She wants my wife dead!

The atmosphere was tense. Silence enveloped the living room. Herbert did not know what to tell his wife. Agnes stared at him with a cell phone dangling in her hand.

“Please I don’t understand the meaning of this text message. Did you kill her husband?” she finally asked.

Herbert did not believe Daniella carried out her threat. How would he explain to Agnes that he didn’t have a hand in John’s death? How would he make his wife realise he was pushed into this illicit relationship that was about to shatter his life into pieces?

Daniella was his secretary/personal assistant and she had worked with him for over 11 years. He knew her before he met Agnes. Daniella was working as a clerk in his friend’s non-profit organisation. When his friend relocated abroad, he asked Herbert to employ her and he agreed because she was a polite and hardworking girl.

Initially, there was no romance– it was just boss/subordinate relationship. After two years, Herbert got a contract which changed the fortune of his company. He employed more hands and appointed Daniella as his personal assistant. Gradually, the duo became very close and a relationship ensued. But there was a snag– Daniella was dating John, a young man she met while growing up in the village.

By the time he graduated and got a job, he asked for her hand in marriage. She almost refused him because of Herbert but her father threatened to disown her if she did not marry his late friend’s son. She married him but her heart was with Herbert.

Ironically, Herbert encouraged her to marry John with a promise that he would not dump her for any woman. He kept his word and still dated her even as a married woman! She also lapped up the love. John was just a figurehead husband, who her father wanted. They had three boys and John never had an inkling his wife was sleeping with her boss. He kept telling everyone that his wife had the best boss in the world. Why wouldn’t he anyway? Daniella was getting thrice her husband’s income and she could afford many luxuries including choice cars and houses.

She called the shots in the office and all the best accounts and clients came through the connections she made over the years. Herbert could not call it quits either because he was afraid to lose her contacts, which brought fortunes to his company.

After five years, he decided to get married to Agnes, a young graduate. Agnes was introduced to him by his brother. When he told Daniella about her, she disagreed with him. To her, a wife in his life would cause a friction in their relationship. He assured her of his love. He said he needed a woman to act as his wife, just as John was her husband.

He married Agnes and they had two children. For the five years they were married, Agnes never knew what was happening between her husband and his personal assistant, who her husband eulogised as the hand behind the fortunes of the company.

All went well until John became ill.    He was diagnosed of cancer of the blood. It was a trying time for Daniella, who felt her husband’s illness kept her more at home instead of the office. They travelled abroad for medical treatment but the doctors said John had six months to live.

Six months? It was a piece of bittersweet news to her. First, she felt bad because John was a nice man and had helped in raising their three boys. He was a perfect father. On the other hand, she was glad because this meant having more time to be with Herbert.

But John died three months after. Maybe he could have lived longer if he didn’t see what he saw. A week before his death, he caught his wife and her boss making love in their matrimonial bed! Herbert had visited them but a nurse was attending to John in another room. The nurse came to inform them that he had slept and the duo quickly seized that opportunity to have sex. He came to ask his wife for his pajamas when he saw them. He refused taking his drugs and sacked the nurse. He was said to have poisoned himself and died a week after.

Now, a widow, she wanted Herbert to herself. Her calculation was simple: Herbert should poison Agnes after which they would both get married. Herbert was shocked at his lover’s meanness and scolded her. Agnes was the mother of his children and he would never do such.

“If my husband died because he saw us together, nothing stops me from killing your wife too,” she told him. Daniella threatened Herbert with everything but he never bulged.

So, she sent a text message to Agnes. Her story was short: Herbert was her lover, he fathered her three children, killed her husband and wanted to kill his wife too. They planned getting married after Agnes’s death!

As Herbert returned from work, his wife showed him the message and he was lost for words. How would he tell his wife all that happened? Even if Daniella had told a lie to his wife, how would he sieve the truth from it?