When Victor* (32) accidentally broke his sister Kiki’s* leg in 2024, his guilt and her manipulation pushed him to begin funding her life.
Two years down the line, Kiki still finds ways to make the accident Victor’s personal hell. However, a recent issue has finally given Victor the courage to take a stand that will alter their relationship for good.
This is Victor’s story, as told to Azara.
“Victor smashed my leg, and I’ll never properly walk again.”
That’s how my younger sister, Kiki, likes to tell the story of an accident I caused in 2024. As of now, my sister can walk just fine, but that never stops her from telling the story in a way that paints her as the victim.
This same line is what she’s used to guilt-trip me all these years. Since the accident, I’ve funded Kiki’s life and endured everything to ensure her happiness. However, what she did to me in May was my last straw.
Long before we reached this point, Kiki and I actually had a really good sibling relationship. We called each other regularly, shared mundane details of our lives, sent money to each other when one of us was in need, and never had any serious problems that needed addressing.
But all that changed in December 2024, when I caused the accident that changed Kiki’s life.
At the time, my car had been malfunctioning. I would have to put it in drive multiple times before it finally jerked forward and started moving. I’d been managing the issue for about a year, but each time a mechanic fixed the problem, it would start again within a week.
That day in December, I had gone to my parents’ house for the holidays, intending to see them and Kiki. As I tried to drive my car into the compound, the stupid vehicle started its issue again and refused to move. In frustration, I kept jerking the gearshift without looking around. If I had, I’d have seen my sister rushing out of the house to greet me.
Right as she reached me, my car finally jerked forward, and I slammed into her hard.
I don’t think I’ve ever screamed in my adult life the way I did that day. My sister went down, crying so loudly that my elderly parents and neighbours passing by had to stop and see what had happened.
I rushed her to the hospital in the same car that had just hurt her, and all she kept crying was, “My leg, my leg!”
The doctors told us she had broken her shin bone, the bone right below her knee, and I was heartbroken. I had just hurt the one person I loved most.
She spent two weeks at the hospital, and her surgery and other medical fees ran over ₦2.5m. At this time, I had just started working as an AI prompt training engineer for a foreign company, earning $800/month (about ₦1.1m), and I had no savings from my previous job. I had to beg my parents to pay her medical bills while I paid them back in installments over the next few months.
Little did I know that wasn’t the last time I would have to make drastic money choices because I broke my sister’s leg.
I visited Kiki twice a day throughout her time in the hospital, begging for her forgiveness. But even when she told me it was fine, I could feel our dynamic shifting for the worse.
She started answering me with one-word replies and would barely look at me. She was also in terrible pain, and every time she cried about it, my guilt ate me alive.
She had to wear a brace for three months after the accident. I felt guilty about having my parents care for her despite the fact that her situation was my fault, so I moved Kiki into my apartment.
At first, all I had to pay for were the things concerning her well-being: adjusting her brace, physiotherapy appointments, pain medication, X-rays, and so on. It was about ₦600k per month for the first three months, and I worked to correct my mistakes.
Kiki was fine with the arrangement, even thankful, but I knew that to win her back, I’d need to do more than just pay for her medical care.
So, the next February, I bought her a gold necklace worth ₦25k. It might not seem like much, but Kiki loves jewellery, and her show of gratitude for that gift was more than anything she’d said to me for the last three months. It marked a turning point in our new relationship, and Kiki started talking to me as happily as she used to. A few weeks after that, she got the go-ahead to take off her brace.
Finally, I thought to myself, things are going back to normal. But little did I know the real madness was just beginning.
“It hurts.” Kiki still regularly complained a month after her brace was taken off. She could walk and do all the things she used to do, but she struggled up long flights of stairs, and could no longer stand for up to an hour without being in pain.
We had to go back to the hospital, and they said that even though her leg was healed, she would likely be in pain forever.
If I had felt guilt before, seeing my sister cry at the news broke me completely. I started doing everything I could to make her happy, including getting her everything she wanted.
