If you haven’t read the first part of this story, here’s the link. Kindly read it before starting this one.

The beginning of our marriage was filled with milk and honey. We slept in a bed of roses and ate from each other’s hands. I experienced all the love I never felt in my life growing up. His kindness made me even feel regret for all the shameful things I did in my past, and all the horrible ways I treated him. If ‘too good to be true’ was a person, it would be Kyle. Sometimes I even got scared that one day he would wake up and decide he made a mistake by marrying me. I just felt I didn’t deserve such a good man like him. Moreover, I couldn’t shake off something Siri told me about him back when I still lived with her. Kyle had just called me with a reminder of his marriage proposal. After the call ended, Siri looked at me and said, “Serena, make me a promise. No matter what happens with our friendship, don’t marry that man. He is not one of the good ones.” This was even one of the reasons I kept shutting Kyle down. But after I discovered the kind of spirituality Siri was dabbling in, I told myself that she didn’t want me to marry him because Kyle was probably the one blocking her from initiating me into their pod. That’s why I went ahead and married him.

However, I didn’t expect him to end up being so perfect. He never got angry with me. He never got tired of my company. Above all, he never mentioned my past. He acted as if I was a virgin when he met me. That was what aroused my cynicism. I felt he was just pretending to be so good. I would ask myself, “What if Siri saw something in him that I don’t have the eyes to see?” But then I would shake my head, “No, don’t think like that. Just enjoy your marriage.” So I tried my best to live in the moment. I was twenty-four years old when we got married, and when I turned twenty-five, I got pregnant.

The happiness we both felt knew no bounds. Kyle especially was just over the moon. He would put his ears to my belly to hear the baby’s heartbeat. It was always funny because I was just in my first trimester. Nothing was going on in my womb that made me feel any sign of pregnancy, but he would sing lullabies to my flat tummy and rub his hands over it. These little acts he did made my heart swell with joy. But my joy was soon replaced by the physical toll of the pregnancy. I was constantly weak. We spent some time in the hospital back and forth. I thought I was the only one experiencing the stress but I was wrong. Kyle experienced it too. And it made him different. The sweetness sapped out of him. He became hostile. He barely smiled. He barely spoke to me. I couldn’t work because of my health so I was always at home. I didn’t have any money of my own. Which means all my needs were dependent on my husband. That was when the other shoe dropped.

The only food he allowed me to eat was rice and noodles. When I prepare stew, he would add water to it and tell me, “This should last you for two weeks.” He stopped me from going to the antenatal clinic. When I complained he told me, “Mary, the mother of Jesus never went to the antenatal clinic. She gave birth to the Savior in a filthy sheep pen. So don’t worry, when it’s time for you to deliver, the baby will come out.” I couldn’t recognize the man my husband had turned into. It was too much for me to bear but I tried my best to endure it. My lack of a balanced diet added to my health problems. But I just prayed for God to see me through.

One day some friends from church took me to a program at a certain church. During the ministration, the prophet gave me a prophecy. He said, “Are you Serena?” I nodded in response. Then he followed with, “Your husband is trying to kill you. The church he is running is not backed by a good spirit. If you don’t take time, you will end up as a sacrifice to whatever spirits he is serving.” I was shocked to hear that, but upon second thought, I wasn’t. Siri’s words came back to me. And my husband’s behaviour throughout my pregnancy gave me the impression that there could be some truth to what the prophet said.

So that night when I went home, I observed my husband. He had this midnight prayer that he does in one of the rooms in the house. He called it his war room. All through our marriage, I never entered that room. He said it was his sacred place so I respected it. But that night my curiosity overcame me. When he got up to pray I also got up. I spied on him while he was in the room. He was saying some incantations that could easily pass for speaking in tongues. However, there was a dark atmosphere surrounding the room. There were strange symbols as well. The whole thing didn’t sit right with my spirit so I went back to bed. The next day the weather was very bad. A dark cloud had formed and it looked like there was going to be heavy rain. Yet Kyle dressed up to leave the house. I told him, “The weather doesn’t look good, and you can see that I am heavily pregnant. What if you leave and I go into labour, who will help me?” He didn’t mind me. He just left.

Shortly after he left the house there was an outpour. It was a heavy rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning. I don’t know how it happened but lightning struck our TV. I got scared and fell and ended up bleeding. I thought I was going to die that day. I screamed as loud as possible. I didn’t think anyone would hear me over the rain but luckily, one of our neighbours heard me and came to my rescue. They took me to the hospital. It was there I found out that I was carrying more than one baby. The scan showed six babies in my womb. When I expressed my shock, the sonographer asked, “How can you not know? Can’t you see that your baby bump is bigger than a regular bump?” The hospital advised that I don’t carry the pregnancy to full term. So arrangements were made for me to undergo C.S. when I reached eight months.

When Kyle came home after the heavy rain the first thing he said when he saw me was, “Eiii, are you still alive?” I was surprised, “Yes, by the grace of God I am still alive.” That thing he said terrified me but I didn’t push him for explanations. I just kept quiet and went about my life till I was due to undergo the C.S. I went into the theatre and woke up on life support. Apparently, I went into a coma after having the babies. All six of them were not there when I woke up. My mother told me they didn’t survive past a few hours. I was awfully sad. I never got to see them and hold them in my arms. I never got the chance to feel their warm breath on my skin. I never nursed them the way a mother should nurse her babies. I went through all that stress during pregnancy only to lose all my babies. Heartbreak didn’t come close to the pain I felt.

