LOVING THE RAPIST CHILD

Chapter 34

Two weeks later.....

"No! Jake, visiting hours is almost over and I don't want you to disturb him. We are going to wait outside in the lobby" Bright scolded her  ten year old son.

"But, i want to stay with Uncle Ed"  Jake gave her mother a pout hoping it will work.

Seven days ago, Bright decided to explain what has been happening with her and Ed,  she needed to tell him about the drastic step in her life and she wanted to be sure if he was on the same page with her. After all if she was going to marry Ed, Jake needed to know. What actually surprised her was his response after telling him.

" I dont know what took Uncle Eddy this time. He told me wanted to marry you a long time ago" Jake told his mom, toying with the plate of noodles in his front.

"How do you know that? Did Ed tell you anything? "

"No ma, it was the day he was teaching me Basic science assignment,  I got all my answers right and I was so happy I got it all.
So i asked him what can I do to make him happy,  he looked at me at first and he wanted to talk but he didn't. 
So I stood up and wanted to go and pee, and he said what would make him happy is if I  permitted him to marry you"    

Bright was surprised at what she was hearing but what gave her assurance was what he said next.

"Ma, I hope you will marry him, because he's being so nice to us, and he is my best friend"

Coming back to reality,  she saw Jake again, leaning on his bed and watching him as he laid down there. His mother has just left to change her clothes, and she now seem to be at par with Bright.  Especially when she brought Jake. She seems to like Jake and was surprised when Mrs Makinde told her that her son was very lovable and mannered. She didn't want to take credit for it, she wanted to tell her that her son wasn't always the best son, but Ed has been  great influence on him, and even his hair cut was a copy cat of one of Ed's former hair cut. But she didn't,  she just nodded her head and thanked her.  

She quietly walked to Ed's bed, staring at him, she squeezed his palms letting him know that he was here with him,  she held the hands of her disturbing son, but as she was about to drop it.  Something which was more of a miracle happened. Ed, squeezed her hands back, it was very weak.

Oh my God! Did she imagine it, but the look on Jake's face told her that he squeezed his hands too. Suddenly the grip was stronger, as if to read her mind she heard the machines beside her beep! Beep! Beep! She was almost panicking when she heard a familiar voice.  A voice that she wanted to hear for the rest of her life.

"Oh my God Bri, you look horrible" 

She looked at the bed and came face to face with that brown eyes. She never noticed how brown it was until now. 

"Eddy, oh baby, you are  awake?" She said in a whisper, before shouting again.
" you are awake, Nurse! Doctor!  He is awake" she ran out to get the attention of any medical practitioner.

"Your mother is acting odd, isn't she lil master"

"Uncle Eddy" Jake jumped on him, forgetting that he was hurting him, but Ed didn't show it much.

" It looked like you were not going to wake up, but I knew you just needed rest, so I just kept praying with ma, to make you wake up sooner"       

Edward was too weak to talk, he just stared at Jake who was still rambling, but as he sat on the bed, Bright entered the room again, this time with a someone who he assumed was the doctor.

As she entered Ed, gaze met her own again, and it was just like when he 1st met her,  when she came for counselling, but this time there was something different about her smile, her attitude, he wanted to figure it out before he saw her left middle finger.

She was wearing her engagement ring.

He had mixed feelings,he wanted to ask her immediately but the doctor ushered them out and  he knew the question would have to come later.

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Ed watched Bright for the past few days, she
has never been so determined in her life to impress him , it was like she wanted to make corrections for all she had done and she was doing a good job. It wasn't as if He didn't appreciate it but he didn't want  to believe that she was doing all that because she loved him, maybe out of pity, but he wasn't sure about love.

The doctor wanted Ed to stay at the hospital for an extra week for security reasons and because of his health.

Bright was there everyday,  every possible free hour, taking care of him and even putting up with his demanding mother and even family relatives. 

He couldn't take it anymore,  he needed to know if he was imagining things.

"Bri, why are you doing this"
Bright froze when he heard her name, he hasn't called her Bri since the last time he proposed and since he woke up, he has been distance emotionally from her.

'Doing what? Am just trying to arrange this area that Jake scattered am his test script je brought for you to see"

" I am not talking about all that, am asking you Bright Adams why are you here,  wearing my engagement ring"

Ed stood up from his sick bed and cornered at an angle near the wall.

" I woke up last week Friday and I saw this ring on your finger and I think I demand an answer to why you are wearing it now,after waiting for you for over six months"

Ed lifted up her left ring finger, trying hard not to admit to himself that the ring  suit her finger well as it sat beautifully on her middle finger.

" I realised it Eddy, I discovered that I love you, and i want to be with you"

"That's is not okay for me Bri, not at all,  you have loved me for a long time ago and i know it. If I wasn't sure about it I wouldn't have proposed to you" 

" I know Eddy but am sorry,i have caused you a lot of pain and I didn't want you to regret it in future,  you've had a good life and you deserve a whole lady, pure and unsoiled not someone like me alongside with my baggage. I didn't want you to go through with all that "

Edward realised it now, she thought he was too good for her and she didn't deserve someone like him, which made him a little angry.

" I thought we were past all that, you think I  dont deserve you,  what about me? Dont I deserve to be happy,  to be with the woman I love, to be with that one woman I want to spend the rest of my life with? You tell me"

Bright was tired of fighting all over again. Ed was alive now and getting stronger day by day and she wasn't strong enough to enter into another fight with him.

She lifted her palms to his face,  which was filled with overgrown beard because he hasn't shaved for a long time. It made him look different and strikingly  handsome.

She used her middle finger to touch his silencing him from what he was about to say next. It was time for her to show her sense of ownership. She voiced out what came to her head next not bothering to process the information if it was the right timing, who cares about right timing.

" dont start stalling darling, I love you and that is all that matters, I want to take it with you every step of the way, day by day.
So Edward Akanni Makinde, do you want to marry me or not "
She dropped to her knee, removed the ring and stretched it towards him. It was left to him now, the ball was in his court. Would he play fair.