The Halo Effect: A Two Faced Lover
Written by Sonia Okehie
Episode 6
There’s a popular saying that “you never know how strong you are until being strong is the only option you have”. Every human walking the surface of this earth have their limits on which they can tolerate things, and hear me when I say you don’t want to be the person to push them beyond that limit. Even the softest heart can become as hard as stone when you abuse and maltreat it. The worst thing a person can do is to be the one that brings out the be@st from an initially lovely person, because they would never forgive you for bringing out the worst in them and you will definitely be the first to taste their wrath. Saint had succeeded in making Rose a bitter person; this is the same lady that once loved him and was excited at a future with him. The pain he inflicted on her had made her bitter and hateful towards anything that concerned him. The fact that Saint even had the guts to lay his hands on Rose after she had made up her mind to let go of the past and move on, had succeeded in reopening the wound she was at the verge of closing. At that moment, the beast in her had awaken and she was ready to create a scene that had never been seen before. Damn the consequences and eyes balls because Rose’s temper had skyrocketed to Mars and a Broadway show was inevitable!
After the slap retaliation, Saint became more furious and so was Rose. She held him tightly on his shirt and squeezed it as though she wanted to choke him. At that moment, few people had began to notice what was going on and gradually made their way to the scene.
“How dare you? Who do you think you are? You must be mad!” Rose flared up. Saint forcefully knocked her hands off him and tried to remove her hands from his shirt but couldn’t because she was holding it with every single strength she had. “You are a coward, did you hear me well? I said you are a coward! Listen, if you hit my hands again, I will make sure you rot in the police cell. Look at this clown of a human, Saint you are a hypocrite, a coward, a two faced human being and a chronic womaniser. Yes I said it! That’s what you are” she continued in intense anger.
While hell broke loose, people started gathering the scene and few people recognised who Saint was. Due to the fact that they were aware of the controversies that was surrounding him of late on the Internet, they brought out their phones and started recording while others tried to separate the fight.
Things got so heated that the Mall security officials had to hurry down to the scene to resolve the issue. Due to the fact that so many guys where present there, Saint couldn’t raise his hands on Rose again because he feared they might jump on him for beating a lady. Everything that was happening was extremely embarrassing for Saint that he secretly started regretting confronting Rose in the first place. “What have I gotten myself into? I should have just ignored this crazy lady and head home” he thought to himself as the issue escalated.
With the help of the security officials and concerned people, they were able to plead with Rose to let go and pardon Saint for his actions. It wasn’t an easy plea but she eventually released his shirt from her hands and fiercely stormed out. She headed towards the parking lot, entered her car and drove off leaving Saint behind at the scene. He was answering some questions with the security officials because they held him hostage for some time, but finally let him go.
As Saint walked away from the scene and headed to where he parked his car, Shame almost killed him. At that moment, he wished that the ground could just open and swallow him up because the eye balls on him were just too much. Deep down, he regretted his actions but it was already too late because the deed had already been done and it was just a matter of few hours before it hit the Internet.
Just as predicated, in just few hours the incident went viral. Social media blew up the story and even added some lies to the story to twist it in such a way that it will bring massive traffic. Before the next morning, the news was almost in every blog and was even broadcasted on television stations.
Imagine waking up to over a hundred articles written from different blogs and media sites about you? The funny thing was that everyone twisted the story one way of the other and that resulted to different versions of one story. Saint was weak and couldn’t eat anything all day. His phones where blowing up with calls for interviews that he even had to switch it off. It felt like his whole world was crumbling and it killed him beyond words can say.
On the other hand, Rose wasn’t that bothered or moved about what happened because not too many people knew her and she wasn’t a celebrity, unlike Saint. Despite the fact that few people recognised her in the viral video, she didn’t see it as a big deal because confrontations like that happened all over the world everyday so there was nothing to be ashamed of. The only thing she did was to explain to her bosses at work and succeeded in making them understand that she was attacked by Saint for reasons unknown to her. They saw it as self defence and pardoned her.
With the way things were looking, the only person at the losing end was Saint because he was a public figure that had numerous skeletons in his cupboard. He was the one that lived a double standard life, the one that lied to his followers and deceived the masses, he was the one that had a dirty secret of being a ‘Dominant’ who loved to exploit women but didn’t want commitment and he was the one that was living a Big Lie.
This is exactly why being real will always be a hundred times better than living a fake life. The worst thing you can do to yourself is to live a Lie because one day, your true self must surely surface. See, you can never pretend or deceive people for too long because it’s just a matter of time before you will eventually get tired of your own fakeness and subconsciously start revealing your true self.
If you pretend to be nice when you are a demon behind closed doors, one day you must show your true colour in public. If you pretend to be a giver when the cameras are rolling but a stingy person when no one is watching, then it’s just a matter of time before that lie will wear you out. There’s nothing as easy and beautiful as living your truth and not a lie because when you live your truth, you will never crack even when tossed into a burning fire.
It’s apparent that Saint never took life lessons from experienced people and clearly wasn’t befitting to be called a Life Coach. How can you give what you don’t have? How can you pour from an empty cup? How can you preach something you don’t practice? How can you represent something you don’t believe in? There’s certainly no way it’s possible and that’s why there was an expiry date attached to Saint’s success.
