She wasn't violated." The midwife announced, making Nna release a breath.

Alhaji Sayuti lowered their gaze, shamefully.

"Are you really sure?" Kashi inquired; covering her face with the palm of her hand.

"Yes. I have checked thoroughly. Larai wasn't touched at all. Her hymen is intact."

"Thank you." Baaba dismissed the midwife, then averted his gaze back to alhaji Sayuti. "I'm truly disappointed at how you and your wife came here to attack my family today. It was horrible news, I know, but the least you could have done was trust me. If truly Larai was violated, in a heartbeat, I would have called off the wedding myself. You know me. We have been friends for decades. I must tell you; I really didn't expect this behavior from you."

Remorsefully, Alhaji Sayuti joined his palm; his gaze still lowered. "For what happened today, we're really sorry. We shouldn't have acted so rashly."

"I'm sorry for all the rude remarks I made against you, Kulu," Kashi muttered her apology.

Nna shook her head and took her hands in his. "Let bygones be bygones. We're about to be relatives soon. Sometimes, such arguments are inevitable."

"Thank you." Kashi rubbed her hands, uncomfortably.

Alhaji Sayuti cleared his throat, before speaking; "About the allian-"

Larai shut her eyes tightly, hoping for a miracle to happen.

"The wedding is still on. That's if you are still interested." Baaba responded, with a slight shrug of his shoulder.

His words had all of Larai's hopes crumbling. Her nasolacrimal duct had gone dry. She found it hard to believe that despite everything that had taken place, Baaba would still allow her to get married into such an awful family. Her legs gave out and she hit the floor, with a thud.

"Ya Larai." Azumi rushed to her aid.

"Why are you crying so badly? Are you hurt?"

With tears glistening in her eyes, she gazed at her sister and threw her arms around her neck. "I don't want to get married to him." She sobbed.

Her sister ran her hand around her back, soothingly. "Then tell Nna."

"Nothing can be done now." She sniffed. Her life was about to be ruined and there was absolutely nothing she could do to stop that from happening. It had been predestined.

•

Nna's gaze lingered on Larai's sleeping figure for some seconds before she decided to wake her up. "Larai!" She crouched and patted her leg

"Yusuf?" With her eyes still closed, she mumbled. "I knew you were going to come back."

Nna's brows furrowed. "Larai!" She boomed. "Wake up."

Her eyes fluttered open and she jolted to a sitting position. "Nn...Nna?" She rubbed her eyes and reopened them to her mother indeed in her room.

"Yusuf; who is he?" She narrowed her eyes at her. "Start explaining."

Larai's eyes bulged out of their sockets. "Nna, I swear, I didn't ask him to come here. I...don't even know him."

"You don't?" She glared at her. "Just yesterday, I was busy telling Kashi just how honest my daughter is."

"Nna-"

"Shut up!" She pointed a finger at her face. "I'm going to ask you for the last time and don't you dare even think of lying to me. Who is Yusuf? Why did you call his name in your sleep?"

Larai's lips trembled, as she attempted to speak.

"I'm waiting."

"He is...he is just someone I met a few weeks ago." She chewed on her lips.

"Just someone you met a few weeks ago." Nna mimicked. "That's not the answer I want to hear. I want to know if you have a relationship with him or not."

Larai swallowed. Tears welled up in her eyes, as the memory of how badly she hurt Yusuf flooded her mind. She adjusted her posture and looked everywhere, but her mother. "Yusuf and I...love each other."

Nna chuckled, humorlessly. "Come again. I didn't hear you."

"Please forgive me, Nna. I didn't know when it hap-" her sentence was cut short when Nna slapped her hard across the cheek.

"Your father must not hear of this." She warned; her face scrunched up in anger. "And you must not repeat those words ever again. You're engaged to Zakari. He is the man you should be loving, not someone else. Better stick that to that thick brain of yours."

"But I don't love him." She balled her hand in a fist and began to intermittently hit it against her chest; her tears never ceasing. "Does my feeling not matter to you, Nna? Does my happiness not count?"

"Sooner or later, you will learn to love him. Everyone in the family, including me, got married without even getting to know who our grooms were. You should count yourself lucky; you got to meet your husband before your marriage. You might not love him now, but as time goes by, I'm sure you're going to have a change of mind."

"No!" She aggressively shook her head. "I don't love him. I never will. Yusuf-"

"Do not dare utter his name again, otherwise, you're going to see an entirely different side of me." Nna threatened; her pointer finger almost sticking into her eye.

"Nna, please don't do this to me. You're my only hope in getting out of this marriage. Zakari isn't the man you and Baaba think he is. He is a despicable man who attempted to-"

"Larai!" Nna raised a hand to hit her. Mid-air, her hand stilled and she folded it into a fist, then let it down.

