If you haven’t read the first part of this story, here’s the link. Kindly read it before starting this one.

After that ultimatum, everything came back to normal. For a very long time, she couldn’t look into my face and talk to me. She would be talking to me and her eyes would be all over the place. I had to ask her to look at me before she could savor the strength to look at me in the eyes. A couple of months later, I told her, “We should bring one of the girls back. Which one would you prefer?” She said, “Suzy.”  Suzy is the daughter of her aunt, the second girl we sent away. 

I personally called her aunt. I apologized to her once again for what happened the first time. I told her, “We’ve been able to see the person who was stealing from us. Suzy wasn’t the one. The fact that she left also helped us to catch the person. If she’s available, we would like to have her back.” Her aunt was very excited. She said, “I know Suzy. She wouldn’t take a pesewa that doesn’t belong to her. I knew she wouldn’t do it.” And then she said, “I will talk to her and see if she would be willing to come back.”

A week later I called her. She said, “Suzy says she doesn’t want to come again. She has started something small here and doesn’t want to leave it behind.” I understood her. I said my thanks and dropped the line. I told my wife, “Suzy is busy working on something else. She says she can’t come.” She said, “Then Adwoa (her sister) would be the best person. I will talk to her. She should be here very soon. Less than a week later, her sister came back to live with us. 

I was careful with where I placed my money. I started locking my wallets. I decide not to bring money home. I either locked it at the office or sent it into my MOMO wallet. I didn’t want her to steal again but I also didn’t want to provide the opportunity for her to be tempted. “Lead us not into temptation,” is my favorite line so I didn’t want to lead her into temptation. For a while, nothing got missing in the house. She asked and it was given. If I didn’t have it, I told her I didn’t have it. 

One day she told me she was attending a friend’s wedding. That was March this year. She was making a return journey but she went and called in the evening to tell me that she wasn’t coming. “The program started very late so they closed very late. It’s risky to travel in the night so I will come early tomorrow morning,” she said. I wasn’t comfortable. I asked her, “Why didn’t you leave earlier? You knew you had to travel back. The program was eating into the night. You could have left, or?” That was when she told me the real reason why she stayed late. She said, “My friend asked me to help with the gift table. I couldn’t leave it there and come.”

Suddenly my head started spinning. I couldn’t believe they left the meat with the cat. All I told her was, “Be careful you don’t run into problems.” The next morning she came back home. She looked happy. For several hours she couldn’t shut up about the wedding. It was a good sign that nothing went wrong. On Monday, I saw her on her phone talking to someone. Her face didn’t look right. I left her alone and went to the bedroom. I came back after several minutes and she was still on the phone talking. She lowered her voice immediately she saw me coming. I sat on the sofa not too far from her. She got up and went outside with the phone tucked to her ears. When she came back into the room, she still didn’t look alright. I asked, “Is everything alright?” She said, “Yeah I’m fine.” Her answer didn’t support her actions but I let her be.

I returned from work one evening and she was not in the house. I asked her junior sister and she said she came home in the afternoon and left. I called her phone. It was call waiting. Five minutes later I called again. It was call waiting. “Who is this girl talking to that she can’t answer my phone?” Minutes later, she got home. Again, she was not looking alright. She gave fake smiles and laughed at things that weren’t funny. She wasn’t telling me anything so I decided to probe. I checked her phone that night. I wasn’t looking for any conversation in particular. I read everything. I listened to all voice notes that had been sent to her. I found what the problem was.

The problem was coming from the wedding she attended. The girl whose wedding she attended was accusing her of stealing an envelop a group of people presented as a gift. My wife denied it. She said she presented everything that day before leaving the premises. They were going on and on with it until the girl said, “If I don’t see that envelope by the end of the week, I will curse whoever stole that envelope.” I put the phone down and started going through her things to see if I would find anything. I didn’t have to search too hard. I checked her handbag and there was an envelope with a name of a group written behind it. It contained an amount of GHC465.

The next morning I asked her, “How much was in the envelope?” She looked away. I said, “You think the girl was joking when she said she was going to curse? I believe her. I don’t want you to die. Just say how much was inside. I will call her myself and send the money to her.” She said, “It was GHc1200” I asked, where is the rest of the money? You can’t tell me you’ve spent it within this short period.” She said, “I used some as my lorry far when I was coming back and the rest…and the rest…” She couldn’t mention what she did with the rest.

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That same day, I called the girl and apologized to her. I sent her the money through mobile money and pleaded with her to keep it on low for my sake. She herself was very embarrassed. She said, “We’ve been friends for a while now. I trusted her.” I said, “Kindly forgive her. She’s deeply embarrassed and had been crying all day. Forgive us.”

I called her parents and told them everything. They were shocked. Her father asked, “Since when did she start being a thief? She’s my daughter. I know her very well. She never for once stole from me.” She went to spend some days with her parents. When she returned, she pleaded for the last chance. But to me, it isn’t about the number of chances. I love her. I want her to change. The embarrassment is too much and I want her to see it from that point and change for good.

A lot of people suggested therapy. We couldn’t find any. The only person we could open up to was our pastor. She had been attending counseling sessions with him. They pray about it. She fasts sometimes. With the kind of effort she’s putting in, I believe there would be some positive results. I only hope things change because it would be very hard for me to go through another round of embarrassment because of her.   

–Arthur

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