Chapter 1
I believe everyone has a star, likewise me, but mine seemed to have quenched as its light was no where around me.
I was in my room sitting in a daze. My whole self drowned in sorrow of how my beautiful dreams were about shattering before me.
My heart was heavy and eyes painful from my incessant tears.
As a little girl, I didn't wish to be the Cinderella that will find her Prince charming rather to be that simple girl who will find the one who truly loves her.
How I wish I had supernatural powers as seen in those cartoons we saw when we were younger, I would have turned things around and save my heart from this intense pain tearing it apart.
I was in my room but my mind had travelled to the end of the world and beyond.
Only my empty shell in form of flesh was in the room.
I didn't know when my roommate came in, she must have been staring at me for a long time before tapping me gently.
Just like one hit by a flowing current, I turned abruptly, my heart leaving my chest.
Seeing it was my roommate, I took a breath of relief.
"You're home." I muttered.
She sighed helplessly, then sat beside me.
I looked at her and could see the pain in her eyes.
The pains that had taken shelter in her eyes ever since I became a shadow of myself.
"How was your day?" I forced a smile but she gave me that usual pitiful look.
"Don't try to pretend Marla, you've been crying again."
I shook my head in disagreement. "I'm not."
I didn't want her to know I haven't gotten over my pains, just as I promised her.
I didn't want her to know my heart was collapsing every second.
"You can't hide it Marla. Look at how swollen your eyes are. Am I a kid that can be deceived so easily?" She caught me again.
"Kyra, it hurts." My tears began to stream again.
She held me tightly, giving me the only comfort she coul afford, her embrace.
"Please Marla, let it go after all he loves you and cares so much for you."
That has been her words for weeks, and I was fed up with it.
All I wanted then was an escape from my predicament.
An escape from the gloomy cloud that was descending on me.
"Brison loves me too and cares for me Kyra."
I was yelling.
That was how broken I had become.
Yelling at someone who has always been here for me.
Someone who my happiness was of a paramount importance.
Screaming at someone who has always offered me comfort.
But she wasn't offended. She understood I needed to yell off my pains, to scream away my heartache.
She held me tighter, maybe afraid I will collapse.
"You can't do anything about this Marla, so accept it as fate."
Fate? If this was fate, then it was mean.
Is there a way to change this so called fate?
Is there a way to refuse this terrible fate?
My mind was wandering looking for a bit of truth in her words.
Perhaps she waa right. I have to accept my fate since I can't change it.
This is what my stars have prepared for me before quenching their lights meant to shine on me.
I love Brison a lot, as a matter of fact, we wete in love.
He cherished me like a treasure and worshiped me if I'm not exaggerating.
Was it only Brison? His parents were like mine, accommodating and caring.
They showered me with the same care as their children.
There wasn't a dull moment with them.
It should be the right thing to say Brison's home was my second home.
I was in my final year in the university while he graduated the previous year.
Luckily, he was able to secure a job and was paid 50,000 bucks as salary.
That was very okay for a fresh graduate with only a first degree in my country.
It was worth celebrating as he became the highest earner in their home.
He could provide some basic needs in the house, relieving his father who had toiled for years to make ends meet.
I remembered his first day at work. He returned from work that evening and called me as usual.
After we've chattered for a long time, he said. "Don't worry love, give me a year to work, then we'll get married."
It was his promise and I knew he meant it.
He must have told his parents same thing, because they began counting down to our marriage.
They were highly anticipating it and his mother will always say.
"I can't wait for you to become my son's wife."
It was around that time that I met Anthony.
He was just a casual friend with no questionable strings attached, that was what I thought.
He liked my boyfriend Brison and would grab every available opportunity to shower praises on him.
He wasn't staying in my city but visited occasionally.
Brison was aware of our friendship and would always tell me how much of a good friend Anthony was to me.
I remember vividly the day he jokingly threatened Brison.
"If you ever leave Marla, I'll strangle you." And we all laughed it off.
I never knew it was an empty threat. It was just a camouflage.
If only I have the ability to see his heart.
Six months after Brison got employed, which was also six months to our marriage, everything took another turn.
The cloud of gloom settled on me.
My father fell ill and was diagnosed of intestinal tumors.
His condition got worse on daily basis and he depended solely on drugs to stay alive.
Not able to carry his weak body around, he resigned from work.
He was the sole breadwinner in our home.
If he knew a day like this would come, he would have allowed my mother work.
But he was a caring husband and father who preferred his wife, our mother in the house taking care of us while he provided all our needs.
For one day, he never complained rather happy that one of them was always around their children, to monitor them, admonish them, listen to them and provide immediate care for them.
Brison couldn't watch my father suffer in excruciating pains, so he used his savings for our marriage to get his drugs but that wasn't enough.
M father needed more than drugs.
He needed an urgent surgery that will cost two million, five hundred bucks.
Where on earth can we see such money?
My mother wasn't working.
We depended on Briggs to feed.
My brothers were still in school and weren't working too.
My father had sold his only land to pay my final year school fees and my siblings.
If only I could see the future, I would have stopped my father from selling that land.
We would have sold the land now and pay his surgery fee. But I can't turn back the hands of clock.
Anthony heard of my father's ailments and stepped in to assist.
He would buy most of our daily necessities and give us money for our upkeep.
From the money he gave us, we would buy my father's drugs first, then use the little left to feed.
His assistance, relieved Brison a bit, and he was sincerely thankful to him.
Aside taking care of my family, Anthony ensured all the materials I needed in school were available.
Brison was happy, my friend was helping, but if I knew his help will put me in misery and tears, I wouldn't have accepted it.
Despite all they did, my father still needed that surgery urgently.
