Love In Silhouette

❇「chapter 1」❇

Marriage, to women as to men, must be a luxury, not a necessity; an incident of life, not all of it. And the only possible way to accomplish this great change is to accord women equal power in the making, shaping and controlling of the circumstances of life. -Susan B(rownell) Anthony

(Speech, 1875)

I stared at myself in the mirror. My black natural hair was pulled back into a firm but pretty bun at the back of my head.
A few white decorative pins in the form of lotus flowers formed a circumference above the bun attaching the long veil to the bun.

The professionally applied makeup modified my eyes to appear in slits with the false lashes brushing gently against my eyelids each time I looked up. The rest of my face was covered in a light coat of foundation and all sorts of powders that thankfully covered the little but conspicuous pimple on my right cheek.

That pimple had been a menace.

The white sleeveless wedding dress left my shoulders bare but descended gracefully into a sweetheart neckline. The glittering torso wrapped itself firmly around my bodice before cascading from my waist down in a large mass of silken folds to a train that extended almost three feet.

To sum it up, I looked beautiful.

Every normal bride should be overjoyed to see this day; the day when finally she'd be joined to the love of her life in holy matrimony forever.
But not me. As far as I was concerned, this was literally the worst day of my life which would mark the beginning of the rest of my miserable existence.

My gaze dropped to the thin cold silver band around my ring finger. Perched delicately atop it was a silver lotus flower identical to the pins on my head with a pretty diamond nestled in the middle.

Every normal bride would fondle it lovingly, reminiscing that fateful day and romantic way it was placed there by her one true love.

Yet I wasn't a normal bride.

What I wanted to do was far from fondle it. I stared at it blankly, but in earnest I was resisting the urge to pull it off and smash it against the wall, it being the cause of all my problems.
So much for happy endings.

You'd think I'd be crying but no; I'd already done that. So much so that I didn't have any more tears to shed. Yet again, why spoil the makeup artist's masterpiece; she didn't play any part in my misery, my cursed fate did!
You'd think again; I should've added screaming, but hey, I did that too. So much so also that my throat had gone cracked and I almost lost my voice. The sad truth for me was that once the orchestrators had made up their mind, there was nothing I could do.

A gentle knock sounded on the door to my suite quietly pulling me out of my reverie.
No problem, I was done anyway.

"Who is it?" I raised my voice to amplify it enough for the knocker to hear me well.

"It's Seyi? Are you alright?" I shifted in my chair so that I was facing the door.

"Yes, come in!" I put on the best smile I could muster because I didn't want Seyi worrying anymore about me than she had already been doing.

"E never do for dis your 'are you alright' business abi?" I repeated her words in Pidgin and rolled my eyes at my best friend playfully.

"No o, at all, at all." She shook her head in response and we both erupted into a fit of giggles as she came to stand beside me. She placed her hand gently on my shoulder and squeezed it assuringly.

"It's going to be alright." Her eyes turned soft as she smiled in concern at me through the mirror.

The thoughts I had been mulling over before she came in rushed back in a flood and I sucked in a sharp breath anticipating the next few hours of my life. My lip began trembling slightly.

I thought I had no more tears?

I sucked in another breath and my willpower prevailed stilling my lips and heart. I'm not crying anymore!

Witnessing the battle I was fighting, Seyi bent down and wrapped her arms around my shoulder and stroked my bare arms.

"I'm so sorry I couldn't take you in and save you from all this." She shook her head sadly but now it was time for me to comfort her.
I reached out to cover her hand with mine and squeezed it.

"I would rather go through this than see you suffer because of me." I smiled weakly at her.

Just then, another knock, though this one rapt, sounded on the door. Without waiting for a reply this time, the knocker pushed open the door.
It was one of the various workers employed to help me get ready.

"It's time."

Without a word, we both nodded and the door swung back shut.
Seyi then turned and looked into my eyes before hoisting herself up.
I looked back at the mirror and taking a deep breath once more, I gathered up my skirts and stood up. This is it.
Seyi helped me arrange the gown before walking over to the door and pulling it open.
Once she did, a group of three ladies who were hired specifically for this purpose immediately filed in to help gather up my train.

【❇】

Author's Note

Hey y'all; and we are here with our first chapter!!
I'm thankful to God for helping me give the book a good head start.

What do you guys think about the chapter? Do you like it? Do you hate it? Does it tease you in any way? Let me know already in the comments.

If you liked the chapter, give it a thumbs up by clicking on that little golden star at the left bottom corner of the chapter! I do appreciate it when you do that.

Let everyone know about Love In Silhouette by sharing this book generously!!

Peace out!

Chinwe_epistle ♥