I want to share this based on my last story. Once upon a time, I thought doing the right thing always paid off. There were three of us—me and two of my closest friends. We were inseparable. We laughed together, cried together, and talked about everything. Until one night… everything changed. It was an ordinary evening when I got a message from one of their boyfriends—my friend’s man. The things he said? Uncomfortable. Inappropriate. It caught me completely off guard. I froze. Was this a mistake? Was he testing me? I couldn’t hold it in. I called our other friend—the third person in our clique. I explained what just happened, unsure of what to do. She listened carefully and said, “You have to tell her.” So I did. That same night, I called my friend. I asked her if she was alone, because what I was about to say needed privacy. She said she was. She lied. The phone was on loudspeaker. Barely two sentences in, her boyfriend snatched the phone and began raining insults on me. He twisted everything, painted me as jealous, said I was trying to break their relationship. And she… believed him. I felt numb. The more I tried to explain, the more it felt like screaming into a void.
That night, I cried myself to sleep. Not because I was insulted, but because someone I loved chose someone else’s lies over my truth. We drifted. She stopped talking to me. And I, quietly, moved on. Months passed. Then one day, she called. She was in tears. She had finally seen what I tried to warn her about. She apologized, begged me to forgive her, said she was sorry for not trusting me. I forgave her… but things were never the same again. Trust, once broken, doesn’t rebuild overnight. That experience scarred me more than I like to admit. And that’s exactly why, this time around with my cousin’s sister pretending to be in love with her boyfriend, I chose silence. Not because I’m jealous. Not because I have my eyes on anyone’s man. But because I’ve learned what happens when you speak up. You get misunderstood. You get insulted. You get judged for telling the truth. Now people online say I’m bitter. That I’m the problem. That I must be jealous. Let me be clear—I’m in a happy relationship. I’m not lacking love. But if standing on the side of truth makes me the villain again… then so be it. Because I’d rather lose people than lose myself.
Also read: My Cousin is in a Relationship She Doesn’t Want But She’s Still Pretending (Part 1)