CHAPTER SEVEN

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Megan comes back home to find her mother crying , her father pacing, he turns and asks her, his eyes bloodshot.

“Where is he??’’

“I am sorry daddy, please” she went on my knees and begged , Tonia sighs falling to her knees to beg too. Megan told her father what happened, she told him the boy left.

Her mother gasps, a fresh flow of tears gushes down her face, her father was beyond furious ‘’How could you be so careless and bring this shame upon yourself? how, it’s because of her right..this wayward friend you have?’’ he points to Tonia, coming towards her.

“Daddy , I am sorry, it’s my fault. Mummy please, scream and shout at me just don’t..don't..send me away “ Megan bursts out crying

“You are a disgrace!!!’’ her father spat. “A disgrace, how do I look at the congregation of people in church, how do I talk in public and be able to counsel families and people’s children and not able to tame my daughter and make sure she leaves right? You have ruined me Megan, you have soiled my reputation and everything I have built over the years, you are a disgrace, a DISGRACE!!!’’ he spat again

“I am sorry father” but he turns away “Mum, mum please “ Megan crawls to her mother but she turns away, crying into her handkerchief..

Broken, she lays on the floor and cried.

“You get out of my house, get out now!!!’’ Father thunders at Tonia, she gets up and runs outside. Megan knew she wouldn’t leave alone unless she was sure she was save, she could feel her standing behind the closed door

‘’This is what you will do Megan, good thing you are no longer a child, you will get married and you will give birth to their child in the confines of a home and you will leave my house to your husband’s. You will not abort because my faith is against killing an innocent child but you will bear the consequences of you carelessness”

"Father what are you saying?’’ shock vibrates through Megan’s body

“You heard me, we would find you someone who wouldn’t mind marrying you carrying another’s man spawn, and you will mend your ways and your life, but not under my roof” he says walking away

“Mother , I can’t marry a total stranger, not one I do not love or know “

“You should have thought about that when you decided to indulge your youthful exuberance and decided not to think of nobody but yourself. Your actions doesn’t only affect you but it affects all of us, your father’s reputation and prestige is on the line, what about me? How do I raise my head up, how do I teach people’s children and yet I couldn’t handle mine? You have done a bad thing and it is sad you have brought an innocent child to suffer for it. You will marry Megan and save your shame, because single mothers with a man who didn’t want to know if he got the girl pregnant and had left to God knows were and isn’t returning, is as good as a girl having a bastard child, and you will be called names and worse how do you cope? who would want to marry and love you? You see? It is for your own good! so you will settle, you will marry and I am sure your father will find you a good man, you will do what your father has said, you have to. Atleast we want to secure your future and the future of that child, you have no choice Megan”

‘No mother no please don’t make me” she cried grabbing her mother’s hand, she pulls it away, she shakes her head from side to side, No! this wasn’t happening

Her father comes out, looks at her and without saying another word he leaves. she was not allowed to go out nor were friends allowed to see her, especially Tonia. No one else knew she was pregnant except Her parents, Tonia and the boy who left.

Then the fights began, and her morning sicknesses became worse. Megan rejected the suitors whom her father brought, they were old men who already had been married once or twice or who had children or was widowed and didn’t mind a young girl with something cooking in the oven. But she did.

No matter how bad her situation was, she didn’t want to settle, she didn’t want to settle for a life she didn’t want.

She and her father fought more, her mother got tired of it all. One day during their fights , she told them she was going to abort it and they told her that if she did, she should consider herself disowned, they wouldn’t have a daughter who was a murderer.

One day, tired of it all she decided to sneak out of the house to do it, while she waited her turn, she saw a girl coming out of the theater screaming and crying in pains, as the fear tickles her toes up to her spine, she grabs her bag and ran, she didn’t look back.

She was three months now, slightly showing and her father had given her an ultimatum, marry now or leave and never come back.

She stood at the door, holding her stomach, not knowing what to do. It took her a few days to make up her mind. And when she did, she drops a letter telling her parents how sorry she was, for the pains, humiliations and all that she had caused them, and that she knew they meant well and they loved her and that she loved them back..but she told them that she knew she was careless and it was her mistake, HERS alone, so she would take full responsibility for it and she would not settle for more mistakes , to be forced into an unhappy home with a man whom she didn’t know nor loved and to bring up her child in that home, was something she wouldn’t do.

She was a single mum, and she would take responsibility for her mistake. She looks back at the house she grew up in, the love and happiness they all shared, with tears in her eyes and her heart shattering, and with the little money she I had saved , she carries her bag, and left in the early hours of the next morning.

She didn’t know where she was going to or what she was going to do or how she was going to survive. She just knew she had to live, and she had to survive.

And she did.

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