We were a perfect family, my step mother, my step sister, my father, and me. I am the first born and my mother passed away in a car accident when I was still very young so my dad had to get remarried in order to get a mother to take care of me. It also brought me a young sister and we grew up loving each other so deeply. I protected her from those students at school who would bully her. Every time she got into a fight at school, I would get in between and fight for her. I was like her shield. I remember one day when one of the students slapped her and she came crying to me, I went and fought the girl and ended up getting suspended from school. She adored me and would listen to me, she trusted me and would tell me everything that went on in her life. She would tell me how her day went at school, who she admired and the number of friends she had at school, too. I loved and adored her, too. I was like a second mother to her, she believed I could sort out every problem in her life.
I can’t say that about our mother, though, because she didn’t like me that much. She talked bad about me all the time. She never appreciated anything I did, whether I finished house chores or cooked dinner. One day, as we were having dinner, she scolded me for not putting enough salt in the food. She asked me to stop eating and go to my room. As I was getting up to leave, my father stopped me and told me to sit down and continue with my dinner. She got angry and left the dining table immediately. Let her go, you two can finish up your dinner,” said my dad. My dad adored us all.
As time went on, I fell in love with one of the richest men in the country, a man called James. We met at one of his conferences and it was love at first sight. Since it’s our culture for elders to find grooms and brides, my father was at the same time arranging for my marriage with some man. Little did I know that he was the same guy I liked. He was married before but his wife had died during a robbery at a mall. I wasn’t told details about his wife’s death, and I really didn’t care, either. I couldn’t wait to be his wife. Without hesitation, our wedding was arranged because he was in love with me too.
The wedding was spectacular and was all over the news. It was a grand wedding just as I had dreamt of as a child. There were many guests from different places since my husband-to-be was a very big man in the city. They danced for us and I received so many gifts from my in-laws. The wedding was traditional so we dressed up in simple attire. People were free to wear anything. My husband’s family loved me so much and both our families got along. James had a younger brother called Braxton, and at the wedding my young sister and Braxton got along so well: one could say they liked each other very much. They looked at each other with passion and danced together, too.
One month later, we got a phone call from some unknown number claiming that James’s ex wife Letasi was alive and that she didn’t die during the robbery. Everything became so complicated. The family welcomed her back to the house as James’s first wife. Her first move was framing me in order to destroy my image in front of the family members. She knew that no one would doubt her if she told the family that I wanted to kill her since she’s the first wife. She made it look like I was jealous of her and wanted to get rid of her to be James’s first wife. She told me her plans of destroying the family so as to provoke me. I went to the family and told them everything. Everyone doubted me for she denied everything in front of everyone. She looked so innocent so no one believed me. I was looked at as the bad one. A few hours after my failed attempt to tell my family the truth, she came to my room bragging how she would destroy the family without them knowing it. Little did she know that I was recording everything she said on my phone.
After she left and I had her confession, I went out to the family members and played the recording. She was shocked that I exposed her so fast, for she underestimated my capabilities. She didn’t expect me to be that smart. She raged with fury because I had spoiled her plans. The next day she dropped her second plan: she had studied the family well and she knew exactly where to attack.
Braxton was the most loved in the family, and kidnapping him would be her revenge. So that day, Braxton had gone out for a walk to get some fresh air when Letasi’s goons attacked him and kidnapped him by drugging him with chloroform. She called James and told him that if he wanted his brother alive, he must go alone to Christ church where they would get remarried and have everything transferred to her name. Since James loved his brother so much he rushed to the church. I had to come up with a plan to rescue both my husband from marriage and his brother from death, for I knew how much my sister loved Braxton and wouldn’t be able to live without him.
Before leaving the house to rescue them, I knelt down and prayed. When I got up I knew exactly what to do. I knew that my husband would have wanted me to save his brother first. Before leaving, my young sister made me promise to bring back the love of her life safe and sound. I promised her that I would bring him back and also bring James back. I took my car and drove as fast as I could. I found two paths, one marked with a sign post where it was written “Braxton” and and the second path marked by a sign post with the word “James.”
I took the first path to find Braxton first. I found that Letasi had built up a fresh mound with sand and bricks over Braxton and left him no breathing space. Braxton was running out of breath. He would have died if I had taken more time to get there. Immediately I broke down the mound with my hands as fast as I could. Luckily the mound was freshly built so it didn’t take me time to dismantle it and help him out.
I had little time left to save James from getting married to Letasi because I knew that James would do anything to save his brother. And the only way to save him was by getting married to Letasi. And the only way I could save my husband from marrying that woman was by saving his brother and then rushing to him, that way he would know that his brother was safe and the marriage would then be called off. Braxton himself told me to rush to go save his brother. He assured me that he was fine and that he would reach home safely. I rushed out to the second path to go save James. I called the police on my way there. I knew if I had gone with the police at once she might end up shooting James with a gun since she had warned me not to go with any police. I was right on time to stop the wedding from taking place. As soon as I arrived the police came through, too. They arrested Letasi and the men she had hired to kidnap Braxton.
We got home and Braxton wasn’t there, yet he should have been home long ago. Little did we know that Letasi had a plan B. She had sent another group of her men to capture Braxton and put him back to the mound with no breathing space so that he could die. She wanted it to look like I didn’t save my brother in law so that she could create a rift between me and my sister. She wanted her to think that I didn’t try to save the love of her life and her plan worked. By the time we got there, Braxton was already dead and my sister blamed me for not trying to save him.
As time went by, my sister’s hatred only got stronger. She wanted to separate me and my husband. I learned later that she compelled James to pretend to hate me for she knew that I couldn’t bear my husband hating me. She would threaten to kill me if James didn’t follow her orders, and since James loved me, he had to play along with her demand. At the time, I couldn’t understand why he hated me. How can someone who loves you so much all of a sudden hate you so much the next day. How is it possible, what’s going on here? This thought went on and on in my mind and I just couldn’t figure it out. He wouldn’t even eat the food that I made. I tried to figure out who could be behind all this. I knew that my husband couldn’t just start hating me out of nowhere. I had a strong belief that someone was making him do all this. I had to come up with a plan to get to the bottom of all this.
I knew that if I pretended to be in a coma, the person behind all this would come and confess. So that afternoon I met with one of the doctors at the city hospital and made all the arrangements. That evening the family got a call from the city hospital saying I had an accident and I had slipped into a coma. The whole family came to the hospital to see me. When everyone else left and it was just my sister and me, my sister started pouring her heart out. She started confessing how she hated me and would make my life miserable. She wanted to give me a slow death. There and then I got up and gave her a hot slap on her cheeks. I thought she would come to her senses but no, that didn’t happen. I was so shocked and couldn’t believe that my own sister that I loved so much would do this to me.
I was heartbroken but I had no choice but to call the police to arrest her. She attempted to kill me with a knife. If it wasn’t for my husband coming back to the hospital room, I would have died. Thankfully he grabbed the knife from behind her back. I couldn’t recognize her anymore. She had completely changed into a different person. The police came and arrested her and she was found guilty for attempted murder. When she got arrested, my husband and I lived peacefully with no presence of hate anymore. We were happy ever after.
13 February, 2023
