CHAPTER 2: YOU'RE GETTING MARRIED
1262 Words
CHAPTER 2
You're getting married.
The hours of the night seemed like a whole forty-eight hours to Elena.
Before morning, her father was back from wherever he went to last night.
Not long after his return, a knock came on the door. Elena went to get the door, and immediately she opened it; she was tightly embraced by some women. They were three in number.
“Elena, my dear, don't cry anymore; your mother might be gone, but we are for you.”
“Your mother is our sister, and that equally makes you our daughter,” they consoled her in soft sobs as they also mourned the death of her mother.
They also didn't fail to console Mr. Ramson, who put on a sober face as if truly mourning his wife's death.
They were her mother's siblings. They all got married in distant locations, which made it hard for Elena to set her eyes on them since she was growing up, but she has heard a lot about them and seen their pictures from her late mother.
Before the complete break of day, the Ramson's house was filled with sympathizers, and different sounds of cries could be heard from people who knew late Mrs. Ramson to some extent.
"Elena, our dear, the burial is over, and it is high time we return to our various homes. We would have loved to take you with one of us, but we can't possibly do that because of your father.”
“Yes, she's right, my dear. You are all that your father has for now in this world; you know how much he loved you and your mother.”
“That’s true, taking you away from him now would only cause him depression. We promise to be visiting you once in a while, whenever we are chanced.”
Her aunties sat her down three days after the burial, offering their consoling words before they left.
“What the heck!” Elena thought.
Did these women even know what they're saying? Did they really know who her father is? Did they even know that he was behind their sister's death?
All she was expecting was to see them come with the authorities to arrest her father, but how they ended up sympathizing with the beast is what she can't tell.
Well, they're never to be blamed; everyone knows her father to be a loving and caring husband, but not until recently that he changed overnight.
Only God knows what he might have told people was her mother's cause of death before they assembled to sympathize with him.
“Calm down, Elena. There are better ways to this,” a voice in her whispered when she was contemplating on letting out the truth to all who came to mourn with them.
The house was gradually becoming empty as all their extended families left, leaving only Elena and her father, along with another woman who had been there since the day of her mother's burial.
The woman was not bothered about Elena at all; she never consoled her for a minute since the day she came, but she was always by her father's side.
In a state of perplexity, Elena was tempted to ask, “Dad, who's that woman?" Is she one of your sisters or Mummy's sisters that I didn't know about?”
“She's my wife,” her father declared.
The woman was in the dining room when she overheard them discussing, and she rapidly navigated to his side, giving him a soft peck on the cheek and leaning her hands over his shoulders. She said, “Hi Miss Elena, I hope you don't mourn your mother anymore, because I'm here to replace her.” She extended her hand to touch Elena's cheek with a smirk.
"Yes, from today, she's your stepmother, so you are to accord her the due respect; if not, you trust what I can do to you,” her father declared, and they both held their hands and left her sight.
Elena was numbed. This was her worst nightmare! The sadness in her heart at present can't be compared to the one she felt when she sat beside her mother's corpse.
Elena locked herself in her room and wept continually; she was drowning in thoughts all through the night of how miserable her father had turned her life into.
She woke up in the morning to the sight of another stranger in the house, a young girl of roughly fourteen years sitting on the couch in the living room.
Before she could open her mouth to ask any questions, her father was quick to call her attention already.
“Elena, meet Shirley, your half sister. That's the product of my union with your stepmother,” he explained, and the girl stood up and moved towards him and his new wife, and they embraced her, clearly showing a complete family.
Elena was in her room when her father opened the door to check on her, and she was prompted to ask him, “Dad, mom's death is not up to a week, and you've replaced her already? Not only that, you already have a child with that same woman? I thought you were faithful to my mother, dad, so what does this mean?”
“Stop!” Her father cut in.
“If you don't have anything reasonable to say next time, then you better don't talk, her father threatened.
“Dad, mom, I can't stay in the same room with her anymore; I need some privacy,” Vivian, Elena's new half sister, complained a day after her arrival.
“It's fine,” her mother replied wittily before she turned to Elena.
"Elena,"
“You can start sleeping on the 3-seater couch from today. Thank God it is big, right?” Her father concluded.
Elena was left with no choice but to accept every decision they make in the house.
SEVEN YEARS LATER
Standing in the kitchen with her hands fixed on the table, she seemed to be lost in thought when she was interrupted by her father's voice, “Elena, my dear, Get yourself ready. You'll be marrying Brian Adams in the next two weeks. "The contract has been signed already,” her father declared icily.
Like a bucket of cold water poured over her, Elena was speechless. She gazed at her father with a fierce look, “Dad, how could you? What have I done to deserve so much resentment from you, Dad? How dare you arrange a marriage for me against my wishes?” Her eyes were red and wet with tears as she confronted her dad.
Mr. Ramson doesn't have much tolerance for her, so before she'd be done pouring out her heart, his hands were up already to give her a slap.
“It's okay, honey,” the woman beside him held his hand in the air. You don't have to touch her because she doesn't have a choice,” the woman suggested.
She turned to Elena, “My dear, don't you want me to get well soon? Huh, you know your father has done all he could, but the money is not enough for my surgery; we still need 200,000 dollars more for the surgery to be successful,” she paused and took a deep breath, preparing what to say next.
“And you know your dad can't just sit and watch me die like your mother, so
He has to find a way out! Now the only option is you marrying Brian Adams!”
- Writer
