I was deep in sleep when I heard someone touching my doorknob. It was around 4 pm, so I assumed that it was too early for thieves to try breaking in. But now, I think robbers can steal happiness and peace because that’s exactly what Grace took away from me since then.
Grace and I had been having issues since her cheating unravelled right in front of my eyes. I called her one night and a man answered her phone. The man on the other side seemed pretty pissed but super interested in who I was and the kind of relationship I had with Grace.
“Hello, who are you and why are you calling my girlfriend?” He demanded.
I was so surprised that it took me roughly sixty seconds to process the words he just said, and he impatiently called out to me again.
“Hello? Do you want to pretend you didn’t hear me? I know who you are, I’ve been closely following your chats for days now.”
I cleared my throat and asked,
“Why are you answering someone else’s phone? Is Grace okay?” I really wanted to be the bigger person, maybe because then, in my heart, it felt like admitting to being her boyfriend would probably put her in harm’s way.
“She just went out to buy supper. She’ll be gone for a short while. Are you her man?” He questioned again.
I had been standing at my door, staring into the darkness as this drama was unfolding, so I stepped in, reached for the switch and switched on the lights.
“You probably should ask her that,” I replied.
“I think you are the man she’s been cheating on me with.” He added, his voice had an anticipation, probably that I would either agree or deny his claims.
“Do not do anything you might regret later, that’s all.” I hang up the phone.
I went into the bathroom, I probably sat on the toilet seat for an hour and a half, mindlessly scrolling through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, trying to forget what just happened. I was on Twitter when this text from a new number came in.
She’s a cheat. I’ve confronted her and she seems to care so much about how you feel instead of me. I’ve peacefully left her house. I’m sorry bro, I never knew she had a man.
There was this urge to respond to the message. I had questions and was damn sure Grace would be elusive. Much as I tried to act calm, I lost my cool when she called me.
“Brian? Brian, he’s lying. He’s just a friend that’s interested in me. For real. Don’t believe him.” She sounded hysterical.
“How are you doing too, Grace?” I asked. She paused.
“I’m fine. Brian… I can explain.” She said.
“There’s nothing to explain Grace. You know this is proof of my doubts. I’ve had enough.” I said the reality that I had been sitting in the loo for too long, hitting me.
“Goodbye Grace”. I hung up, as she screamed on the other side, begging me to listen to her.
Our relationship had been long-distance for three years because she was pursuing her education in a different county. We had plans to get married, as I had already introduced her to my family. Everyone approved of her, maybe because of the promising career ahead of her, that she would be a backbone to my enterprising self and I loved it.
I was trying so hard to resist the urge to pick up her calls. I wanted reason, something to help us put this bad dream away and move on as if nothing happened, but the thought of her with another made everything so hard. Resentment built in me slowly, I had probably fallen asleep in the wee hours in the morning, troubling my soul with imagination.
It was surprising when the door flung open and Grace walked in, smiling broadly. I sat up on the couch, rubbing my eyes, observing her, quietly. She made herself comfortable and I jumped on the first chance to ask.
“Grace, what are you doing here?”
“I care about our relationship so much. We need to talk, ” she answered, placing her dusty shoes on the shoe rack.
“We can do that on call. You ought to be in school,” I responded. Somehow, I felt wanted, because she travelled all the way to surprise me, but the reason for her travel robbed the joy in everything.
“You are not answering my calls or texts, Beau. What was I supposed to do?” She called me Beau, the pet name she gave me. I smiled, but the smile died down in a huff.
She stayed for close to a week, trying to impress me at the slightest chance. I wanted to hold on to her, to the future we’d promised each other, but my ego wouldn’t let me. Making love to her became harder than I ever expected, I lost interest every time she touched my member. Romance had left the chat.
Her desperation to make things work quickly grew to disgust when she realized that it only drew me far away. I came home late and left early morning. When the week lapsed, I expected she would pack her bags and leave for school, but she didn’t. She became so vile, started accusing me of cheating to take revenge on her, and took things far when she started snooping around my phone.
But you always find what you are looking for. Like the night she found texts from Babra. I never told her about Babra, because she preferred it that way. The mother of my seven-year-old son. We had been fooling around at a Friend’s wedding and she got pregnant. I supported her decision to keep the child and respected her even more when she offered to co-parent instead of forcing a relationship. She went on to get married three years later, but I still offered my financial support to Babra and her husband, with whom we enjoyed a good friendship. It’s by far, the most cordial, mutually respectful parenting relationship I have ever seen.
Babra had alerted me that our son had broken his arm while playing soccer, and Grace went ballistic on me. She was pointing fingers, demanding answers and putting up a show because she “caught me cheating”. It felt like she had been waiting for that gotcha moment for far too long, so she rode on the wave.
Grace demanded that we call it a truce, because she caught me cheating, just like I had. But it felt different to me because unlike her, I never set out to catch her cheating. Furthermore, my son was already born, before I met her and his privacy, was conserved in respect to his mother’s marriage. You can guess how this panned out eventually because Grace made a point of demonizing me with this newfound information.
I grew tired of the nagging, the constant fights and misunderstandings so I decided to temporarily move into my younger brother’s house. I regret this decision, mainly because of what Grace did. She literally tore my whole house apart, desperate to get my attention. The caretaker called me late into the night, inquiring about breaking things in my house.
She had broken everything in the house, from the TV to the fridge, the cutlery, decor pieces, name it. Even the windows had been broken.
“How do you feel about yourself right now?” I asked her after seeing my torn house.
“I just want you to see that I love you, Brian.” She said amid tears.
“By ruining everything I have worked hard for? There’s nothing to come back here to. Now I don’t have a home, all thanks to you. Please, Grace, go back to school tomorrow.” I said.
I left feeling downcast like I was being dragged into murky waters. I was wondering how somehow beautiful could have such a terrible ending, but I was done. Not even her tears moved me that day.
Grace has never gone back to school to clear her degree. Her desperation to get my attention led her into a married man’s arms, who impregnated her and rented her a cheap bedsitter just close to my new place. In the first few months, we’d sneak around and have sex, until I got wind of her affair with the married man and it only reminded me that we were done. Not even casual sex would rekindle the love and admiration I had for Grace.
I’ve since married too, but living close to Grace has been hectic. My wife insists that we continue staying in the same estate because Grace has followed me around the past three apartment changes I made as if monitoring me. Nowadays, it feels like there’s a silent war between my wife and Grace, but it’s never gotten physical.
It breaks me to think that she gave up her education for a man, me, and it only gets worse. I wish her life panned out differently, but she made her bed, mustn’t she lay on it or what do I know?
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