The surgery fee was a major issue for us.
It got to a point, Brison's father sold his mini car and gave us the money to save for my father's surgery.
This is to tell you how much they loved me and my family.
Then one day, Anthony came to see me.
"Marla, I can't raise the 2.5 million on my own so I spoke to my father. He wants to see you."
I was overjoyed. If his father could give us the money, I don't mind doing menial jobs to pay him back.
How lucky I was to have my friends families after my happiness and family wellbeing.
But I didn't know it was just a vapour that will disperse soonest and expose the suffering hidden in it.
"Thank you so much Anthony. I sincerely appreciate." My eyes beamed with happiness
I informed Brison and he spoke to Anthony who assured him all was well and there wasn't any need to panic.
"Go and see him Honey." He had called to tell me that day
On the day we agreed to see Mr Bralica, Anthony's father, I dressed pretty well and decently. I wanted to give a nice impression.
Anthony came to my school and picked me up.
His father wasn't living in Dublin, my State but in Flavira, which happened to be his State of origin.
We took a flight down to Flavira State. It was my first time boarding a plane and I was so excited.
In less than three hours, we arrived their house.
It was a plain storey building with no modern decoration.
It wasn't befitting for a man who I was told has several business chains.
Well, that's his choice of house and isn't my business. What mattered then was to raise my father's surgery fee.
We made our way into the house where his father was already seated and waiting for us.
"Good day Sir, top of the day to you." I politely greeted and he nodded in response.
He gesture to me to sit and I sat down on a sofa, his son Anthony sat on the sofa beside mine.
I wasn't offered any drink but I didn't care. My father's surgery fee was all in my mind.
"My son has told me of your predicament and I'm willing to help but on one condition."
Whatever his condition was, I was willing to accept as long as it wasn't against my family and social ethics.
I stared at him in great anticipation to tell me the condition which I believed wouldn't be extreme.
"Marry my son and your father's hospital bill will be paid."
Was it that my ears weren't functioning properly?
His words flew past my ear and refused to register there.
"Sir?" I needed him to repeat what he said, and I expanded the tubes of my ears to let in his words fully.
He looked at me in slight annoyance, perhaps annoyed I wanted him to repeat himself.
"I don't believe you have hearing problem."
He just confirmed I have hearing problem. I was right, my ears were failing me.
"I said marry my son and I'll foot your father's hospital bill."
That was the exact words I heard earlier. It meant my hearing organs were okay.
He said I should marry his son. I repeated it in my mind.
Anthony had never spoken about an elder brother, so I wasn't aware he had one.
"You know you don't have much time left, so the earlier the both of you start the marriage preparation, the better."
"The both of us?"
Seriously, I wasn't asking anyone in particular but he answered.
"Yes, you and Anthony."
So it wasn't an elder son but Anthony.
I turned to stare at Anthony in disbelief.
I wanted him to refute his father immediately.
I wanted him to tell his father we were just ordinary friend, but when I turned my gaze on him, he was indifferent.
His expression proved he knew about the arrangement even before telling me.
I became confused unable to be rational.
"We'll be going back father." Anthony's voice pulled me back to reality.
I haven't even given his father the negative response I've prepared in my mind and he was eager to leave.
On another round of thought, I assumed he would talk to his father later and make him understand we weren't in that kind of relationship, then he will kill that idea of marriage.
He stood up and I followed suite.
"Thank you Sir." I muttered and noticed the dissatisfaction on his face.
Was he dissatisfied with the mixed expressions on my face?
Was I supposed to thank him?
He just gave me an option that has cut my mind off.
How I managed to leave the house, I couldn't tell because I was lost in thought.
"We have to hasten up for your father's sake?"
Anthony spoke once we were out of the gate.
I looked at him in shock. Wasn't he supposed to talk to his father later?
Has he lost a circuit in his brain box that he forgot I have Brison?
"I looked deeply into his face, then waved my hand before him. "Anthony, I'm Marla."
Who knows whether he had suddenly become amnesiac.
"Have I suddenly become a daft Marla?"
So he was alright? He wasn't having memory loss.
"Don't tell me you agree to that request."
But when I searched his face to see any line of disagreement, I was disappointed.
All I saw was a man who had made up his mind to marry me.
A man who was using my father's ailment to force me.
"Anthony do......
"What is wrong in marrying me Marla? Am I not good enough? Do you think Brison is better than me?"
He interrupted me, his tone was high and disturbing.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
This wasn't the Anthony I know. It should be a fake one.
The real Anthony was a good friend who wanted nothing from me.
I stared at him in disbelief, not knowing what to say.
"I don't believe this." I shook my head vigorously.
"Marla can't you see how much I love you? All my care and assistance is because I love you."
His voice suddenly became low.
I looked at him like he was a stranger.
Of course he had become a stranger to me because the man before me has changed.
"If you love me, you won't force me, especially when you know I'll be getting married to my boyfriend soon."
"Force you? I'm not forcing you rather helping you."
So in the deepest part of his mind, he was doing me a favour? What a joke?
"By using my father's sickness as a stepping stone to your selfish desire?"
My voice was getting louder and I didn't care if people were passing.
They can listen to our conversation for all I care.
"What selfish desire Marla? I was willing to compete with Briggs before your father's sickness. I was waiting for you to fall in love with me."
He raked his hair in annoyance. Obviously I was already annoying him.
"Let's get married immediately, then send your father in for surgery or do you want him to die? He will never forgive especially knowing you had a favourable option but refused it."
This was an emotional blackmail. Using my weak point against me.
Not knowing what to say anymore, I walked away and he followed behind me.
We took the flight back home but throughout our journey home, I didn't say a word to him.
