Haunted by the past

Haunted by the past

Genesisvictor

5.0
Comment(s)
346
View
24
Chapters

Tina is born in a traditional family who hold traditional values sacred, but a whim of obsession which she mistakes for love makes her defy the ways of the tradition. The gods are not happy, but it's too late for her and she can't avoid the repercussions because it's the will of the gods.

Haunted by the past Chapter 1 1st Chapter

Tina, presumably thought her mother wouldn't notice her absenteeism. She stealthily walked ounces behind past her like a sly cat,

bestowing fleeting glances to be sure that her intentions wouldn't be foiled by her carelessness.

"If I don't see Rabu today, I will die, or go crazy. This love will kill me."

She said and lingered around her father's compound. A sharp stone peels her heel and she grimaces in pain. She groans and whirls at the corner and peeks around suspiciously. Her heel bleeds profusely and she flips off the blood with her hand and licks it.

"Damn it! All this trouble in the name of love!" She muttered to herself and smiled slightly. There wasn't any human figure visible.

"You are safe now, Tina! This is the perfect opportunity. You Dare not goof around or else your nagging mother will impede your plans." A moment's thought told her. Mauda, Tina's mother, first hides behind the door of her hut and keeps peeping through the tiny hole on the door. The position of her hut was convenient because it stood in the middle of the two other huts in her husband's compound; the bigger ones in the rear belonged to Kaija, her husband and another, to Shooca, Kaija's second wife. It was easy to identify everyone in or around the compound. She gropes out of the hut and pretends not to have seen her. She resumed her chores. Her daughter took the path behind the hut and strode towards the neighbour's compound. Mauda left her presumed task and trailed behind her. She was determined to substantiate the rumours that her twelve-year-old daughter was straying off with a neighbour's son.

"Today, you will have it coming, Tina. You won't escape my anger. It had better not be true or else..."

Despite her periodic warnings about her daughter's nasty behaviour she had cultivated lately, the latter had vehemently refused to take heed of her advice. Kaija, her husband had severally warned her that if he found out that there was a gist of truth in the gossip that was floating around the village about his daughter, he wouldn't hesitate to marry a third wife. Mauda wouldn't wish this to happen. What if his new wife was able to bear him male children? Was this not what he had always wished for? Was it not the same reason that he had married Shooca, his second wife hoping that she would give him an heir? At the thought of this, Mauda's mind was unsettled. She didn't want to lose her stance in the family. If it turned out to be authentic that her daughter had diverted from the morals of the society, and Kaija learnt about it, Mauda would no longer be Kaija's favourite and would be shorn of all the privileges of being a first wife. She seldom wished for that to happen. "No, it can never happen! Somehow, I have to make sure I secure my position."

She would always tell herself. And if her daughter lost her virginity, she would be a disgrace to her and the whole community. Mauda would be a laughing stock amongst other women. If Tina got pregnant before marriage, she would be a pariah, because it was taboo. She had to do something to stop the foreboding disaster. She quickened her pace yards behind her daughter and then stealthily trotted at a slackened pace.

Mahuge's compound was some metres away from Kaija's compound. The two homesteads were immediate neighbours. It would be easy to notice all that happened around from both ends if not for the many trees and shrubs that had grown on the raised ground between the two homesteads.

"Amelia!" Mahuge called his second wife. He had just received an unannounced visit from his in-laws' side. Tony, after hearing about her sister's new joy, couldn't wait to pronounce his abrupt visit to his in-law.

"I couldn't wait to congratulate Amelia for her newfound joy. I am sorry if I bumped into your compound unexpectedly. Said Tony with an apologetic gesture, and resumed anxiously,

"You know how long she has been praying for a male son; Two whole years of ceaseless prayers and sacrifices! At last, the gods of our ancestors have answered our prayers."

He formed a broad smile on the corner of his mouth and thanked Mandwa, his small god.

