Dear GhanaWeb,

I am currently facing a situation that has left me confused and scared, and I do not know what the right decision is.

I recently discovered that I am pregnant for the first time in my life. The surprising part is that I did not even realise I was pregnant until people around me started pointing it out.

At first, I dismissed it because my menstrual cycle had been delayed before.

My period was delayed for almost four months, but I did not think it was a pregnancy because there was a time it was delayed for about two months and later returned.

Because of that experience, I assumed the same thing was happening again.

However, when people kept insisting that I might be pregnant, I decided to visit the hospital to check. That was when the test confirmed that I was pregnant. By the time I found out, the doctor told me I was already around 17 weeks along.

The doctor advised me to consider keeping the pregnancy because I had already gone that far without any complications or stress. But my problem is not just the pregnancy; it is the person responsible for it.

The man I am pregnant with is 68 years old and the father of my best friend. My friend and I have been very close for over ten years. Last year in August, I started having a secret relationship with her father.

It was never about love. The truth is that I saw an opportunity and decided to take advantage of it. The man is a retired military officer who earns more than GH¢10,000 as a pension every month. His children, including my friend, live comfortably, but I come from a very needy home.

One day, I helped him with some documents, and that was when I saw details of his income. After that, the idea came to my mind that I could become close to him and benefit financially. I decided to seduce him, and it worked.

Since then, he has been taking good care of me and giving me money whenever I ask. At one point, he even told me he wanted to marry me, but I refused because I do not want any public relationship with him. I only wanted the relationship to remain a secret.

To make matters more complicated, his wife is still alive. She travelled to the UK early last year to stay with their elderly daughter after she gave birth.

Even though the man supports me financially, I feel he is old and not fully in control of the situation. It is almost by luck that the relationship has remained a secret for this long.

I also do not want my friend to find out because it would break her heart and possibly destroy her entire family. Now that I am pregnant, everything has become more complicated. I cannot take care of the pregnancy alone, and although the man gives me money, his children are always complaining about his spending. If they were struggling financially themselves, I doubt he would even be able to support me the way he does.

At the same time, I do not want to become a single mother or give birth to a child whose family might hate me for taking advantage of their father.

The doctor advised me to keep the pregnancy because of how far along I already am, but I am still thinking about terminating it.

I am scared and confused about what to do. Should I take the risk and terminate the pregnancy, or should I keep the baby and face whatever consequences may come?

FG/EB


Meanwhile, learn of the story of the man behind the iconic Akwaaba frames in Ghana: