A Man Courted Me for a Year — Then I Learned I Was a Bet Between Friends
The gold band on my finger felt like a lead weight, heavy and cold, as if the metal itself knew it was a fraud. My parents' lounge, usually a place of comfort and the scent of lavender floor polish, felt claustrophobic.
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Outside, the evening sounds of Bo-Kaap, the distant, melodic Adhan from the Masjid, and the rhythmic hum of Golden Arrow buses seemed to belong to a world that was still honest. My world had just shattered.
'It was a bet, wasn't it?' I asked. My voice was a mere whisper, yet it felt as loud as a thunderclap in the sudden silence. Riedwaan didn't move. He sat on the edge of the velvet sofa, his polished leather brogues, the ones he wore specifically to impress my father, tapping a nervous, silent rhythm on the rug.
This was the man who had spent three hundred and sixty-five days convincing me he was my soulmate. The silence stretched until it was a physical pain, a taut wire ready to snap. 'Zainub, please,' he finally choked out, his voice cracking. 'It isn't what you think. It changed.'
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'Is it what Faizel thinks?' I countered, my heart hammering against my ribs. 'Because he thinks you are a genius. He thinks it is the funniest thing in the whole of the Western Cape that a "principled" woman like me is currently buying fabric for a Labarang outfit for a wager. He thinks I am a trophy you won at a discount.'
The shock hadn't come with a scream. It had arrived as a hollow, freezing sensation in my chest, as if someone had reached inside and replaced my heart with a stone. I remembered every "accidental" meeting, every respectful greeting to my mother, and every parcel of dates and samosas he brought during Ramadan. It wasn't love.
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It was a strategy. It was a game played by bored men over cold soft drinks, and I was the prize they had spray-painted gold to see if I'd notice the rust underneath.
My name is Zainub Isaacs. At twenty-seven, I had built a life that was quiet, stable, and deeply rooted in the values of my community. Being a primary school teacher in a neighbourhood where different families lived side by side meant my reputation was my only real currency.
I wasn't just Zainub; I was the daughter of the retired headmaster, a woman who walked with her head held high and her heart locked behind a very heavy gate. I was known for being "difficult" or, as my tannies said, "too choosy."
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I had rejected a wealthy trader from the Gatesville market, a quiet banker who promised me a life in Sandton, and even a widower who owned three houses in Constantia.
I wasn't looking for a provider; I was looking for a partner who respected my mind. Then came Riedwaan Davids. He was thirty, a sales executive for a national shipping company, possessing the loud, flashy aura of a man who had spent too much time in the high-octane circles of Johannesburg.
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He was back in Cape Town temporarily, his ego bruised after a career move hit a snag. To his friends, Faizel and Ebrahim, Riedwaan was a "player" who had lost his touch in the suburbs.
They mocked him one night over braai meat and drinks. They told him that while he could charm the city girls, he could never "soften" a woman like me. They bet a significant sum of money, enough to pay a massive deposit on a flat, that he couldn't even get me to agree to a single date, let alone fall for him.
Riedwaan took the dare. But he was clever. He didn't approach me with his Joburg swagger. He did his research. He started attending the community thikrs at my Masjid. He volunteered to arrange the folding chairs for the elders. He greeted my mother with a level of respect that bordered on devotion, always bringing her favourite koesisters.
He mirrored my values so perfectly that I thought, finally, here is a man who understands that a woman's heart is a garden, not a marketplace. It took six months of careful, calculated cultivation before I even agreed to have a coffee with him at a local café. By the one-year mark, he was on one knee.
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Our families had met in a beautiful Khoe-ba-re (engagement ceremony). The Mahr had been discussed and settled. The date for our Nikkah, a grand affair planned to honour both our backgrounds, was set. I was happy. I was utterly, foolishly convinced I was loved.
The conflict began two months into the wedding preparations. I was at Ebrahim's cousin's thikr, helping my younger sister, Amina, navigate the crowded garden. The music was a pulsing wall of sound, the smell of mutton biryani and grilled chicken heavy in the air.
