From the stories in part 2 of this series, am sure you will agree with me when I say that they were all very lucky because, they discovered the deceit early. Imagine if they had entered into something more serious like marriage only to discover later on that their husband or wife wasn’t who they pretended to be. Well as for the man in this next story, he wasn’t that lucky.

I met James sitting dejected in front of his house, feeling concerned, I approached him and asked what the problem was, he told me that he once met a very gorgeous and caring lady whom he fell he love with. After being in a relationship with her for just three months, he decided that she was the lady he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

But according to him, all hell was let loose two weeks after their wedding. She suddenly became disrespectful and would challenge him at every opportunity she got. He could no longer have a decent conversation with his wife anymore because of her rude attitude.

He then wondered how the kind and respectful lady he had once knew, could suddenly change to become the monster that was making life unbearable for him. The situation worsened up to the point that she would embarrass him in front of his friends and family. She would even insult his mother and siblings on some occasions.

He told me that she continued to be disrespectful towards him for more than six months until he could no longer endure the marriage and had to file for divorce. But the divorce itself wasn’t easy because she was given sole custody of their only child and he only got visiting rights, and even at that, she would still prevent him from seeing his son sometimes.

Though what was causing him pain now was the recent news he heard that his wife had slept with one of his friends two days before their wedding and was even going out with several men during the course of their marriage. He felt like a fool. How could he have been so blinded by love that he failed to see her for who she truly was? And according to him, he regretted ever meeting her.

In my own little wisdom, I think what James failed to realize was that the lady he married was really desperate to settle down and she only pretended to possess the characteristics of a good wife which she knew James was looking for. And once she had achieved her aim, there was no need to pretend anymore. So, his wife did not change during course of their marriage, she only revealed her true character. Let’s consider this next story:

I saw Elizabeth in the ER while paying a visit to my cousin who was ill. She was sitting on the hospital bed with bruises and bandages all over her face. She narrated her own story to me of how she met a young man named Luke. He was the most caring and kindhearted man she had ever encountered and what really drew her to him was the fact that he engaged in a lot of charity works. To her, he was the type of man she had always dreamed of.

They fell in love and got married in a very glamorous wedding within a period of six months. But three months into their marriage, Luke began to keep late nights and when he did come home at about 2am in the morning, he would be very drunk. And whenever she confronted him about the issue, he would suddenly become aggressive and would begin hitting her.

When he is sober in the morning, he would apologize for his behavior and would even promise never to hit her again and also never to stay out late. But the same thing would repeat itself again the very next day and it continued like that for about four months until one very unfortunate night.

Luke had come home drunk like he always does and when she wanted to remind him of his promise never to drink or keep late nights again, he descended on her and punched her until she became unconscious and was rushed to the hospital by some neighbors. She later lost her three months old pregnancy.

As she sat there wallowing in pain with tears gushing down her already reddened eyes, she told me that she never imagined that the humble, kind and caring man she thought she married would suddenly become a drunkard and a boxer that would turn her into a punching bag.

Now, just like James, what Elizabeth had failed to realize was that Luke had only pretended to be the humble and caring man she thought she knew. He has always been a drunkard and was very aggressive from the beginning. He only pretended to be different in order to get Elizabeth to marry him.

So as you can see from these two stories, they were not as lucky as the people in the previous part. They failed to see through the deceit until things got really serious and by then, the irreparable damage was already done. That is the implication of not tackling the problem early. The damage will be greater and more devastating later on.