She was living with her senior brother when I found her. I liked her but her senior brother didn’t want to see me around her. The first time he came home and met me in the house with her, he made the point clear to me that he didn’t want to see me in his house again. Right in front of me, he insulted his sister and called her cheap for bringing a man to his house. I left the house with embarrassment written all over my face. When I got home she called me. She told me, “Don’t mind my brother. There’s a reason he did what he did. At the right time, I will tell you.”

I liked her but I hadn’t proposed to her. We were taking our time to know each there before anything. One night I was talking to her on the phone when she told me to hold on. I heard her talking to a male voice which I presumed was her brother. He asked questions and she answered. Later he asked her, “It’s past 10pm. Who is it that you’re talking to on the phone?” I heard her saying, “I’m not talking to anyone. I’m just on social media going through what is happening there.” The next thing I heard was her brother screaming hello on the phone; “Who is that and why are you talking to her at this ungodly hour? Your name is Ato. I hope you’re not the same guy I warned not to talk to my sister again?” 

I was quiet on the phone until he finished talking and cut the line. 

I didn’t call again until a few minutes later when she called me. She said, “I hope you’re not minding him. He’s just a devil trying to spoil my happiness but I won’t let him succeed.” She called me her happiness and I knew the time was right for me to propose to her so I did. She told me, “You have to wait for a while. I’m not playing hard to get but there’s a back story to my brother’s behaviour and I need you to know before anything else.” Each day when I called, I asked what the issue was and she kept postponing it. 

One day she told me, “Do you know my brother is not my full brother? My mother had him before she got married to my dad. When my dad died he took over the role of a dad because he was gainfully employed and could take care of us. Right after university, I came to live with him.” I was waiting for her to tell me the reason for his behaviour but she told me to hold on for a while. 

All that while she was doing her national service. Right after her national service, she came to visit me and told me why her brother was being mean to me. When she completed school, she came to live with her brother before the national service. She said one day she visited her brother at work and her brother’s boss saw her. “I don’t know what he told my brother but from there my brother asked me to visit him at work every afternoon and each time I went around he asked me to go and greet his boss,” she told me. Unbeknownst to her, her brother was trying to push her to his boss.

It was the reason his boss accepted her to do her national service there. While there, the boss proposed to her and she said no. Her brother threatened to stop taking care of her if she didn’t say yes. She told me, “The boss is a widower with three kids. I’m not ready to be a mother to three kids while I’m also a kid myself.” Once I got the reason behind her brother’s behaviour, I was energized to fight and win her. I was working and didn’t have any dependents on me. “Even if her brother stops taking care of her, I will personally take it from there,” I told myself.

After service, she told her brother that there was no way she was going to date his boss. Her brother got angry and even reported her to their mother. Their mother chose the side of her son and both of them pressured her to choose the man. She had accepted my proposal and I was expecting the start of a beautiful relationship but nothing of that sort happened. Her brother kept threatening to eject her from his house if she continued to be defiant. We knew she needed to find a job immediately so we started searching together. 

I talked to friends and asked them to talk to their friends for me. I made it look like a life-and-death situation and they listened. Six months or so later, she got a job. Before the job, the boss kept coming to see her in her brother’s house, professing love and promising to build a house for her and also make her a head of a department. It was frustrating for her and for me but I loved her and wanted to make things right so she could leave her brother’s house. When she got the job, I gave her money and she added it to her savings to rent a place. Her brother didn’t want her to leave but she had to lie that the job came with accommodation. The only mistake she did was taking her brother to the place she was going to live.

Soon the boss got to know the place too and the two of them frequented there. It got tough fighting a battle like that all alone. She didn’t want to offend her brother and her mom so whatever they told her, she tried to do it, even when she didn’t like it. One day she asked me, “Can you give me a month or two to settle this issue once and forever? I will tell my brother my mind. I will convince my mom and tell the boss to leave my life alone. Family is involved so I have to act slowly. I will need you to give me time.” 

I agreed. Four months later she still wasn’t sure. It looked like she was falling for the pressure from her family. She didn’t pick up my calls and didn’t want to see me. I told her, “It’s ok to be confused but if you won’t allow me to be closer to you while you go through this then it means you’ve made a decision and it’s not me you want. I will leave so you do whatever you want.”

We broke up. I was hurting but it was better to go through the hurt once and for all than keep hurting every day. 

Four months later, she called me. She asked, “I’m ok now. Is there a place in your heart for me?” I didn’t even think about the answer before I said, “No.” I’ve moved on. I don’t want to go through all that problems again.” 

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I was lying but I wanted to see how far she could go to make things work again. She kept calling and telling me about her life and how peaceful it was without the troubles from her family. I asked her, “So the boss is off the frame?” She answered, “Yeah. I’ve made him understand that nothing would make me marry him. He understood it and left my life alone.” I asked, “How about your brother?” She answered, “He’s still angry with me but that’s his own problem.”

We talked every day and somehow those conversations drew us back together again. We started again from the scratch, from where there was no interference from her brother. We dated for a year without any trouble. At some point, she came to stay at my place. I told her, “Let’s get married so you get to stay here officially.” She agreed and we started the preparation. Her mom was very cool with me and my family was also happy to see her. The day her brother saw me, he said, “Oh so you are the one. I should have known.” 

He started fighting against our relationship. He tried convincing his mother that I was the wrong choice for his sister. I said in my head, “Not this time round, bro. You won’t have your way.” I went to see his mom one day and narrated the whole story to her. “He doesn’t even know me. He saw me just once in his house and asked me to leave and I left. I’m not a bad person, you can ask your daughter. If I didn’t have good intentions about her, I wouldn’t be here in the first place.” It was her son who was feeding her so she was careful not to get him angry but she took my side and asked me to go on with the preparation.

When it got to the time to get married, he made it clear that he won’t be part of the ceremony but the annoying thing was, he went around destroying my name to his family members asking them not to partake in the process. He even told some members that I used juju on his sister so she would choose me over the rich man. It was funny and I’m glad the family saw through his desperation and still accepted me. He wasn’t there but we had a beautiful wedding. Instead of sending his sister a congratulatory message he sent a message that sounded like a final warning; “You’ve made your choice but when anything goes wrong, don’t ever think I’m your brother because I won’t come and fight for you. You are on your own.”

When my wife showed me the message, I laughed. I took the phone and responded to the text, “God will take care of me so you have nothing to worry about.”

We’ve been married for six years and still counting. We’ve seen good days and bad days. We’ve fought hard battles and lost but we continued growing stronger. 

I Introduced Him To My Favourite Prostitute And He Snatched Her From Me–Beads Media

When we had our second born his mother called him to be present at the naming ceremony. He asked his mother if the child was going to be named after him. When his mother said no, he asked, “So why are you asking me to be there? To do what? To play what role exactly?” He didn’t come but nothing was missing. To date, he’s still lurking in the shadow, maybe praying for something wrong to happen to us so he could say, “I told you so” but we keep jumping over hurdles and winning over obstacles because the kind of love we share is that strong to conquer anything that would be thrown at us.

–Ato Brobbey   

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