Broken ✔

Chapter Thirteen

Song: Lucky — Sarkodie ft. Rudeboy

*Unedited* (It is 1am)

*Warning* This chapter gets just a teensy bit steamy. Skip to the author's note at the end when the steamy stuff begins if you're not cool with that.

It was the third day of December. I'd been an adult for a few days. I was sneaking around the storeroom, looking for the large calabash in which my father kept the fermenting palm wine.

It was the only type of alcohol we had in our house at the moment. There was a bar where a lady sold alcoholic drinks but even though I was an adult, two things blocked me from legally purchasing alcohol.

One, I'd be perceived as a child until I was a married woman and two, I'm female. Females only drink when it was necessary which was seldom.

I wasn't going to drink because I liked the taste of alcohol or anything. I was just trying to explore the adult life — and to forget a certain issue, but that was besides the point.

It was midnight, and the surrounding darkness did well to conceal my form. I inched away from the noise making pots, stepped over utensils and eating ware. The pot of palm wine was covered with a large wooden plank at the leftmost corner of the room.

I removed the plank and the pot of whitish liquid swirled beneath me. Even from a distance, I sniffed the strength of this alcohol and wondered for a second if I was brave enough to drink it. Perhaps I couldn't consume a lot of alcohol without getting drunk. What if I got drunk? Certainly, that wasn't my intention. I wasn't ready to wake up to an agonising headache, and even more importantly, I didn't want to act foolishly in front of my parents. I would drink just one cup and that would be all.

I clutched my new phone steadily in my hands. I had researched all about alcohol and it was a very dangerous substance even though people either didn't know that or weren't able to control their consumption. Though I knew that one cup wasn't going to destroy my organs, there was no way I was going to let alcohol consumption be a regular thing in my life.

I dipped the cup in the pot and filled it to the brim, then tipped the cup back to let the contents into my mouth. The alcohol burned its way down my throat and even though it was uncomfortable, I could tolerate it. I felt the coolness as it trickled down my oesophagus and descended into the bowels of my stomach.

It didn't give me the light headedness other people boasted of. I'd thought that the cup would take my mind off things, but it didn't. Perhaps more cups were needed to do the trick, but I wasn't going to succumb to the temptation. I covered the pot with the plank and went back to my bedroom. My suitcase was packed and glaring at me, containing my few clothes and the new ones that had been purchased for me.

It had happened in the twinkle of an eye. For the first time in my life, the village was on my side, and it was even worse than when they were against me. It had happened in just two days.

Linda was seen by the villagers moving into the palace on Saturday evening and it didn't take them any time at all to protest. It started with harmless rumours, gossip amongst women who had nothing better to do with their lives, then it escalated to confrontations.

I'd become a celebrity since my marriage to Michael had been announced, and just like every celebrity in the world, they only began to 'love' me when I started doing well. Imagine if Michael wasn't a prince or if I wasn't getting married to him but to an ordinary person, no one would care if a single woman was living with my husband.

The people raised hell and the chief had no alternative but to implore my parents to let me move into the palace.

As expected, Michael was furious with me. He believed that I somehow caused it, and he refused to speak with me. I'd left almost fifty texts, but he hadn't replied to even one, and I was supposed to move into the palace with him as soon as the sun rose.