A year after I completed Senior High School, I was living on my own. I had a job that was paying me well. And although I was still a teenager, I lived a very responsible life. I have always been responsible. That’s even why my parents trusted me enough to allow me move out of their house. My life was going pretty well until I fell ill. I didn’t have anyone to take care of me. So, I had to go back home.
Back home, my parents took care of me and nursed me back to health. After I recovered, I didn’t want to burden my parents with my upkeep. So, I applied to teach in a private school near home. I got to the school and found out that the headmaster taught me in Junior High School. Needless to say that it was a pleasant surprise. “It’s such a small world,” I thought as recognition dawned on his face. He lit up and started going on about how quickly time flies. He couldn’t stop himself from repeatedly saying: “It was just yesterday you were a little girl in my class. Look at you now. You are all grown up and applying to teach.”
Thankfully, I wasn’t a troublemaker when I was in his class. So he didn’t have a problem with me teaching in his school. The way he was even happy to see me told me that the job was already mine. The interview and training I underwent before I started work were just formalities. Mr. Tony kept telling me to feel at home and then, we were family. He went to great lengths to make sure that I had everything I needed to work efficiently and effectively. To be honest, he gave me a special treatment. At first, I thought it was because of my health. However, as time went on, I came to understand that his interest in me was beyond the employer-employee relationship. He told me this himself. “When I look at you I don’t see the little girl I taught a few years back,” he confessed, “what I see is a beautiful woman who knows her place in this world. And I fall deeper in love with you every single day.”
He was not the first man to show interest in me this way, but his attention made me feel special. I was very young but the fact that he saw me as a grown woman made me act all grown up. Day by day I also fell in love with him. He was happy when I finally agreed to be with him. You would think I had just handed him the World Cup. He wanted us to celebrate our relationship but I reminded him of my health. “I know I look fine on the outside but I just had a kidney transplant. I need to heal properly before I let you browse my inside with your thing.”
He apologized for rushing things and agreed to wait till I completely recovered. This made me very happy with him. My happiness bled into everything I had to do for the school. I taught with passion and handled the pupils’ parents pleasantly. Everything was going great. He even brought a kid to the school and asked me to take good care of him. The child looked like him but this man said he wasn’t the father.
I bought into his lie, until I ran into him one day in town. He was with a woman and two kids. The younger child was the one in our school. So, I held his hand and tried to play with him but his mother was hostile. Her reaction explained to me that she was involved with Tony and that the kids were theirs. I said goodbye and hurried off. I was deeply hurt that this man lied to me. My only consolation was that I didn’t get sexually involved with him. That night Tony asked me to meet him and for the first time, I refused.
He asked if I was angry because I saw him with another woman. He started explaining their situation to me although I didn’t ask him any questions. He tried to make it look like he was unhappy with the mother of his children and that I was his happiness. Fool me once, shame on you but fool me twice, shame on me. I didn’t listen to his explanations. I ended things with him that very day. The painful part was that I had earlier introduced him to my family. I regretted doing that. Most importantly, I wished I had listened to my grandma when she told me she didn’t trust him. I thought I knew him, but I was wrong.
After our break up, his wife reached out to me. “I want us to meet and talk,” she pleaded. I couldn’t turn her down. I met her and apologized for the pain I caused her. I let her understand that I didn’t know she was in the picture. When she saw that I was also a victim of Tony’s deception, she forgave me. Now we are good friends. Sometimes we laugh about the circumstances that brought us together. And it’s always good vibes and positivity when we talk. She is an amazing woman and I am happy to be her friend.
As for Tony, he is still lurking in the shadows. Sometimes he tries to talk me into getting back with him but I pay him no attention. Now that I am friends with his wife, there’s no way I will mind him anymore.
Courtesy Beads Media
