| Ghost.|
The following week went by fast and Malisha was kept busy with wedding planning, shopping and dress fittings.
She had finally picked her bridesmaids who were her two friends, Gina and Phoebe, her two sisters, Minerva and Mishpa and Diana, Duke's sister.
She and Duke were yet to to choose their best couple. A best couple was an older couple that was supposed to stand as witnesses and mentors for the young couple through out their married lives as was defined by Society.
As promised, they also hired more seamstresses for Favarro to work with, as he had also been tasked with the work of making the bridesmaids dresses and as one could have imagined, he was still not pleased with that timeline.
Alfred on the other hand, was left in charge of the mens' apparels and he coordinated with the ladies through Nelly, since all the groomsmen were very high level officials and with very busy schedules.
"When are we meeting the guys?" Gina asked as one of Favarro's assistants took her body measurements.
"I am not sure, they are really busy men, you know." Malisha replied, flipping through a catalogue Favarro's designs.
"I think your brother is cute," Phoebe told them softly and Minerva let out a loud gasp.
"Mishael?"
Phoebe nodded and Malisha laugh at her sister Minerva, who was looking all grossed out.
Despite her work at the National Society offices, where she worked as an assistant, Minerva was able to take a leave of work to assist her sister with the wedding planning.
"Is Emmeren going to be there?" Mishpa asked as she stepped up to another little podium.
"How do even know Emmeren?" Malisha asked, flipping through another catalogue.
Mishpa shrugged her shoulders and replied offhandedly.
"We've met."
"Interesting." Malisha said looking up to grin at her sister and the younger girl glared back at her.
After all the measurements were taken, they all sat down to decide on a look for the girls. After much deliberation, they all settled for a champayne embroidered sheer lace and silk look for the girls.
They finally walked out of the shop and split up, as Minerva and Mishpa went to run some errands leaving Gina, Pheobe and Malisha to go shopping for shoes and Jewellary.
"Hey, what happened to Katrina?"
Malisha asked as they were going through pearl collections at the jewellary shop closest to Favarro's.
Phoebe stiffened beside her and Gina started humming pretending not to hear her.
"Guys?"
She asked turning to face them and they looked away nervously.
"Phoebe?" Malisha called, turning to face the quieter friend since she was the least likely to lie.
Phoebe looked at her trembling visibly and Malisha started to panic.
"What? What happenned? Is she okay?" She asked them, now worried.
"She...she got married to Ryan." Phoebe mumbled softly.
"What?" Malisha yelled, not sure if she had heard her friend right. Phoebe flinched and a few shoppers stopped to stare.
Malisha didn't care.
"Gina?" She demanded.
"Lets go to somewhere more private." Her friend said, pulling her out of the shop and Phoebe followed closely.
"So?" Malisha asked again.
They were now in the car that Duke had commissioned for her and the chauffer slash bodyguard was driving them to Gina and Phoebe's Urberium apartment.
"The got married six months after you left." Gina said and Malisha gaped at her.
"Thomas, had not yet been born!"
"Yes." Gina replied angrily.
"But why? Why would my friend do that to me? She was the one who had introduced us, for heaven sake!" Malisha cried out feeling exasperated.
"It's kind of complicated. That is from what I heard."
"Of course it is. My bestfriend is married to my ex and baby daddy. That is pretty messed up!"
"They were engaged since she was sixteen."
"What?" She gasped again. "And she never thought to tell me?"
"They didn't tell her. Not until you left anyway." Phoebe mumbled softly.
Malisha thought about it for a moment and her all anger started to dissipate.
"Couldn't she say no?"
They shrugged their shoulders and she realised that there was a great possibility that she couldn't. Malisha had met her father, Mr. Maracheli and he didn't seem like the type to take no for an answer.
All her anger dissipated and she couldn't help but feel sorry for Katrina. Her mind wandered over to Ryan and his strained relationship with his parents while they had been dating.
"I guess it finally makes sense now." Malisha said and her friends nodded their heads in agreement as they all mourned their lost friend.
"Have you seen her since then?"
"No." Gina shook her."She kind of isolated herself after that, but I hear she's miserable. What with Ryan's drinking and his mistreatment."
Malisha's heart broke for her former friend Katrina and she couldn't help but miss her. They finally got to the apartment and Malisha smiled at what she was seeing.
"This is a great place you have here." She said looking around the three bedroom modern apartment.
"Your boyfriend got it for us."
Gina's said and her friend felt overwhelmed by the emotions that were coursing through her body.
"He did?" She asked with tears welling her eyes.
"Yap, that boy of yours is a keeper." Gina replied.
"He is not a boy." Phoebe corrected softly and they started bickering about it as Malisha continued to look around it.
Speaking of Duke, her phone rang and she smiled swiping the screen to pick the call from her fiancè.
"Hey love?" She said smiling into the receiver.
"I don't think I will ever get used to that." He joked and she laughed.
"What's up?"
"Are you girls done with your stuff?"
"Yap. And it's not stuff. It's called shopping."
"Okay." He relented. "Where are you?"
"Gina and Phoebe's apartment." She replied and he paused for a moment, before continuing.
"You like it?"
"Yea." She said nodding, even though she knew that he could not see her. "Thank you Duke. For everything and for bringing them."
"It's nothing. Anything to see you smile, my love." He said and her heart melted.
"So?" He started again.
"Yea?"
"We are supposed to meet the Parson today."
"Yea, I almost forgot. Premarital counselling."
