He married a thief

The day after their wedding he lost his wedding ring. His father’s watch went missing after a few weeks. Many more small items started disappearing one by one from their house.

The wife went out every day on the pretense of work. Sometimes she would not come home for days. She told her husband she worked overtime, had some rush jobs, important meetings, transactions, etc. The unsuspecting husband believed her every lie.

Born poor, after her marriage, she started living a life of luxury. No more riding on buses and jeepneys, she refused to go out without a car and a driver. Her things have been replaced with luxury brands. All at the expense of her kind and generous husband.

She was able to dupe her husband into giving her all his money, ALL, including borrowed money from his friends and relatives. She was able to make him believe that all the money would be returned to him with profit. He scooped up his company’s operating capital to give to her. He borrowed money from his parents but he never told them that it was for his wife’s so-called investments.

When he was already feeling the pressure from his friends to pay them back, she would assure her husband that money would be deposited to his bank account by 3 pm on that day. He would sit inside the bank waiting but it was just a farce. He still wanted to believe that she would eventually produce the money. One time he and his father waited at the bank till 7 in the evening.
She kept on promising that money was coming, and he kept on holding on to her promise. She also convinced him to borrow more money from other people with the promise of a big return.

It took six long years before the husband and his family realized that all this time, this woman was duping them with everything that she could. It was clear that she never loved him and her motive from day one was only to get rich, quick. He was sleeping with the enemy.

Husband got depressed and was traumatized. He lost his business capital. He lost many of his friends because he was not able to return their money. Many threatened to sue him but his father stepped in and explained to his friends what happened, luckily all of them understood. They’re willing to wait till he’s able to recover from his misfortune. They agreed to be paid in installment without any interest. There are still a few who are mad at him but what can they do nawala talaga yung pera. His father told me all that was left in his son’s bank account was P2,000. Naalala ko tuloy ang anak kong lalaki. When I checked his passbook, naku po, tila P8,000 ang naiwan. Nawala pati yung pakimkim nung baby pa sya. Susmaryosep.

What did she do with the more than twenty million she got from her husband?
1. She lived a life of luxury. Aside from the visible expensive bags, jewelry, bags, clothes, she spent holidays in Tagaytay, checking in at hotels, possibly with a male companion. Without her husband’s knowledge, she traveled in Asia such as in HK, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur.
2. She never worked. She was going to the casino every single day. She has a VIP card from all the major casino hotels— Solaire, Resort World, Okada, etc. She slept in the casino lounges.

While I was listening to my kumpare narrate this story, I couldn’t help but compare their situation with ours. Although my son did not marry a thief, (thanks God) he was also duped by some of his friends and he totally believed them that they would pay him back with big interest. My son was left with nothing but trauma. He thought it was an opportunity to earn easy money. Unfortunately, it was too late to learn that it was an opportunity to lose big money in a flash, to be in debt. It also affected my son’s good name. Some people thought he was the victimizer, and yet, in reality, my son was the biggest loser, he was the biggest victim. Hay nakooo, kunsumisyon talaga.

My friend told me that I should not have left Nyke to live alone abroad. That he needed our presence and guidance. Yes, that’s true, but thanks God, Nyke was able to cope and deviate his attention which was hard to do. It was tough for all of us in the first few months. He was crying himself to sleep and I was sure he had nightmares. I gave him photocopies of some Bible verses that I asked him to recite every night and when he was feeling low. I told him to hold on to his faith and to just pray, and to be grateful to God.

I enrolled him in the university kasi, he had no choice but to focus on his studies. Sabi ko “anak basta makapasa ka lang, sayang ang tuition fee, it’s also for your own good. If you have a masters degree, who knows it could come in handy in the future…” Basta nakumbinsi naman sya kahit hindi mahilig mag-aral, naka pasa naman, mataas pa nga ang grade.

I felt some nostalgia while my kumpare was vocalizing his thoughts and emotions. “Kung nakikinig lang sa magulang itong mga millenials na ito, akala kasi nila mas magaling sila sa atin kasi millenial sila, mas naniniwala sila sa mga kaibigan nila, gusto easy money….” Ganyan din si Nyke nuon. Sinasabihan, hindi naman pala nakikinig. He believed his friends more. Too late to discover they were not true friends.

My kumpare teased me that when Oyen gets married, matipid daw kasi kaunti na lang ang bisita kasi nga nawala na mga friends ni Nyke. My son has friends since nursery. They used to hang out at our house, duon natutulog sa kama, sa sahig, sa sofa sa kwarto ni Nyke. Minsan the whole weekend, nasa amin sila. Ubos laman ng pantry namin. I actually miss those boys. When my son gets married, siguro I will invite them. Might take a while because he has no girlfriend, not even dating.