Help! I’m having an affair with my boss’ husband and he wants me as second wife

By Adaeze Amos
Kate graduated in Sociology from one of the universities in the Eastern part of the country, Nigeria, but did her National Youth Service in a small company in Lagos. However, the company did not employ her after the one year scheme. “More so, the Managing Director of the company was a woman, who transferred her matrimonial problems to the office,” says Kate. “She always looked for who in the office would bear the brunt of what her husband did to her. I was always the victim. At times, she used to find it difficult to respond to simple greetings and she was fond of sacking her members of staff over slight provocations. So, I was not really keen on working in any company where a woman was at the helm of affairs.”
So, while Kate was seeking employment, she got her curriculum vitae ready and made copies, which she was always carrying about in her handbag. She recalls, “There was a day I went to visit a course mate, who was managing one of the filling stations in Lagos. Her office was in a mini mart, which was within the premises of the station. As I was telling my friend my predicament and how I had suffered looking for a job, a woman, who walked in there to buy some items in the mart, overheard what I was telling Gloria, and had pity on me. She gave me her business card and asked me to come and see her in her office the following day.”
Kate was happy when the lady left. But then, she prayed that the woman would not be like her former boss. “Whenever she had a misunderstanding with her husband, everybody would be jittery,” she says of the woman. “You will never do anything to satisfy her. She would complain about everything. I hope this one will behave differently.”
By 7.30am the following day, Kate was already in the woman’s office. “I didn’t want anything to rob me of that opportunity. Meanwhile, the man in my life said we won’t do anything serious about getting married until I got a job. So, such an opportunity meant a whole lot to me,” Kate adds.
After a while, Kate was given a written test and oral interview, which she dealt with very well. The officials of the company promised to get back to her. After some weeks, Kate got a letter from the company asking her to assume duty the following week. “I was happy, but my mother was happier,” she says. “She had been asking me after Jeremiah, when he would start doing something about our planned marriage. I have always told her what he said, that he would wait until I got a job. Now that I have a job, he would have no excuse again.”
Four days after Kate’s resumption, she got the shocker of her life. “I saw Jeremiah, the man I had been dating, as the chairman of the company. The woman who employed me (the Managing Director) was his wife, but I didn’t know. Jeremiah and I passed through the same university, but he graduated two years ahead of me and came to Lagos. That was what made us to lose contact. When I graduated and was posted to Lagos, I met Jeremiah again at the orientation camp. He was looking chubby and well-dressed. Without being told, you would know that he was comfortable –– the make of his car, the way he dressed and all that. He came with a friend to see a lady in the camp. I got into his car, and we discussed at length. He asked after my mother because Mama used to like him. We then scheduled a meeting for the following weekend.”
Kate didn’t ask him whether he was married. “I just believed he wasn’t married. I didn’t ask him and he never mentioned it. We went out to a house he said he was residing. We chatted, ate together, and the fire of love between us was rekindled. I stayed there for some days before I left. He promised that, as soon as I got a job, he would come and see my parents and have the traditional wedding rites done. I wrote my mother and told her how I met Jeremiah and what he said to me.”
So, as Kate looked for a job, Jeremiah came to be of tremendous help to her. “He paid for a flat for me in Ejigbo, a suburb of Lagos, and furnished it. This made me to be happy. He would give me feeding allowance and pocket money. But what he never did was to pass the night in my apartment. He would come mainly on weekends, stay for a long time and leave when it was late. He was always saying that his job schedule was hectic. Whenever I asked him to sleep over, he would wave it off, saying he wouldn’t want my neighbours to think. I was wayward, and that, being the chairman of a company, he could attend meetings with his subordinates at anytime. I agreed with him. I never doubted him because, while we were together on campus, Jeremiah always told the truth.”
But when Kate assumed duty in the company, she was shocked at what she saw. “Four days after my resumption, I took a file to my boss, whom I’m supposed to be a personal assistant to. I just tapped on her door and walked in. I saw a man bent over and was kissing her. They were so engulfed in what they were doing that they didn’t hear the tap on the door and they didn’t notice I was standing before them. I saw a birthday card on her table and I presumed the man brought the card. But I didn’t see when he walked in. Maybe he walked in through another door leading to the office that I had not known since I just started work four days earlier. I gently dropped the file on the table and walked out.”
