The DNA TEST episode 1&2

?* *The DNA Test!*

Sonia Okehie

Episode 1 & 2

Few years back, Belinda was heavily pregnant for the love of her life 'Ace'. The expectant couple were extremely happy and had a smile on their faces every single time they counted down to the delivery date of their little angel. During the course of Belinda's pregnancy, Ace didn't let her touch a pin; talk more of letting her do domestic household chores. The expectant mummy-to-be was pampered beyond what you could ever imagine and she effortlessly glowed through her pregnancy.

Despite the fact that Ace was a busy business man, he never compromised family time. He made sure to visit the hospital with his expectant wife whenever he could, he made sure to return home on time to rub her back or feet, he made sure to bath her every night even when she had the strength to bath herself, and he made sure to be the best husband he could be to his wife.

Life looked very beautiful for the two love birds that one could blush at the thought of how beautiful their new born would be. The future looked extremely promising for them but it's sad that things took a drastic turn somewhere along the line.

Turns out that long before Belinda got married nor pregnant, she had always been afraid of giving birth in the hospital for some reasons unknown. This lady dreaded hospitals and told her husband a couple of times that she would love to have her baby at home, but he laughed and waived the topic whenever she brought it up. Ace felt it was part of the pregnancy Fever and didn't take his wife's words seriously at that point.

If only Ace knew that God was trying to communicate with him through Belinda, maybe he would have listened and honoured his wife's desire of birthing their child at home with a midwife and doctor present. He had the money to pull such power and make his wife's wish come true but felt she was just making up weird things in her head due to the baby in her tummy. God saw a catastrophe ahead and tried to protect these lovely couple but they weren't attentive enough to catch God's signals. Too bad!

Life continued as nothing was heard or communicated and as Belinda's delivery date drew nearer, her fear worsened. She searched her heart over again to get even the slightest clue of why she kept having cold feet about delivering her baby in the hospital but no clarity was in sight. With Belinda's mother being a good support system, the elderly woman encouraged her daughter to be fearless and was always there to boost her faith whenever it was wavering. After a little while, the fear gradually disappeared and was no where to be found. it's too sad that they succeeded in shutting a voice that tried to prevent them from a future disaster. If only they knew? Too bad they didn't.

Finally, the highly anticipated day came. On the day Belinda's water broke, Ace was out of town and couldn't make it to his wife's delivery. The only closest person to Belinda at that moment was their house helper, gate man and driver. They all carried her inside the car and the driver zoomed off to the hospital she was scheduled to give birth in.

Immediately they left the house to the hospital, the house help called Belinda's mother and told her about the new development. Without letting the lady finish passing the information across, Belinda's mum hanged the call and immediately headed to the hospital to be there for her daughter.

Everything happened so fast that day and before the driver even reached the hospital, labour pains began. As they arrived at the hospital, Belinda was rushed to the labour room and after a little while, she gave birth to a bouncing baby boy but something unfortunate happened that day.

It happened that immediately Belinda gave birth, she became very tired and dozed off without consciously looking at her baby very well to at least know his face. At that time, her mum was still on her way to the hospital and hadn't arrived yet. It happened that the nurses in charged of the delivery took the baby out of the room to clean him up, but they forgot to tag him for easy identification.

After the nurses were done cleaning the baby, one of them laid him on a large baby court that contained 3 other babies. The 3 babies there were tagged on their hands expect Belinda's child. Everything happened so fast and before the nurses could tag the child, another baby boy without a tag was immediately brought in for cleaning too.

The babies looked almost the same that it was a bit difficult to differentiate them without a tag. After they were done cleaning the new baby that arrived, Belinda's mum arrived at the hospital and immediately requested to see her grandchild. Belinda was still asleep at the time and wasn't aware of what was happening. Due to the swift manner at which her mum demanded to see her grandchild, the nurse who just came in assumed that the baby that currently underwent cleaning belonged to Belinda, so she carried that one to meet the excited granny. The fact that it was a boy and there wasn't a tag on the baby's wrist, made it convincing that he belonged to Belinda; as it was apparent to the nurse that the birth just happened a few minutes ago. If only they all knew that the right baby was still lying on the baby's court at the cleaning room. Quite unfortunate!

As the nurse made a majestic entrance to Belinda's hospital room with a wrong baby, another nurse was making a majestic entrance to another woman's hospital room with Belinda's son. What a heartbreaking and careless situation. At that point, there was nothing anyone could do to reverse the mistake because no one was aware of the error that had happened.

Immediately the nurse entered the room, Belinda regained consciousness and her baby boy was handed over to her. Smiles filled everyone's face as they looked at the little bundle of joy staring them in the face. He was so peaceful to behold and it sent chills down Belinda's spine.

