abandoned by her husband:
Lilian & Niufolau aka “Pua”
american samoa
2011, Lilian met Pua online in their shared island home of American Samoa. Their online chatting escalated to a romantic relationship. They were then married in 2015, four years later.
Lilian was so glad to have found someone who is a Christian, who shared her same values and beliefs. They were happily married, but it wasn’t long before Pua started struggling with drugs and alcohol.
Pua became unreliable and kept odd hours, staying out late and not responding to Lilian.
In addition to Pua’s substance abuse issue, the marriage became even more tumultuous when Pua accused Lilian of infidelity. Pua claimed that Lilian started seeing someone at her work place---someone that she knew even prior to their marriage. Pua became obsessed with the accusations of cheating even though he couldn’t prove anything to Lilian.
Pua’s relationship with alcohol and drugs reached a point where Lilian’s family decided they could no longer have him around. The marriage sank even lower.
July 2022 Lilian proposed that the two spend some time apart to re-group and heal, so they planned a trip to the United States where they each had family. Pua planned to visit his family in Virginia and Kansas and Lilian would visit family in Las Vegas.
The plan was that they would then reconvene in Las Vegas for their anniversary. However, that never happened.
While they were separated in the United States Pua reached out to Lilian and said that instead of returning home he wanted to find a job and find a way to start a life for his wife and son in the United States.
The last time and place that Lilian saw Pua was in the Phoenix airport in July of 2022 at the start of their trip when they went their separate ways to visit their respective families.
Lilian hadn’t heard from Pua so she tried contacting his family who claimed they hadn’t heard from him either.
Lilian finally got ahold of Pua via Facebook Messenger, but he made it clear that he didn’t want to talk. Two weeks later, Pua sent Lilian an email letting her know that he wanted to file for divorce.
Lilian immediately felt hurt, abandoned, and used. Additionally, Lilian had been the sole earner for their family, financially supporting him as he earned his masters degree. Now that he had his degree he was able to be independent and find his own work which makes Lilian questions his intentions. Was he just with her for the financial support?
Lilian is back in American Samoa and is unsure where Pua is or what he is doing. She is raising their son with the help of her family.
To this day Lilian maintains that she has never been unfaithful to Pua. She claims that his substance abuse has made him believe and see things that simply aren’t true. She thinks that he is paranoid and wrong in his accusations of cheating.
Pua wants a paternity test for their son. Lilian has agreed because she is desperate for him to believe her. She maintains that if she ever had been unfaithful, she cares about her marriage enough to admit it to him – but it’s not the truth. She can’t confess to something that isn’t true.
Lilian seeks answers to “Why?” but even after everything, she remains committed. She wants to find a way to put her marriage and family back together.
abandoned his wife:
pua’s side
Niuafolau or “Pua” as he goes by, is originally from the island of Samoa, he comes from a large family.
In 2015 Pua married his girlfriend of four years, Lilian.
Early on in their relationship, his wife Lilian who worked as a staff account began to mysteriously have to work late. Often until 2 or 3am. It was unusual for the couple, but Pua didn’t immediately jump to any conclusions.
2017: Pua began to speculate that her late nights at work were really encounters with another man.
When he confronted Lilian she naturally denied the allegations. Pua tried to hack into her text messages to find proof. He couldn’t find anything definitive. This all lead to a 3-month separation. When she came back she was pregnant. Lilian claimed it was their baby but Pua was unsure who the father was.
A distraught Pua prepared everything so that he could just disappear by going to the bank to clear their accounts, and planning a flight to leave right away. Instead, he offered his wife a different offer: they would each go stay with their respective parents/families for a while in the United States. Her parents lived in Las Vegas and his family was in Virginia and Kansas. They each took a trip to cool down and visit their respective families and the plan was that they would travel back home together. However, Pua never returned home…
When it was time to return, Pua told Lilian that he no longer wanted her in his life. Pua told his wife to return to Samoa and he continued travelling on his own. He abandoned his family and began traveling - from Kansas, to Virginia, to Santa Monica - all under the radar of his wife. His wife currently does not know where he lives.
Pua currently lives in Santa Monica, California where he works teaching history at a Catholic school. He loves Southern, California and wants to establish roots here.
Pua wants to return home this summer to face his wife and take a paternity test to determine if his son is really his son. He wants his wife to admit to the lies she told so they can both move forward.