Due to everything that was happening in Saint’s life, he became sober and even went as far as deactivating all his social media accounts. It was such a humiliating and humbling period in his life. It was then that all his bad deeds and mischief started to dawn on him. He began to recall all the ladies he had toyed with and how much he truly hurt them.
Gradually, Saint’s hard shell began to crack and eventually broke into pieces. He couldn’t stand the pain and pressure so he travelled out of the country so as to find peace and go far away from all the drama surrounding his life and name. Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t still find peace nor happiness; despite travelling a long distance away from home.
That period was so emotionally draining for Saint that he lost excess weight. His family and closed friends still loved him and were there for him no matter what. Thanks to Saint’s family members otherwise he could have committed suicide or harm himself. He took everyday one step at a time and prayed for peace each day.
As time went by, Saint began to feel the need to see a therapists to help him with his predicament. He was able to get in contact with one at the place he travelled to and a ‘one week’ therapy session was conducted.
During that one week therapy session, Saint wasn’t really feeling the impact initially until about the third day. The therapy session started normally but things got heated and went from zero to hundred real quick.
“Why did you come back for the 3rd time? Tell me Saint, what do you truly want?” the therapist asked in a calm soft tone. Saint looked into her eyes as he scratched the leather of the chair he was seated on. “I need help and haven’t gotten it since we started this therapy session” he soberly said, “What kind of help do you seek?” she asked, “I don’t know, maybe peace” he sadly revealed.
The therapist smiled faintly and looked into his teary eyes. She knew what his problem was and wanted to help him but needed him to truly desire the help he sought because only then can he truly change. “What could you have done differently if you can take back the hands of time?” she asked. Saint paused for a while and said; “I would have practised what I preached, treat women more nicely and maybe truly love someone”.
Saint’s reply was heartwarming and gave the therapist a reason to look forward to a genuine change in him. She knew he was sober and broken and that was the perfect time for a change to take place. “I want you to do something for me tonight, send an apology to everyone you have hurt in the past. If there’s any reason as to why you can’t reach a particular person, send that apology to yourself and read it out loud. Do this and I promise you that you will wake up a better person than you are now” the therapist said.
The task given was quite difficult because there were so many people Saint had wronged in the past. He knew they hated him and didn’t want to set their eyes on him but he had to do the task since it had the power of making him feel better. That night, he sent out an apology to every lady he had hurt in the past and also to all his ‘Call Girls’. For those he wasn’t able to reach due to one thing or the other, he read the apology to himself as the therapist instructed.
Everything went smoothly till it got to the last person which was Rose. When it got to her turn, he felt a different way and instantly knew that she was indeed special from the rest and needed to render her apology face to face. He postponed hers till when he travelled back home. It was such an uplifting task and it made Saint more sober and a bit better.
Days passed and life suddenly started looking differently to saint than the way it used to be. He surprisingly wasn’t moved by the media or what people said about him because he had owned up his mistakes and was deliberately making amends. The therapy session was helpful and had impacted him greatly.
After a while, Saint travelled back home to continue with his life. The Internet tension had died down a bit and everyone had moved on from his story. He invested some of the money he had on a new business venture and started all over again. It was such a humbling experience for Saint but was worth it because it brought out the best in him.
As life went on, Saint always carried Rose in his spirit. He was aware he hadn’t apologised to her yet but was hesitant because he didn’t know where she lived so as to pay her a surprise visit but the good news was that he knew where she worked.
Most times, Saint used his fake social media accounts to stalk Rose to see how she had been doing. He would spend hours scrolling through her pictures and looking at them over and over again. With time, he started noticing that his heart skipped severally beats whenever he was lost in her thoughts.
Deep down, Saint knew Rose was special and kept wondering why he treated her so badly. He always felt ashamed whenever he recalled that he hit her that fateful day at the mall. It was always traumatising whenever he thought of it. Unable to hold back any longer, he did something unexpected one fateful day.
It happened one evening that Saint drove down to Rose’s workplace and waited outside for her to close and come out. At around 6pm, she walked out from the office building, entered her car and drove off. As she left, he secretly followed her behind until he got to her destination. By the time they arrived at her house, the sky was already dark.
As Rose alighted, Saint got down from his car too and gently walked up to her. Immediately she saw him, she almost dropped dead due to shock because he was the last person she ever thought would be standing right in front of her in her compound. “Why are you here? What do you want? Or do you want to slap me again?” She angrily inquired.
With tears in Saint’s eyes, he took a deep breath and soberly said; “I know I am the last person you want to talk to or hear anything from but please hear me out. I hate myself for making you the person you had become, because the Rose I met at the restaurant that fateful day was a sweetheart and charming lady. I was stupid to have hurt you that way but I know better now. I’m so sorry Rose, I’m so so sorry. Can you please forgive me?”.
Rose didn’t know when tears fell off her eyes too. She looked into Saint’s eyes and could tell that he was truly sorry, but it’s quite unfortunate that she wasn’t ready to render forgiveness to the one man that hurt her more than anyone had ever done and succeeded in turning her into a beast.
She shed a few tears and said; “I’m sorry, but there’s no forgiveness in my heart for you.
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