We found each other at a church program. I found her interesting to be with and she found me “attractive,” in her own words. So a month or so after knowing each other, I shot my shot and she said yes. Two fresh graduates from the university. We had no jobs and had no money. All we had was our future ahead of us.

And then I had a job offer in Accra.

I moved from Kumasi to Accra to start working. Everything was good. I was calling her every day and she was calling too. Later, she found a job in Kumasi. Coincidentally, she was in the same office as a school mate of mine. I even jokingly told her that my mate was going to protect her from being snatched from me.

A few months later, my friend started making some allegations; “Akwasi, I don’t see Dorothy’s movement well these days ooo. There seems to be something going on between her and one of the big guys in our office.”

I had no reason to doubt my friend but I played it safe. When I asked her about it, she denied it; “There’s nothing going on between me and the man. He’s even married. What am I going to do with a married man?”

After two years together and a few visits, we were ready to move our relationship a step up. Our marriage date was set in April this year. The church didn’t approve the date due to clashing events. We settled for August 2020 so the wedding can coincide with her birthday.

In March this year, the world started falling apart. in mid-March, she was given a directive to start working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I kept going to work until the president announced the lockdown. The announcement was made on Friday night and that same Friday night, she agreed to travel to Accra to stay with me until the end of the lockdown. Early Sunday morning, she was in Accra with me. My quarantine mate.

We cooked some food, did some cleaning and played along while we cleaned together. We had a beautiful meal together and later in the night settled on some movies. That was when she brought out a bottle of wine from her bag. She asked, “Have you ever got drunk before?” I said, “Yeah, but long ago.” She said, “A friend gave me this wine on my birthday. I couldn’t drink it because I don’t take alcohol but I’m ready to try it now to see how it feels like to get drunk.”

We took a glass each and continued watching the movie. She poured herself another glass and I did the same. Before the end of the movie, we had almost finished the wine. That was when she started behaving weirdly. She kept talking and talking and talking. She got up from the sofa, held my hand and asked us to dance meanwhile there was no music playing. I held her waist and she let herself down on the sofa amidst hysterical laughter. I told her, “You’re drunk.”

She picked the bottle and started reading what was on it. She said, “Why would Martin buy me this wine knowing very well it has a strong alcoholic content?”

Martin was the name of the guy my friend told me about.

I tried asking her more questions and she kept answering them while laughing. She went out with Martin on her birthday. Martin took her to a hotel and they had sex. I asked her how many times they’ve had sex, she answered, “I haven’t been counting.” She told me about one time when Martin’s wife called her to insult her and told me how caring Martin was and how he gave her a lot of money even before she asked.

I had my phone ready and videoed everything she said.

My heart was on fire. It took strength and the loud voice in my head to avoid laying a hand on her. I was shaking with anger and was ready to pounce on her but she laid there innocently and kept blurting out secrets upon secrets.

When she slept. I was awake waiting for the morning to come so I can ask her questions. At some point, she started throwing up. I watched her. She slept again and didn’t wake up until around 10am the next morning. I had cried all night and had even called that my friend to tell him what had happened. He said, “I knew it but you didn’t believe me enough.”

She asked a lot of questions when she woke up but I didn’t answer any of them. She asked, “Is everything alright?” I just played out the recording. She stopped watching at some point and said, “You took advantage of me. Because I was drunk, you pushed me to say things that are not true.” I was so angry, I rushed up to her and held her neck but my conscience prevailed once again.

She said it wasn’t true what she said in the video. “I was drunk and said a lot of ‘nonfa’ but you’re believing it because you already have some suspicion.” I was so angry but deep down, all I wanted was for her to confess so we take it from there. But she insisted what she said in the video was rather a lie.

We needed only two days to destroy what we’ve used over two years to build.

She couldn’t go back to Kumasi due to the lockdown but if I continued staying with her, I might have ended up harming her or something so I picked few things of mine and left the apartment for her. I’m now living with a friend who also thinks what she said in the video might be a lie because she wasn’t in her senses. I asked him, “How much did she pay you to defend her?”

—Akwasi, Ghana

#LoveOnALockDown

#SilentBeads