I ENTICED MY FIANCÉ WITH CHARMS
Part 2
The moment felt surreal. Was I just imagining everything? Did Mark really hit me up? It was at that point I remembered the ritual I had carried out the previous night. “OMG! It worked!” I screamed out loud. As much as I thought conducting such a ritual was wrong, the guilt sort of faded at every thought of Mark being back in my life.
“Hello Mark, I found your missed calls.” I spoke calmly into the phone as Mark answered. “Oh God, Tina, thank you so much for calling me back. I was dying to hear from you.” I wondered if I heard that right. The man who had ghosted me was suddenly in all feelings for me. “Please, just tell me where you are, I want to come over and apologize in person” he said. I wanted to play hard to get but I was worried like, what if he disappears again? Hence, I ended up telling him to meet me at the BH.
After the phone call, my heart was jubilating again after 2 weeks of despair and sadness. It seemed to me that everything was going to be just fine. I was going to have my man, probably have a small family with him, show off to the mean girls and most importantly, I wasn’t going to die single.
About an hour after the call, I heard a knock on the door. I knew it couldn’t be no one but Mark, despite the little doubt I had cause I somehow thought he wouldn’t remember my door. But off course it was him, he had a bouquet of flowers and a teddy bear in his hands when I opened the door. It felt like a scene from a movie except, I was the one starring in it and receiving the bouquet.
“Tina please forgive me, I have been bad but I promise to do better. I want to do right by you now. Please forgive me for going quiet on you” Mark, whilst sobbing said to me. I loved seeing the vulnerability he portrayed, it made me more thirsty for him. “It’s alright, Mark. I’m not mad at you anymore”. I said. We carried on to my bed where we talked, cuddled and made love, and it was better than the first one.
By the time I got to 4th year, Mark and I had dated for over 3 years. Those two years didn’t come by easily, we had the good times and the bad times where Mark had at least ghosted me 34 times and once attempted to almost chock me to death. Apparently, I didn’t know that I had to iterate the ritual everyday if I were to keep Mark attached to me. Those were the rules that I missed. It became exhausting and I felt the God in me dying every time I recited the ritual. It drove me crazy but my love and obsession for Mark drove me crazier.
On my graduation, Mark showered me with so many gifts, literally the best gifts a lady could possibly want. Every moment of this day was breath taking, but what was even more breath taking, was the last surprise Mark had for the day.
My family, had organized a graduation party for me which was to take place after the graduation, so immediately the graduation ended, we rushed to the party.
It was at that party Mark would get down on his left knee, pull out a beautiful small box from his pocket, open it and take out a radiant ring, point it towards me and ask me to marry him right in front of my family and friends. My heart melted and shook in excitement, my friends and family were all cheering us on. “Yes” I screamed in great joy. “I will marry you, Mark”.
I was living the life I dreamed of. I had the man I wanted, I was soon going to get the job I worked hard for and my family was super proud of me. Everything was going good and I was looking forward to the future with a hope of more greatness to be achieved with Mark, until the next night after my graduation when a strange text from a Facebook account would pop up on my phone and change my entire perception.
Mark was spending the night at my new apartment that night when a strange text from a Facebook account arrived. I could only see it as a message request cause it clearly was not from an added friend. When I opened it, I realized it wasn’t just one message but a lot more others and photos were there. Some of them were sent as early as 2019 when I met Mark and the recent being a month before and day after graduation.
I have never felt like such a horrible person as I did the time I read all those messages and saw those images. My heart broke and I cried to God to just remind me of what I had done and whom I had become. I was so far gone that I didn’t realize I was causing pain to innocent people.
The sender was Mark’s wife, a woman I didn’t know existed until that night. A woman who was begging me to leave her husband and if not for her, at least for her 5 year old twins, who needed their father. she told me Mark had sent them packing back to her hometown because he wanted to be with me. My heart broke when I looked at a photo she took after Mark physically abused her and the kids, the time they travelled back to Lusaka to plead with him to at least support the kids. He however, assaulted them and warned them never to disturb him again.
I couldn’t stop tearing up, the evil I had done was right in front of me reflecting just how wicked I was. I stole and trapped another woman’s man and father, kept him in bondage for over 3 years. Depriving his family of peace and support. I was so obsessed with Mark that I didn’t care to look into his past, all I wanted was to be in his future. A future I fantasized about, a future of us starting a small family and living happily ever after but that future, it looks unattainable.
As I look at Mark now, I’m stuck between living in this lie with him and emancipating and restoring his life and that of his dear ones but at whatever the cost, God help me.
~Tash
