Mmeso Inspires: Help Me

The events around me appeared bizarre,

My corset was uncomfortable,

I was struggling to catch my breath,

Even as that nauseatic feeling caught my throat,

I tried to maintain my composure.

No one told me that pregnancy comes with so much adjustments,

Only Udoka and I knew I was two moons gone,

But my heart was greatly bleeding,

I never loved him.

I admired young pretty girls of my age moving around the compound,

I wished I had listened to Headmistress,

I prayed the ceremony come to a halt,

Mother was parading around greeting her friends,

Father was drinking happily with his friends too,

I glanced at Udoka, he was in a kind of tete-a-tete conversation with his brother,

I cursed him in my heart,

He had promised me a plot of land when we first met,

He had promised me a palm fruit vegetation too,

Little did I know,

That it was all a strategy to get me down,

He succeeded.

Related stories:

• Mmeso Inspires: Alive

• Mmeso Inspires: A type of wife

• Mmeso Inspires: The Scent

He had pleaded with me to keep the pregnancy away from my people,

Because it was a taboo to consummate before marriage in Ewere Kingdom,

I was surprised that mother didn’t find out,

Maybe she was so obsessed with the marriage preparation that she didn’t noticed…

My early morning sickness,

Countless times I had threw up at the backyard,

I wonder how she didn’t seem to notice the swelling of my upper side,

And the addition down below,

I was grateful though.

Udoka had facilitated our marriage plans,

To conceal the pregnancy,

He had been admiring me for years,

But I was adamant to his proposal,

Until he came with his land and plantation strategy,

It was all planned out that I never knew he was pulling my legs,

He had taken me to his tattered hut,

Which he promised to renovate but never did,

And had his way,

I never bothered to stop him.

I need help,

How do one intend to live in a loveless marriage?

Udoka disgusts me now as he did before his promise,

I can clearly see now,  that he has a big head and tiny legs,

I noticed he eats more than required,

I also noticed he has big toes in tiny feet,

I felt dizzy again.

I stood up from my seat and whispered in mother’s ear that I will be back shortly,

She hailed me with her friends

I flashed a fake smile,

I suspected one of them  knew something was wrong with me,

Because she had been giving me that suspicious look,

But I ignored them all.

I glanced at Udoka again, he was not looking,

I walked out of the compound through the backyard,

And walked briskly to her house,

Headmistress was surprised when she saw me standing in front of her door dressed in my marriage apparels,

But I knew she was shocked when I utter with tears running down my cheeks,

“Help me!