I had stepped behind a large decorative screen near the drinks station to adjust my hijab when I heard Faizel's distinctive, booming laugh. He was clearly several glasses into the evening.
'I am telling you,' Faizel boasted to a circle of men, 'Riedwaan is the ultimate actor. We only told him to get her to agree to one date. We thought he'd fail in a week. Now the man is actually planning a wedding just to prove he's the king of the game. I owe him fifty thousand Rand, but honestly, the entertainment is worth every cent.'
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The world tilted on its axis. I felt Amina's hand grip my arm, her eyes wide with a mixture of horror and pity. She had heard it too. My first instinct was to storm out, to scream, to slap the glass from Faizel's hand. But a cold, sharp clarity took over. I didn't make a scene. I walked out of that party with my chin up, though my legs felt like jelly.
For three days, I played the part of the blissful bride. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. I answered Riedwaan's calls. I discussed the colour of the napkins for the reception. I watched him constantly. I looked for the cracks in the mask he wore so well. I saw the way he checked his phone when he thought I wasn't looking, the subtle smirk when my father praised his "integrity."
On the fourth day, I invited him over when I knew the house would be quiet. I led him into the lounge and turned the key in the lock, the click sounding like a gunshot. 'Faizel says he owes you fifty thousand Rand,' I said, skipping any greeting.
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Riedwaan's face transformed. The smile vanished, replaced by a mask of confusion, then a pale, sickly grey. He tried to laugh, but it died in his throat. 'Faizel is a fool, Zainub. You know how he talks when he's excited.'
'He didn't sound like a fool when he described the day you all sat down and decided to target me,' I said, my voice as steady as a surgeon's hand. 'He said I was the "unconquerable" one. Was I a fun challenge, Riedwaan? Did you enjoy the lectures? Did you enjoy carrying chairs for the elders while counting your winnings in your head?'
He slumped onto the sofa, the bravado finally draining away. 'It started like that,' he whispered, unable to look me in the eye. 'I won't lie to you anymore. But it changed, Zainub. I fell in love with you for real. The bet didn't matter after the third month. I forgot about the money.'
'The bet didn't matter?' I felt a laugh bubbling up, harsh and jagged. 'You are still taking their money. You are still friends with men who view my dignity as a scoreboard. You built our entire foundation on a lie, and you think the "love" you found in that lie is enough to sustain a marriage? You didn't fall in love with me; you fell in love with your own reflection in my eyes.'
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I pulled the engagement ring off. It felt like shedding a layer of poisoned skin. I placed it on the wooden coffee table. 'The Nikkah is off. Don't ever come back here.'
The reveal wasn't just about the wager; it was the devastating realisation that I had been an unwitting participant in my own deception because I so desperately wanted to believe in a fairy tale. But I refused to let him control the narrative. In our town, when a wedding is cancelled, the woman is usually the one left under a cloud of suspicion.
I didn't wait for the gossip to start. That same night, I sat my parents down. I told them everything, the bet, the money, the calculated way he had infiltrated our lives. My father, a man of immense dignity, looked at the ring on the table and sighed. 'A man who begins a journey with a map of lies will never find his way home, Zainub. You have done the right thing.'
I was relentless. I returned every single gift. Every piece of jewellery, every expensive fabric, even the expensive kitchen appliances, his family had sent as part of the wedding gifts. I hired a small van and delivered them to his family's house in broad daylight. I wanted no trace of his deception in my home.
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Riedwaan didn't go away quietly. He begged. He cried at my gate until the neighbours started peering through their curtains. He showed up at my school, causing a stir in the staffroom. He sent long, rambling emails about how he had "won the bet but lost his soul."
I decided to set the terms for his "repentance." I met him one last time at the school gate and handed him a written list of conditions. If he genuinely cared about my reputation and his own redemption, he had to follow them.
