Dear GhanaWeb,

I had one child before I met my current husband. He also had two children. Mine was only 10 months old when we met, but his were five years and three years old.

He said his wife abandoned them and ran away when the last one was barely a year old. For me, my baby daddy and I broke up a month before he left the country.

I found out I was pregnant when it was almost four months, but I decided not to even tell him because he hurt me. I promised myself never to have anything to do with him so he doesn’t know I have his child.

My husband knows my story, and I know his. He said he had embraced my child and I. He came to do small traditional rites and I moved in with him as his wife. We did this for the sake of the kids; we wanted them to grow up in a family.

This man was so calm at the beginning. I loved his kids and he pretended to love my son, who was a year and four months old when we got married. A month later, he asked me to stop breastfeeding him and I did.

It didn’t end there; he would give money to buy stuff for his kids but wouldn’t mention mine. One day, when my baby was 2 years old, he poured a bucket of water in the room and my husband slapped him. Yes, he slapped a 2-year-old. I was furious, but he later apologised and calmed me down.

Going forward, he was still hitting my son. He didn’t want him to go to school and when we had issues, he would say I can return him to his father because my ex didn’t ask me to hide the child from him. It’s a lot, but he did something three days ago and I left the house.

The boy is only 3 years old now. He’s still young and acts like a baby. I try to shield him from my husband because he neglects and abuses him.

So 3 days ago, my son was crying. He wanted a toy that my husband’s second child was playing with. His second child is 6 years old now, and he’s older so I told him to give the toy to my son to play with so he can stop crying.

Then my husband came out and gave my son a really hard knock on the head and kicked him in the chest and told him to stop crying about other people’s things and then took the toy from my son.

I was so sad, I packed my things and left with my son immediately. I’m seven months pregnant for him, but I would rather be a single mother of two than watch him abuse an innocent child he is supposed to be a father to.

He’s been calling and begging, but I can’t take it. He’s done so much to my son while I’ve done nothing but love his children. I feel bad when I think about it. What should I do now?

FG/AE


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