One thing I learnt from all her sad story was the fact being a prostitute wasn’t a choice she wanted to make, as a matter of fact, she had tried surviving in the most legit way she could, hawk, salesgirl, begging and lot more but the more she tried the more life became harder, one of her twin sisters fell very ill that she had to rush her to the hospital and the doctors weren’t going to give her treatment till she made a deposit of N50,000. There was nothing she didn’t do to get this money, she ran from earth and heaven just to find the money, 20k was all that was left, still, the doctor said no.

Against every fibre in her bone she went back to her stepdad and she went to demand the remaining 30k, she knew the price she had to pay for it, she was prepared to sleep with him again and get paid rather than watch her sister die. At this stage, it wasn’t rape or force even though it wasn’t done under the right frame of mind but she went to him willingly and to her surprise, he gave her 40k instead of the 30k she demanded.  Since then whenever the chips are down she will go trade her body for money with her stepdad whom by the way had also remarried, they usually meet in a hotel but like they say every day for the thief one day for the owner or should I say the wife in this case. The wife of her stepdad caught them and that was the last time she saw him.

Her stepdad was her first client and she had had many more clients after that but I became her last client. We got to a point that I said to her “what if I pay you every month, you know like salary, would you quit this job, considering the fact that you said you actually don’t enjoy the sex, it was all about the money”. She laughed and said, “so which work I go say I dey do for you that you will be paying me salary every month, plus how much can you pay me?”. I told her if she could be my driver, I will pay her 100k every month, she laughed out loud really hard as she felt I was joking but when she noticed I was damn serious she said “why me?” and that was when  I poured out my heart to her.

“I know this will sound very awkward but it’s the truth and nothing but the truth, from the very first moment I saw you in that room, I knew there was something different about you, something kept telling me, don’t let her go, obviously I wasn’t interested in sleeping with you, I was very much interested in something else, something I couldn’t figure out till after the blow job” she laughed when I got to that point and I smiled too while I continue pouring out my heart to her. I ended my speech with these words “I love you and I want to build a home with you”. What she did next was something till today we still use to do whenever we have gotten to a point of super tension between us, she asked me for some weed, she lights it up and said “smoke with me”, this was her first time smoking and yes she coughed a lot of times still she smoked with me as we pass and puff. We didn’t say a word till we finished smoking when I tried to talk she will prevent me and say just smoke and I just obeyed her. About ten minutes of total silently after smoking and when she spoke, she said “rule number one, once I drop you off at the office the car is mine to drive till you ready to go home, rule number two, no sitting in the owner’s corner for you, rule number three, when we hit serious traffic you are taking over the wheels and your pay will be 150k”

Those were the statement that led us to where we are today, 15years of marriage with a set of twins. To be honest, it wasn’t easy, our relationship had a lot of ups and downs even from the word go, I mean I remember my cousin's reaction when I told him, he was so furious that he went to see three different pastors just to make sure I wasn’t under some kind of spell. They were places that Nkechi and I will go too and she will run into some of her former clients and the way those people will approach her even in my presence was embracing, I remember punching one when she was trying to tell him that I’m her boyfriend and the guy was like “ashewo no dey get serious boyfriend”, to hear him call her that made me lose my mind, I didn’t know when I give am better slap.
 

You see, if the love is true and pure, there is no obstacle love can’t conquer and as much as you remain honest with one another, communicate about everything and anything, willing and ready to make sacrifices for each other, then you will see that true love is indeed the most powerful weapon.