wI met Prince about a month to my 18th birthday. I was in SHS-One at the time. Naïve, young and untouched by the world. I didn’t know anything about men or relationships. He, on the other hand, was older and mature.

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He was honest with me right from the beginning.

“I am a married man but my marriage is on the verge of collapse.”

From what he told me, his wife’s family had never supported the union from the start. So when her mother passed, her sisters stepped in to convince her to leave him.

“They succeeded because things were already rough between us.”

His wife had suffered a series of miscarriages. The family stood on that to convince her to walk away. They told her he wasn’t compatible with her. And she listened.

In retrospect, maybe his wife’s family was on to something. I am saying this because she is currently married to another man. They welcomed a child recently. I can imagine the joy she must be feeling.

Anyway, back to Prince. Despite everything he told me, I fell deeply in love with him.

I didn’t really understand love at the time but he was patient with me. He taught me what I needed to learn about relationships. He promised to take care of me and he did.

He supported my education, and helped me with material needs. These gestures felt so grand to me. It made me believe his love for me was true.

When I was about to enter nursing training, he started talking about marriage. I told him I was too young. “I don’t understand life properly. How can I get married?”

I asked him to wait for me to complete school and he agreed.

We had good times—outings, long conversations, little fights that we always resolved. Everything felt steady. Normal. Happy.

Then one Monday evening, I went to see him. We laughed, we talked, we spent time together like we always did. Nothing seemed off. But the next morning, I woke up to a text that didn’t make sense to me.

“I want to get married, but you are not ready. I don’t want to lose you too.”

That message left me confused. I didn’t understand what he meant until I found out he had already made plans to marry another woman. The wedding was just two weeks away.

This shattered me. I lost so much weight people could hardly recognize me. I felt like I was losing myself.

After the wedding, I confronted him. I asked, “So who am I to you now? Your mistress?”

He said he wouldn’t answer because no answer he gave would make me happy. And honestly, he was right.

Still, he told me he wasn’t going to leave me. That he’d continue being with me. “I still love you.”

I didn’t know what to call that kind of arrangement, but I stayed.

Now, things have changed again. He’s started distancing himself, especially when it comes to helping with my education. He says he doesn’t want to take the risk of supporting me through school only for me to finish and not marry him.

I tried to reassure him. I told him I’m not like that. That he should trust me. But he said no.

Now I’m here asking myself: Is this the end? Has he finally found happiness in his marriage and is now ready to let me go?

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I told him I’m ending things if there’s no trust. I’ve come too far to beg for a place in someone’s life. I have just one year left to complete my nursing training, and this is how it ends?

What hurts me the most is this: All the men who came my way while I was with him, I ignored them. I didn’t even entertain conversations. I stayed faithful because I loved him and believed in the promises we made.

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And now it’s all ending.

My dear readers, please do you have any advice for me? Because my heart is tired.

— Britney

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