Episode 1
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“To love and to hold.” The priest said.
“To love and to hold.” The bride repeated, smiling at her groom as if he was an angel sent from heaven and she had just seen him for the first time. The groom kept smiling back at her and they kept exchanging smiles as though they will never have the chance to do it again.
“For as long as we both shall leave.”
The priest said.
“For as long as we both shall live.”
The bride said after him, still smiling.
Kendra watched the new couple exchange vows and recalled how she had stood at this same altar and exchanged the same vows with her husband.
For as long as we both shall live… Those words were lovely but tricky. When you spend you married life with the person you said those words with and then realise afterwards that if you had seen it coming you wouldn’t have said those words. Kendra felt like standing up from her seat, walking up to the bride who was her best friend and tell her to snap out of it! She had once been the kind if girl who dreamed of a happily ever after kind of marriage with kids running around you and your husband telling you that you are the best thing that has ever happened to him, and when she met her husband three years ago at the age of eighteen, he was the most handsome man she had ever seen and he reeked of wealth. She had met Connor at a wedding like this and she had been the VIP guest. He had approach her to ask if the seat beside her was empty and she had said no. Kendra could still replay the whole scene in her head even in her grave. They had started talking from there and exchanged numbers. That was how she found out that he was the owner of a big pharmaceutical company in the city and he was still very young!
He got her heart immediately. And they got married in three months. She fell head over heels in love.
Till death do us part…She still thought of that world now and wished death would really take her away from the man she married. The beast she lived with. Her marriage was the kind every woman dreamed of. She had every thing at her beckon call…except one thing…Happiness.
Kendra smiled now and clapped along with the others as the groom moved to kiss the bride….Aliyah…her best friend who, unlike her had played cool until she had found the love of her life.
Kendra was still yet to find her life much less to find love because right now her life was in shambles. She turned to her husband, Connor. He looked like the most gentle man any woman can wish for as he clapped his hands and cheered the couple like he were a saint. Her smile seem like it had been painted…like a fake one.
They had all driven off to the reception and were entertaining themselves when someone came to her and asked if the seat beside her was empty. She looked at the one at her right, hoping that her husband had seen what just happened. But he was not there with her. He had probably gone to the toilet to ease himself or stepped out to answer a call or something. Then she turned to look up at the person who spoke. It wasn’t until then, she saw that it was a man. A really handsome man. Kendra frowned. What was the problem with big men and empty seats, she thought.
“No. its empty.”
She said to him and he said his thanks and sat beside her. His Cologne passed through her nose like a flowery scent and she sniffed. She had a large description of him immediately. He was so light in complexion and didn’t look more than twenty eight or thirty. She saw that from his well tailored suit,he was a master of money him self. And she looked down at the two big phones he carried as he was seriously busy with one, they were classy and the young man had swags. But she wasn’t interested in handsome men anymore. The one who married her and treated her like trash was enough for her to hate men. She turned to her drink and sipped absent mindedly. Then he looked up at her and smiled.
“Hi.”
He said. She looked at him and nodded without smiling, hoping to give him the wrong vibes but its either he didn’t see it or he doesn’t understand.
“Are you a friend to the bride or the groom?”
“Are you the receptionist?”
She asked coldly. This man should not come and put me in trouble o, she thought. Her husband was a gorilla himself. The young man laughed.
“Very funny.”
She hadn’t intended for it to be funny so she frowned.
“I’m Alexander Macaulay. Or Alex, whichever suits you best.”
Her head snapped in different electric sparks and she faced him.
“What do you want?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Hey, relax. I’m just trying to make a conversation. I’m a friend to the groom.”
“I’m a friend to the bride. She’s my best friend from the university.”
“Oh really? Are you still a student?”
“No.”
She said and turned to her drink immediately. He looked at her for a while then he turned to his phone. She kept sipping her drink as if it was what she came here for. She had been rude but she couldn’t help it. If he thinks he can talk his handsome fave into my brains,she thought. Her husband came up and sat beside her. She smiled at him but he didn’t smile back. Trouble. She wondered what had happened now for him to change so soon like this. Her heart started beating fast. Then the time came for the bride and the groom to dance. Alex turned to her again.
“So, if you’re a friend to the bride why didn’t I see you at the engagement party last week?” He said and smirked. Oh Lawd Have Mercy! She turned to her husband and he was smoking fire. She turned to Alex and forced a chuckle. “I didn’t attend. I wasn’t able to.”
Last week she had been in the hospital because her husband had beaten her to a pulp. So she couldn’t go to her friend’s party looking like an over ripe tomato.
Her husband stood up and said it was time to leave, she stood up and walked with him without a side glance at the guy beside her who looked at her confused, or a goodbye to her friend who had expected her to stay till the end of the wedding. She got into her husband’s car and he drove home like a mad man and in silence. She knew better than to utter a word. When he got home and they’d stepped in, the whole house was quiet and they maids had all gone to bed. He walked in to the middle of the room and turned to her. She looked startled at him. His face was hard and ugly. The handsome man was gone. The devil had surfaced.
“Honey what’s…”
Her words were sent back into her mouth with the back of his hand and the force of his back handed slap hit her down to the floor and she hit her cheek on the hard cushion of the chair on her way down…
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