It’s always been said that when it comes to love, good guys never win. Years back while visiting a friend I met a girl I will refer to as Joan. She was the most beautiful girl my eyes had ever seen. Joan wasn’t only cute but smart and wise too, it took me about a year and a half to win her love and trust! When she finally gave in, I felt like I owned the planet. After completing A- level, she joined university, and I ventured into business. But I saw her success as no barrier; I therefore continued to visit her at the university, though I wasn’t doing so well, I would buy her gifts and take her out from time to time. But at sometimes I found different men in her room who looked older and richer; she introduced them as classmates, who were doing group assignment with her. I didn’t suspect her at that time. After graduation, she started searching for a job. Having come from a not-well-to-do family, life wasn’t so easy. Her parents had many other children to take care of. I did all I could to support her. Meanwhile, Joan had asthma, which often got her into hospital in critical condition. All the time I paid her bills, as steep as they were, even though I often had to borrow from friends. We went for Aids test and the results were negative for both of us, as we waited for the second test, Joan got a job. It didn’t take long before a man at her work place, and my neighbour at that, started moving out with her. This I did not know, like they say “the boyfriends are always the last ones to know”. Nor did I suspect as she continued to show me the same affection she had always showed me. Strangely this man used to send her off without giving her money for transport after having fun with her in posh places. She would come to me late in the night for help, which I always did. She would tell me she had delayed at the hospital where she had gone for medicine after a serious attack. What I didn’t know was that she was actually having sex with her lover in our neighbourhood; she even started drinking beers, a thing that was a taboo to her in the past. When she suggested getting out of her parents’ home, I helped her to find a nice house and furnished it using the little hard-earned cash I had saved. To me, this was a lot of money considering that I did not have a huge income. I continued visiting Joan as usual and she never displayed any sign of diminishing love. On one of those occasions, however, on a Sunday evening, I found her having a nap. She was dressed in one of the dresses I had bought her and it could no longer fit, I quickly noticed. I picked the guts to ask her and nearly regretted why I had done so. My sweet girl told me point blank she was four months pregnant! For about five minutes I lost consciousness, my future wife had betrayed me; it was the ultimate betrayal because I had never had sex with her at all. I gained my conscious and pressed for explanation. She refused to give me one and instead ordered me out of her house. I sobbed like a baby. She said she would send me a note to explain the whole drama. I left promptly knowing I will never set a foot in her house again. Once my loved creature she had turned into a monster. After about three days, she sent me an explanatory note partly reading….”Dear Mart, am sorry for what I have done to you, without your knowledge. I fell in love with a man whose kid I am carrying. He actually lied to me that he wasn’t married, which was not the case, so I gave in to him betraying our long relationship…” I felt more betrayed after reading the chit, for days I could not eat anything. I would sit in bed all night long. I even contemplated committing suicide at some stage. As days turned to weeks and months, time nursed and healed my wound. I realized it wasn’t the end of the world for me and that Joan was not the only fish in the ocean. Ends
