She had a five-year-old daughter when I met her. She told me the child’s father had abandoned them and nobody knew where he was. According to her, the man disappeared when the child was very young and hadn’t made any effort to see his daughter or contribute to her upbringing.

I didn’t have a problem with her having a child so I asked her to be my girlfriend, and she accepted.

For three years, our relationship was beautiful. We barely had any serious problems. I got close to her daughter, and the little girl also became fond of me.

We started discussing marriage after our third year together. Both of us had been saving towards it, and our families were aware of our plans. Just around that time, I had an opportunity to travel to Canada. It was something I had been pursuing for years, but I wasn’t expecting it to happen at that particular time.

READ ALSO: My Husband Wants His Sick Mother to Come to Live With Us in America. I Said No!

I sat my girlfriend down and explained the situation to her. We had two options. We could use our savings to get married and forget about Canada, or I could travel and we would postpone the wedding until I was financially stable.

She didn’t hesitate. She told me, “Go. Marriage can wait. If this opportunity will make our future better, I don’t want to be the reason you miss it.”

Then she made one request. She wanted us to perform the knocking ceremony before I travelled. According to her, it would give her some assurance that I was serious about marrying her. I agreed.

We performed the knocking rites, and a few weeks later, I left Ghana.

Life in Canada wasn’t easy initially. I struggled to settle and had to work hard to establish myself. Because of the struggle I decided to spend a few years in Canada, make enough money and return to Ghana to settle permanently.

I decided we should start building a house. I discussed it with my fiancée, and she agreed to supervise the project. We found a piece of land in Accra, and I started sending money for the purchase and construction.

She handled everything. Whenever she bought materials, she sent me pictures and receipts. When the foundation was completed, she sent videos. When the walls started going up, she made video calls so I could see the progress.

I sent money almost every month, sometimes denying myself certain comforts because I wanted us to have a beautiful home when I returned.

Then I had a major breakthrough in Canada. My financial situation improved significantly, and opportunities started opening up for me. For the first time, I felt I could build a comfortable life abroad instead of returning to Ghana immediately.

I called my fiancée and told her I had changed my mind. Rather than return to Ghana, I wanted us to get married and for her to join me in Canada. She was excited. I travelled home, and we had our wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony, and I was happy that after years of waiting, we were finally husband and wife.

A few months later, she joined me in Canada. Her daughter remained in Ghana with her parents. We agreed that once we had settled everything, we would make arrangements for the child to join us.

Then we started discussing the house we had built in Ghana. Since neither of us was going to live there anytime soon, I suggested that we rent it out. My wife disagreed. She said she wasn’t comfortable allowing strangers to live in something we had spent years building. She worried that tenants might damage the property.

I understood her concern, but I felt leaving a completed house empty didn’t make financial sense. We discussed it several times without reaching an agreement.

At one point, I suggested that we sell the house and use the money to build another property closer to my parents. My parents were getting older, and I wanted to provide them with a comfortable place to live. The house we built was in Accra but my parents and even my extended family lived in another town.

My wife rejected that idea too. She said, “Why do you suddenly want to sell the house we suffered to build? We can still come back to Ghana someday.”

Two years passed. Occasionally, I would ask about the house. My wife always said everything was fine. One day, I was discussing the property with a family member in Ghana, and he asked why I had left it unoccupied. I asked him to visit the property.

A few days later, he called me. He sounded uncomfortable. He asked, “Are you sure nobody is living in that house?”

I said yes. He asked again and I became worried. I asked what he had seen. He told me there was a man living in the house with a young girl.

I initially thought he had gone to the wrong address. I sent him pictures of the building and asked him to confirm. He said it was the same house.

Then he sent me pictures he had taken outside. I recognised the little girl immediately. It was my wife’s daughter. I asked my relative about the man. He said the man had introduced himself as the child’s father.

The child’s father? The same man my wife told me had disappeared years ago? I called my wife immediately. I asked whether she knew someone was living in our house in Ghana.

She said, “Why are you asking?”

When I told her I had sent someone to check the property and he had found a man living there with her daughter, she sighed. According to her, her daughter’s father resurfaced around the time she was preparing to leave Ghana for Canada. He wanted to be involved in his daughter’s life again. She said because she was travelling and couldn’t bring the child immediately, she allowed him to take care of their daughter.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I asked whether her parents knew about the arrangement. She said they did. That made everything worse.

I asked why she had kept something so important from me for two years. She said she knew I wouldn’t understand. I told her, “You didn’t even give me the opportunity to understand. You simply made the decision and hid it from me.”

What Caused The Breakup Between You And Your Ex?

She keeps asking, “Would you have preferred that my daughter suffered when there was an empty house available?”

That question annoys me because she knows I have never treated her daughter badly and we both agreed she would be with her parents until in a year or two we go for her. I told her, “It means you were living in that house with them before I came for you, speak the truth.”

She swore nothing of such nature happened. I told her, “Our marriage is over. Get ready to return to Ghana and marry your baby daddy.”

We have a child who’s barely one year old. That’s what makes everything very painful to me. She cries and says I’m destroying our marriage over something that has nothing to do with infidelity. But how can I be sure there’s no infidelity when she managed to keep something this serious from me for two years?

What would you do in my situation? As I write this story, her baby daddy is still living in my house and asking where he should go with their child.

—Joshua

This story you just read was sent to us by someone just like you. We know you have a story too. Email it to us at [email protected]. You can also drop your number and we will call you so you tell us your story.

******