Chapter 5 The Beginning of The End of The Tumultuous Relationship

With Betty passing away, He did not have to fake it anymore. Victor was someone who was raised by both of his parents. He grew up in a very healthy environment. However, he loved his grandparents the most. They used to spoil him very much. Because of that he grew up respecting the elders. Therefore, when he was introduced to Betty through Sophia, he did his best to appear like the perfect gentleman. So, after her death, there was no need to try to hide his true narcissistic self. He would insult Sophia with his hurtful words by making her feel less of a woman due to Sophia's health condition.

Sophia could not figure out what was happening. One moment Victor was like the perfect gentleman, and then the next moment he would be someone who she did not even recognize at all. Eventually, He would break up and then make up with Sophia whenever he felt like it. Nevertheless, the relationship became very toxic.

They were on and off for the next three years of the relationship. It felt like an endless cycle of mental suffering for Sophia. Sophia was losing her self-esteem. Because of his manipulative way, he was able to make her focus only on him for five long years! During those years she had dedicated her life to love and care for him. Whenever he would want to break up with her, he would come up with excuses like, he was not ready to be in a serious relationship right now, he needed some time to work on himself; or he needed more time to process Sophia's health condition. And every time they would break up Sophia would be waiting for him to come back. Meanwhile victor would be out living his best life with other women. There were excuses after excuses. Victor would always make sure that he was seeing another woman before breaking up with Sophia. Once he found a woman that he was interested in, he would then ask Sophia for a breakup. Whenever the relationship with the other girls ended, he would then beg Sophia to take him back. As years passed by, Sophia would always hope that he would change. She was hoping that they were going to live happily ever after. So, the pitiful woman would always take him back. Therefore, she never had proper time to heal, or focus on dating other people.

This whole relationship had taken a heavy toll on her mental health. She started to not recognize who she was anymore. She could not concentrate on her work as she should. She would always wonder what Victor was doing when he was not with her. Her mental health had gotten so bad that every time that she saw Victor talking to another girl at a party or somewhere else, she would feel really jealousy toward the girl. she would have a lot of headaches for days due to emotional stress. Sometimes, Victor would purposely ignore her at parties and would start talking with other girls. Although Sophia never acted out toward the other girls, Victor could read her facial expression well. Sophia would just harbor all the anger that she was feeling. The worst part of it all, despite being together for five years, he still did not want her to tell people about their relationship. Every time she would ask him to make the relationship official, he would always come up with an excuse or would just threaten her with another break up. Therefore, as she got older, she thought that maybe she was not worthy of being loved at all. Also, having the health problem that she had, she thought that was all the love that she could get if she was with any other partner.

So, she decided that she was going to break a promise that she made to her grandmother years ago. When Sophia told Betty what the doctor had told her about her health, Betty made Sophia promise her that she was never going to consummate a relationship before marriage. However, after years of no luck in getting married, she was going to give her chastity away. She was ready to give herself up to Victor out of desperation of not being alone. She was already twenty-seven years old by then. She also wanted to build a family. So, in the year that would be considered their last break up, Sophia Bought some lingerie hoping to keep Victor for good this time. They had just reconciled after a third break up. However, A week before she was about to give herself to Victor, Sophia had to go to a one-week business conference out of town. She would communicate with Victor every day over the phone whenever she could. They would talk about how they missed each other and could not wait to be together again. During one of those phone calls, Sophia tried to call Victor, but he did not pick up the phone. The calls kept going straight to voicemail. However, Sophia was not worried. That day was also the birthday of one of their mutual friends, Lisa.

Sophia knew Lisa through Victor when they met at the bowling alley. So, she knew that at this hour Victor was already at the party. She thought that maybe Victor was busy helping Lisa with some things for the party. Since she was already planning on calling Lisa to wish her happy birthday, Sophia decided to give her a call. "Hello Sophia!" Lisa walked inside the house as she picked up Sophia's call since it was too loud in the backyard where the party was taking place. "Hi Lisa, I am just calling to wish you a happy birthday. How is the party going?" Sophia had no intention of telling her that she was also calling her because she could not reach victor, and wanted to know what he was doing." Thank you, Sophia. I wish you could have been at the party to celebrate with me and everybody else. But I understand that work comes first. Let me put you on facetime so you could also look at the party and the dress that I bought for the party."