"Because you don't like him now doesn't give you the right to say foul things about him. Consider him your husband already, because nothing is going to change. You will marry him and only him! What you claim to have for that man is nothing, but infatuation. Real love starts after marriage." She stood to leave, but before that, she turned to Larai and scoffed. "The dishes are in the backyard. You better wash them as soon as possible. And don't you think of asking Azumi to do it on your behalf. Singlehandedly, she took care of all the chores here."

Nna did not wait for her response, before storming out of the room.
Larai buried her hand in between her folded knees. Her shoulder shuddered as she wept bitterly. She was tired of everything happening in her life. She just wanted it to end already. In the past few days, a lot had happened. She didn't want any more problems in her life.

•

In the afternoon, after Larai had cooked and served everyone, she exempted herself.

Azumi did not fail to notice this, but instead of talking to her directly, she went to their mother instead.

On a rock, Larai was seated alone, in the backyard, when Nna approached her. "What new stupidity do you have up your sleeve? Going on a hunger strike?"

In response, she mumbled some incoherent words underneath her breath and looked away.

"What did you say?" Nna folded her hands on her hips.

"I'm just not hungry," Larai grumbled.

Nna hissed. "When you're finally hungry, go into the kitchen and pick your food."

•

What started casually, turned out to be more serious than Nna and Azumi had thought; for two whole days, Larai had not only been starving herself but locking herself in a room as well.

She couldn't bring herself to come out, despite being hungry. She did nothing but cry all day, with the hopes of her parents changing their minds.

So far, Baaba has been oblivious to what was happening in his house. Nna did a pretty good job at covering it up.

As usual, Larai was in their hut, sulking, when Azumi walked in, with a plate of food: yam and palm oil. She dropped it in front of her sister and sat beside her. "Ya Larai, please have something to eat. It has been two days. You might fall sick. Please don't be like this."

Larai's gaze darted to the inviting plate of food in front of her. The sight alone, had her salivating. She swallowed a glob of saliva and pushed the plate farther away from herself.

"Please take this away, Azumi. I have told you I'm not going to eat anything in this house until Baaba agrees to cancel my wedding."

"You know that's impossible, right?" Azumi gloomily asked. "Baaba has never gone back on his words. He gave those people his words. He won't change his mind. Can't you just try to...start getting used to the idea of getting married to ya Zakari?"
Larai adamantly shook her head; her lips tightened in a straight line.

"You don't have a choice. Baaba has chosen him for you." She reminded. "You have to marry him no matter what."

She lifted a hand and wiped the tears that had streamed down her face. No matter how hard she tried, she knew for a fact, she would never be able to get accustomed to the idea. "Get away from here, please. I want to be alone."

Azumi got up to leave, but Larai was quick to stop and motioned for her to take the food with her.

Lackadaisically, she crouched and picked up the plate, before using the door.

On her right side, Larai lay on the mat and allowed her tears to leak from the corner of her eye. It had been two whole weeks and she had not seen or heard anything about Yusuf. It was true she pushed him away, but if the love he had for her was indeed true, wasn't he supposed to fight for her? She could not help, but think her mother was indeed right, by saying what they had was infatuation.
The painful reality struck her, like lightning. Right there and then, she decided to do as her parents wanted. It would be hard-extremely hard, but other than that, she had no other choice.

With the back of her palm, she vigorously wiped her tears away and stood on her feet. "Enough of this." She muttered underneath her breath and walked out of the hut.

Larai emerged from the hut to Nna, seated on a wooden stool. She had a tray of rice on her lap and was picking stones and other unwanted dirt from it.

"Nna." She called in a low-pitched voice and dropped to her knees. "I'm sorry."

Nna narrowed her eyes at her and continued with what she was doing, totally ignoring her.

"I was wrong. You were right. I shouldn't have argued or even think of going against what you and Baaba have planned for me. I've realized my mistake now. I'm willing to get married to Zakari now."

Nna kept the tray aside and her lips spread into a smile. "So you're wise, after all? This is one of the best decisions you made in your life because whether you want it or not, you're still going to get married to it. I'm glad you've decided to embrace your destiny. The wedding is in a week.

"Now, that you are here, you should find something to eat in the kitchen. When you're done, come back here and give me a hand. I want to finish this before evening." She picked up the tray and continued with what she was doing.

Larai forced a smile-a new phase of her life was about to begin. A contemptible one.

•

Assalamualaikum/hello!

Have you ever been flogged by any of your parents? 😢

I feel bad for Larai.

If you were in her shoes, what would you have done?

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