“My Fiancé Dumped Me, Married Another Within 10 Days Of Meeting Her, And Stole My Savings to Pay For The Wedding.”

One woman opens up about how she found the courage to trust again after going through the wringer.

- Poon Li-Wei

“It was in 2006 that I joined Etihad Airways as an air stewardess and moved to Abu Dhabi. I had just arrived in this hotel meant to be a temporary accommodation for cabin crew, and was waiting at the lobby for two fellow Malaysians who’d gone exploring, when a Tunisian man walked in with his luggage. He looked fresh offa flight and clearly a cabincrew-in-training too. The glass door opened and when he saw me, it was a scene straight out of a movie – he froze, putting him right in the path of the closing door, which hit him on the nose. As he lay on the ground with a nosebleed, I went over to check on him. Taking me utterly by surprise, he murmured, ‘One day, I’m going to marry you because you’re so beautiful.’

A SLOW START

For a long time, nothing happened between the both of us – the hotel, which was supposed to be a temporary arrangement, turned into our permanent home base. I was on the first floor and he, on the 12th. I was only 19 at the time and was taking my mum’s advice of exploring all that the world had to offer me – and it didn’t include settling down. On paper, he checked all boxes – tall, charming, and a gentleman (he would always hold the door for me and help with my luggage). But things just never progressed beyond the friendly, and in our second year of work, he began dating another woman.