Thirty - Seven

"You agreed to marry him."

"I had to,I swear. I could not stand seeing you in so much pain. You were going to die." She burst into tears.

"Shh. It's okay." He consoled her. There had to be a way out of this. They weren't married just yet and he was going to make sure it would never happen.

" Calm down. We'll figure something out."

"I highly doubt whatever you think of will be efficient enough to get you out of this." The Queen said as she walked in.

"You aren't going to get away with this." Michael said.

"Oh but I already have. You whites sure think you can act as you please in another man's land."

"What does that even have to do with any of this? This is clearly wrong." He insisted.

"Says who? Right and wrong is determined by those who wield power. We make the rules not the people , and that my son,is the truth." The Queen didn't see anything wrong in what she had done. To her they were playing a game and she simply made a motion strong enough to win and that was all that mattered.

"I am not your son! Do not use some ridiculous ideology to justify your madness."

"Madness?" She chuckled. "I've been called a lot of things in my lifetime but never mad."

"Maybe that's because your subjects were just too scared."

"Hmmm maybe. And I'm guessing you aren't..scared?" The Queen said slyly.

"I am not."

"Well you should be. Never underestimate your enemy, Michael. Only fools do so."

She paused.

"I'm leaving now. I refuse to be bothered with justifying my actions. Don't even think about leaving this place. You aren't going anywhere until after the wedding."

Michael and Apeke were left in silence after the Queen's departure.

So was that it? Michael wondered what all these meant. Was it over? Was he simply to let go now? No,there was no way he could do that. He had to fight until the very end.

"Michael please don't."

"Don't what?" He said pretending to be oblivious.

"Don't fight this. Don't fight her, just leave it be." Apeke knew him well and she could tell by his facial expression that he was determined to win but Apeke didn't see a way in which they could.

"Leave it be? I can't leave it be. I can't simply walk away from this. Not after all we have been through. I have already told my family about you for Heaven's sake. We are meant to be and all these are simply our trials. We are meant to be; you and I and I will stop at nothing to make that a reality." Michael declared making Apeke worried.

..

Apeke walked out of the palace with a grim face. She had had to put up a smile for everyone that congratulated her on her wedding. She had had to smile and pretend like she was the happiest maiden in the Kingdom when all she wanted to do was cry out loud. She wanted to scream at the top of her voice that she was hurting. She wanted to call out for help but alas silence was to be her only companion.

She walked away from the palace with the hope of finding a little bit of peace. A calm before the storm but even that seemed to be too much to ask.

She was accosted as soon as she got out of the palace.

The last voice she heard before passing out was Jumoke's.

"You're in trouble Princess and no one is going to save you."

Jumoke ensured that there was no one following them or spying on them before telling her minions to take Apeke.

She wasn't simply going to watch as Adelaja was snatched away from her. No,she was going to do something about it. She was going to put a stop to it by ruining Apeke's reputation and she was going to have fun doing it.

..

Jumoke woke up a splitting head ache. She heard whispers which made her to open her eyes faster. What were they doing in her room? She needed her rest and the maids' whispers weren't helping.

She tried to get up but quickly got back down as she realized she was naked under the blanket. She looked around and realized she was on the streets next to the man she had planned to be Apeke's lover.

What was going on?

"How did she get here?" Someone whispered.

"Who cares, this is good entertainment to begin the day."

"She must have made someone really angry."

Someone reasoned.

"She must have needed to be exposed. What a whore." Another reasoned.

Jumoke was still trying to figure out what to do when she heard someone screaming.

She saw someone she recognized as wife of the supposed Apeke's lover.

"You whores should let my husband and me be in peace."The woman attacked her and the villagers cheered her on.

"Whores should learn their place."

"Sure,blame the woman as if she cast a spell on him. They performed an act together and you blame only the woman. How ridiculous?" Another reasoned.

"You are mistaken. Nothing happened between your husband and I." Jumoke tried to defend herself and she hoped what she was saying was true. She hadn't lost her virginity to this filth ,right? But how was she to know that when she couldn't remember anything from the night before.

What has gone wrong? This was supposed to be Apeke not her. She tried to remember what happened and it all came back to her slowly. It was Adelaja! How could he do this to her?

..

Apeke was taken to a whore house in her unconscious state. Jumoke's plan was to make it seem like Apeke slept with someone.

She would then make sure word gets to Adelaja. She wished he would witness it with his eyes but he would never come to a place like this and it would be unreasonable to do this in the Palace. This would have to do.

"Nice plan Jumoke. There's just one problem. Me." She heard Adelaja's voice behind her.

"What are you doing here?" How did he know? She was doomed now.

"I'm just here to serve justice. You didn't seriously think you could so something like this without me finding out it was you ,did you? Do you think I'm stupid? "

"What do you mean? There's no plan. I came here because I found out Apeke had been coming here frequently and I found out that.."

"Enough! I already know what your plan was. How? How could you do this? What makes you think this would even make me choose you? I guess you aren't as intelligent as I thought you were. Did you really think this would work?"

"Well it almost did." She said under her breath but he heard.

"Well it didn't and now you're going to be punished."

..

That was all Jumoke could remember. Now how was she to prove her innocence when even she was not so sure of it. The thought that she could have actually done anything with the man made her scared.

Her fingers grazed some sort of sticky substance and she froze. Blood!

She schooled her expression even though she wanted to scream at the top of her voice. He had raped her while she was asleep. Her life was ruined!

..

Adelaja watched from afar with a grim expression. He couldn't believe he had almost married her. She was quite daft. He thought. She couldn't even plan properly. What made her think he would not find out? What made her so confident?

"What now?" Adeniyi said.

Laja knew what he meant. What were they going to do about Jumoke? They couldn't Simply let her go after what she had done. He had given her a warning once in honor of the time they spent together but she simply abused that. She must have thought he didn't know that she kidnapped Apeke and her brother. That must have been why she thought she could also do this without him knowing.

He was beginning to wonder if obsession had made her dumb or she had always been like this.

He had to give her a punishment this time. When he looked at her his blood boiled as he remembered the look of fear on Apeke's face when she woke up.

He had been informed immediately she was taken in front of the palace. He had already sent people to guard her family and her after the kidnapping. He had told the not to interfere if it was Jumoke and it wasn't an immediate threat; he wanted to teach her a lesson himself.

He had been dissapointed when he heard what Jumoke had done but honestly,he expected it.

"I'll put her in prison for treason." Adelaja said with finality.

"Is it just me or is my bride a little too hesitant?" Adelaja said as he remembered the words Apeke uttered.

"It's probably because of that man that left her. She'll come around."

"Hmmm. Maybe."