For the longest time, I truly believed that real friends were everything. Growing up in Kayole, Nairobi, where hustle is the daily rhythm and money is tight, it’s your people who keep you going. That’s why I poured my heart into my little tailoring shop. I started with one second-hand machine and a prayer, and bit by bit, customers started trusting me because I was straight-up honest and delivered quality work. Life felt good.
Then there was Lydia – my “ride-or-die”. She was always the first to hype me up, post my dresses on her WhatsApp status, and tell everyone how proud she was. I let her into everything: my supplier contacts, pricing secrets, even my dreams. I never saw the red flags.
It started small. A bride’s order “disappeared”, payments got “stuck” in M-Pesa, and loyal clients suddenly went quiet. I blamed bad luck, Mercury retrograde – anything but the truth. Meanwhile, I was losing sleep, snapping at my kids, and looking drained in front of customers. Every time I vented, Lydia was right there with tea and sympathy: “Don’t worry, babe, it’ll pass.” But something in my spirit kept whispering, “This girl is too calm about your pain.”
The morning I found out she’d been badmouthing me and redirecting my best clients to some cheap tailor she knew, my world cracked. I called her for tea, hands shaking, and let it all out. She laughed – actually laughed – then went silent when she saw I wasn’t backing down. That look in her eyes said everything. The jealousy was real. The sabotage was real. Read more https://drbokko.com/?p=35272
