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When she started shouting "I will stab you to death and throw your useless body away," my uncle only thought it to be her usual empty threats.

I was with their two kids (two years old girl and seven months old boy), trying to stop them from seeing the abominable act that went on in the sitting room.

They were both crying and struggling to go meet with their parents, but I held them back. I told them everything I could to make them stop crying, but they wouldn't.

I was pleading with the children to stop crying, at the same time pleading with their parents to stop fighting, but I was obviously talking to myself because none of them listened to me. The house was overheated with arguments and wails.

I usually did not let the kids see their parents in this kind of situation. I always made sure they were in the room whenever the fight started, but this particular day, I had stepped out of the house to get something. On getting home, I met the children on the couch, crying while their parents were fighting.

This wasn't the first time of my uncle and his wife, fighting. In fact, it was a normal thing for them, though I noticed that their own fight was different from the kind of couple's fight in which the husband usually beats up his wife. Here, it was the direct opposite.

While my uncle begged his wife to stop harassing him in front of me and the children, the wife was busy pushing, hitting and slapping him. She was a fat and tall woman while my uncle was very slim, so she didn't find any difficulty in doing to him whatever that pleased her.

There was a time she injured my uncle with her sharp nails and teeth. She had also poured him dirty water one morning when he had dressed to step out. Not to mention the day she used a big plank on him. My uncle had gotten several bruises from his wife, but he refused to retaliate.

The day she gripped his clothes and he pushed her hands away after begging her to let him go without succeeding, she ran into the kitchen and came back with a container of grinded pepper and emptied it on his face.

I wondered what exactly my uncle had done to her that warranted such harassment. When I asked him one day, he told me she said she was tired of the marriage because he lost his job.

She claimed he was an unfortunate man and that she wasn't ready to suffer with him. When he suggested that she should file for a divorce and let him be, she swore to make his life miserable before leaving him. We did not know exactly why she detested him so much.

When I suggested my uncle to file for the divorce, he told me he still loved her. He still wanted their marriage to work out, despite what he was going through. I got tired of advising him. I was only there to spend the holiday, but I didn't have a single peace of mind ever since I got to the house.

This particular day, I was very scared when she mentioned that she was going to stab my uncle. My uncle was still pleading with her to stop the fight. It was written all over his face that he was tired of the whole thing.

I succeeded in locking the children in the room. When I came out, I saw my uncle on the floor, in a pool of blood. She had successfully stabbed him deeply on his left lap. The most shocking thing was that after stabbing him, she was not scared at all.

"It serves you right, useless man. You should just die! Just die!" she said and left the house. I rushed to my uncle and helped him sit up. He was losing so much blood.

I was confused on what to do. I couldn't drive, neither was there anyone around who could. My uncle whispered that I should bring his phone.

When I got the phone, he told me his password and told me to dial the doctor's number. I scrolled till I saw the doctor's name and dialled his number. When he picked, I tried as much as I could to explain what happened.

Some minutes later, the doctor arrived. I guess he was a family doctor because he called my uncle by some nickname.

I noticed that the children had stopped wailing in the room. When the doctor started treating my uncle, I rushed to the room to check on them. I noticed that they had both fallen asleep.

I saw some traces of tears in their eyes. They had cried till they slept off. Tears gathered in my eyes as I touched the baby and realized he had developed a fever because his body temperature was very high.

To cut the long story short, my uncle's wife came back, packed her things and left without carrying any of the children. It really affected the baby because he hadn't stopped breastfeeding.

Months went by, she never returned. My uncle became the father and mother of his infant children. Just as his leg began to completely heal, we lost the baby.

It was very pathetic. The baby had fallen ill. This time, there was no improvement in his health, irrespective of the treatments the doctor gave.

My uncle had barely buried the baby when his wife came with some policemen and arrested him for killing the baby. My uncle tried explaining things to the policemen, but his wife had obviously bribed them.

I told my uncle's elder brother what had happened. With his help, my uncle was out of the police custody. We haven't set our eyes on the evil Jezebel since my uncle came out.

Currently, my uncle is in search of a job while I'm taking care of his little daughter. Things aren't really going well with him, but I trust everything will be fine very soon.

I decided to drop this story on behalf of my uncle to let the world know that it isn't only women who suffer domestic violence. Men do too. What some men go through in the hands of women is inexplicable. Some have even lost their lives in the process.

From Ima Udott:

Hello readers, please if you want to comment or make a suggestion, do well to check and cross-check your diction. Any comment that looks insulting or harsh will not be welcomed.

To the men: Please if you're a victim of any kind of harassment, heartbroken or traumatized by your opposite sex or even same sex and you have been keeping quiet all these while, now is the time to speak up.

Drop your story on my message box and I won't hesitate posting it for you. You need not fear, your identity will be hidden.

#SayNoToDomesticViolence
#SpeakUp
#TheOtherGender
#YourFavouriteStoryTeller✍️