"It's true, it hasn't been easy," Mahuge said and seemed preoccupied and impatient.

"What is taking her so long?" he muttered and distended his eyes towards the direction of Amelia's hut. He ground his jaws and his gesture altered. Manage was a fierce man to whom every member of his family bestowed maximum respect. One whom the society held with much esteem because he had borne many sons and had many wives. All these distinguished him from many of his age mates. He respected the traditional beliefs and customs and therefore the gods were happy with him was a very rigid character with a heart of a beast.

"You are a true man, a true son of the land. The gods must have favoured you." Tony flatters him trying to divert him from his present worries, but the latter pays no attention. He instead pouts and peeks through the compound impatiently. The compound was destitute of any members because they had supposedly gone to clear the land near his maize plantation. Presumably, only he and his wife, Amelia were around.

Mahuge extends ounces further towards Amelia's hut and yells in a sharp voice,

"Amelia, should I come and fetch you or..."

Tina's heart palpitated in fear. The sound of Mahuge's sharp voice set her teeth to the edge.

"I had better be careful. If he sees me here he will goad me with his tough questions. What would I answer? Nothing. I will just wet my pants!"

She talked alone like a madwoman. She raised her neck and could see Mahuge and a stranger in the compound. This was a good sign! "This must be my lucky day. I hope Rabu hasn't broken his promise. He said he would keep inside his hut and wait for me, oh Rabu! I wish you could open my heart and see how I, Tina, have designed your name on every chamber!" She thought and smiled amiably and crouched her eyes lingering around to be sure there wasn't anyone following her.

Eventually, Amelia comes out of the hut hurriedly to answer her husband's call. The sight of Mahuge made her tremble. He was boiling with fury. The furrows on his forehead deepened and the daze in his eyes implied danger. As Amelia advances the latter keeps tapping his left foot on the ground.

"I am doomed! He will batter me today." Her heart thumped fast in his chest. Tony stood dumbfounded. His in-law's temperament was alarming. When Tony saw his sister approaching, he was gripped with fear and anxiety.

Sadness clutched at his heart. "To think that I cannot instantly embrace my sister because I have to wait until my in-law permits me is devastating. What kind of tradition is this?" He muttered quietly. He had mixed feelings of anger, worry and sadness.

"What took you so long? You know I don't like waiting."

Amelia fell on her knees and cowered her whole body trembling in fear.

"My husband, I am deeply sorry. I..."

"You what?" He folded his hands into hard fists and hardly raised a hit on Amelia's shoulder when he heard Tony cough from behind. Mahuge instantly withdraws and tried as much as to control his temper

"I was breastfeeding Kanai. He wanted to sleep. That's why..."

***

Continue Reading

Other books by Genesisvictor

More

You'll also like

One Night With The Wrong Brother

One Night With The Wrong Brother

Tangye Wanzi
5.0

I thought I was waking up in the arms of Arthur, the man I loved. But as the morning light hit the Hamptons estate, the man buttoning his cuffs by the window turned around with eyes like chips of ice. It was Augustus Riddle, Arthur’s cruel younger brother, and I had just spent the night whispering confessions of love into the wrong man's ear. The night I thought was a beautiful beginning turned into a devastating nightmare. Instead of comfort, Gus treated me like a stain on his expensive carpet, scribbling a check for "services rendered" before shoving me into a dark service corridor to hide my existence from his brother. "How much does it cost to buy your silence?" He sneered, before leaving me barefoot in a torrential downpour while he drove away in a luxury Cadillac. Four years later, I am a struggling actress in Los Angeles, working double shifts as a barista just to keep the lights on. My life was finally stable until my roommate dragged me to a high-end dinner to meet her new "influential" boyfriend. The man sitting at the table, looking more arrogant and lethal than ever, was Augustus. He spent the entire night humiliating me, calling me a pathetic amateur and a social climber in front of my only friends. When I fled into the rain and collapsed on the sidewalk, skinning my knee until I bled, he watched from his car. He saw me clutching a plastic baggie containing the taped-together pieces of that four-year-old check—the only proof of my shame. He looked at me like roadkill, rolled up his window, and drove off into the dark. I couldn't understand why he was doing this. Why did he hate me enough to crush me, yet remember that I couldn't handle the smell of cigarette smoke? Why did he leave me bleeding in the street, only to send expensive medical supplies and coffee to my door the very next morning? "I'm moving out." I told my roommates, realizing that Gus Riddle didn't just want to destroy me; he wanted to haunt me. I grabbed my suitcase and walked out with eighty dollars to my name, finally ready to disappear into the city before he could burn the rest of my life to the ground.

