KEEPER OF THE DESERTED ISLAND

YOU CAN'T DATE HIM

Shirley left Hector and went to the yard trying to process what she just heard, he was the boy she cared so much about and who have suffered thanks to carelessness and greediness of the Prime minister

“What a twist of fate, I never expected him to be here or even be that boy” she remarked as she leaned on the wall trying to think over what just happened before Convel found her sighing over and over

“is something the matter? You have been sighing for the past five minutes” he said moving closer to her

“You won’t believe that Hector is Jerrick’s half-brother, what type of destiny play out is this?” she said facing him

“Jerrick had a half-brother? Wow I never knew about that” he remarked

“Yes you wouldn’t know because the prime minister never acknowledged him as his son, he has been living in hiding all his life” she explained and he replied with a long “oh”

“But why are you so worried about him that you are sighing this hard? Is it something to be bothered about?” he asked

“It would not have been something to be bothered about if our daughter doesn’t like him” she replied covering her face tiredly

“Our daughter likes him? Who? Our Gaia? She likes him? Well it’s understandable to like him as a friend” he said trying not to think too far

“Are you just dumb or you are pretending not to know? How can you not know that they like each other romantically, more than friends?” she snapped at him

“Wow, our daughter is that old to fall in love? That’s so awesome” he replied with a smile which only earned him a smack on the shoulder from her

“Seriously you are just too dumb to understand and comprehend things which is so frustrating” she shouted

“What? Am I supposed to stand against them?” he asked rubbing his shoulder in pain

“Of course! Don’t you know that we cannot allow Gaia get married to someone from the prime minister’s family? How am I supposed to let her date someone from that terrible family? that will be over my dead body, not in this lifetime, I won’t allow it, I can never!” she said firmly and Convel finally got what she was driving at

“you are right, with what we have faced from that family, it will be totally unfair to let our precious daughter get married to anyone from the family and face hell, never can we allow that” Convel supported

“that’s what I have been trying to tell you all these while, we must separate them as early as possible” she quickly replied clapping her hands

“Since they haven’t gotten too deep, it’s totally easy to separate them now, let’s not make this complicated” he added before Aurelia yelled for them to come eat dinner

They finished dinner and Shirley told Hector to come out so they can finish their talk. They walked to the far side of the house where she motioned for him to sit down and he did

“you know, I never knew I will set my eyes on you again ever since the time I visited your house last with some food. My life turned around negatively ever since then when I got pregnant with my beautiful daughter, Gaia but I have never for once regretted the decision I made to keep her even though my life and that of my parents have been upside down because of it, my mother even died. I have lived through all the humiliations, pain and agony both from the prime minister and his son which is your brother, Jerrick because I wanted to stay alive till the day I finally meet my daughter which the heavens finally made me meet. With the level of suffering I have experienced and witness from your father, even to you his own son, I can never allow my daughter to get married into a family like yours” she started slowly

“you are someone who also suffered from the wickedness of your family, that I understand but there is no how it will not affect my own daughter if I allow her to get married to you. I know I shouldn’t get in between your love lives but this is too hard for me to let it slide, I don’t want her to experience any hardship, I don’t want her to be involved in any of this strife so I am sorry, you will have to let my daughter go” she added looking at Hector who had his head bowed

“To be honest, my father already betrothed me to someone as I was growing up and I told Gaia about it when she confessed her feelings to me, I originally turned her down because I didn’t want to hurt her but she was the first person to challenge me and yell at me to free myself from the shackles of my father. I have never enjoyed his fatherhood for once when I thought about so I decided to remove him from the decision making factor in my life when I listened to all Gaia had said. I didn’t know about you being enslaved by him in the palace but I know he exiled your father, I didn’t even know that you are the princess who happened to be Gaia’s mom but now that I know, I want to do better” he replied slowly going on his knees

“you want to do better? As how?” she asked with a confused look

“Firstly, I want to apologize on behalf of my brother and father who has turned your family upside down” he started and bowed deep to the ground

“I am not saying you should let it go or you should forgive them but I am apologizing for coming from such a family who only knows how to inflict pain on people” he added before taking a pause

“as for Gaia, she is the first person I will love this much and I want to risk everything for. I understand the tension between the two families but am I not allowed to be greedy for once? Just this once I want to be selfish, I don’t want to live on someone’s order but do what my heart wants” he said with tears lacing in his eyes making Shirley speechless

“Hector, this is not a matter of doing what you want or being greedy, it’s not a matter of order but you are both not meant to be. Do you think your family will welcome her with open hands? Do you think the family of the girl you were betrothed to will just sit back and clap for your happiness? This will cause another exhausting war which I don’t want her to be pulled in. I need you to understand my heart as a parent and do what is right for both you and her. If you truly love her then you should be able to let her go” she replied standing up

“I am sad to be the splitting factor between the both of you when you are both in love but it is better you all go your separate ways early so you can put the past behind as soon as possible to live a happier life” she added coldly and turned to leave only to find Gaia standing at their back with her fists clenched

“who gave you the right to meddle in my life? Who gave you the power to tell him to cut me off? Who are you to do that?” she yelled at her angrily and a strong breeze blew with her voice

“since when have you been standing here?” Shirley asked moving closer to her

“When I have been standing here is not the question but why you are telling him to leave me?” she asked brazenly glaring at her mother

