When I completed senior high school, my parents didn’t have the money to take me to the university. I was very determined to go to the university so I started looking for a job. It took me a whole year before I got a job as a shop attendant. The shop sold provisions and other stuff on wholesale. The salary wasn’t good but I accepted the offer thinking I might find another job along the way and quit this one.

I woke up each morning and went to work trying all I could to deliver good services and also not run into losses. Just three months on the job, the owner of the place called me on the side and said, “I love your dedication and commitment to work so today I’m increasing your salary by 10%.” I was so happy I didn’t know what to say. I even knelt and said thank you to him. He held me by the shoulder, lifted me up, and said, “You deserve better than this. You watch me.”

That motivated me to even do more. Three months later he raised my salary again. Another three months later, he called me on the side and said, “I’m going to tell you something. If you humble yourself and go along with it, I’ll change your life for you.” I was attentive, trying to catch his words immediately as they fell from his mouth. He said, “You’re a good girl and a beautiful one as such. You deserve better. I’m ready to offer you that better life if only you’ll agree to date me.” I looked at him very well. A man in his late fifties. I was only twenty-one. I said in my head, “Granddad, I thought you’ll give me peace but see where you’re driving me to?”

I told him to give me some time to think about it. He said, “Be very fast with your decision because I can’t wait to start the journey with you.”

I thought of where I came from and how I suffered before getting this job. I thought of how life would be if I should say no and he fires me. I thought of how much I’d been able to save in that little while that I started working there and thought about the future if I continued working there until I got a new offer. Two weeks later, he started putting pressure on me to decide. I was scared I would lose my job so I said yes to him. That very day, he increased my salary again.

He wasn’t married. I learned later that he got a divorce long ago after their third child was born. The only problem was his age. Everything about him was breaking down but this man wanted to run at places where angels fear to tread. I knew the relationship didn’t have a future because I had a boyfriend who was also struggling in the shadows to make something for his life.

He asked what I wanted to do. I wanted to go back to school but I didn’t think our relationship would last for four years to be able to take me through school. I told him, “I want to learn cosmetology.” After one to two years, I would be done and start my own work and earn my own money. By then, he would be out of my life. He enrolled me in cosmetology school. I went to school and after school, I would go to the shop and help the new attendant. He stopped paying me. Instead, he told me to ask him whenever I needed something.

I took it from him and gave to my boyfriend so he could build something for himself. He had a phone shop he was trying to stock so every amount I gave to him went into the phone shop. He didn’t know how I was getting the money. He thought I was getting it from being a shop attendant. Little did he know that I was tiling someone else’s land to raise the money I gave to him.

After some time, my boyfriend told me, “This place is too slow. I want to move to Accra and set up there. I will make it quicker than this place. So, I took money from my old man and gave it to him. He rented a room out of that money and also got something left to start his business. Everything went according to plan and my boyfriend moved to Accra. When I had the time, I visited him. He was open about the finances of the business and how well or not the business was doing.

One day, I went to visit my boyfriend. I don’t know what came over him, that day he was going through my phone and saw the chat between me and this old man. This boy got angry and started misbehaving; “Why are you going after an old man who is old enough to be your ancestor? Why would you do that? Don’t you have manners? Don’t you believe in what we are building together? So, you sleep with that thing? You should be ashamed of yourself.”

I allowed him to rant. He was right to be angry. When he became sober, I asked him, “I’m learning in school yet I get money to send to you every day. It’s because of this money that’s why you’re able to make it up to this point. You think I pluck money from trees? He’s the one who provides the money. I’m doing this so we can build enough resources and be on our own. Very soon, I’ll complete the school. He had agreed to open a shop for me after school. When all this is done, I’ll find a reason to leave him. Trust me, I don’t feel anything for him.”

He was still angry, saying it was better we starved than for me to follow that old man but I knew he wasn’t ready to starve. He became overly jealous from that point on, asking questions he never used to ask me. I could understand him. I wouldn’t be happy if I were him but something has to give for us to take something.

I completed cosmetology school and started pushing him to get me my own place to start working. He said, “Find a place and come for the money.” It was hard but four months later, I found a place. He paid for it and started furnishing the place. At some point, I realized it was hard for him but he was willing to make me happy. He furnished and stocked the place up for me to begin working. We even launched the place with a mega party inviting friends and well-wishers to see the place for the first time.

I traveled to Accra to visit my boyfriend and again, he went through my phone and saw the photos of the launch. This guy got crazy, throwing his hands about and asking why he wasn’t there but the old man was there. I told him, “Now the work is done. Have patience. In the next two or three months, everything would be over and it would be just you and I.” I thought I had calmed him down. I thought he had seen the sense in what I was doing.

Not knowing, he was recording everything I was telling him. When I was on a bus going back home, he sent the recording to the old man’s WhatsApp telling him, “You see how you’ve been stupid for a little girl to play with your mind?” The old man couldn’t stand it after listening to the recording. His heart problem came and he was rushed to the hospital. I couldn’t look at him twice when I visited him. I was so ashamed to look into his eyes. He said, “Why would you do this to me? I thought you were different.” I said, “I’m sorry. It’s not the way you think. That boy forced me to say all that. I didn’t mean it.”

One morning, I went to the shop and my shop had been broken into and everything had been removed. Even carpets. Wallpapers. Doormats. Everything was gone. My heart. I nearly passed out. “Who could do this to me?” I burst into tears. Some people around told me they saw it but they thought I was the one moving because they saw the old man there. I called him. He said, “I came for what is mine. I’m giving the place off to another tenant so I can recoup my rent. Let that boy rebuild it for you.”

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I woke up every morning, went to his house apologizing and begging him in the name of God to restore the place for me. He said, “You won’t fool me twice. I was ready to help you achieve your dreams but you decided to reward me with heartache and infidelity.” It hurt like hell to watch him tell me all that but I didn’t blame him. I blamed my boyfriend. I called him on the phone and told him, “You see what you’ve caused me? Now. We’ve lost everything. Are you happy now?” He answered, “I didn’t know it would get that far but why is he being so dramatic?”

The most painful thing was when I stopped giving him money, he started suffering. He was always complaining about how tough things were. I wasn’t listening. I was thinking about how to rebuild my life. I found a woman who was kind enough to employ me to work in her spa and saloon. I know how it feels like to lose everything so I’m determined to help her build so out of that, I can build my own.

My boyfriend? Our lives were never the same again after that incident. We slowly drifted apart. His shop had collapsed, I learned. And just as I’m working for someone, he’s also working in someone’s phone shop at Circle. We both lost everything when we could have won everything with a little bit of patience.

–Olivia 

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