I bought her expensive meals, even things I wasn’t eating, and would drive her anywhere she needed to go. Anytime she even hinted at wanting something, it was hers within minutes.
Soon, this became the norm, and Kiki grew expectant of my generosity.
She never moved out of my apartment, so I had to stop having my girlfriend over because Kiki would judge me. She would eat things I bought for myself, call me at random times to get items she wanted at the store, and, if I complained, she would talk about how difficult getting things was for her because of her leg.
That was always the excuse: her leg. Each time I wanted to get upset, my anger would fizzle away at the mention of what I’d done to her.
Soon, I was miserable in my own home. I once calculated how much I spent on myself in a month and realised I spent nearly twice as much on Kiki. Her bill had risen to nearly ₦300k per month, which is far more than one person should spend on non-necessities in four weeks.
I once tried to have a sit-down conversation with her about it, but her eyes watered as she started telling me she’s struggling to adjust to her new life as a “cripple”, which is just wrong. Kiki can do almost everything she used to do; I’ve even seen her jog since taking off her brace. She’s just in occasional pain, and then I was constantly paying for it.
On her birthday in September 2025, she went to a restaurant with her friends, then drunkenly called me and demanded that I pay for the meal. I heard her friends giggling in the background, and I’m sure they were laughing at me for being a mumu. Still, I handled her ₦110k bill.
Things went on like this for a while, and I’d started to resent the person I felt most responsible for. I was constantly adjusting my budget and pushing my wants back for her sake. I rarely had any savings by the end of the month because there was always expensive food Kiki needed to buy or a dress she wanted to get.
I understood her struggles were my fault, but did that mean I was going to have to pay for it forever? I knew I would have to draw the line one day, but I didn’t think she would give me a big enough reason worth drawing it yet.
But in May this year, she finally did.
See, my girlfriend’s birthday is in May, and I’d been setting money aside since January to plan a surprise for her. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted it to be big.
Kiki knew about this money because I had saved it in our joint bank account. Looking back, that was such a foolish thing to do, but Kiki had never used the account, so I thought it would make sense just to save my money there and tell her what it was for, which I did. By the beginning of May, I had saved about ₦400k.
One weekend, I was hanging out with friends and chose not to use my phone. By the time the weekend was over, I checked my notifications and realised the joint account had been drained. Only ₦100k was left. I also got a message from my sister saying, “Taking out our money. Emergency.”
My blood ran cold. I tried calling her, but she didn’t pick up. She’d also sent the message in the morning, and now it was evening, so I had no way of knowing if she’d spent my girlfriend’s money.
By the time I got home, I met her in the living room. She explained her friend needed a quick loan for his rent, so she took out our joint savings. I nearly burst out in tears, re-explaining that the money was for me, not us. She tried to argue that if the money were so necessary, I wouldn’t have put it in our joint account. When she saw I wasn’t buying her nonsense, she turned it back to her leg.
In her exact words, she muttered, “Can we talk about this another time? My leg is hurting.”
That was when I realised how big a fool I’ve been. Only God knows if she was actually in any pain. I calmly demanded that she find a way to pay me back before my girlfriend’s birthday, or I would no longer foot any of her bills.
To her credit, she did take me seriously. She tried asking her friend back for the money, but he had already given it to his landlord. She tried begging me, but my anger had bubbled over. All her efforts were in vain, and by the 31st of May, my money hadn’t re-entered my account.
I explained the situation to my girlfriend, and even though she was understanding, I could tell I had ruined her day.
True to my word, I have barely paid anything for my sister since then. After I handle the cost of food and other amenities to keep her alive, I don’t bother with the rest.
She has asked multiple times that we talk about it, but I don’t want to, not yet. If she knew what she was doing was wrong and would hurt me, why did she keep doing it? Because I broke her leg nearly two years ago?
It’s been about seven months now since the joint account fiasco, and she still lives with me, which I don’t mind. But our relationship has been strained.
I’m starting to feel bad again. I want us to make up by New Year’s Day, but to be honest, I’m more scared than upset. What will our relationship look like? Will she take advantage of me again?
And, better question: will I let her?
