How I Discovered The Child My Wife Said Was Mine Isn’t

In a chat with a PUNCH correspondent, a Dublin based businessman, Ehiosu, narrates how he discovered the child his ex-wife said was his isn’t.

He met his now ex-wife during a visit to Nigeria early in 2008,

The 41-year-old said, “It was not long after I settled in Dublin. I just decided that it would be good if I could settle down and allow my wife to handle my business in Nigeria till she would come and join me here. I came down to Nigeria and I met my wife and we got married almost immediately.

“We had tried to have a child for about two years. Between that 2008, when we did a hurried traditional marriage, and 2010, I was constantly in Nigeria almost every two months to ensure she conceive and also because of my business.

“We tried as much as we could. For more than a year, there was nothing. But she later conceived in late 2010. I am an educated person so I knew some things about conception.

“When she told me, I tried to double-check by calculating the time of our last sexual contact and the number of weeks she said she was pregnant. It correlated and I praised God that I would soon become a father.”

But did he already have a suspicion for him to double-check? Ehiosu said no. According to him, he only did the cross-checking out of excitement and just because he wanted to be sure.

In 2011, Ehiosu’s wife put to bed.

Soon, he travelled back to Nigeria for the pomp and ceremony that came with the christening of his son, spending many weeks afterwards just to be with the newborn baby.

He said even after that, his visits to Nigeria became more frequent.

“My wife is Yoruba while I am Edo. There was no indication that she was getting any ‘action’ behind the scene. She did not come across as a sex-starved young woman, who could not hold herself for a few weeks before my next visit to Nigeria. I took great care of her and the baby and lavished them with gifts,” he said.

His family developed in love. He felt great because he had become a father. Or so he thought.

Fast-forward to 2015, things started heading downhill.

With his baritone voice, which he said was one of the features that his ex-wife fell in love with, Ehiosu said, “I noticed that as the child grew up, I was increasingly becoming a stranger. I called him ‘mummy’s boy’ because anytime I carried him, he was always crying. That was initially. But later, I started becoming concerned because almost every time I held him, he would scream and kick.

“It kept bothering me because it happened every single time. I was forced to ask my mother what could be wrong and she said, ‘Not to worry; the boy would get used to you as he grows’.

“How would I have a son I could not hold? When I had to tell my mother again that the problem still persisted, she sat me down and asked if I was sure I was the father. You can’t imagine how angry I was. She did not exactly support the marriage in the first place. She only grudgingly let go when I told her I was old enough to make my own decisions.”

But the seed of doubt had been sown in Ehiosu’s heart.

He explained that he did not ask his then wife any question nor did he confront her with any question but simply told her that he needed to take his son for a DNA test which the young woman did not argue against.

The DNA test was conducted in Lagos in March 2014.

“My brother, I have heard and read this many times but did not imagine this could happen to me. My son – the boy I loved so much and lavished with gifts, that I could even swear resembled me – was not mine. Do you know how that feels?

“I felt like my wife had crushed my legs with a car and laughed in my face. Betrayal did not even come close to what I felt. I never imagined it in my wildest dream.”

The marriage never survived it.

Ehiosu said all he told the young woman, whom he has now divorced, was to take the child to the rightful owner.

“I don’t think she even knew that the child was not mine. She begged and sent her family to beg me also and they did.

“What I did not understand was why anybody would think I could remain in that marriage? She admitted she was afraid that if she did not give me a child soon then, I would send her packing because we had already been married for almost two years without her getting pregnant. That was why she decided to try it with someone else.”

 

Images Credit: Corbis Images