"Yea. Should I pick you up?"
Malisha looked at her friends who were still bickering and shook her head.
"No. I'll meet you there."
"Don't you want us to go together?" He asked, sounding a little disappointed.
"Uhm...Okay. I'll come to your office."
"Okay...Is everything okay there?"
"Yea. Just Gina and Phoebe being, well... Gina and Phoebe."
"Oh, okay." He said sounding relieved. "So just more girl stuff?"
"Yea. Stuff." She laughed.
♧♧
The days continued to fly by fast and Malisha found herself doing final dress fittings and planning pre- wedding parties.
She also got introduced to Alice her official secretary and Magda her social secretary, who accompanied her to a tea party that she had been invited to by Society.
Malisha was nervous at first, but sorrounded by her mother, Minerva, and Magda for moral support, she managed to come out of there alive.
Apparently, her engagement to Duke had seemingly redeemed her in their eyes and for that same reason, they were now looking forward to work closely with her in the near future.
Malisha also kept up with her once a week tea appointments with Leah, sometimes bringing her girls with her while Duke spent his weekends bonding with Thomas despite his busy schedule.
As promised Mishael kept his word and watched over their every move, making sure that they were never left alone unchaperoned.
"Society would be proud."
Her inner voice said and she had to agree.
"These days I rarely hear from you, but it's understandable since I am rarely alone."she told it.
"Yea and we agree more. Which means you are becoming more responsible and less of a danger to yourself."
"So you really are my conscience?" She thought back.
"Something like that. I like to think of myself as 'common sense'?" It replied and Malisha scoffed even though, she could clearly see that that inner voice, had been some sort of 'voice of reason', in her former lonely existence.
"So, does this mean that you are finally going away?" She thought.
"No. It means that your person and I are blending into one, now that there is no inner turmoil."
"Turmoil?"
"Yes. Like when you hated Duke yet you unwittingly loved him at the same time?"
She laughed. Her inner voice could sometimes be funny.
"You know I am right."
She did not acknowledge it, but instead she lay back down on the hammock and closed her eyes.
It was a saturday and she was alone for the first time in weeks.
Duke had taken Thomas out and her friends were out doing something that she was not aware of. They were being secretive and she suspected that they were planning something.
Her phone rang and she pick it up, eyes still closed.
"Hallo ?" She said in a sleepy voice.
"Lisha?" The voice startled her so much that she fell out of the hammock.
"That voice. The last time I heard it was almost five years ago."
"A ghost?" Her inner voice and she nodded at the truth in that sentiment.
"Lisha?"
"What do you want?"
She managed to say, finally composing herself.
"I need to see you Lisha, we need to talk." It stated.
"No we don't."
It paused for a moment and she thought that the line had gone dead.
"I heard that you are getting married."
For some reason that statement got her agitated.
"I'm going to hang up now." She told it.
"Lisha, please...Don't. Let's talk about it. Me, you, the baby."
Suddenly, she felt nauseous.
"I don't know what to tell you." she told it honestly.
"Can we at least meet?"
At that panicked and hanged up.
"This is bad. Very bad." She thought pulling out her in frustration.
She had always known that she would have to deal with it at one point in her life, but not that soon and definately not then when things were beginning to fall into place.
She tried to doze off again, but she couldn't. All the bad memories from that past overrid her mental barriers and flooded her mind in such a way that it overwhelmed her senses.
She found herself relieving those memories and she cringed as she remembered the night when it all happened.
S
he recalled the pain and hurt that she had felt and how she had sobbed her eyes out as she made it to the park . She remembered the measly note that had been left behind, the only evidence of the man that she had thought she loved, but had robbed her of everything that was dear to her.
She had torn the note angrily before limping into the shower to scrub herself off the filth that she felt had been left upon her.
Every day after that she had continued to nurse the wounds from the incident in solitude. She took to alienating herself as she mourned her loss, until she missed her periods and discovered that she was carrying his child.
He had looked shocked when she told him, but not as shocked as she was, when she had proposed marriage and he told her that he could not marry her because he was already engaged. He had always been engaged.
Malisha had picked up whatever pride she had left and walked away never to see to him again.
After that, she went on to spend the rest of her days that semester, tortured and in tears and at one point her burden became too much for her to carry alone and she confided in her brother.
Her brother, Mishael became her rock. He would cormfort and pray with her, sometimes reading the Bible to her. He also paid for all her expenses and her antenatal care and that way she was finally able to make it through her first two trimesters without a glitch.
Eventually she had to go home and tell her parents the news and that was when all hell broke lose.
The General had been livid, screaming obscenities at her while her mother just cried along with her too broken to say anything.
The news got out to the media and blew up into the biggest social scandal the city of Urberium had seen in a century, with its Society acting as the judge and jury that condemned her to her fate. A fate that was filled with misery, loneliness and pain, thus necessitating the creation of her alter ego 'Kristina', in order to cope.
The Scandal made Malisha into a celebrity overnight, only that instead of being loved and adored by everyone, she was hated her to the point that she began receiving hate mail.
And as if life had not given her enough lemons, her childhood friend and formee best friend, decided to make it his life's mission to antagonise and torment her at their every meeting.
"How was I to know that he was just a jealous alpha with trouble expressing his emotions?" She thought, suddenly missing Duke.
"You have to talk to him about this, you know." Her inner voice told her and she had to agree.
"I will. I won't risk our relationship by withholding information again."
" 'In this together,' he said."
"Time to test that theory." she thought.