For straight three years, Ifeoma cared for a man wey no go even remove her bags if they were under rain. She gave g him cloth shelter and food, still smiling in public like say them dey give her award for being the one doing the giving.

Chibuzor came into her life when he was completely dry. His salon business had closed up like cheap plastic. He was just stranded. Na so she give him her spare room. Eventually she gave her room follow. She gave him her food. Eventually her life too.

People talked. Of course they did.

“Na your son?”

"You're the man in the kain relationship," someone once laughed behind her back.

But Ifeoma no mind at all.

“This is what love should be like,” she would say to herself. “Sacrifice.” Na so.

She used her last savings wey remain to get him another small shop. She even skipped meals just make the business no die off. She designed flyers, walked under sun to share them, convinced her own friends to patronize him.

The shop grew fast. Very fast at that.

Money and popularity came soon 

And then it started slowly, very slowly.

He began to answer secret calls.  Always kept his phone locked.

He started returning back late, with the smell of another person's perfume.

Then one evening, just as she got back from the market with his favorite okro and goat meat soup, she saw her things outside the door.

No warning. No explanation.

Just:

"Ifeoma please leave. I’ve seen someone better than you." Most painful of all na when person wey you feed for 3 years dey tell you "you're not my type".

That was all. Three years don turn into incomplete breakup sentence wey no even get fullstop.

The other girl get everything Ifeoma no get normally. Fair in complexion, expensive, with a father who owned 2 fueling stations.

And just like that, she was now the one running the salon with someone's 3 years boyfriend. The one receiving the praise and spotlight, getting the credit.

And as for Ifeoma. Erased.

Chibuzor rewrote the story.

Na so he tell his friends say na he build the salon from scratch.

He told clients Ifeoma was “just someone that helped him sometimes.”

Denied all her sleepless nightse, every penny she invested in him.

She no beg him.

She no curse him.

She just stood in front of the closed shop the next morning, imagining what her life has come to. 

At home she feltbroken. Quietly. Not the type they do in movies, no screaming, no shattering of plates. Just silence and staring at the ceiling wondering how someone you fed from your own plate go intentionally choose to starve you.

Pain no even knock first, it just moved in.

And when it got too much she did it. Silent suicide. Plugged an extension to light and put it in a bath tub filled with water. Stayed in it until NEPA light came. 

No one cried for her, like none of it really mattered. But the pain she felt ? It was gone. Even though life continued like nothing happened.