Charles swept me off my feet. He was charming, kind, loving, respectful and everything I was looking for in a man. We had to be together, but we worked in different towns. We travelled back and forth for months, and then Charles asked me to move in with him.

“I’ll take care of you as the man should,” he said.

“I want to work,” I told him.

“I’m sure we can find something for you here,” he said.

My mother warned me about it and told me to first secure the job before moving. I was in love, and what could she possibly understand about sacrificing for love? In any case, I would find another job where Charles lived.

It turned out finding a job was harder than I thought, and the ones I settled for were not good enough for Charles.

“Let’s keep looking,” Charles told me.

The first few months were great. Charles was a businessman. He tried his hand at several things, and farming was one of them. In that period, he had put all his eggs in the farming basket. Then the weather bailed on him and other farmers like him. I might as well have watched our home get torched down because that’s what loss did to us.

Charles was in a constant bad mood, and it got worse as the money he had started to dwindle. We had a system where I would take items from the local shop, and then he would pay. I could tell our funds were low, but we still needed the basic things.

“Don’t even try to show your face here before you have cleared your debt,” the owner of the shop shouted at me.

“I’m sorry. There is no need to humiliate me. How much hasn’t been paid?” I asked her.

She mimicked me mockingly and hurled more insults in the presence of other customers. I ran out in tears.  I had no idea how bad things had gotten until that moment. Charles came back at around the same time. I narrated to him the ordeal, but he sided with the woman and blamed me for taking on more debt.

“You didn’t tell me we still owed her,” I told him.

“Are you a child? Can’t you see how bad the situation is?” Charles said.

I decided to ask for help from my family. I was on my way to clear the debt that I had gotten embarrassed for when I saw Charles. At first,  I thought he was having a conversation with someone. When I got closer, I saw he was leaning in on the person in a suggestive manner. He pulled back when he saw me, but the woman had this smug look.  I instantly knew what I was looking at.

“I have come to clear what we owe,” I told the woman.

She turned to Charles. He turned to me in anger. I didn’t understand what was going on, but the slap I received from Charles made me leave the shop at once.

He came back to the house shortly after.

“Why would you embarrass me like that?” Charles asked.

I was still reeling from the pain and shock.

“Are you sleeping with her?” I managed to ask him.

“Is that why you were trying to humiliate me? Where did you get the money from?” Charles asked.

“You’re not even denying it?” I asked in tears.

He insulted me as I started packing my clothes in anger.

“Where will you go? You still need me,” Charles told me.

We started yelling at each other as he tried to grab my phone so that I would have no money since all I had was in my mobile wallet. I managed to get the phone, but not before it fell and cracked the screen. By now it was evening. When we started shouting, some neighbours came. Charles left the house, and that was when one of the neighbours came in to console me.

The walls were thin, and they could hear every word we’d said. She confirmed to me that Charles had been having an affair with the shop owner for weeks. It dawned on me that the incident at the shop earlier probably had to do with that. The neighbour was kind enough to let me spend the night at her place.

The following morning, I went home to my family to figure out what I was going to do. Charles apologised over and over. I almost went back to him and then remembered how scared I was when he got violent and disrespectful. Luckily, there was an opening at my old job, and they rehired me.

I mostly had to apologise to my mother, who had accurately predicted that leaving my job for love wasn’t a wise move.

Check out more stories

He Promised To Take Care Of Her If She Quit Her Job, Then Became Controlling, And Accused Her of Being Money Hungry

Her Favourite Vendor Accidentally Informed Her Of Her Husband’s Infidelity 

His Friends Doubted She Was With Him For Love, But He Loved Her And Married Her Anyway. Will This Blind Devotion End In Disaster? 

He Was A Saint In Public. Everybody Loved Him Because She Covered Up His Sins 

She Thought Her First Love Would Be Her Last So She Sacrificed To Be With Him But He Turned Out To Be A Community Boyfriend