I am diabetic so my body couldn’t recover quickly from the surgery. I spent some time at the Korlebu teaching hospital and spent some time at a hospital in East Legon. Eventually, I got better and my husband took me home. The day he was taking me home, he told my mother she won’t see me again. We didn’t understand what he meant by that but I was too weak and too grief-stricken to engage him in a conversation. When we got home, this man tied me to our bed with a rope, just so he would have his way with me. I hadn’t completely healed from my surgical wound so I pleaded with him to stop. But he didn’t listen to me. He did what he wanted to do with a wicked gleam in his eyes. I became so afraid of him. However, I wasn’t strong enough to leave yet so I stayed and took care of my health. When he saw that I was getting stronger he started picking unnecessary fights with me. By then too I was plotting my escape so I never indulged him. One day he was insulting me when he said, “Serena, you are a witch. Won’t you die for me to get what I am looking for? Why do you think I married you?”

After he made that statement I knew it was time to go. I waited for him to leave the house, and then I called my mother to come for me. I was scared he would come after me so I travelled to Sunyani. I went to stay with an old friend who was still living my past life. The pain of losing my babies and the trauma my husband put me through was too much for me to bear. So I started drinking and smoking again. From there, it didn’t take long for me to fall back into my old life. I was trading my body for money just like I used to. I told myself that I was doing it for the money but deep down I was just trying to numb my pain. Because I wasn’t earning much money from it. I didn’t have the connections Siri had so I was sleeping with people who sometimes gave me GHC20. I left my husband in 2018 and our divorce was finalized in 2019. So in early 2020, I came back to Accra.

READ ALSO: Fourteen Years Later, She Still Thinks I Owe Her A Proposal

I intended to work for a while and start a business. But I wasn’t getting any good jobs. So occasionally I would hook up with someone to get something to eat. The money I earned was too small so I started looking for Siri and the girls. I wanted to tell her that she was right about Kyle. I wanted to ask her to take me back and help me with her connections so that I could save some money for a business. But she was nowhere to be found. All their numbers couldn’t go through. I went to the house we lived in but there was no one there. I went to the clubs we visited but I never met any of them. It was as if they had vanished from the face of the earth. Without their help, the work was difficult to do. So I started reaching out to people on Facebook. I would send them nudes in exchange for money or offer them shuperu in exchange for money.

Some people insulted me, others declined my offer politely, but there were always a few of them who patronized my services. This is how I survived until a few weeks ago when I sent a proposition to one gentleman. He wasn’t interested in my offer but he was kind and respectful in his rejection.

He didn’t insult me or make me feel dirty. For the first time in many years, I felt honoured by the way he spoke to me. So we started chatting. During one of our chats he wrote, “My dear the Lord Jesus loves you and today He wants to show you His mercy. Are you ready to receive help from him?”

When I read that message in my inbox I could hear the words being spoken to me with all the tenderness and force that love can hold. I felt the words begin to reverberate in every corner of my being. So much so that before I realized it I was crying in my room.

Honestly, this was not the first time I was hearing such a message. I was already a singer in church even when I was doing my work. Many fake pastors had promised to pray for me to change, only to end up using me like every other man I had met. Even my ex-husband who was a pastor was no different. So I grew dead to the gospel of Christ. But on 4th November 2022, something changed. I was ready to find my way back to God. I wanted the pain in my heart to stop. I wanted freedom from my lifestyle. I just wanted to feel whole again. So I replied to the gentleman, “Please, help me to know Jesus. I want to stop this life I am living.”

We exchanged contacts and he called me to pray for me. I confessed all my sins to him and God, and he told me that God loves me. And then he prayed for me. While he was praying I felt a presence I used to feel when I was so young and pure. It was the Holy Spirit. He touched me, and it felt like fire was burning away whatever hold was on my life. I couldn’t stop crying. There was a calm in my soul and all I did was sing and cry in worship. When the whole experience was over, I felt as if something used to control me all those years, and now it was gone. Since then, I don’t have any urge to sleep with anyone for money. Even when I don’t have anything to eat, I just feel repulsed at the thought of trading myself for money. Sometimes my old clients call me, and I tell them, “God has redeemed me. I am no longer a slave to sin.” Then I hung up and block them.
Playing The Role Of A Mother And A Wife Affected Our Sex Life–Beads Media

The gentleman I met on Facebook happens to be a pastor. We have never met but he sends me GHC50 every week for food. He even gathered money for me to start a business. So I have gone to buy kids’ shoes. I am preparing to start selling them at the Makola market for the Christmas season. I have been facing spiritual attacks from time to time but I trust God to keep me grounded in my new journey of knowing him for myself. I am currently in a new church. I still sing for God. I join midnight prayers on Facebook as well. I am doing my best not to leave any room for the devil to come back into my life. I am just here sharing my story, hoping to reach out to anyone who feels lost. There is still hope for you. Jesus has not given up on you. He is the only one who heals what is broken and restores what is lost. If you seek him, he will save you. This is my testimony, pray with me and help me thank God for his salvation.

–Serena

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