Hermixedmuse

At 18, Zina returns home divorced and unloved. Her father seizes her phone and calls her everything her ex-husband ever accused her of. Her few friends don’t understand her silence. Her family doesn’t either — and the villagers? They whisper her name on market days and cross the street when she walks by. 

Alone in her pain, the only person who stands by her is her mother. 
But when Zina gains admission into university, she sees it as more than freedom — it’s her chance to feel again. To live again. Even if love keeps breaking her open, and healing doesn’t come easy.

Scars Between Semesters

A few months had passed since Zina finally stepped away from the wreckage Richard left behind. Each day was still a quiet war, but one she was beginning to win. Healing was no longer just an idea — it was something she was walking in, even if her steps were slow.

His name flashed across her phone one morning. Once. Then twice, Then again and again like a curse refusing to be broken, voicenotes flooded in soft, familiar, manipulative. He pleaded for another chance, A 19th, maybe 20th, promised he had changed, that he realized what he lost.

One Sunday evening, just when she thought the noise had finally faded, her phone rang again, Mom.

"Zina, biko( please)… just listen to me," her mother began, voice trembling, apparently, Richard had gone to their family house thinking she would be there, he cried. Literally, in front of her mother, swore he wanted to marry her, said he had seen the light, that he was ready to do the right thing.

Zina closed her eyes in disbelief.

"Mom… do you remember how many times I almost died?"

"I know, nwam ( my child), I know. But he looked so sincere, He said he wants to marry you, give him one more chance."

Zina didn't argue. She knew her mother meant well, but her mother hadn't seen the monster Richard became when no one else was watching, his tears were his weapon and this time, he had found a new battlefield, Zina's family.

Reluctantly, and only to honor her mother, shr agreed to speak to him, but in her heart, she already knew the answer. Never again.

She was done falling, done hoping, done praying that someone would love her properly.

She let Richard talk, let him say all the sweet things. Let him dig his own grave with promises she didn't believe. All the while, her real strength came from the circle of friends who reminded her of her worth, they didn't let her forget the pain she survived.

And that was why, when he said he would be coming with his kinsmen on December 25th, 2019 to officially ask for her hand in marriage, she didn't rush to pick out a dress, her mom, though, held onto hope.

She cooked, cleaned, prepared, waited.. But Richard didn't come.

He called on the 26th, "I have something I need to tell you." Zina leaned back, already tired of his voice.

"There's this girl," he began. "She's threatening to sue me if I marry someone else." "What girl?" she asked.

"My ex… well… she wasn't really just an ex." And then the real truth came spilling out like kerosene on fire.

It was a silent arrangement. A visa marriage, just for her to secure her student visa and travel abroad, but it was legal and binding.

Which meant… Zina had been the other woman all along, without even knowing it.

Her world didn't spin this time, there were no screams. No tears. Just a long silence as her brain caught up to what her heart already knew: She had been played. All these years.

All the D&Cs... All the trauma... All the lies... All for a man who belonged to someone else officially.

And yet, he had the audacity to show up at her family home, with his fake tears and borrowed repentance, knowing the entire time that he had tied himself to another woman, Zina wasn't angry, she was numb.

What hurt the most wasn't even the betrayal, it was her own stupidity. Her own hope. Her refusal to read the handwriting that had been on the wall the whole time.

She remembered that saying from back home:

"A man who truly loves you will never make you go through a D&C. And if he does, he will never marry you." She had thought it was an outdated village proverb.

Chapter 13: Echoes from the Past