After a few minutes, Kate came back because her boss needed to sign a document in the file. She tapped on the door, and there was no response. She then opened the door and still met them necking. “I believed that they were madly in love. I wondered who would have the guts to hold my boss in her office without giving a damn if any one would walk in, if not her husband. I smiled and coughed a little for them to know someone was around. When the man raised his face, I was shocked at the face I saw.”

Kate and Jeremiah were campus sweethearts. Jeremiah however graduated two years ahead of Kate and came to Lagos to seek greener pastures. As fate would have it, he met Antonia, whom he married because of her father‘s wealth. Kate wasn‘t aware of this until she came to Lagos for her National Youth Service. They met again during this period. Now, Jeremiah wants to make her his second wife WHEN Kate got a job, her mother‘s joy knew no bounds because joblessness had been an obstacle to her daughter‘s marriage. ”When I got home and showed Mama my appointment letter, the first thing she said was that Jeremiah would have no excuse for delaying our marriage again,” said Kate. ”My mother remembered how he (Jeremiah) had insisted that he would not see the elders in my village and pay my bride price until I found a job.”

Kate was dedicated to her job. Her boss, a woman, was a simple person, cheerful and hard-working. ”She seemed easy to satisfy as long as you do your work diligently,” Kate recalled. ”On the fourth day after my resumption, I had a file with me. Inside the file was a document she needed to sign for work to commence on that file. I tapped gently on her door and walked in. A man was holding my boss very closely and was whispering something to her that I couldn‘t hear.”
Kate didn‘t want to disturb them. She took the file back to her office and waited for a few minutes. ”When I returned a few minutes later, they were still necking and because I knew that some clients were waiting to receive the document, I had to cough and tap on the table to gain their attention.”
Antonia, Kate‘s boss, turned and saw Kate standing with a file. ”Oh! Sorry, dear. How long have you been standing? Today is my birthday and my husband is here to give me his warm regards,” she said, giggling.
This made Kate to look at the man that was holding her boss, and she exclaimed, ”Holy Moses! Jeremiah what are you doing here?”
”Kate, what brought you here?”
Antonia was surprised to see that her husband knew her personal assistant without an introduction. ”Do you know her, darling?” she asks her husband.
”Yes, honey. I met her at the NYSC camp when I went with Leo to see his fiancée,” Jeremiah responded, trying to pretend as if nothing existed between him and Kate.
”It‘s a small world. Kate is the new member of staff I told you about and, from what I have seen of her, she is smart and careful,” she said, looking at Kate. ”The man standing before you is my husband and the chairman of this company. I‘m his wife and the Managing Director.”
This shocked Kate, sending jitters down her spine. Both stood in awe and were dumbfounded until Antonia broke the silence. ”What‘s the problem with both of you? Kate, greet your boss.”
Kate snapped out of her reverie and stretched out her right hand for a handshake. Her palm was moist with cold sweat. ”Jeremiah played along with me and shook me as if there was nothing between us. He noticed the sweat on my palm and knew what caused it. When we were together on campus, he knew that whenever I was nervous, my palms would be moist and cold. He released my hand and took the file from me.”
Kate then returned to her office. She couldn‘t believe what she had seen. She pinched herself to know whether she was dreaming. She said, ”I realised it was real. I saw Jeremiah flesh and blood and he is my boss‘ husband. When? How? Why?”
Those were the questions she couldn‘t answer. The intercom buzzed for Kate to come to the chairman‘s office for the file. ”I went at once to be sure that I wasn‘t dreaming,” she recalled.
When Kate opened the door, Jeremiah told her in a low tone that he would explain what happened later. ”Let‘s meet at the O‘Jez Restaurant, within the National Stadium, Surulere and talk. Please don‘t fail to come. I will wait for you there by eight this evening. You close at seven. By eight, try and be there.”
