“I thought I was losing him and I lost myself instead.”

Tina was just 22. Young, beautiful and deeply in love. Her boyfriend, Jay, was her world. They had been together for three years, the kind of love story that friends envied and families admired.

Something shifted. Jay started coming home late. He laughed at his phone more than usual. He guarded his chats, changed his password and seemed distant. Tina asked, begged, even cried but he said it was stress from work. Still, doubt crept in like a poison.

Then one night, she saw a message flash briefly on his phone: “Can’t wait to see you again 😘.”

Her heart shattered.

She didn’t ask questions. She didn’t wait for answers. All she saw was betrayal and in a moment of blind anger, she did the unthinkable.

While Jay slept, Tina poured petrol on the floor of his apartment and struck a match.

She thought she’d scare him.

She didn’t think the fire would spread so fast.

She didn’t think he wouldn’t wake up in time.

He survived, with burns on 40% of his body and scars he’ll carry for life.

Tina was arrested two days later, trembling, barefoot and crying outside a church. “I just wanted him to hurt like I hurt,” she kept saying.

Well there was no excuse, no undoing it.

It turned out that the “other woman” turned out to be his cousin visiting secretly to plan a surprise birthday trip.

Tina now sits behind bars, writing letters she can never send. Jay is learning to walk again, to trust again, to live again.

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