LOVE AND LIES

Most love stories begin with promises. To have and to hold. To love until death do us part. Ours began with a lie. Not a small one. Not the kind you can laugh about and forget. The kind that waits. The kind that grows. The kind that destroys everything slowly. Because loving me was never safe. I lie the way people breathe. Effortlessly. Naturally. Without thinking. And him? He built his entire life on truth. Not just in love. In everything. His career demanded it. Facts. Evidence. Proof. So tell me How does a man who worships truth fall in love with a woman who does not even recognize it? Simple. Love does not ask for permission. It does not investigate. It does not verify. It happens. And when it does, it blinds you. When we meet people, we do not assume they are liars. We believe them. We trust them. Until the moment we cannot anymore. And even then A lie is only a lie when it is caught. We loved each other. Deeply. Dangerously. Like people who believed we had forever. I told Kiara not to give up on me. I told him we were real. I told him I would never hurt him. But here is the truth you will come to learn about me I knew exactly what I was doing. I went to him with intention. I wanted him. Not just his smile. Not just the way he looked at me. I wanted everything that came with him. Kiara had just secured a graduate position at one of the Big Four consulting firms. The kind people dream about. Deloitte. KPMG. EY. PwC. The kind of job that guarantees a future. A powerful one. He joined KPMG in the deals unit. Forensics. Restructuring. Money laundering investigations. He dealt with truth when everything else was falling apart. Ironic, isn’t it? Because I was the one thing in his life that would never be true. I did not understand his work. And honestly I did not care. All I cared about was what came at the end of the month.The money. We both studied at King’s College School of Business. He was two years ahead of me and graduated during COVID. I was meant to graduate in 2021, but that story is not for today. We first spoke in 2019. At the time, I was deep into Christianity. One thing about me, I do not do things halfway. I dive in. Completely. My roommate Tracy knew him from church. You know those small Catholic fellowship groups in school. The ones that are meant for prayer but somehow turn into something else entirely That is where their story began. Mine came later. I also knew of him through Laureen, our class prefect. An international student from Malawi. The president’s daughter. Tracy, Laureen, and I were in the same class. Different lives. Different stories. All somehow leading me to him. Kiara came from a world I could only imagine. Wealth. Power. Legacy. His family was rooted in banking and real estate, with shares in a global property empire. He was not just rich. He was expected to be more. The brightest grandson. The chosen one. The one who could not afford to fail. And yet He moved like none of it mattered. Quiet. Controlled. Invisible when he wanted to be. Most people at school had no idea who he really was. At first neither did I. To me, he was just the Big Four boy. It took time before I saw the truth behind him. But there were signs. He spoke three languages fluently. He carried himself like someone who had seen more than he said. He understood high society without trying to prove it. And still Like everyone else in London, he took the Underground. Blending in. Watching. Observing. There were whispers about him. That he funded university politicians. I thought it was gossip. Until he confirmed it himself. Casually. Like it meant nothing. He was tall. About six feet. Always dressed in quiet luxury. Nothing loud. Nothing desperate. Just expensive in a way you could feel, not see. And me I lived in charity shops. But even there, I found pieces that could stand next to his world. Ten pounds for a life I did not belong to. In a strange way We looked like we made sense. Even when we did not. We were different from the very beginning. And maybe that should have been the warning. But love Love does not warn you. The first lie I ever told Kiara was the day I met him. And by the time he discovers the truth, It will already be too late.