We met on Facebook. He was a very nice guy to me online and always had something nice to say. The day he proposed to me I said no because I hadn’t met him physically yet but he didn’t give up. He kept checking up on me each day. One day he told me he wanted to visit Koforidua and I told him, “You can visit but remember you can’t visit me in the house.” He asked why and I told him my situation. I was living with a friend who was very kind to me when I didn’t have anywhere to stay. I wish I could go into details of how I became homeless but that would make my story very long.
It was this friend of mine who took me in and helped me to settle. I was determined to find a job as quickly as possible so I could move from my friend’s house to my own place. however hard I tried, I couldn’t find a job. The few job opportunities I had were in Accra. I didn’t have anywhere to stay in Accra and I didn’t have the money to get my own place so I had to turn those offers down.
I was living with my friend together with her mom and dad. It was a huge apartment so I had my own room where I slept peacefully each night but it was this friend of mine who was doing everything within her power to buy food and other basic stuff for me. Her mom liked me a lot. I was always cleaning for her and helping her cook. One day I was in my room when the father of my friend came in. He said, “You don’t have to rely on my daughter for petty things when you can easily rely on me. If you allow me into your life, I would provide everything for you and even help you find a job.”
I thought I was dreaming. This was a man in his early sixties. I looked at him again to see whether he was joking with me but everything showed he was serious. I said no. He asked why. I said I couldn’t do what he was asking me to do because of my relationship with his daughter and wife. He said, “How will they know? Are you going to tell them?” I said, “My conscience would know no peace and will trouble me more than any human can.” He said, “Think about it. It might be your escape from this life you’re living.”
He kept sneaking into my room when no one was around, asking me to give him a chance. When I consistently turned him down, he turned against me. Peddling lies against me so he could sack me from his house. It was always his wife and my friend who came to my rescue. I didn’t want any trouble that’s why I asked Akwasi not to visit me in the house. He came to Koforidua all the same. He lodged in a hotel and for the next two days, I visited him and we talked. He looked like a nice guy. I liked him.
He was the one sending me money every now and then when the going got tough. One day he said, “If you want to move to Accra, I have a place where you can live. You have no problem at all. I asked, “Are you sure?” He said, “Where I live is a two-bedroom house. We could share without any issue.” So I accepted his proposal while surfing around looking for a job opportunity in Accra. One day, I had a call. It was a job offer. They needed a personal assistant and I went interviewing for it. I got the job and I said goodbye to my friend and her family. I was so happy that day I thought my heart was going to burst open. Finally, I was moving to Accra. Not only that, I was moving to Accra to start a new job. A new life and probably a new beginning for me.
Akwasi took me home and showed me where I would stay. I was grateful. The next few days I started a job. To be honest with you, I was more into the job than I was into the relationship with Akwasi. I liked him but I wanted to work harder so I could get enough money and hire a place so I could move out of his house. Three months later, we went on a lockdown. When we returned to work three weeks later, I’d lost my job. That very day, I believed there were some demons after me, doing everything to make my life miserable. “Why is it that anything I touch turns to dust? Why only me? Just three months?”
There was nothing I could do but come home and tell Akwasi. He was sympathetic. He told me everything would be alright so I shouldn’t worry. I woke up each day crying but most importantly, I surfed the web looking for a job. Akwasi was giving me everything I needed until he started changing. I had become a burden on him and he was looking for every opportunity to throw me out of the house. Every little thing I did got him infuriated. He started coming home with other women, introducing me to them as a sister. I dared not to talk. After everything, he would walk up to me and say, “I love you so much, please don’t leave me I would change.”
I was already looking for a way out of my misery but there was nowhere to turn to. One morning, I was looking around for my phone and couldn’t find it anywhere. I asked him, “Have you seen my phone anywhere?” He said, “It’s with me. That’s your chip, take it.” I asked, “But why have you taken my phone?” He said, “I’m going to sell it to pay rent. That’s your contribution to rent.” And he did. He came home with a “yam phone” and said, “You can use this until you can buy a new phone.”
I called my friend in Koforidua, “Please I want to come back, don’t tell me no.” She said, “But this is your home, you can always come back.” That day she sent me Momo. When Akwasi returned, I told him, “It’s over between us. Never in your life come close to me and I will never forgive you for how you treated me.” He begged me to stay but I said no. He even said he was going to buy me a new phone the next day, I still told him not to get closer to me. I told him, “I’m leaving your God-forsaken house. This is why you maltreat me. This is why you treat me like a nobody.”
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That same evening, my phone called. It was from my friend in Koforidua. She said, “There’s bad news. My father said he won’t allow you here. We’ve tried. I and my mother but he said over his dead body.”
Eish.. asɛm ato me!
When Akwasi came, I told him I was going to live around for a while. He asked, “Have you forgiven me? I said, “It’s over doesn’t mean we can’t be friends?” His attitude got worse. Different women every night. He would try to have his way with me and I would say no. It would turn into a huge fight. Every day none stop, we were fighting. He’ll throw my things out, I’ll bring them back in.
December last year, just before Christmas, I had a new job. The pay was better than the last one. I spoke to HR and they were kind enough to give me a salary advance though I hadn’t finished serving my probation. Days later, when Akwasi was away, I gathered everything I had and moved out of his house. He called that night to ask where I was. I told him, “You can’t know but thank you so much for giving me a place to stay. You were bad for me but at least, because of you, I had a sleeping place.”
I haven’t seen him since. We started from social media and that’s exactly where we’ve ended now. He sees me on Facebook and says hi. He’s still trying to get to know where I live but I doubt I will ever tell him. Not in this life.
–Liz
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