Part 2
By sunrise, the whole village had changed the story. Asabe was no longer the foolish orphan who married a poor farmer; she was now a cunning woman who must have known Musa’s land was valuable. At the well, women lowered their voices when she came near. At the market, traders looked at her bundle before looking at her face. Zanib cornered her beside a basket of peppers and smiled with poison in her eyes. —So you saw gold under his dust before all of us, abi? Asabe held her ground, though her chest tightened. —I married him because I chose him. Zanib laughed so loudly that heads turned. —Then tell him to sell the land. If love is what you wanted, money should not offend you. Asabe had no answer, because she too did not understand why Musa had refused the offer with such calm certainty. When she returned to the hut, Musa was repairing a broken hoe. She told him what people were saying. He only nodded, as if he had expected the knife before it was thrown. —Truth does not need noise, he said. But Asabe’s patience broke. —Truth also should not leave a wife standing alone in shame. Musa looked at her then, and something in his eyes softened, but still he did not explain. That silence became another kind of hunger between them. That night, Asabe lay awake while Musa stared at the cracked roof, both of them breathing like strangers who had walked too far together to turn back easily. Before dawn, Musa fell ill. At first, he tried to hide it, but his fever burned under Asabe’s palm and his body shook when he attempted to stand. She ran through the village begging for help. Women shut doors. Men by the well laughed that Musa should sell his precious land now. Mama Lami refused even to lend a bicycle, saying Asabe had chosen poverty and must drink it with both hands. Desperate, Asabe went to Zanib, who folded her arms and asked what she would gain by helping. Asabe stared at her with tears trapped in her eyes. —Maybe your soul, she whispered. Zanib turned away. With no money, no transport, and no friend left, Asabe walked toward the city road under a cruel sun, stopping trucks, kneeling before drivers, promising repayment she could not prove. By late afternoon, she reached Kaduna exhausted, dusty, and nearly fainting. She entered the first grand building she saw, a glass tower with the name Arawa Agro Holdings shining above the entrance. Security guards pushed her back when she begged to speak to anyone who could help her sick husband. She sat by the roadside, defeated, until a black car slowed beside her. A well-dressed man lowered the window and studied her face. —Where are you from? —Kafinta. His expression sharpened. —Your husband’s name? Asabe hesitated before answering. —Musa Danladi. The man opened the door immediately. —Get in. If you want to save him, get in now. Inside the car, the man introduced himself as Ibrahim Bako and said he worked with Musa. Asabe frowned, thinking of the dry farm, the torn kaftan, the empty hut. Ibrahim’s voice dropped. —Your husband is not a poor farmer. He is the founder and CEO of Arawa Agro Holdings. The words struck her harder than hunger, harder than mockery, harder than Mama Lami’s slap. Musa had not been ruined by poverty. He had chosen it. The hut, the farm, the rejection, the suffering; all of it had been a test. Asabe’s hands went cold. Then Ibrahim said the cruelest part: Musa’s sickness was real, but he had refused to call for help because he was still afraid to reveal the truth. Asabe looked out the window as the car turned back toward Kafinta, and by the time the village came into view, her tears had dried into something more dangerous than anger.
No One Would Marry the Poor Farmer — Only a Poor Girl Said Yes, Unaware It Was a CEO’s Love Test