for a jog? Good. I was wondering when you would stand up and do something meaningful with yourself since all you do is eat, go shopping and spend your money."

"You have no serious plan for your life, Octavia, but how could you? You've failed as a mother, a wife and even a woman, so what exactly are you good at?." She continued nonchalantly as if she were talking about the weather.

" Again, I say it is a good thing you are going for a jog because you have been getting unnecessarily chubby these past weeks and we all know it's not because you carry a child in that womb of yours. It's dried up and that's why my Richmond won't touch you affectionately."

Octavia gasped loudly at her harsh words, which had become her anthem.

She looked around because Dame Betty did not bother to be quiet. She saw the domestic staff, going about their business, pretending they had not heard anything when they had and had been hearing every single word.

One even dared to look at her and shake his head with pity for her.

She looked angrily at her mother-in-law and said "I have just about had it with your hateful, abusive words. You are just an old, bitter woman full of hate; if not, why exactly will you say such hateful words to someone else?"

Octavia saw her mother-in-law turn back to look at her with obvious surprise and she also heard a gasp or two from the staff who also heard what she said.

Octavia continued, "I, Octavia, am not a failed woman or wife. Maybe it's you and your family that need to be checked for failure tags. Excuse me, I am going for a jog this morning."

With that, she left stunned Dame Betty, who still stood at her spot, jogged a few miles and hailed a cab to the hotel.

Octavia's heart pounded with fear and determination but she couldn't let fear stop her now. She had to do this, especially for her unborn child. She placed her hands on her stomach to gain strength.

Hours later, Octavia sat aboard the airplane bound for Mexico, looking forward to a fresh start.

She thought about Marietta and her ever-smiling mother and knew that she would find a haven there. The Howells don't know about them.

Richmond would find her departure letter when he got back from the conference.

*****

Dame Betty, went up to Richmond's home office to find Octavia's departure letter. She dials her son immediately.

"Hi, Mom, how are you doing? Hope everything is fine back home?", Richmond asks from the other end of the line.

"Octavia has fled from the city", she responded with a smirk on her face.

"What?! Where did she go?"