1 - abandoned on the altar

“Why is your husband not yet here?”

“Exactly, it’s been hours and the groom is yet to arrive, she’s such a pathetic young wife.”

Gift’s palms were sweaty as she continuously spread them on the pearls of her white wedding gown. Her eyes roamed the church as she searched in between rows and the aisle for any signs of Ken.

They had an argument the night before after she asked him where he had been going every night of their vacation, but he stormed out and shouted the words, “I just don’t love you anymore.”

She knew that much, but she hoped that her love and sincerity would have reached his heart and convinced him to look at her even once, but the reminder from the pastor, “I can only wait another thirty minutes, after that, I’m sorry but i have other lovely couples to wed,” snapped her out of her thoughts.

He was clearly irritated and had a scowl similar to the one the hired faces in the crowd had.

“I’m sorry, he’ll be here soon, he probably just got caught in traffic,” she apologized again with a small smile as she stared right at the door.

“I’ll try calling again,” she ran to her purse, but she knew he couldn’t pick up since he had left his phone in a haste when he left, but she dialed  anyways, she dialed his drinking buddies numbers but none of them picked up and in no time, her thirty minutes were over.

Suppressing her panic as she patted her belly, she paid off the guests and returned the wedding dress she had rented.

“Wish you a happy married life, where is the honeymoon?” the attendant asked, but the most she could manage was a small smile as she hurried through the process of everything and returned to their hotel room.

She fell back to her bed as she sniffled her tears back and asked herself, “where did I go wrong?” But no matter how hard and far she thought, she couldn’t give herself an answer.

Just then, her phone rang, bringing her out of her daze as she hurried to drink some water and wash her face. 

“Hmm hmm,” she cleared her throat and picked up the call with a cheery face “hey bestiee,”she squealed and giggled like she hadn’t just cried over her failed life.

“Hey,” the voice wasn’t so welcoming, but she still smiled, glad that there was someone to talk to now that she was down.

“So, why did you call? Did you miss me so much?” Gift asked as she made a request to switch to video call, but it was declined until the third time when she saw her bestfriend’s flushed face.

“Miss you when I’m literally in the next room?” Trisia scoffed as she sat up and wrapped the thick duvet around herself, but didn’t try to hide the hickeys on her neck and chest.

“What do you mean? You don’t even know where I am,” Gift teased, but noticed that her bestie’s eyes were unusually cold and menacing, but a look around her bestie’s room revealed a similar design to hers.

“I’ll show you,” Trisia switched the recording side to the back and showed Gift the back of a man.

Gift cocked her head, mentally congratulating her innocent virgin friend for finally having a man, but when she was about to voice it, the man turned with a groan and bed hair, his eyes slightly red from obvious lack of sleep.

“Who is that?” she asked and got her answer midway through the groggy guy turning.

“Babe, who are you on  the call with?” he asked her best friend Trisia as he snatched the phone from her and turned it to show Gift the smug look she had on.

“What’s going on?” Gift felt herself go pale at the realization of what was happening.

“Damn it, bitch!” he immediately flung the phone away as Gift took a sharp intake of breath. She felt the pain in her belly again and rubbed it before getting up and trying to make sense out of what was going on when she heard a knock on her door. She was too anxious, thus sensitive and was in front of the door with trembling hands in no time.

The door was flung open the moment she twisted the key and two familiar faces barged in.

“It was high time you knew about us anyways,”  Trisia said with her hands clinging unto Ken’s naked waist.

“But why? What’s happening Ken, we were supposed to get married today, why didn’t you show up?” she asked as she looked between the only two people she trusted in her life.

Haven grown up in the orphanage with no identity of her parents or relatives, she was forced to see the cruel part of life growing up, but she dreamt big and wanted to take herself out of the trenches, so she worked hard and was always first in her school and managed to secure a scholarship to go to college which made the orphanage proud and reluctantly let her go when she turned eighteen.

But that was one year ago, before her best friend and only person which she considered family from the orphanage guilt tripped her into giving that life up because she would have to go to Italy, a distant Country for it.

And that was when she introduced Ken to her and she fell in love at first sight.

Ken was sweet in the beginning but he began to turn hostile when Gift refused to give him her virginity but again, Trisia was there to coax her and tell her it was the only way to get a happy life and create the family that she had always craved for, so they did it once, on the night ken proposed.

Gift looked at her ring finger and turned the fragile engagement ring.

“Why?” Ken scoffed as he pulled Trisia closer by her waist, “she’s pregnant,” Gift’s eyes looked downwards, towards the bulging belly and noticed a tiny bump similar to hers.

“What?” she fell back on the bed and remembered how Trisia had congratulated her when she shared the news of her own pregnancy, “How come?”

“You poor foolish girl, turns out you are only book-smart, he was never yours to begin with. He was just some guy I met at the club when you were too depressed about rejecting that scholarship and I had him first.”

“So why are you With him now, this just makes no sense,”asides from Gift’s trusting, hardworking and persevering nature, she was also one who made decisions based on logic but at the mention of family, she had let herself get manipulated by her best friend from the orphanage .

“That’s because he just got a job at a big company and I can’t let you have anything better than me. You were always first in class and even had the guts to raise your head high and stand tall when your uniform was worn out, while I had to do odd jobs for boys in class to afford the new uniforms and never had time to read,” Trisia said dignifyingly and Ken patted her hair while whispering words of consolation.

“But I’m also pregnant,”

“Abort the child, I would rather build a family with the woman I love than with a foolish woman who wanted to trick me into a marriage just to get into my rich family.”

Gift was too stunned to defend herself and just stood in place as the pair packed a few of her clothing and threw her some wad of cash to return to the city and get an abortion.