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He knelt down, placed one palm in the other and started pleading. I told him, “When I asked you about your future plans, I was begging you not to hurt me. Did you listen to me? I was telling you to make me part of your future if you like me that much. Did you even love me?” He was reaching up to me when one of the guys held him back and asked him to stop right there. I said in my head, “This guy really understands the assignment.”

Ali got up and rushed to the toilet—the first of so many to come within an hour. I asked the guy, “So what’s the plan?” While discussing the plan, my friend also walked in. She screamed, “Don’t let him out. He’ll miss his wedding and learn sense.” I asked her, “So what’s the plan?”

She came up with the master plan before Ali came out of the washroom. We took his phone, locked the door and went out. One of the guys told him, “We are out here watching you. If you try anything funny, you’ll  come and meet us here and that would be bloody.”

He knelt down, “Please I’m sorry. You have to understand me, this would be too much for everyone involved. Call my brother. His name is Shack on the phone. If it’s money you want, he’ll pay so you let me go. You can even call my mother.” I asked, “How about your wife? How’s her name stored on your phone?” He went mute. We stepped out.

I was scared. The whole thing wasn’t a well-thought-out plan. My friend said it out of anger and I went with it. I told the guys, “This is dangerous and it can escalate very quickly. What if his family reports to the police that he is a missing person? What are we going to do?” One of the guys suggested that we should take money and leave him. My friend agreed. I told them, “I don’t want him to get the impression that this is about money. I don’t want his money. I want him to learn a lesson.”

We agreed we were going to pick up his calls so they don’t get scared. Shack called. One of the guys picked up and said, “Your bro is out. When he comes back, I will tell him you called.” Another guy called and then a lady named Efe also called. The guy gave me the phone and said, “It could be his wife. Talk to her.” I responded, “I don’t want to do that. You talk to her.”

Immediately the guy picked up the phone the girl screamed, “Ali, I swear you’ll never enjoy your full life. You think you can hurt a woman and go scot-free. You’ll never enjoy this marriage. Ali…Ali! You won’t talk? You think I will never know?”

So I said hello. When she realized it was a lady, she flared up. “Who is that? Are you the one he’s going to marry?” I answered, “Yes and who are you please?”

They have dated for a year and a half. What makes her story different is that she knew the girl Ali was getting married to but Ali lied to her that she was just a friend. Like me, she also got to know about the wedding through Ali’s friend. Ali’s friend snitched on Ali and it was the reason she called. She talked bitterly telling me, “He’ll do the same to you if you marry him. He’s not a good person, take that from me. Don’t think you’ve won. You’ll lose in the end. He’ll bring sickness home and you’ll be the one to suffer.”

When  we cut the call we all screamed, “Eiiiiii!”

I went to the window and told him, “Efe called. She’s pouring curses on you everywhere so when you get married and something happens to you, don’t say it’s me. She’s the one taking you to the altar of the gods.” He called my name with the voice of a lost child, “Audrey, I know I’m not a good person. Forgive me and let me go. I swear you’ll never see me anywhere close to you again. I will change. I swear!”

As late as 9 p.m., we were still hanging around not knowing what to do. He was our prisoner but definitely, we were his prisoner too because we couldn’t leave and our conscience also couldn’t settle. I was scared of a police case. They were insisting we get money. I didn’t like it so I told them, “Let’s set him free. He has learned enough and I also need time to let myself go through the hurt. I won’t pretend I’m strong. This whole thing is killing me on the inside.

My friend snatched the key and said, “Let him rot there for tonight. He can’t break the burglary proof. Maybe tomorrow we can let him go. That will be enough, lesson. You’ll sleep next to me tonight. Let’s go.” “But what if something happens to him? He can even commit suicide,” I queried.

My friend answered, “Then you don’t know men. A man who likes pus*y like Ali won’t commit suicide. Who will he chop when he dies? Let’s go joor!”

He spent a night there but I also spent a night in emotional turmoil. I was thinking of him. I wish I could call him and see if he was alright. Anything at all could happen to him and we would go down for it. Around 10 p.m. a call came through on his phone. The caller’s name was Amor. I was like, “See, isn’t his wife-to-be calling? Amor means love, or?” My friend asked me to pick but I resisted. She screamed, “Give the phone to me. Let me break his marriage before it happens. Let’s save one woman from the other gender’s wickedness.”

Men can be very bad but they always have someone they are very kind to. The ones they truly love, they treat them with care and compassion. Amor was getting married to Ali because she had experienced that side of him. Our words might hurt her but it might not change anything looking at how close they were to marriage. I didn’t pick up the call. I switched the phone off until early Thursday morning.

We went back with the guys and opened the door. He had coiled into a foetal position and was weeping in the bed. He looked like he hadn’t slept all night. I told him, “Go and get married. If you can go through your wedding with a clean mind and joyful heart, then you’re not feeling human. I don’t wish you bad but you’ll pay for your sins.”

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I thought he would rush and run out. He didn’t. He slowly walked out of the room, turned back and said sorry to me. My friend shouted, “You better run before we change our mind. Look at his tiny waist that he’s using to break hearts. Aboa!”

He left and got there in time to get married.

Revenge doesn’t make us better, I’ve learnt. Look at what we took him through. It didn’t replace the disappointment and the hurt I was feeling inside. I was grateful that a man like him didn’t end up with me but the question is, how come I didn’t know? How did I give my all in just three months without a safety net to fall into when things go bad like they did? How was I this naive to trust a guy who appeared from nowhere into my life?

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He’s a married man now but someone out there isn’t taking it lightly. Efe. She’s out there looking for her pound of flesh. She sounded so furious her fury could burn an acre of forest. Maybe she won’t rest until she gets to them. Maybe she gave up just like I did. The two of us were victims of the same man’s heartlessness.

I don’t know what happened afterwards but that morning when we set him free and was walking with his shirt hanging on his neck, all I could think about was Amor. She thinks she has a man she can call her own. The real deal. A man’s she’s not sharing but she ended up with a man she has to share with a community of women. Maybe he changed. Maybe not. Whichever way, I’m grateful I didn’t end up with him. What it means to me is that I have the opportunity to start all over again with all the lessons I’ve learned.

—Audrey

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