Bands of the Unpaid Dowry

Chapter 9

"Jace Kwaku Asante Elrod! Your legs are too long. Hold up." Millicent only grinned when the said man turned to her with a frown coating the area between his eyebrows. He looked displeased as he had told her more than he could count since she found it interesting to call out his full name. His entire name was only ever used when his mother was aggrieved at his naughty tendencies. So, whenever Millicent called him that way, he felt instantly on edge. Millicent, whose strides had finally caught up with him after they stepped out of the aircraft, smiled to herself when she again noticed the lines of aggravation on his face were yet to dematerialize.

"Little M, what can I do to make you stop?" He groaned out again. Millicent only held onto his right hand that was dragging her luggage yet again to get him to walk while chuckling.

"What can I say? Your name is so pretty." She beamed at him, walking by his side in the vast space of the Kotoka International Airport which was teeming with a lot of people.

"Who did you say was picking you up?" Jace proceeded to question when he realized that the stubborn woman beside him was not going to cease being dreadful to him after the knowledge of his full name. Yet, he was not fully peeved because he enjoyed hearing it from her just as much. He angled his neck lower so he could watch her play with the sides of her top, frowning at the number of people that walked in the airport.

"My brother Max. He's probably going to be here soon. Is Elle picking you up?" Millicent heard Jace hum to confirm the question. She got silent thinking about the various scenarios that could make everything they went up to the states to do go wrong. First, which African parent was going to believe that their child just got married without the consent of their family? Would I even be able to utter the complete sentence. My tongue would have fallen out of my mouth by then! She let out a heavy sigh before stopping in her tracks from the apprehension that was building up in her.

"What's wrong?" Jace also stopped walking in worry when she just casually stopped in their rambunctious environment.

"How are we going to disclose this Jace?" Jace watched the woman with an indecipherable look. He truthfully did not even know how he was going to handle his own mother let alone an entire family. He had hatched a few plans on the long plane ride.

Placing the bags in front of him, he crossed both hands across his chest and puffed up his stance before replying, "I thought of a few ideas. Hm, we could tell them that we were signing business documents but got the documents mixed up with the marriage certificate?"

Millicent sighed against his thoughtlessness. "Did you ever stop to think that we were the ones that made the certificate?"

"Oops." Jace simply stated, widening his eyes for the effect.

"Oh, I got it. We could say the office got our names on the document, but it had been printed on the marriage certificate of our manager who messed up himself instead of the business documents." Millicent shuffled closer to the carry-ons between them when people started to breeze past her as she spoke.

"Wow, you're smart. So why didn't we revoke it?" Jace deadpanned with a little smile, reaching out to hold onto her arm when she almost lost her balance.

"Uhm it's a complicated process? Plus, we like each other?" Millicent watched as his long index finger tapped his cheek as if he was in a serious thought analysis process.

"Sounds good." Jace locked his eyes with the bright doe eyes of Millicent after he finally agreed to her plans. He could not see any other way out of it. They had to be the most realistic they could be. He grabbed the bags again and urged her with a head gesture to continue moving.

"Okay, let's hope this works. I can't believe I'm doing this to my mom." Millicent said in an excited manner when she thought about the prospect of being such a 'rascal' but in truth she was also terrified of what could happen if the lie was divulged.