“Do you not know or you are pretending? His family is a no. You cannot marry into that terrible family” Shirley answered holding her hand but she swat her hand away in annoyance

“Why can’t I? did I ever tell you not to marry dad? Did I ever meddle in your life? Why are you doing the same to me?” she asked with tears welling up in her eyes

“you should understand me, I am your mom and I know what is best for you. Do you even know where he belongs to? He is a member of the family that ruined my family! All these things that has happened to I, you and your father was from them. I was kidnapped by their family, separated from you because of them, sent to s*****y in the wolves pack for years, my father was turned to a puppet before he was finally overthrown, he made my mom lose her life, sent my father on exile after making everyone believe that all atrocities committed by him was an order from him, made me the lowest slave and stripped me of my powers, I became powerless because of someone as wicked as him” she narrated but Gaia just scoffed

“And what has all that got to do with me? What has all that got to with my own love life? Why are you restricting me just because of your own life? This Hector you are talking about is also a victim of his family’s wickedness. You are only looking at your own wounds and not his? It’s not like he’s the one that did all those to you and father” she yelled

“You, did you know about his family but just decided to ignore all because you love him?” her mother asked in shock

“Yes, I found out everything about him from Aurelia but I still want to be with him because I love him. He is the first person that made me feel these kind of emotions. I have been locking myself inside the coldness of my being ever since I have been born but he was the one that pulled me out, thanks to him I can leave the island now because my heart became warmer, if you take away my warmth, what am I supposed to do with my heart? Be stranded her forever on this island?” she said with tears running down her cheeks

“Listen my precious gem, you will surely be out of this island and I will make sure of that, there are many more men you can meet who will help you warm up your heart, it is not necessarily him, I will do what I can to make sure you are free from here” her mother assured her placing her hand on her shoulder but she shrugged it off

“why are you being so stubborn? I am your mother don’t you know? I know what’s best for you” Shirley yelled at her

“Why do you think I have to listen to you? You were not even there for me when I had to live my life being called a monster? When no one played with me or even wanted to be my friend? When I was a loner, when I was filled with so much sadness and had no one to run to? Where were you?” she shouted and a very mighty thunder sounded so loud making everyone shocked

“Do not try to meddle in my life because no matter what you do, I will never leave him” she added and turned to leave in annoyance

“no matter what you say, it will not change my mind because I know what’s best for you and will not allow anyone mess with you because I am your mother” Shirley said stubbornly before going inside

Hector sat there for a while before finally moving into the house where he saw that everyone had fallen asleep, he slept on his spot and kept thinking about what Shirley told him and how Gaia stood up to fight her mom because of him, he was not sure if he was doing the right thing but he already made up his mind not to allow his father block his happiness anymore.

He didn’t talk to Gaia who was still obviously upset the following day, she was just yelling at anything and anyone since she was edgy and the coldness in both her attitude and voice was glaring

“Did you tell her already? She’ so scary since morning” Convel asked Shirley who also refused to be intimidated by her attitude because she was bent on separating them

“I have told her and that’s the reason why she’s behaving like that but don’t worry, I am not moved by all that” Shirley replied as she sweep through the compound

“I feel like this will be a war, Gaia is surely angry and not ready to let go” He commented and Shirley raised the broom to hit him

“I will not let go too so don’t mind her attitude and go find some work to do” she gritted at him before continuing her work

Aurelia who was aware of everything that was happening even though no one told her about it sighed as she was picking the vegetables in the yard

“this was the trouble and disaster I was talking about the other day, it will only get worse because they are all so stubborn, I wonder who will win” she whispered to herself

The tension continued for days and one fateful day Gaia left home and went to the training ground where she kept training herself till she was exhausted, she shot so many arrows after her sword training that her hands were filled with wounds, they began to bleed but she ignored it and continued before someone grabbed her hand from the back, she turned to see who and saw that it was Hector

“Why are you punishing yourself?” he asked slowly lowering her hand before wrapping it with the clean cloth he pulled out of his bag

“Why are you here?” she asked trying to pull her hand out of his but he gripped it immediately

“don’t be stubborn! Your hand is full of wound already” he said tying it up

“I asked why you are here and you haven’t answered” she insisted

“Why will you ask that type of question when we always come here to train together? I came to train too of course” he replied gently

“You are a liar, you have been ignoring me for days and behaving like I didn’t exist so why are you suddenly training with me?” she asked with a pout

“Because I have been waiting for you to make your decision” he replied before looking into her eyes

“You have been waiting for me?” she slowly asked

“yes, I have been waiting for you because I clearly told you that the moment I decided to go against my dad, I will hold unto you and will not leave you” he said with a shrug and she smiled faintly

“You! If you were not changing your mind then why did you not talk to me all these while?” she said almost crying

“It’s because you didn’t talk to me and your eyes were too scary for me to come closer” he said cleaning off the tears in her eyes

“you are just too weird, you should have held unto me” she cried the more

“that I why I have come here, to hold unto you. I never knew you were such a cry baby” he teased her and she slapped his shoulder before bursting into a smile

“You are not serious” she muttered and he slowly wiped the tears again

“I missed you so much” she said and he smiled before diving in for a kiss