The happy mother looked at her switched baby boy with a smile on her face and gently said; "Welcome to the World my Prince".

Episode 2

Mistakes are common and are mostly unavoidable but that doesn't make them less harmful or destructive. Some mistakes have the ability to cause a lifetime damage to victims that encounter it and in the case of Belinda, it looked as though she was headed towards that direction. One sad and painful thing about Belinda's situation was the fact that it wasn't her fault and she had no hand in the unfortunate fate that had befallen her. Like how was she supposed to know that her baby had been switched with that of someone else? How was she supposed to know that the nurses she entrusted her delivery to were careless and not observant? How was the poor lady supposed to know that she would give birth on a day her husband and mother would be out of sight? How was she supposed to know all these things? Too bad!

A day that seemed like a great and beautiful one for the new mum; a day that marked a new dawn in the life of the young couple was actually the beginning of their down fall and future heart aches. It was only going to take a matter of time before the devil raises it's ugly horns. It was only just a matter of time before the happiness that once dwelt in their home vanishes and turns into sadness. At this point, the clock had already began to tick.

The birth of the couple's bouncing baby boy called for a glamorous celebration. People from both far and near came to share in their joy. There was enough to eat and drink and there was certainly enough to spare. For one whole week, the jubilation carried on Day and Night.

Ace went out of his way to make the ceremony one of a kind and a celebration to remember. As a happy and excited new dad, he made sure to give his son a befitting 'Welcome Ceremony' to planet earth. If only he knew that the joy and excitement was going to be short lived.

While Ace was head-over-heels excited for the birth of his son, Belinda on the other hand couldn't be separated from her son even for a minute. Day and night, the happy mum stared at her new born baby and couldn't get enough of him. The new mum couldn't come to terms that she was now a guardian and protector of a full live human being. It's such a beautiful feeling that can't really be explained until experienced first hand. Life seemed as though it was falling in pleasant places for the young couple.

"Baby Baby! You deserve a push present for such a job well done. Thank you for doing me the privilege of carrying my son and first seed, I will cherish you all the days of my life, my darling!" Ace happily said one cool evening. Those words were like honey to Belinda's ears and she blushed as she listened attentively to every word her husband said. After he was done praising his wife, a wide smile filled her face. "Baby, you are just too sweet. Remember that I wasn't the only one that made our baby; you also played a big role and deserve some credit too" Belinda calmly said as she breast fed her son. They both complimented each other as they enjoyed a wonderful evening as a complete family of three.

A week later after the birth of the young couple's son 'Junior', the jubilation and celebration ceased and everyone returned back to their various lives. Belinda was on maternity leave and couldn't resume her business for a while because she had to nurse her son. While on the other hand, Ace had to go back to work as soon as he could.

Despite the fact that Ace had work activities to tend to on a daily basis, he never compromised family time. No matter how hectic or demanding his work was, he still made out time to be there for his wife and child.

Gifts showering became a norm in their home; as Ace always returned from work each day with a new gift or present. Belinda was always in awe of her husband and kept thanking God each day for blessing her with such a man like him. While Ace and Belinda were living their best lives with another person's baby, their own biological son was in the arms of a woman named 'Rita'.

Rita was a single mother in her late 30's who got pregnant from a one night stand experience. The lady wasn't a ideal role model for a child to grow up around because she lived a reckless and unadmirable lifestyle. Rita didn't live the 'glitz and glamour' kind of life Belinda lived because she wasn't too buoyant and well to-do. Matter of fact, she struggled all through her life and never had a break to rest. She was a cleaner for a rich family but always sold her body for money every now and then. You see why she wasn't a good role model for a child to be around? It was quite unfortunate that this was the lady Belinda's son was going to live and grow up with for a long time. Quite sad!

The new arrival of Rita's switched son was such an experience that could have changed her life for good but it sadly didn't. The new mum was equally excited to welcome her son to the world and didn't hold back in calling a small get-together party of just herself and some few friends. She named her baby 'David'; which I think was one good things she actually did right for once in her life. The name was one that depicts Strength, Power & Might, which showed that he was destined for greatness.

The arrival of David in the life of Rita mounted additional pressure on her to have multiple streams of income. The new mum hustled harder than before just to make sure that she met up with the demand that came with being a mother. More men patronised her body because her cleaning job couldn't foot all the bills.

It wasn't even up to two months after the arrival of Rita's son and she went back to sleeping with men for money. Her body hadn't healed fully as at then, but that didn't stop the new mum from trading it for cash.

While Rita's biological son was living lavish with both parents, Belinda's biological son was living in penury at a slump with an indecent mother. What a Sad Fate!

