They say, when you trust someone without a doubt, you finally get one of two results, a person for life or a lesson for life. Gloria, unfortunately, learned a life-changing lesson from the people she loved and trusted.
In a hospital bed, Gloria slowly opened her eyes, half-hoping she’d awaken from a nightmare. She turned her head, curious about whose hand was clasped in hers. Their eyes met—it was her friend. Without a single word spoken, Gloria averted her gaze; the expression on her friend’s face was enough to confirm her worst fears. She attempted to shift her position but found she couldn’t move. The tightness of the gauze encircling her head was a stark reminder of the severity of her injuries. Although heavy pain medication dulled the physical discomfort, it did nothing for the deeper pain she felt, a kind that couldn’t be bandaged or numbed by medicine.
Her heart pounded as her mind was getting flooded with the enormity of the discovery she had made just hours earlier. She was consumed by an intense wave of humiliation, shame, and worthlessness. Tears streamed down her face as she grappled with the reality of the shocking event. “Why me? What did I do to deserve this? How could this happen? How could I have been so naive? Why would she do this? Why him?” she questioned, overwhelmed by confusion and grief. These were a few of a multitude of questions that were replaying in her mind, but she knew they were questions no one could give reasonable answers to.
Gloria was the fourth of a family of eight brothers and sisters. A large family who described themselves as far from worthy but prided themselves on having the kind of love and closeness admired by all. The family lived in a quiet, peaceful community in a small town where the saying ‘love thy neighbor’ came to light.
With only three years apart, there was an exceptionally close bond between Gloria and her younger sister Cynthia. As they were growing up, they looked very alike and inseparable. With an ambition bigger than where she grew up and the desire to be independent, Glory decided to leave home after high school to live and work in a city.
Her parents who still had four children to care for readily gave her the green light to go explore the world just like her older siblings.
Gloria relocated to a city she had set her eyes on and with determination, soon landed a job that didn’t pay much but was enough to pay her bills in a place she shared with two other young women and was still able to send a little home to help the family.
Two years of hard work and saving some money enabled her to move into her own place which was much bigger. Gloria shared the good news with her family when she visited home. Cynthia was beaming with pride and excitement and expressed how she couldn’t wait to visit. Before long, Cynthia graduated high school and traveled to live with her big sister the next day.
Both sisters were happy to be together again and were looking forward to a bright future. Gloria secured a job for Cynthia at her former workplace before her arrival and with her work ethic and reputation she left, Cynthia was hired without much effort. A few days after arriving in the city, as part of her high school graduation celebration, Gloria took Cynthia to one of the best restaurants around and hinted that she had a surprise for her. Cynthia was beyond happy. Being the only one who until leaving home was always cooking with her mother for the family, she considered eating at a restaurant a treat.
The sisters enjoyed their dinner at the restaurant alone but right before they were about to leave, a gentleman walked to their table. With sheer joy, Gloria got up and rushed to embrace him. While still giggling like a child, she introduced him as Sam, a man she had been seeing. A shy Cynthia stood up and gave a flimsy handshake as the big sister looked on with pride seeing the two people, she loved most meet. About half an hour later, the trio departed with the sisters getting their favorite dessert on their way home as they talked about Sam. Cynthia sounded happy for her big sister given the heartbreak her sister had suffered when her boyfriend of over two years left her for another woman.
From every indication, things were going very well for the sisters with Sam being a regular visitor in their home. One day, Gloria noticed Cynthia rolling her eyes when she noticed Sam at their doorstep. She didn’t understand the reason for her sister’s reaction but brushed it off. Then, there was another time when Cynthia looked away after Sam had said hello to her. Too obvious and disrespectful to ignore, Gloria confronted her sister about her change in behavior towards Sam to which Cynthia explained that she didn’t hear Sam talking to her. Not knowing what to think, Gloria later apologized to Sam for her sister’s behavior.
As time went on and her relationship with Sam got serious, Cynthia’s hostility towards him worsened. Gloria worried about her sister’s growing resentment toward the man she planned on spending her life with, but Cynthia avoided any discussion Gloria brought up about her change in behavior toward him. Assuming that her sister was finding it difficult of losing her to Sam, Gloria was relieved when she took notice of a handsome young man stopping by to see Cynthia. She thought it was a good idea that Cynthia had found a positive distraction.
It had been a little over two years since Gloria and Sam started dating and have discussed marriage. The couple was waiting for Sam to finish law school before tying the knot. One day, as Gloria was tidying up her living room, she came across a folded piece of paper and before trashing it, she decided to open it to see the content. She found herself reading a positive pregnancy test with her sister’s name on it dated over a month prior. In shock at the discovery, she rushed to confront her. After denying several times being pregnant, Cynthia admitted. Disappointed and fearing what their parents would say, Gloria raised her voice and asked what her boyfriend, (referring to the young man she had seen around) thinks about the pregnancy. With tempers so high, Cynthia yelled out that the guy wasn’t her boyfriend, that Sam was the father, and that they were planning to be married. At first, Gloria thought her sister was just trying to infuriate her until minutes later when she called Sam to vent her frustration. Reluctantly, he revealed the truth. Her mind started reeling. Her hands began to shake uncontrollably. Her legs were getting weaker by the second as she ran outside the building just to find someone to talk to but everything after that was a blur. She later learned that she had collapsed on a concrete floor while she was screaming “Oh my God! Oh my God!”. The injury she sustained on her head had rendered her unconscious.
Cynthia had moved in with Sam by the time Gloria was discharged from the hospital. In the following days, many people including neighbors she had never met but who had heard of the incident came to console her and show their support. But with the outpour of sympathy from her family and others, she still felt lonely and unworthy.
She cried for weeks as she replayed how they could pull it off without a hint of suspicion. She locked herself in her apartment most of the time and contemplated taking her life a few times. She subsequently lost her job as a result.
On the weekend of the wedding of her ex-fiancé and her sister, she left town. With almost everyone in the family protesting the union, she still wasn’t hurting any less. Gloria pondered how her life was going to be from then on losing two people who were very close to her. And if she could be able to trust anyone from then on. The bitter truth was that, in a few months, her first niece or nephew would be born, and she might not meet the baby for a long time, if ever. They say time heals all wounds, but this wound proved to be particularly difficult to heal.
