21/06/2026
My Mother-in-law Locked My Womb
Episode 1
The day I married Chidi, I thought I was the luckiest girl in the world. Chidi is a good man, he loves me, respects me, and works hard. But you see his mother, Mama Chidi? She is a fire that nobody can quench.
Two weeks after our wedding, Mama Chidi came to our house in Lagos unannounced. She did not even pack a small bag, she came with a big box, meaning she was here to stay. That very night, while Chidi was at work, she called me into the living room.
"Ebere" she said looking at my stomach with sharp eyes. "You are welcome to our family but a marriage without a child is like a house without a roof. We don't waste time in our family"
I smiled nervously. "Mama, we just got married two weeks ago"
She hissed. "Shut up! What do you young girls know?Tomorrow morning, we are going somewhere to secure your womb so that children will rush into your belly like water and don't inform your husband"
The next morning, before the sun could even wake up, Mama dragged me into a car. We drove for two hours until we entered a small village, w stopped in front of a mud house with red cloth tied to the tree outside. My heart started beating fast, i wanted to run back regretting not telling anyone about this outing with my mother-in-law but Mama held my hand tight.
Inside the house, an old man with white hair and native chalk on his face was sitting on the floor. He didn't even ask my name, he just looked at me and laughed a scary laugh.
"She is a fertile ground" the herbalist said. "But we must lock the ground first so that only the seeds we want will grow."
He brought out a small black clay pot with a padlock inside it, he poured some bitter herbs into a cup and commanded me to drink it. Out of fear and respect for my husband's mother, I drank that bitter water, it burnt my throat and tasted like weird. Then the herbalist took the padlock, locked it with a key and whispered some words into the pot.
Mama Chidi smiled and paid the man. "Now your womb is safe" she told me on the way home.
That was five years ago.
For five years! Chidi and I have been crying. No pregnancy, nothing!. Chidi has spent millions of Naira in big hospitals, the doctors keep saying nothing is wrong with me or my husband. Every month my period comes and Mama Chidi will call me on the phone shouting, calling me a barren woman a witch that ate her own children. She forgot that she was the one who took me to that place.
Yesterday, Chidi went to work, I was crying in the bedroom when the phone rang, it was a strange number. When I picked it up, a weak voice spoke.
"Is this Ebere? Please... come to the village. The herbalist is dying in the hospital, he says he needs to unlock what he locked five years ago or you will never carry a child."
My heart stopped. My mother-in-law did not protect my womb... she locked it and the key is about to disappear forever.
To be continued…
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