Here we go friends. It’s time to talk about my first husband. We’re going to call him “C” because his name really doesn’t matter.

I met “C” when I was 18 years-old. I don’t remember where, but a group of us girls were out one night and we met a group of guys. “C” was in this group and I thought he was cute, so we started talking and hit it off. At the time he wasn’t working but I was 18 and naive so I never questioned it. I was working at Office Max at the time.

After about 2 weeks he told me he had a criminal record for arson but he said he’d never done any of them, he had just come upon them and then the police blamed him. I know what you’re thinking “Niki, that’s a big red flag,” but I believed him.

Things went okay for a little while. He would do anything I asked him to. Now, looking back, I was way more of the man in this relationship (which isn’t my cup of tea), but I ignored this red flag too.

One day, while I was working, I received a phone call from “C”. We had been living with my Mom and Grandma because he had no place of his own and he still wasn’t working. So I answer the phone knowing something was wrong and the first words out of his mouth are “The house is on fire!” I freaked! I asked if my Mom and Grandma had gotten out and he said “Yes.” I told him to please come pick me up (because he had my car) and told my manager what was going on.

When I got in the car I started to cry because the adrenaline was wearing off. I asked “What the hell happened and how bad was it?” He hugged me and said it was in the garage but the smoke had come through the house some.

The firefighters and police were still there when we showed up. I hugged my Mom and Grandma because I was so happy they were okay. The rooms they were both in were right up against the garage where the fire started.

The Fire Inspector spent a long time in the garage but didn’t tell us about any causes of the fire. Unfortunately, since we were renters, we were given 30 days notice to get out.

At this time, “C” proposed, I bought my own ring, and we decided right away to marry at the Justice of the Peace. Little did I know there was a ulterior motive to this.

We got married in a very small ceremony at the courthouse. Then we all moved into an apartment and “C” ended up getting a job at the IHOP right up the road.

The Fire Inspector called “C” and said he needed to come down and talk to them about the fire at the house. He agreed to go down the next day since he worked that night.

That night he comes home early. I’m surprised but happy.

“How did you get off so early?” I asked.

“There was a fire in the supply closet and so they shut down early, “C” said.

“Do they know what happened?”

“No, but they’re trying to figure it out,” he said.

I couldn’t believe it. The bad luck was following us, but why?

The next day, “C” used my car to go to the interview with the Fire Inspector. A couple of hours later, I got a phone call from the investigator letting me know that they arrested “C” for the fire at the house and I needed to come pick up my car.

I started crying because I knew they had the wrong person. The fire HAD to be an accident of some sort! The cops were doing it again, blaming him for a fire just because he was in the vicinity. I was so angry!

My Mom took me to pick up my car and we went directly home.

“Mom, theres no way he would have done this. There was no reason for it.” I cried to my mom.

“I can understand why you’d feel that way” my Mom said.

“C” called me that night from jail and was crying on the phone. He kept telling me he didn’t do it. That his mom and dad were getting him a lawyer and it would all be straightened out.

The next day the Fire Inspector talked with my Mom and I about what they found.

Underneath a pile of clothes, they found cigarette butts (“C”‘s brand). They believed he tried to start the fire that way but the pile smothered it out. So he lit a corner of the clothes pile and let it burn which started the actual fire. The pile of clothes was what they called the “point of origin.” I couldn’t believe it and told the inspector so. I told him it had to be an accident and they were wrong. I was not very nice. I would come to regret this later and would apologize.

The same day “C” called me from jail again and I told him everything the inspector told us. He started to deny it but I point blank asked him “Did you do it?” To which he started crying and admitted to setting the fire at our house and at IHOP. Come to find out, while in jail, they were interviewing him about the IHOP fire as well.

I was so angry that he had put my Mom and Grandma in danger. I was mortified by how I acted towards the Fire Inspector. And I felt so stupid for actually believing him at first when he said that he didn’t do it.

After that, we went to the Commonwealth Attorney that was assigned to the case and told him everything. But, remember when I told you that there was an ulterior motive to marrying me so quickly? Here it is… the Commonwealth Attorney said they couldn’t put me on the stand to tell everyone that he confessed because we were married. I was floored but, because of all the evidence, I figured they wouldn’t need my testimony to find him guilty.

Boy was I wrong!

A jury of his peers found him not guilty of the fire at our house. I was scared because now they had to let him out of jail. By this time I had already filed for a divorce so I was afraid he’d set our apartment on fire when he got out. The attorney told us how we could get an order of protection and apologized that the jury didn’t find him guilty.

On the plus side, he was found guilty of the fire at IHOP because cameras showed that “C” was the only one who went in and came out of the supply closet.

Needless to say, the divorce went through and thankfully he didn’t fight it. He got a couple of years for the IHOP fire so we didn’t have to get an order of protection. By the time he got out, we had already moved into a rental house he didn’t know about.

Looking back now, I was totally naive to everything. I was an 18 year-old who latched onto the first guy that showed me interest. I thought I had learned from this mistake but, as you’ll see later, I didn’t.

What’s something in your life you wish you could change? Share in the comments below.