2. I won't get married

***6months earlier*** 

[ Melissa pov]

"Pa!" A slap so loud echoed through the deadly quiet village.

Its impact made me lose my balance but Joshua my 'twin'  brother held me, breaking the fall.

"Papa! why on earth would you slap her?" Mama said, her voice laced with anger but papa didn't care, he just gave me a disappointed look.

I held my burning cheek which was probably red because my skin was on a lighter side just like his.

A tear threatened to fall but I pushed it back. I wasn't a weak little girl, only the weak cried

"Alyssa, Start preparing for the ritual. Dan come with me, we are going to talk to the chief about her marriage before she disgraces us any further." Papa said without any remorse.

"What?" I let out a whisper not believing what I just heard.

Marriage? I was only fifteen, haven't even had my first period yet! How can papa think of marrying me off??

"What?! I'm doing no such thing, Papa! she is my child, I raised her and I won't allow you to marry her off!" Mama defiantly stated. 

"She came out of my loins Alyssa, you only did me a favour of raising her, now do me another favour of teaching her everything she needs to know about marriage! I've already made a decision and I'm not changing my mind.

Dan let's go!" With that papa and uncle Dan left while mama chased after them begging him to not marry me off.

"You okay?" Joshua asked and I nodded my head dusting my clothes.

" I won't allow papa to crush my dreams by marrying me off. Come on teach me more words." I said to him siting on the mat.

I picked up my books and continued learning more English words.

You must be wondering who I am and why I am suddenly getting married. Well, let me introduce myself..

My name is Melissa Lou from a small remote village that's located below the Victoria falls.

I am considered as the eleventh child who killed her mom. Reason being is that she died while giving birth to me and my eldest sister Alyssa who I call mama is the one who breastfed me and treated me like her own child.

At the time when I was born, she had also given birth to her second child Joshua and raised us like twins.

Anyway coming to the reason why I'm suddenly being forced to get married, well the thing is that everyone in this village hated me, reason?

Because I was considered to be the most beautiful girl in the village and for this reason, I was every man's dream and every girls nightmare.

Every man wanted me and every girl was jealous of the fact that I was getting all the male attention which I didn't want at all.

So to get rid of me, one of the villagers lied to papa and told him that I was caught red handed with a boy doing the deed which was all false because I'd never been touched before not even a simple kiss on the cheek much less the lips.

When Papa heard this, he became very angry and wanted to get rid of me by marrying me off because if it so happened that the rumour became true about my v card being taken, I would be considered not worth  paying for which would be a loss for him.

Greedy old man who sells his daughters!

"I won't let papa get you married off okay?" I heard mama's voice, I turned my head and she was standing there furiously pacing around.

She came close to me and cupped my face in her hands, "just like I helped your sisters leave this village and escape papa's greedy hands, I will also help you escape." She assured and I nodded my head smiling warmly at her.

I wasn't the first person to go through this but my other sisters also did and lucky for them, mama was able to help them escape the village.

" I promise you--" mama's sentence was cut off when five women came out of nowhere and one of them grabbed my arm in a death grip.

"What are you doing? let go of her now!" Mama demanded but the woman just smirked, 

"We have orders from the chief, she is going to be his new bride." My face contorted into one of disgust when I imagined myself being the old man's wife like eww that's so gross! Yuck! 

I felt like puking all the breakfast I ate a few minutes ago.

"What?! You can't marry my child off to that old man, like come on he is five times her age!!" Mama threw her hands in the air in exasperation voicing out what I couldn't. 

Papa wasn't being serious now, was he?! If he had chosen the chief's son then it would have made sense but the chief?! The man wass seventy-five for goodness sake!

He couldn't even walk properly and his eyesight was  very poor, they didn't expect me to take care of him now did they?! 

Dang it! that's so gross! I would prefer marrying a man my age thank you very much!

"There is no way I'm marrying that old man, I don't want to take care of him! I can't even take care of myself!" I defiantly stated but it's like they were all deaf.

"Alyssa," we all turned our heads towards the source of the voice and saw papa standing there with joy written all over his face, "I have arranged for her to marry the chief in three days. He has agreed to pay five female cows and ten bulls for her dowery. now hurry and prepare a feast we are going to celebrate!"  He happily said and my stomach turned feeling like I was going to have explosive diarrhoea.

My father sold me off to an old man for fifteen cows! Could my life get any worse?!

"Papa you can't be serious right now! she is just a fifteen-year-old girl with a mind of a twelve-year-old child, she doesn't even know how to cook, clean or even do laundry and on top of it she is so lazy that she can't even carry a small bucket of water, how do you expect her to take care of that old man who can't even stand on his own two feet?!" mama questioned with anger. She was really bold talking back at her father like that.

"You don't have to worry," Papa brushed her off with a wave of his hand, "the only thing the chief wants is a handsome son which I'm positive she will provide judging by the fact that she's got a pretty face. So hurry now and prepare the feast I'm going to announce this to the villagers."

With that, papa left again and mama turned to face me. 

She opened and closed her mouth like a fish out of water, speechless!

"Come on kid, let us ruin your innocence." the woman who was holding my arm said and they dragged me into my hut to teach me things I was too young to know.