TWO: Sold!

Her eyes flung open as one of his bodyguards heaved while lifting her from the car. A breeze blew, bringing about fresh air. She had been feeling hot in the heavy dress and heels and also in the car. The touch of the cool air on her face and low cut back of the wedding dress felt like she had just been removed from an oven. The starlit sky alerted her that it was already night . As the memory of her wedding resurfaced in her mind, she began to cry again. The fact someone would be so cruel to her to even treat her like an animal repelled her. She didn't know where she was or how long the journey had lasted, only that this unfamiliar place she was at was bigger and fancier than all the places she had ever been to. 

"Hurry Michael!" She heard her new husband's voice. "Bring my prize, upstairs to my suite. It's my wedding night today!" 

"Okay Boss!" The man shouted with a high pitched voice while he walked on the pavement behind him, towards the giant front entrance. 

Sapphire cringed. At the entrance of the large villa, there waiting for the groom was the mother and sister and other family members who all said their welcomes and she decided she would pretend to still be unconscious because she did not want to meet them; she wanted nothing to do with any of them. It was about a fifteen to twenty minute walk with many people's voices filling the atmosphere, a five minute climb of stairs, and another ten minute walk of silence that she found herself in a strange large ensuite with an office stocked with antique furniture. No, this wasn't a hotel. She paced about looking for a place to hide before he came to find her. She found a phone on his desk.  

"Hello this is 999! How may I help you." A man's voice on the other end spoke. 

She felt a fear she had never felt before but this was her only way of escape. She was desperate to leave and undo this day restoring things the way they were but her naive heart was oblivious to the fact that her fate was sealed forever; her destiny was already tied to this place and this man.  

"I've been kidnapped!" Was the first sentence she uttered. She couldn't believe leaving was going to be so easy. 

"Kidnapped by who?" 

"I've been kidnapped by a man who just got married to me. I was forced to marry him, and I don't love him, nor trust him, and he's dangerous. Please save me!" She said feeling embarrassed for her discomposure. 

"Calm down ma'am, slow down and tell me everything!" The man said in a calm voice. 

At that very moment, whilst she least expected it, her hand slammed on to the desk, sending the receiver flying on the floor. He had hit her. She squirmed in pain gazing at the shadow of the man walking towards the door. He pulled a switch and the once dimly lit room was bright as day. 

He hovered towards her. He picked the receiver and seemed to talk for a while with the man. He ended the call with the operator.

"You called the police?" He shouted as he hovered above her. "He grabbed her by her swollen wrist, and yanked her, throwing her on a couch.

 "What made you think you were brave enough to do such a thing to me, prince Hadean Shedam, you little girl!" He heaved as he drew his face towards hers..

 For the first time she noticed the dark circles around his eyes, she noticed his beard with more white strands than black; she noticed how older he really looked compared to her and for the first time she saw the cruelty in his eyes. The face to face encounter with the most ruthless evil politician gave her chills because earlier on she had not been brave enough to even dare look in his direction. Not even at their wedding.

"You still haven't gotten an understanding of the graveness of this matter have you?" He threatened her yanking at her wrist which was quickly swelling. "I am not one of your college friends whom you can joke around with! Have you forgotten what I did to your little boyfriend? The same can happen to you if you're not obedient!"

"You are the one who killed him!?" She wept with fear in her voice. "But why? He didn't do anything to you!" 

"That little bastard, I had him killed for daring to toy with what is mine." He stood up looking at his wristwatch. "I told you to leave all your lovers behind but you didn't listen." 

"I don't love you, you don't need me. I'm not your status nor age nor to your appeal. You could have any woman you like but you still chose to take me. Why?" She asked him with all the zeal in her heart. She had never felt this angry in her life. She felt valiant and her fear seemed to fade with her wrathful words. 

He did not answer her.

"WHY?" 

"So you want to leave?" He asked her softly to her surprise. 

"Yes!" She replied timidly. 

"Then go! Go back to your parents" He told her. She couldn't believe her ears. Maybe he really wasn't such a bad man after all. Maybe he had a change of heart. She sprung up and slowly walked past him uncertain of what he was going to do. She ran towards the door and was about to unlock it when a smack on her cheek sent her plummeting on the floor. She screamed! 

"You still don't get it do you? You have no freedom, you can't just leave until I'm fully compensated for my money which your parents are unable to pay. Can you pay back what your parents owe me? Then you are a slave until you're debt free you filthy lass. 

She cowered like a kid as he knelt on one knee and held her face with both hands. "Tsk! Such a pretty little….woman. Too bad you are too wayward to my liking and I'm afraid one of these days I might disfigure your face! Too bad your cowardly father chose to live at your own cost. 

He got up and walked over to his bed. He took a blanket and tossed it to her. "You sleep on the couch tonight. You displeased me!" 

She wept the rest of the night lying on the couch. She was now at the mercy of this man, her father's childhood friend, whom she had grown up calling 'the uncle' who would always bring her gifts treating her akin to his daughters. She wept as she ruminated over how her life had fallen apart in a space of weeks. Weeks! And her life just slipped through her fingers like sand. Most of all she regretted that it was her that he chose from her two sisters on that very day they had stood in line half naked while being humiliated by him as he walked around examining all of them and choosing which slave bride he wanted most in front of her weeping parents. 

It happened just two weeks ago. She didn't sleep the whole night. She was plagued by thoughts of the events that had transpired in her young life. 

She remembered the day this man brought wrath upon her family, threatening to end their entire existence. She remembered the few first days when her parents were panicked and they began running and locating to different places, their aunt's place, their grandfather's home in the countryside, their uncle's place, but in her parents' minds, there were always these people chasing them. She didn't believe them. The fact that anyone would want her poor humble parents dead was unfathomable to her. For what? She began to believe it the day they went back home; her dad had lost all hope. 

"We can't keep running, Amina! He will find us everywhere we go!" He had said to her mother while leaning on the counter of their kitchen table. The girl had stood leaning against the door, eavesdropping. The youngest had her eye peeking through the keyhole. Her sisters; Nandi who was twenty nine working as programmer for a local company studies and she was due to marry her fiance, her college sweetheart and Harley youngest, was twenty one and completing her university

"Well, so you want us to just give up and die? " 

"No, I won't risk my family being harmed at the hands of him. I will give myself up and you guys will go free. I have insurance…" Before he finished that sentence, his wife had embraced him, weeping loudly. 

"No, don't speak like that my love! You won't die." She wept