New Suspect – MTU: My Treacherous Uncle (Ev 22)

The Ogre must have had many discussions with his mum about the possibility that I may escape his misogynistic, selfish, narcissistic clutches soon. That I had finally managed to stand up to his threats and with the help of my sister, found a financial backing that could get me that freedom that had only ever been a dream. This sounds ridiculous but I started to visualise my life without him – with him gone. How I would be able to come home from work exhausted but not have to worry about feeding him or cleaning up after him or empty bottles of red spit. With each vision, I grew more and more courageous and began to feel more confident about being able to go through with it.

One day, I was driving home from a late night at work, when my uncle, my own flesh and blood, called me.

“Hello,” he said. “Your husband called me. He is very upset.”

I have always been a polite, submissive and obliging girl, eager to please and therefore, in my trademark manner, I asked him why. Big mistake.

He says that you are having an affair and that is the reason you want a divorce. He also is asking me to mediate between you both. I do feel you should try and resolve your marital issues.

The new me was able to explicitly say that I had absolutely no intention of changing my mind and it was better for him to accept that our marriage has been dead a long time. We both will be happier separate.

My uncle, unashamedly, continued. “Well, there are always two sides to every story,” he said. “He is a decent man who wants to stay with you. He also told me everything you have been saying about my daughters.”

“What on earth have I been saying?” I asked, genuinely flabbergasted.

He told me some rubbish about how I had bad-mouthed my cousin because she had chosen to marry a white guy. This is something I have never done – and if I had, I would have admitted it. But I didn’t. Yet, he has successfully poisoned my own family against me.

The next day, my uncle called me back and said that as I was being so stubborn, my husband had asked for a list of household furniture that he had bought and wanted to be reimbursed for. Namely, the television, the sofa set and, wait for it, the boiler. Can we take a moment to appreciate the audacity of the man who didn’t contribute a single penny in 13 years to any aspect of the house.

My uncle continued to become the Ogre’s messenger and demand ransoms in return for his cooperating with the divorce. I didn’t tell my father as i didn’t want him to turn against his brother. I tried to explain to my uncle that this man was abusive and manipulative and hadn’t paid a penny throughout the marriage. My uncle said, “I have heard the recordings.”

“What recordings?” I asked.

“Ogre sent them to me,” he said.

It turned out that throughout the 13 years I was married to the Ogre, he was recording all of our conversations and arguments. He was then sending them regularly to his mother and had saved them to be used against me during our divorce.

Throughout the entire time. Every day.

I gave my uncle the money to get him off my back and shut the Ogre up too. I told my solicitors that I wanted nothing except my freedom. She told me I was being foolish and he had accumulated lots of money and property over the years but I only wanted him out. As quickly as possible. When my husband finally left the house, I noticed a big gaping hole in the wall. He had taken the boiler with him as a final Fuck You to me.