First, he had to tell both our families and the Imam the exact, unvarnished truth. Second, he had to cut ties with Faizel and Ebrahim immediately; there would be no more "boys' nights" with the men who turned my life into a game. Third, he had to seek professional counselling with a licensed therapist in Paarl, someone who could help him unpack his need for validation through conquest.
Finally, he was to have no contact with me for one full year. No calls, no texts, no "accidental" meetings. He agreed. He stood before our elders and confessed his shame, a move that cost him his standing in the community. His friends mocked him for "losing the girl and the cash," but he stayed the course.
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He moved to Paarl to begin his therapy and start a new job, away from the echoes of his past mistakes. A year has passed since I locked that lounge door. The scars are still there, but they have faded from angry red to a quiet silver. I used that year to rebuild myself, not as the "principled" woman of the neighbourhood, but as a woman who truly knows her own worth.
I applied for a postgraduate diploma in educational leadership. I joined a women's stokvel that pools our savings to help young girls stay in school. I stopped being "polite" when men overstepped my boundaries. I learned that "no" is a complete sentence that requires no explanation or apology.
Riedwaan kept his word. Last month, a package arrived at my father's house. It wasn't a gift or a plea. It was a folder containing a letter from his therapist confirming that he had completed a year of intensive work, along with a short, handwritten note from him. He didn't ask to see me.
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He didn't ask for a second chance. He apologised for the time he stole from me and the shadow he cast over my family name. I decided to meet him once, at a busy, brightly lit café near Athlone Stadium. It was neutral ground, filled with the noise of students and families.
He looked different; the Joburg flash was gone, replaced by a quiet, grounded energy. He spoke about his sessions, about the toxic ideas of masculinity he had carried, and about how he finally understood that respect isn't a performance you put on to get what you want.
I listened to him, and I realised something profound: I didn't hate him anymore. But the love I had for the man I thought he was, the man who arranged chairs at the Masjid and spoke so gently to my mother, was gone. That man never existed. He was a character Riedwaan had played, and I had been the audience.
'I forgive you,' I told him, my voice firm. He looked up, a spark of the old Riedwaan flickering in his eyes, a glimmer of hope. 'But forgiveness isn't a restart button,' I added quickly. 'It's a release. I'm releasing you from my anger so I can move on with my life.
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Whether we ever try again is a question for a version of us that doesn't exist yet. Right now, I am enjoying my own company far too much to share it with someone I would feel the need to monitor.' I walked out of that café feeling lighter than I had in my entire life. I didn't know if our paths would cross again, and for the first time, I was perfectly fine with that uncertainty.
People in the Bo-Kaap still whisper sometimes. They say, 'But he changed for her! Isn't that the ultimate romance?' I tell them that love without honesty is just a well-decorated cage. Riedwaan didn't just bet money; he bet on my inability to see through him. He bet that my desire for a "good man" would make me easy to manipulate.
He used my faith and my family as tools in a game. The lesson I carry now is that your intuition is a divine gift. That tiny, nagging "gut feeling" I had when things seemed too perfect? I should have listened to it. I learned that my value isn't something to be negotiated, won, or lost; it is inherent.
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I am not a prize, a dare, or a story to be told by drunk men at parties. I am the author of my own life, and I have finally taken back the pen. We live in a society that often tells women to be "manageable," to endure the lie for the sake of the wedding dress. But what is a marriage if it's built on a foundation of sand?
If you find yourself being courted by someone who seems to check every single box on your list, ask yourself: Is he mirroring you, or is he truly honouring you? Does he respect your boundaries when no one is watching? And most importantly, would he still want you if there was no audience to applaud his victory?
This story is inspired by the real experiences of our readers. We believe that every story carries a lesson that can bring light to others. To protect everyone's privacy, our editors may change names, locations, and certain details while keeping the heart of the story true. Images are for illustration only. If you'd like to share your own experience, please contact us via email.
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