Despite the fact that a drastic mistake and incident such as that had happened, life still moved on regardless because no one knew what had happened; not even a single soul was aware of the switch.
Days turned to weeks and weeks to months and both kids had clocked one year old. Junior's first birthday party was to die for while David's birthday party was to cry for. While Junior celebrated his birthday in a lavish style, David celebrated his in a pauper style. While there was enough to eat and drink during Junior's birthday, there wasn't enough snacks to go round during David's birthday. While Junior blew off candles from his numerous cakes during his birthday, David blew off candles from a flat plate that contained few candies and chewing gums. While Junior's parents sang him beautiful birthday songs, David's mother kept hushing him whenever he cried due to the discomfort he was feeling from the dirty and crowded environment his birthday was held.

Can you just pause for a minute and imagine how devastating and heartbroken you would feel if your child was switched with another person's own? How half dead you would feel to know that your own flesh and blood is getting less than they deserve somewhere, while you are giving your all and all to another person's flesh and blood? It's a different case if you are aware, but a total different one if you aren't aware. Believe me when I say no one on earth wouldn't feel devastated if mistakenly found in such a situation as this. Poor Belinda!

As time went by, the boys grew up too. They both turned out to be smart and handsome; despite the fact that they received different treatments. At 5 years of age, they were very smart and that made their switched parents proud.

Despite the fact that Rita couldn't give David the best things of life, she tried her best to make sure he was doing fine at least. He went to a public school but yet did outstandingly in his academics.

The manner at which David turned out to be a promising child gradually made Rita to change form her wayward ways and become a responsible woman. She started cutting off ties with her numerous lovers and focused more on her work as a cleaner. Life wasn't too fair to them unlike Ace that provided his son with top-notch education standard and privileges. He made sure Junior had the best education as a 5 year old and was ever ready to spend more to ensure that his son got the very best.

However, things began to go south after some years. It turns out that Belinda and Ace had been trying to have another child but it wasn't just happening. They kept trying to give Junior a sibling but all to no avail. After Junior clocked 6 years old without a sibling yet, they couple began to get worried gradually.

To Ace, everything wasn't just adding up because he saw no reason why his wife couldn't birth another child after birthing the first one. He carried that uncertainty in his heart for a long time but never talk about it. They kept trying and trying to have another baby but was always disappointed every month whenever Belinda saw her menstrual flow.

After several years of trying, the couple decided to be contented with what they had till God decides to bless them with another baby. Everything went on smoothly till one fateful day.

On that day, Ace's colleagues at the office where discussing about 'DNA Test' and how important it was for a man to know if he is truly the father of his kids. "Guy, I must do DNA Test for all my children because these women are not to be trusted" One of his colleagues voiced out, "Me too, I second the notion because evil things are just happening these days" another colleague said.

As they conversed, Ace listened attentively from a distance and nodded his head in disbelief as his colleagues discussed the DNA issue. After about few minutes of being mute, he chipped in from afar; "How can you do a DNA Test solely for the reason of finding out if your child is yours? That simply means you don't trust the woman you said your vows to and that is disheartening" he said.

Immediately Ace said that, his colleagues jumped at him and gave him multiple reasons why a DNA Test was going to be a compulsory thing for them to conduct on all their future kids. On seeing that their opposing opinions were strong, he gently redrew from the conversation and stopped trying to prove a point; but it was already too late because a seed of doubt had already been sown in his heart.

All through that day, Ace kept thinking of the word 'DNA Test'. He tried to waived it off because he knew for sure that his wife would never cheat on him nor bring a false child to his home and deceive him into believing that the child was his. No Way!

But you know what they say about the devil being the most deceptive creature that ever liveth? The devil knows how to make a person nurture a thought and then bloom it. The devil already knew that Ace's colleagues had succeeded in planting a thought in his mind so the best thing that could be done by the devil was to magnify that thought.

It got to a point where Ace couldn't successfully come online on social media without seeing a post or an article that talked about DNA Test. It felt like the whole universe was in sync with passing the information across to him. Every post or article he saw magnified the thought and made him more vulnerable to actually conducting the test. He tried to fight it but just couldn't and finally succumbed one fateful day.

On that day, Ace arrived at the office and walked straight to the office of those his colleagues that were discussing about 'DNA Test' the other day. He was fortunate enough to meet one of them and after exchanging greetings and pleasantries, Ace took a deep breath and shamefully said; "Bro, I want to conduct a DNA test for Junior, do you have any link outside town because my wife must never know about it". Immediately he was done talking, his colleague burst out in laughter and shouted; "Boss, so even you?". Ace smiled fainted and nodded 'Yes' afterwards.

After laughing for over a minute, his colleague smiled faintly, looked at him and said; "Count me in, I will help you right away!".

TBC