Kate took the file and when she got to the threshold, she saw Antonia. ”I almost forgot to return the file to you. I will be going out for lunch, please make sure you are around to attend to the clients. I will be back in three hours’ time,” she said to Kate who at that time was trying to hold back tears.
At eight that evening, Kate was at the O‘Jez. She saw Jeremiah‘s car and knew he was already there waiting. ”When I walked in, I saw him sitting very close to the bar. Without asking me what I would drink, he ordered my favourite drink. I wanted to reject it, but I needed to have a full discussion with him. I had a lot of things to ask him.”
They sat looking at each other, eyeball-to-eyeball. Jeremiah was short of words. He didn‘t know where to begin from. It was Kate who first spoke. ”I never knew you could lie to me, Jerry,” said Kate. ”My mother and I trusted you. Where did you learn to tell lies? On campus you were the most honest guy I ever met. How did you change within a few years? When did you marry her? Why didn‘t you tell me you were married when I saw you at the camp?”
”Wait, Kate, I will answer you one after the other,” Jeremiah cut in.
”You never asked me if I was married when we met at the camp. I married her because of her father‘s wealth and the companies, which she inherited when the old man died. We dated for three months and when I heard her mother saying that I would be the chairman of all the companies the man left for her daughter because she never had a male child, I had to marry her without looking back. But I still love you. Don‘t tell your mother what you saw today. The news will make the poor woman to break down.”
Kate looked at him and started crying. ”No wonder you refused to sleep in my apartment and you lied that my neighbours would paint me black if you did,” she said, wiping away tears.
”Take my handkerchief, please don‘t cry.”
Kate threw the handkerchief; back at him and scolded him: ”I hate you, Jerry. I so hate you now.”
”Look into my eyes and tell me that,” he said.
When Kate looked at him, the words that came out of her mouth were the opposite of what she said earlier. ”Oh heavens, I still love you Jerry,” Kate said. ”How am I going to cope with this? That the man I love and wish to marry is my boss‘ husband? How will I tell my mother this?”
”Don‘t tell her. We will work something out, okay?”
They stayed for two hours before leaving the restaurant.
From that moment, Kate started seeing Antonia, not only as her boss, but as a rival. She was cold to her and the woman noticed it. ”What happened to you, Kate? For some days, you have not been yourself. What happened?”
”Nothing, Ma,” she lied. ”All is well, ma,” she hissed.
During the break, Antonia asked Kate to follow her to lunch. ”My boss is nice and very caring. She hates to see me sad. That was why she asked me to come eat out with her.”
“Antonia purposely asked her driver to stay in the office. She was the one that drove to the restaurant, the same restaurant where Jeremiah waited for her the other night in Surulere. As she walked to the table Jeremiah and I sat that evening, I chose another table. She didn‘t know why. She followed me.”
The bar attendants all knew her. They all greeted her. ”She was still worried about me even after they had served us lunch,” Kate said.
”Can I guess what is disturbing you? Is it a man? Is it your boyfriend?”
Kate was surprised the way she guessed right. She nodded, ”Yes, Ma. You are right.”
”There is somebody in his life and that is why you are worried?”
”Yes, Ma,” she responds.
But poor Antonia did not know she was the woman in question. ”Don‘t allow the presence of a woman in your man‘s life to spoil your day. Be happy, but don‘t you ever leave your man for that woman. Stand on your right and take what belongs to you. I‘m advising you from experience. I left my fiancé because I realised he was dating another girl. When I stopped the relationship, I nearly regretted it. I would have if not that Jeremiah came in at that period and occupied the vacuum in my heart. So, my dear, don‘t leave your fiancé for another woman. Eat your food before it gets cold.”
Antonia had been a good boss to Kate. She gave her salary advance when she needed it and promised to give her a car loan.
”It pains me that Jeremiah is her husband,” said Kate. ”Jerry is insisting he would marry me secretly. He is saying that he still loves me and will always give me and my mother whatever we need as long as we keep the marriage a secret. He said when he was ready, that I would resign from the company and leave the city for another place so that Antonia would not smell a rat. But how is that possible?”