Dear Rhema, Please, help me. I need a way out of this mess I created for myself and also a solution to my problem. I am married and blessed with two children. My marriage of eight years is about hitting the rocks if I am not careful, and all is because I saw someone who needed help and helped her. My husband does not believe me, I wonder why and what would make him believe the words of an outsider against mine. When I was able to pull a response from him, his answer was shocking. He said he would believe my friends’ words any day, any time because she is my friend and he believes we are very close and she would know me inside out. Sherry, my friend is really not a close pal, but we were classmates in school and during our university days we both shared the same room for two sessions. My parents know her and vice versa.She has not been lucky with the opposite sex right from our school days. When virtually all of us in our group were dating our mates and younger men, she had always dated olderand married men and she wouldnot mince words, then, to tell us that her destiny does not lie withsingle or younger men, as she would prefer to settle for a married man. I never asked her why and those who cared to ask her then nevergot satisfactory answers from her. We left school to start our lives. Imarried Soji, the guy I dated from my 200 level. I did not hearfrom or see Sherry again until two years ago when we met at the airport on our way from the UK. We had travelled in the same aircraft, but did not know until when we got to Nigeria. I travelled with my two kids. We went on holidays to England because Soji resides and works there. My husband got an immediate employment with the bank where he did his youth service way back then, but he had to leave when the banking job became insecure. He had a goodjob prospect in England, so he travelled back and he is doing well. He would have moved his family, but for his mother who wanted us close by. Soji been an only child; I also have a good joband we both decided that for some time, it should be this way. This was how Sherry and I met again. We had no time to talk the day we met; we exchanged phone numbers and called each other again. This was how we started communicating and how I learnt that in the few years that we left school, she had been married twice, both did not work out. She travelled to the UK for two years and she was back home to settle down. As a friend, she started coming to my house, she would stay the weekend and before long, I asked her to movein with my kids until she would get her own apartment. I did this out of good-will; I neverknew that I had courted trouble.I however, informed my husbandbefore taking the decision. His response was that if I felt I wouldbe able to cope. He was also happy for me because she wouldbe a companion. We lived in a new area, in our own house, I lived with the domestic staff and my kids. SinceSherry was not a stranger to my husband, they communicated. Whenever he called and she wasaround he would speak with her on phone. Dear Taiwo, I never knew when she started speaking with my husband on phone behind me. All of a sudden, Soji started asking me questions about things happening in the house that I haven’t discussed with him. It has never been in my character to keep things from Soji, but if not on urgent issues that requires urgent attention I discuss with him at our leisure, but I discovered that Sherry would have told him before I did. At the initial stage I wondered how he got to know the things he asked me, even trivial issues like the exit of the house help among others. It then dawned on me that Sherry must have been his informant. When I asked her, initially, she denied and when I put it to her that there were certain issues that Soji couldn’t have heard from someone outside the houseshe could no longer deny. Her reaction however shocked me because she told me that she does not need my permission to speak with my husband. She saidshe agreed that she is my friend, but he is also her friend and she would speak with him anytime without my approval. I was very bitter about this and I told her my mind. Two days afterthis encounter, my husband called to tongue lash me on the phone. I couldn’t comprehend what wasgoing on. I was trying to digest all these when Soji called and stopped me from attending his step sister’s wedding. His father had other kids and there’s no love lost between them, because his dad abandoned him and his mother in favour of his step mother and siblings. My mother-in-law however, said we should be a part of the wedding without Soji’s knowledge. Because it was an outing that we had to plan together, Soji’s mum even made Sherry a part of the planning and made her promise not to tellher son, but she eventually did. Soji called and told me that I must not go for the wedding if I still wanted my home.I was so angry that I asked Sherry to leave my house. I got another shock when my husbandcalled that if Sherry should moveout I should be prepared to follow her. Can you imagine? I told Soji that I brought Sherry into my home and would ask her to leave whenand if I no longer feel comfortable with her. I asked herto leave, but she had the guts to tell me she would when she findsa situation accommodating. Her excuse was that Soji has asked her to stay until she can sort herself out. If Soji was in Nigeria, I would have said maybe he had something to do with Sherry or ifshe had travelled out of the country during this time,but she didn’t. I am angry with my husband because I never believed he could be on a stranger’s side against me. I also cannot understand why he suddenly started making issues out of little things and non-issues. We have not spoken to each other in the last three weeks, because I went for his step-sister’s wedding. Sherry did not go with us. I couldn’t leave my mother-in-law alone. Soji hasalso refused to speak with his mother. Please, what should I do? To say I feel very uncomfortable under my own roof is putting it mildly, kindly help me. Oluwatoyin