You’re probably wondering what I know about matrimony when I’ve never been married or had a spouse. Well, do not underestimate a spinster like me. I am wiser than my age. To be frank, I don’t see myself walking down the aisle and becoming somebody’s wife. The reason maybe because I fear commitment and divorce. What’s the point of getting married if there may be a possibility of divorce papers to be signed? Marriage isn’t an easy thing.

Once there was a woman named Adelaide Duma. She was to be married to a man named Sbusiso Khoza. Sbu was a good man, he had paid a bride token to the Dumas even though tradition stated that he didn’t need or have to as Adelaide already had a child from another man. As she was no longer a virgin, he was supposed to pay less but he was honourable and he loved her very much. Sbu did not care about any of those things. Adelaide would then officially be Mrs Khoza. He loved Xolani like his own and the child adored him and called him father.

Their wedding ceremony was set for the following day when Adelaide received a call from her ex-lover, Fikane, to meet up. At first she was reluctant to meet him. This was the father of her child and her first love, she reasoned, but he had hurt her badly in the past.

She remembered those dark days in her teens when she was so deeply in love with him that she bought into the false dreams he used to sell her, which inevitably led to their relationship falling and apart. Fikane placed a lot of pressure on her to sleep with him in the beginning of their relationship and that led to her falling pregnant not long after.

He would say, “What you are doing repulses me. Why don’t you want to sleep with me? If you truly love me you will sleep with me or else you will lose me.”

Those words made her shiver with fear of losing the man he loved everytime he asked her for sex. All she ever wanted was to save herself for marriage. She gave in to him for fear of losing him. He took her virginity and impregnated her. Not long after she lost her virginity, he broke up with her then denied the pregnancy.

Adelaide was sad, alone and pregnant. The man that she loved so fiercely had been chasing after other girls all along. He accused Adelaide of being a township whore and an opportunist who was trying to trap him with a baby that wasn’t his. She knew that a child out of wedlock would bring shame to her family but she had nowhere else to go.

At first her parents were furious when she told them about her pregnancy, still they couldn’t kick her out. They didn’t want her to go through her first pregnancy alone. They accepted her back and gave her the support she needed. Nine months later she gave birth to her son who she named Xolani, which means forgiveness in isiXhosa. This was her way of apologising to her parents and seeking forgiveness for the shame she had brought upon them. They forgave her, letting bygones be bygones.

When Xolani was a couple of months old, Adelaide went back to school to finish her matric which she passed with flying colours. Straight after she went to university to study law. Her parents had taught her not to feel sorry for herself. She had to keep on moving because eventually she would rise like a phoenix.

For four years she studied hard and raised her son with the help of her parents before graduating top of her class. Adelaide then went on to establish her own law firm, which ranked successful among some of the recognised law firm in her city.

Now Fikane came along trying to ruin all that she’d achieved including her impending marriage. She decided that it was time to settle this for good. When Adelaide arrived at the park where he directed her to, she saw Fikane sitting at a bench under some trees.

When he saw her at first it hit him, he had lost a really good woman when he left Adelaide all those years ago.

“You’re still as beautiful as the first time I laid my eyes on you,” he said in greeting.

“Is that supposed to make me blush like it did years ago when I was a naïve little girl?” She said ignoring his attempt at flirting. “I don’t know what you want from me. Whatever it is it can’t be good. I still hate you with passion,” she finished off.

“You are lying to yourself,” he said, trying to make light of it. “I heard you’re getting married to that fool,” he added.

Adelaide hated every moment in his presence but she kept her cool. “That fool you’re referring to it is my fiancé who will be my husband tomorrow. He is my true love and a good father to my son,” she said.

“You mean our son. I’m your first love and I will always win,” Fikane said.

He came close trying trying to kiss her but she pushed him away.

“Why are you doing all this now?” She asked.

“Because I still love you, we can finally be family. Me, you and our son. It’s not too late for you to walk away from Sbu,” he said trying to manipulate her like he used to years ago.

“You’re retarded. I will never play happy family with you. You don’t even know the name of your own son who by the way, doesn’t know you. I told him his father is some moron who denied him. Where were you when I was all alone, pregnant and scared? You have a nerve to even call me for this drunken drivel. You no longer have a hold over me and you being my first love is a shame and it absolutely means nothing to me,” she said in a rush of anger.

Fikane only now saw that Adelaide had grown up to be a mature woman. His smooth talk and charm wasn’t working.

He then said, “I still love you.”

“That’s your problem. It’s definitely too late to say you love me. I’ve found someone who loves me for me, not for what’s underneath my pants. If you’re thinking about stopping my wedding I will gun you down. I love Sbu and only death shall do us apart. There’s nothing you can do to change that. The world is better off without you,” she said leaving him startled at her outburst.

Who would have thought a girl he used to fool would one day wake up and smell the coffee. People like that deserve to die alone, Adelaide thought as she walked away.

Fikane committed suicide a couple of days after Adelaide’s wedding but she didn’t bother going to his funeral instead, she was glad that the bastard was dead. She lived happily with her new husband and son whom she loved dearly.

***

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