The Apartment My Boyfriend Rented For Me Is Close To Where He Lives With His Wife

I found out he was married when our relationship was over four months old. We were having a conversation one evening when he had a slip of the tongue and mentioned his wife. He said, “I think my wife will be back then.” I asked, “Your wife? You have a wife?”

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Maybe he had forgotten I was the one he was talking to, but he had no choice but to come clean. He confirmed he was married with two kids. I didn’t blame him too much for hiding it. I should have asked questions, but since I didn’t see a ring on his finger and I was already into him, I assumed he was a safe bet.

Even when he showed signs that he had someone in his life, I didn’t ask questions. Why didn’t I know where he lived after dating him for that long? Why wouldn’t he answer my calls at certain hours of the night? Why was he in a hurry to go home sometimes when he was with me? All these pointed to the fact that there was a woman in his life, but I allowed his kindness and sweet kisses to blind me.

We had dated for only four months, but his kindness and love over my life had been palpable. They covered me in a peaceful shroud. When I was having issues with my landlord, he told me, “Leave everything to me. I’ll get you a new place so you can leave this landlord and his troubles behind.”

He indeed got me a very nice place and even paid a year’s rent for me. When I had to move in, he got me a truck to move my things. I was grateful. I even forgot he was a married man. He gave me more than any of the single guys I had dated.

When I started living at this new place, he came to me often without his car. He would call and say, “I’m on my way,” and a few minutes later, he would be there. I asked, “Were you around the vicinity already?” He answered, “Oh yeah, I wasn’t too far from here.”

One afternoon, he asked me to make rice balls and groundnut soup for him, and I did. When he came to eat, he came with his two kids. He said, “They are also hungry.”

I fed them first before I even looked at him. While he ate, his kids were all over me, calling me aunt and asking me to do things for them. By the time I realized it, we were out and about playing while he watched and ate. His first child is seven years old and the second is five.

It was these kids who told me they didn’t live far from where I live. We were outside when they pointed their house out to me. I was like, “Are you sure?” The first one said, “It’s true. You can ask Daddy.”

This guy has rented a place close to his house for me. According to him, he knew the guy living in the space and got it when the guy decided to move to a new place. “Why didn’t we discuss it? Why didn’t you tell me? What if your wife finds out? You want her to come here and disgrace me for all the community to know what I’ve been doing with you.”

“I know my wife. She won’t do that,” he said. “She won’t even know about it, let alone come here to fight you.”

I could risk everything but not this, and I told him. “You put me in harm’s way by doing this. I’ll either leave this place or you don’t come here again. Better still, we should stop what we are doing so we all will be safe.”

He asked me to trust him. I told him I couldn’t trust a man who didn’t tell me the truth until I found out. I asked him to show me his wife’s photo, and guess what? I had met her around twice already and had exchanged a word or two with her.

It made things worse for me, so I stopped picking up his calls. That was the first step in letting the relationship die, but this guy would come around crying, telling me I shouldn’t do that to him because I’m breaking his heart.

“When I call and you don’t pick up, you give me no option but to come here,” he told me.

So I pick up when he calls. We talk normally. He tells me he’s coming to visit, and I tell him I’m not in the house. Because of him, I’ve changed my shift at work. I work in the evenings when he’s home and go home in the morning when he’s at work. We are living parallel lives just to avoid him. He doesn’t know it’s intentional. He goes there to check when I’ve told him I wasn’t home.

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It’s been like this for the past few weeks. He paid a year’s rent. Once it’s expired, I’ll look for a place and move out. In my mind, what we have is over, and I’ll do everything to make it stay that way. He won’t know when I move out, and he won’t know my new place. I think it’s the best way to kill this danger I find myself in. I don’t know what he was thinking, maybe too much love for me so he doesn’t see the danger but I see it, and I’ll make it right.

—Jennifer

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