Indian Stree✨️

My best friend asked me to lie to his wife. What he didn't know was that his wife had already called me three days earlier. I've known Daniel for 14 years. We met at our first job, stayed friends after we both left, and were there for each other through breakups, unemployment, and some pretty difficult years. When he got married, I became close to his wife, Rachel, too. They always seemed like a normal couple. They argued about bills, disagreed about where to spend holidays, and occasionally complained about each other to me. Nothing unusual. Then, about six months ago, Daniel started asking me for money. At first, it was small amounts. $200 until payday. $350 for an unexpected car repair. $500 because his salary had been delayed. He always paid me back, so I didn't think much of it. But the requests became more frequent. One evening, I asked whether everything was okay. He said work had been slow and that he was trying to keep his household afloat. I understood. I'd been there myself. Then Rachel called me. She sounded embarrassed. She asked whether Daniel had borrowed any money from me recently. I told her the truth. She went quiet. Finally, she said, “Please don't lend him anything else until you've spoken to him.” I asked why. She told me that for nearly a year, Daniel had been taking money from their joint savings account without telling her. The money was supposed to be their emergency fund. They had been saving for a house. She had discovered several unexplained withdrawals and confronted him, but he insisted the bank had made an error. She was now worried that he was borrowing from friends to cover what had disappeared. I couldn't believe it. The following evening, Daniel came to my apartment. He looked exhausted. He admitted he had lost a significant amount of money through risky investments and had been borrowing to cover the losses. He said he was trying to recover the money before Rachel found out how much was missing. Then he looked me in the eye. “Please, don't tell her anything else. I just need a little more time.” I asked him how much he had lost. He told me. I sat in silence. It was more money than I had ever seen in my own savings account. Then he said something that made the whole situation worse. “There's one thing Rachel doesn't know about the house deposit.” I asked him what he meant. He pulled out his phone, opened a banking app, and showed me a transaction. I recognized the account name immediately. It belonged to someone I knew. Someone who had absolutely no business being involved in their marriage. – at Ogogoro Village, Nigeria