"One Chance"

Darlene dated Tega for about four years, it was a relationship filled with intrigues, Tega was a player like the youngsters will put it. But why wouldn’t he be a player? He was 6ft5in tall and extremely handsome; even when he did not go after the girls, the girls went after him. Tega’s smile could melt any girl’s heart and he was so charming that he could make an old woman come alive with excitement.

Darlene had to endure a lot of heartbreaking moments with Tega, she was madly in love with him, but she was smart too and almost always found him out whenever he played a fast one on her. She admitted that their relationship was not godly in any way although they found time to worship together and on such days they would abstain from all abstainables. (Na so!)

Tega had a fling with Darlene’s cousin, two of her friends, her neighbour and three colleagues at work, (the ones she uncovered) he knew that he could get any woman that he wanted and kind of considered himself God’s gift to women. In all of the cases where he “cheated” on Darlene, the ladies were all ready to fight her over him but he was the one who came kneeling and begging Darlene to take him back. Despite his bad boy ways, one thing was clear, Darlene was his number one and he wasted no time in asking for her forgiveness.

In the fourth year of their relationship, he proposed to Darlene and she accepted, while they prepared for their wedding, an old flame came back into Darlene’s life and it was at this point that Darlene realised that she shouldn’t get married to Tega who she was a few years older than when she had a choice of an older and a more mature man.

It was not difficult for her to call off the engagement, Tega, begged and pleaded with her, he promised to keep getting better for her as he was already in the process of becoming a changed man ever since he popped the question to Darlene; he even got his family to beg Darlene to stay with him but no one could get her to change her mind.

She went on to marry her old flame Ian, who is a bloke in his own right; their wedding was quite glamourous and exactly the way she had always envisaged.  Darlene left Tega shattered and a shadow of his former self. He took it very badly; he even resigned from his job and stayed away from everything that reminded him of Darlene.

Fast forward to two years, Darlene regrets dumping Tega every day, Ian cheats on her and disrespects her in front of other women, and he abuses her emotionally, verbally and physically. He does not provide for the home and has little regard for her or her family. They live like strangers and she came to the realisation that he was just a ne'er-do-well who needed a woman to take care of him financially. (One chance!). He abuses her if she refuses to meet his financial needs; Darlene is constantly unhappy and has been recently diagnosed with high blood pressure; she is also depressed.

She wants Tega back and she has started her search for Tega. Chances are that Tega may take her back, he does not reason like a typical African man and is quite rebellious. Her question is, should she keep praying for her husband to turn a new leaf or find and go back to Tega? She says that she must be married, staying single is not an option for Darlene. Erm..I need some help here.

Please note that all the names used in this story are fictional for privacy sake.