He Promised Me Work In Lagos, Na Trap I Enter (EPISODE 5)

EPISODE 5 – Nobody Wanted to Risk My Name

By the time I turned twenty-three, I already understood something many people never admit out loud.

Sometimes, it’s not your face.
Sometimes, it’s not your character.
Sometimes, it’s your name — and the story people attach to it.

I watched girls younger than me get married. Others got engaged while still in school. Even those with no clear future had someone who chose them.

Me? I was always the one people “liked” from afar.

Men talked to me secretly but avoided me publicly. They would smile, flirt, and even promise things, but once marriage or commitment entered the conversation, their tone changed.

Some disappeared completely.
Others suddenly remembered they were “not ready.”

I heard things without being told directly.
“That girl family get bad history.”
“Two deaths follow her name.”
“Better no carry that kind wahala enter your life.”

One man’s mother openly warned him to stay away from me. She said she didn’t want sickness to follow her bloodline. Another told me plainly that he liked me but couldn’t “take risks.”

Risk.

Like I was a disease.

I remained a virgin not because I was holy, but because fear surrounded me like a fence. Fear of gossip. Fear of being used and abandoned. Fear of confirming what people already believed about me.

Sometimes, I asked myself if giving in would make things easier. Maybe if I didn’t look so “careful,” someone would stay. But another part of me held on tightly to myself.

“No be every door wey open, na blessing,” I used to tell myself.

At night, I cried quietly. Not because I needed a man, but because I needed to feel wanted — genuinely wanted. I wanted someone to see me, not the rumors attached to my name.

Each rejection hardened me. Each whisper made me smaller. By twenty-three, Umunze felt like a cage slowly closing in.

That was when leaving stopped being a dream and became survival.

I didn’t know how yet. I didn’t know who would help me. But I was sure of one thing — if I stayed, I would disappear without ever living.

Episode 6 Coming Soon
Just when I had accepted that nobody wanted me, a stranger called — and spoke like someone who already knew my life.