Before The Wedding Day

Elijah sat back on the couch, giving half attention to his parents as they talked about the importance of the family lineage. Why he absolutely had to take another wife who was fertile and would give birth to healthy children who will walk the path that he has already made.

It was a topic he hated hearing about, but out of respect for his parents would sit and listen to them. He had no intention of marriage. He had no intention of scouting for another wife. And even if they offered to give him one, he had no intention to meet her.

His phone suddenly rang, and with a grateful expression smoothening out his features, he stood up and walked outside to answer it.

"Ivan, what is it?"

"I found out something, sir." Ivan sounded a little anxious over the phone.

"What is it?"

"The girl who works in Mr. William's favourite restaurant, she is going to get married to him."

"What?" Surprise laced Elijah's voice. "I thought she was a young girl, isn't he over forty and a widower too?"

"Yes, he is. But according to my informant, her father practically sold her."

Elijah was silent for a while, as he remembered what the neighborhood man had told him regarding Jennifer's father and his dislike for women.

"When is the wedding?" He asked, clenching and unclenching his fists.

"It is tomorrow. You know we planned to go to him tomorrow, but he is also getting married tomorrow."

"That's great. He will be caught unawares. Gather information about the venue of the wedding, and report to me immediately. Also, get some security officials ready for the operation. We will arrest him at the wedding."

"Yes sir," Ivan said. Elijah had removed the phone from his ear before he heard Ivan's voice come through the phone again.

"Sir, what about the girl? What do we do with her?"

"We will take her. She has worked in a restaurant where he frequents and is also going to get married to him. I am sure she knows a few things."

Ivan nodded. "I'll prepare."

With a small nod, Elijah cut the call, but stood outside, his hand tucked into the pockets of his loose dark gray trousers as he stared off into the sky from the balcony.

The one question that bugged his mind however, was how a father could agree to sell his child for money. It was unbelievable. Even though he didn't love Maria and didn't see himself falling for her, he still treated her with the respect of a woman. For the simple fact that she was his wife and a woman. The fact that there were people out there who hated people based on gender made him want to curse the world.

"Jennifer?" Jennifer looked up from her nails. She had been picking them silently ever since her mother and two of her mother's friends came to help her fix her box and other things.

"Yes?"

"Let me have a minute with you." Her mother said, then stood and left the company of her friends. Jennifer followed suit.

The sun was going down, and with every minute that passed, it was obvious how inevitable the marriage was.

Mr. William Hugh came to see Jennifer once, and it just made her hate him more. The way his eyes had ravaged her body, and the way he had, without shame or discretion licked his lips and smacked them after that, it had irritated her.

But she couldn't even run and risk leaving her mom in danger. She just hoped and prayed desperately that something or someone would come to save her. She wasn't asking for too much, she just didn't want to get married to someone as disgusting as that.

"Yes, mum." She said again as she met her in the kitchen.

"How do you feel, jenny?" Her eyes were pleasing. Like she was pleading with jennifer to tell her everything she was feeling. Everything she knew no one in the house cared to listen to.

"I am fine." She answered simply.

"You can still run away, Jennifer. I can take care of myself. No matter what happens.."

"No, mum. I will stay." She said simply. Her mother, Sarah was a very small, frail woman who looked like she had all the troubles of the work laid on her shoulder in one night. Jennifer would be heartless to let her bear the wrath of her father on her won. She couldn't bear being that selfish, especially at the expense of the only person to whom she owed her sanity and resilience to.

Sarah reached out for Jennifer's hand, her eyes pooling with tears. She wished she had a day. She wished she would wake up and hear that it was all a bad dream, but it wasn't.

"Jennifer...if it gets too hard for you to bear, please don't look back. Don't think of me or...anyone else, just run and never look back. I beg of you."

"My..please stop crying." Jennifer freed one of her hands from her mother's weak grip, and carefully wiped away the tear that had started rolling down her cheeks.

She was trying to be strong for her mother too, because she couldn't stand seeing her mother suffering this way.

"I will make sure to be fine. No matter what."

Sarah nodded, then pulled her into a teary embrace. Jennifer couldn't help the tears that formed, but she blinked them back. She didn't need to break her mother's quiet, weak resolve by crying in front of her. It will only make her mum feel more guilty for something that wasn't her fault at all.

Sarah finally released her, and slowly caresses her cheek with her trembling hands. It really felt like she was losing another child the way she had lost the first one, Jennifer's sister.

"Be strong, okay?"

"I will, mum. You have nothing to worry about."

"I love you." Sarah said, her voice breaking.

"I love you too, mum."

Sarah embraced her again, this time for way longer, just savoring her warmth and lamenting the kind of life her own bad choice of a husband had availed to her daughters.