I went to my friend’s house, knocked and he came to open the door. I’d been to that house several times but I’d never seen him in that house. When my friend came, I asked who the guy was and she said, “Who? Joe? He’s my cousin. He came to visit.”

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Because of Joe, I visited every day. I told my friend I wanted to be friends with him and when we got each other’s numbers, we never stopped talking until one day, we said things that tied us up in a forever commitment. We said a vow in church. Our wedding day. We had dated for a little over a year.

Strange things started happening to us when we started sharing a roof. Things that nearly put him behind bars. He bought a stolen car and was arrested. We had to part with a lot of money to get that case resolved. We lost a lot of money and also lost the car. Just when we were about to regain our balance, the biggest storm hit.

He had used his company’s money for a business deal that didn’t work. I knew about the business. I was part of it right from the onset but I didn’t know where the money was coming from. I thought it was coming from his savings. There was another guy involved. I thought he was a contributing partner. All that money came from his company’s account. An account he was managing.

When he was found out through auditing, the business he used the money for, importation, hadn’t taken off yet so he didn’t have any means to repay what he took. His company was a little lenient. They gave him time to pay but time and time again, it became obvious he wasn’t going to pay so they brought in the police for him. He was in the cells for two days before we could meet bail conditions.

We had to act fast and pay up before it became a court issue. This issue felt like an earthquake in our marriage. It destroyed my financial foundation and brought me to ground zero. He couldn’t pay so his uncle had to come in, the father of my friend through whom I met him. We still had a lot to pay even after his help. We sold land. Land I bought even before the marriage. He sold a lot of things too.

By the time we were done, we had nothing left to our name. And the worst part, he didn’t have a job. His company sacked him.

The agent who was working on the importation also disappeared from the face of the earth but months later, half of the things he paid for arrived at the port. We had no money to clear them. We were relying on my salary which had also become so small because I took a loan and was being deducted.

One dawn he asked me, “Are you thinking of leaving me?”

I’d been restless in bed all night so I finally had to sit in bed and think. He saw me thinking and asked that question. I answered, “Leave you for who? For what?” He said no other words and I said nothing again. We were fractured. Broken actually, but love is not the absence of trouble and tribulations. It’s the ability to patch what’s broken and grow with the healed fracture. We’d lost a lot but I knew we would grow again.

His friend who was the partner in the business raised enough money to clear the goods stuck at the port just in time to avoid demurrage. They were electronic items. Some were even broken but one after the other, we gradually sold all of them. My WhatsApp status became a shop. His too. Name every online platform and we were there.

We imported another set and then another and then another. With each set, we grew and set new targets. The road was rough but slowly, we came out of the wormhole of debt to a place where we could smile again. It’s a good business now. The two of them are the major partners while I’m a partner with my husband.

Whatever we lost in the dark hours is slowly coming back to us. The first thing he did was to replace the land I sold. He said, “That was yours and not mine. Let’s buy it back.”

He bought it in my name before anything else. Today, we go to bed with a different kind of distress, not the kind that keeps us awake in fear. This one brings us money and makes us too tired so we can sleep soundly until the morning sun. Did I ever think of leaving when things were bad?

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No, I didn’t but I asked myself, “Who even asked me to bring myself here in the first place?”

I was also very sure that whoever brought me here would make a way for us through thick and thin and he did. We don’t have it all now but we have all we need to be happy; each other.

—Miriam

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