Cheater

He told me lies and I fell for them hook, line and sinker. I left my boyfriend because of him. I thought he was the real deal……

Fresh out of secondary school, I had several opportunities I wanted to explore before going to the university so I took a year break to do other things.

I was in a very healthy relationship with Marcus. He was in the university so he was hardly around. We’ve been dating for two years and he was a pretty decent guy. There were no mobile phones back in the day, so we could only communicate through letters.

I took up a part time job in a boutique while I also attended my computer classes. It was a rainy day and there were no buses or cabs available on my route so it was a huge relief when a car pulled up beside me and offered me a ride home. That was how I met “Cheater”. He seemed like a nice person and we hit it off as friends almost immediately.

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He became a regular face at my computer school and would offer me a ride home every evening. I didn’t realize when I began to compare him with Marcus. I felt he was older and more more mature and more exposed too. I was starting to like him even though I knew it wasn’t right. In my letters to Marcus, I’d tell him everything that was happening to me but skip the gist about Cheater.

Cheater was a smooth talker. He knew I had a boyfriend but it didn’t stop him from expressing his feelings towards me. He told me lies and I fell for them hook, line and sinker. I left my boyfriend because of him. I thought he was the real deal. I didn’t even have the decency to break up with Marcus properly, I just wrote him a letter to tell him that it was over between us. He didn’t reply my letter and I never saw him again.

When I started dating Cheater, everything seemed nice at first. I met his friends and his siblings and they all liked me and treated me really well but I later found out that they acted the same way with every girl he showed them.

I never believed in sex before marriage but Cheater was able to convince me to sleep with him and that was the genesis of our troubles. My period was late and I was worried. I voiced my fears to Cheater and he suddenly became scarce. He stopped picking me up from the computer school, he stopped visiting me at home and he was hardly at his office or in his house. I just couldn’t reach him. I was dying inside and couldn’t tell anyone what I was going through. The only person I could confide in was my Aunt Julie. She wasn’t a blabber mouth and she was the most reasonable person in my family… I knew she would keep my secret. Thankfully, she got in touch with Cheater and he showed up a few days later.

I remember his look when he came to see me that day. He sized me up from head to toe, then he hissed. He look at me with contempt before he tossed some notes at me. Then he gave me a piece of paper which contained the address of a hospital and a doctor’s name. “Make sure you see him on Thursday, he’ll be expecting you”, these were the only words he spoke to me before he left.

A few weeks earlier, this guy was professing his undying love to me. He told me that I was wife material and he wanted to marry me. He even promised to wait till I was through with school then he’ll make me his wife. He was nice because he wanted to sleep with me, he took advantage of my naivety and he dumped me like used tissue after he had what he wanted. I felt betrayed. I felt used. But I felt wiser.

Cheater made me do two things I never conceived would ever happen to me…sex before marriage and an abortion. I couldn’t forgive myself for a very long time but I’m grateful for my Aunty Julie who stayed with me and guided me through it all. We became closer after that incident and she became my compass, leading me all the way.

I heard from mutual friends that Cheater got another girl pregnant and tried to dodge his responsibility but the girl’s mom came after him and threatened him with “juju” so he was forced to marry her. I was happy that he met his match and now he was stuck with a girl he didn’t love. Karma dealt him a sucker punch.

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So a few days ago, after a long day at work, I was going through all my messages and replying to some of them when I noticed a message from a Randi number. It was a long note about mercy and forgiveness and it made no sense. The senders name was Chester and I had no recollection of anyone by that name so I texted back for more details. The person responded with a picture and I realized it was Cheater. I had gotten so used to calling him cheater that I forgot his real name.

He told of how he had been unhappy in his marriage and how he has never stopped thinking about what life with me would have been. I didn’t have any response for him so I blocked and deleted his contact. Cheater is a part of my past that I will never like to revisit.