Woke Up Married To A Secret Zillionaire

Woke Up Married To A Secret Zillionaire

Amelia Rivers
5.0

I went to the New York City Clerk's office to handle a simple administrative matter, but the woman behind the glass handed me a nightmare instead. It was a certified marriage license from Clark County, Nevada, filed exactly three months ago. My vision blurred as I read the name in the spouse field: Baxter Noel. I was legally married to the ruthless billionaire whose legal team was currently suing me for intellectual property theft and trying to destroy my career. I remembered the conference in Las Vegas and a drink that tasted far too sweet, followed by a twelve-hour black hole in my memory that I had chalked up to exhaustion. When I sought help at my family's estate, my stepmother and sister didn't offer comfort; they stole my passport, shredded my clothes, and framed me for academic plagiarism to strip away my university fellowship. Even Baxter himself looked me in the eye with cold indifference, claiming he didn't know me and promising to have me arrested for fraud if I ever showed him that document again. Within twenty-four hours, I was homeless, jobless, and being hunted by the most powerful man in the city. I couldn't understand why a man who "eats people for breakfast" would be caught in the same trap as a struggling scientist like me. The confusion turned to pure terror when I looked at the witness signature on the license: Gene Mcclain. My mother, who was supposed to have died in a car crash ten years ago, had signed that paper with a fresh, trembling hand only ninety days ago. "I am holding a grenade, and I have no idea when the pin was pulled." Standing in the biting November wind with nothing but a laptop and a marriage license, I realized I was just a pawn in a much deadlier game. I stopped running and began to fight back, determined to use my unwanted status as the billionaire's wife to uncover the truth about the mother who came back from the dead.

The Discarded Heiress: Marrying My Lethal Husband

The Discarded Heiress: Marrying My Lethal Husband

Xiao Wang
5.0

The rain in Detroit was slick with grime when my family finally came to fetch me. They didn't want a reunion; they wanted a sacrificial lamb to marry into the Kaufman empire to save their failing business. I thought I was just being sold off, but the limo ride ended under a dark overpass where six hired thugs were waiting with chains. My own sister had ordered them to "break my spirit" so I’d be a shaking, pathetic mess by the time I reached the altar. They called me "Detroit trash" and sprayed air freshener when I sat on their leather seats. My stepmother wanted a video of me begging for my life, and my father was ready to trade me like a used car to a man everyone called a "vegetable." They expected a submissive country girl, unaware that I was a high-level "cleaner" who could snap a radius bone before they could even scream. When I finally reached the Kaufman estate, I found my fiancé, Barron, slumped in a wheelchair, drooling and silent. But as soon as the doors closed, the "invalid" grabbed my wrist with a grip of iron and whispered a command that changed everything. I didn't understand why my own blood was so desperate to see me destroyed. What had I ever done to deserve a hit squad and a forced marriage to a man they thought was a corpse? But Barron isn't a vegetable, and I'm not a victim. We just touched down at the Moon family gala in a matte-black helicopter, and as the doors slide open, the "broken" bride is about to show them exactly what happens when you throw away the wrong daughter. "If we're going to crash a party," Barron whispered, his eyes burning with lethal clarity, "we should make an entrance."

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book