Nurse Stella and I stood staring at the Fanny's villa while I was still all tears, with heavy sob which shook my entire body. I squeezed my eyes shut and felt sadness cloud my features.
I felt like a kid that was about to be sold for slavery. I was daunted, naive, stolen and abandoned to an impending fate. I gazed upon my scruffy self and swallowed hard at the thought of the decision I was about to make.
Nurse Stella grabbed me into her embrace, only wishing she could really be of help to me at the time. Had it been she could afford the half a million dollars, I believed she would have given it to me without a tinge of rejection.
Although I saw no sense in the advice yet there was an awakening that accompanied it. Yes. My thought was opened into an unfathomable recognition of the fact that once my mother 'kicked the bucket,' I would never set my eyes on her again.
She was all I had at the time, my essence, my now and future. She may not know the sacrifice I was about getting to because she was in coma.
But then I wondered what would be her reaction if she should get to find out her only child was made sign to a contract marriage with a mad son to the richest man in Rio Hondo just to pay her hospital bills.
Would she be perturbed? Or would she boil with disdain and ruin? Wouldn't she curse me and see me as a drab hence forth?
A lot paced through my porous mind as I gazed upon the Fanny's villa.
"Come on, Melissa, perk up, be of good cheer," she rubbed me on the shoulder and shook me slightly.
"I… I can't believe I am doing this right now, can someone wake me up from this nightmare and remind me it is just a mere marriage?"
Tears lined my eyes as I dared to fight back more of it from trickling.
Nurse Stella caught my morose face, wiped my tears and intoned, "Trust me. You will be fine. I will try to check up on you from time to time. You just have to do what I just told you. You …"
I interjected, "You won't understand the emotional trauma I am fazed with right now. It is easier said than done. Do you think I can share a roof with a mad man without a quest for my body someday? Have you considered the dilemma it will compound on my womanhood?
She shook her head in the affirmative and gave me a wink of assurance.
I shook my head in disapproval. "I don't believe you do, Stella. I don't," I beamed. "What about my safety? I hear mad men could be violent most times, even unexpectedly, I could be bitten, I could be pummeled by this mad man. Do you ever think about that? Do you know the series of harm I would suffer sharing same roof and bed with him? Do you know that mad son of Fanny Luis is the most violent mad man in Rio Hondo?"
I asked as though she had the solution to my predicament.
"I understand your internal squabble. Trust me, I do, but what do you intend to do now? Should we fold our arms and watch your mother die?
She held my warm, teary face, and what she said next really got to me that I felt my heart melting within me.
"I wish I could take your place and fetch you the money. I wish they could sense the beauty in me just as they saw the one in you and make me their mad son's contracted wife. I would be glad to give in to their demands, just to earn the money and give to you so that your mother could be attended to but I am happily married."
I sniffed, felt chilled on my face as the whirl wind blew across us. I quickly wiped my tears. I took solace in her words and fought back the pang of fear in me.
She breathed hard and perceived the relief on my face. I hugged her for a time that seemed eternal. I started sobbing again as my thought returned to my shattered countenance.
"Go Melissa," she intoned, somewhere around my ears, "Dr. Peter is a sadist and an inconsiderable doctor. He would do as he said."
I snorted into her face and smacked my lips. Words were too heavy for my lips to bear right now, so I said nothing.
"Just try your best and go. I will be waiting at the hospital. As soon as you sign the contract marriage and get the one million dollars credit card, please run straight to the hospital and make sure the doctor see to your mother's treatment. Autosomal kidney failure is terminal."
This time I didn't shake my head. No blinking of eyes. I just stood gaping and staring into her face. I was yet to believe my fate. I threw my gaze at the mansion and returned it back to her. I couldn't reject the offer yet I wished it never existed.
Gradually I advanced to the mansion, sobbing, wiping endless tears, casting my stare upon the mansion and returning same upon Stella.
She was all tears now. I could perceive the uneasiness in her trembling hands that waved at me. She had put herself in my shoes and saw what I was going to suffer in the name of marriage.
Almost getting to the major entrance, I paused and shivered like the strings on a guitar. I was downtrodden in tears now. My brow burnt with sheer torment. Anybody would have felt same way because marriage with a sane man wasn't easy let alone a mad man.
"Go on, Melissa, you will finish strong! May good fate smile at you! May the God of the poor see you through in this marriage! He may be mad but his heart is waiting for your arrival! This is more than fate."
Those words from Stella seemed to quench my restiveness, and then I threw a striking gaze upon the mansion and walked in…