Sharon Williams-Bennett, Contributor

He walked out on her one Saturday night about 10 o'clock. He walked out on his wife, the woman he promised to love, protect and cherish for the rest of their lives. The woman he had lived with for the last 14 years and their not quite two-year-old daughter, without a backward glance. Things had started getting bad with them and he had planned to leave her from last year. He kept telling her that they had problems so the marriage couldn't work; but she had begged for some time. She even went abroad to give him time to think it over.

He felt utter relief when she left. He got to do all he wanted to do without anyone questioning him. He brought women to the house with total disregard to his wife and the home they lived in. He knew she was having a hard time abroad, because she told him so - and even though she had it hard, she never failed to send money for her children and him.

He was being pressured. All his friends were unmarried and the only one who had been married had left his wife and was living the 'great' bachelor life. He wanted a piece of the action.

He had met someone. Her name was Kayleen and he started making excuses to see her. He told his wife that he had found a home gym and because of his condition, he had to exercise. He started spending nights out, not coming home to her and his child until the wee hours of the morning. He hardly spent time with them and he didn't see anything wrong with that.

He had met a woman he was attracted to and he didn't intend to let anyone stand in his way, least of all a wife and kid. In his way, he still loved her and he adored his child; how could he not? His daughter looked so much like him, it was scary. She even had his personality, walked like him, smiled like him. He remembered seeing her in the hospital room, how mesmerised he was and he had broken down and cried in the presence of his wife, thanking her for making him into a man - but he had come to he point where he wanted to be alone.

He wanted to do as he choose without having to answer to anyone. He told her that his co-worker had an after-work party every Friday night and he had to go, so he stayed out all of Friday and didn't come home until Saturday afternoon, not caring that he left his wife and child unprotected all those times. He lied to her over and over, because he wasn't really at the after-work jam - he was with Kayleen, sleeping at her house.

He finally told her that he wanted out. He told her that the society wasn't cut out for marriage. He told her that he couldn't even be responsible for himself much more someone else. He told her he wanted to be alone for a while. She cried bitterly and begged him to stay with her. He watched her crying and didn't even hold her. He knew she had tried killing herself and he didn't care. It was as if something had come over him and he couldn't help himself, he kept hurting her over and over again.

Before he moved out, he used to pick up Kayleen and her son before going to work, and left his wife alone in the van while he went inside Kayleen's house and waited for her and her son to get ready. His wife would sit outside in the van for several minutes. He never took her inside and she never complained. The one time she did, after she had been late for work, he blasted her and told her that if she didn't like the arrangement she could damn well go and take the bus! She had cried as if her heart was broken. He even told her he wanted a divorce!

He gave her no choice and she moved back down to her parents' house, she and the children, while he went to live with Kayleen. He never took her there, only his daughter, and he could see the hurt on her face, but he ignored it. It wasn't his problem anymore, they were separated now. She was on her own. For Mother's Day, he only sent her a text message, thanking her for his child.

On her birthday, he didn't even wish her happy birthday. On their anniversary, she gave him a cologne and a watch and told him she loved him, but he didn't even give her a card. He didn't want to encourage her. He saw that she was fast losing weight and saw the sadness on her face, but still he didn't let that bother him. He found out that she had gone into his email and found a mail he had sent to a long time girlfriend about rekindling an old flame and he changed his password. She didn't argue, she just told him that no matter what he did, she still loved him.

Now she was gone. She had taken their child with her and disappeared. She had left him a note, telling him that she had waited for him to realise that he still loved her and wanted to be a family again, but she couldn't do it anymore and she couldn't bear the thought of him being with another woman. So, she had left. No one knew where she had gone, or so they said, and he didn't even have a number for her. He started remembering when they had first started living together. How they had shared food because they couldn't afford to buy two meals. How he had told the guy at the restaurant to pack the box because it was two of them. He remembered how he used to help her polish her nails, set her hair and how they couldn't get enough of each other.

She was all the family he had in those days and her family had adopted him, had taken him into their hearts and home. She had always taken care of him, always making sure he had clean, pressed clothes, his food was always prepared and placed on a tray. When he got sick she would rub him down with alcohol and force him to drink Theraflu, even when he refused. She did things for him nobody would ever do and he had thrown it in her face! He remembered when he had that affair several years ago, when he had left and slept out that Saturday night.

How she had gone to hospitals and police stations looking for him, and even after that, even when he told her he wanted a divorce, she had still clung to him, begging him not to leave her. She bought him everything, when she travelled and when she got paid. She always anticipated his every need and made sure he didn't want for anything. He gave her money but didn't buy her anything, telling himself that at least he made sure to provide for her and their children. His Sara, who loved him so much. She would have put up with anything and now she was gone with their child and he wasn't sure he would ever see them again!

He wished he could go back and erase all the things he had done to hurt her - to just go back and tell her that he loved her and he wanted his family back. To just ask for her forgiveness and try to make it up to her. But it was too late and all he could think of was that his mother was right. The devil had made him do it.