Chapter 70: Chapter 70

'Bryan is fine. He has decided that he would take me to meet his parents for Thanksgiving. I am happy but also apprehensive. I want so much for his parents and relatives to love me. He has assured me that they would but I still cannot help feeling anxious'.Anna confided.

'Oh Anna. And you have been having this in your mind since with no one to share it with while I have been here so consumed by my problems that I haven't even noticed', Nancy said hugging Anna.

'Its okay Nancy. I am not complaining'.

'You do not need to complain. As a friend, I should have asked about your plans sooner. But you do not have to worry. Bryan's parents and relatives have no option but to love you. No one can resist loving you, you know?'

Anna was so grateful that she hugged Nancy closer.

'I want for it to work this time. I have been through alot. Three heartbreaks and all it's fittings'. She laughed. Nancy was shocked. She had just suffered one heartbreak and it was as devastating as this, and Anna was talking about three heartbreaks and laughing over it.

'You cannot be serious. How could you allow yourself to experience such a thing three times?'

'You always think that the next person would not be the same as the villain who broke your heart but the cycle is repeated and you nearly lose faith in love but you have to keep trying. Everybody need Ms love you know. It is just that only a lucky few get real love and what I have with Bryan is the real thing. Maturity helps to in one's choices. It sharpens your discerning ability' Anna said smiling. She was happy that she had finally found real love.

'How did you manage it? One would have expected you to remain broken and bitter but you are none of those things. In fact when I first saw you, I thought you would not understand what I had been through because you had not experienced such in your life. You looked so carefree and happy'.

'Appearances can be deceptive, you know. My first boyfriend raped me and I had only been fifteen. We were supposed to be out on a date.

He had been pretty persistent about going all the way and I had been refusing him.

I didn't know he had a plan of his own. He got me drugged and while in the car, when I had lost all sense of who I was, he had his way with me. I cannot say how many times he did but he carried me to our doorstep unconscious.

My mother who had waited and waited for my return came out to go trace me to the venue of my date with Jackson only to find me at the door.

She screamed and carried me in and after inspecting me, found that I had been raped and that was my first experience.

When I came to, I was at the hospital and I asked to know what I was doing there.

My mother asked me to just concentrate on getting stronger.

It was when I was discharged that I was told that I had been severely raped and had sustained injuries.

I had flashes of my date with Jackson and to think that I had been infatuated with him. I had allowed him kiss and smooch me but asked him to be patient with me but he couldn't. He did not love me enough to wait for me to be ready. He probably never loved me but just wanted my body. He got it and I had to bear the pain both physically and emotionally.

I swore not to allow myself to feel any affection for any man but Samson came along.

He told me that he just wanted us to be friends and then when I felt comfortable with him, we could take our friendship a step further but that it would be as I want it and at the time I decide.

I felt that he was an honourable person. I never saw him with any other woman. And I knew he was being faithful to me. I felt flattered that I had eventually found the man who loved me for me and not for my body and the pleasure he hoped to derive from it.

I had a close friend and confidant who I told how good Samson was. I had not seen her for sometime and her line was not going through, so I paid her a visit. I had knocked gently like I always did because anytime her parents were home, they despised noise and loud knocking. But there was no response.

I had decided to go when I thought I heard noise from the inside. I tried the door and it was locked. I tried the back door Sophie had shown me on one occasion and thankfully, it was open. I went in and went straight to her room and threw the door open and the sight that met my eyes was what I could never forget.

Samson was a top Sophie thrusting violently in and out of her and she was moaning with such abandon that left me in no doubt that it was not the first time they were doing this behind my back.

I do not know how long I stood there but I left heart broken. To think that I had decided to make a gift of my body to him. Thank goodness I had not taken that step before I saw what I did. It would have hurt me more.

They both tried apologizing.

'It is okay. Samson and I were really only platonic friends. I had no intention of making him my lover' I told them. But it was not okay because I had started to love and fantasize about Samson but I had to save my pride by feigning nonchalance.

I started avoiding the both of them until they got the message and quit disturbing me.

The last was Robert Blast. I met him in college.

He was so gentle, like he could never hurt a fly. I felt safe with him. He was a scientist. We fell in love or so I thought. After a while the inevitable happened between us and it was wonderful and beautiful.

We continued to be intimate and I felt that he was my last bus stop in this thing called relationship. There was no way we were not going to get married given the way we felt for each other.

But something happened. I became pregnant. He asked me to abort it. We were mature enough to get married and have kids, so why abort. I refused.

'If you do not want it, I shall keep it. It is a symbol of our love. I shall not trouble you about its welfare but I shall have this baby.

He saw that I was serious about keeping the baby and came around or so he led me to believe.

I was happy that he was finally seeing it my way and I let down my guard.

One day, he invited me to his house. We were to stay and laze around together like two people in love.

I liked the idea. I went, not suspecting anything.

I came to later to find blood everywhere.

He and his doctor friend had performed an abortion on me while I was passed out.

'You will be alright. Michael is the best in his field and I watched him to make sure nothing went wrong'. He said in consolation.

But I found that my feelings had changed. I hated him with a passion that I didn't know I was capable of feeling.

'How can you do this to me without my consent? And you claim to love me?'

'It is because I love you that I have done this. I do not want our child to be born out of wedlock and you and I know that we are not really ready to start a family just yet, not without getting married first'.

'And what stopped you from getting married to me so that our baby could be born within wedlock?'

I wanted to make a police report and get him arrested but I felt that I would be exposing myself as well.

What man would want to marry such a woman and I had the fear that they may have tampered with my womb and I feared I would be unable to become pregnant again.

But thank goodness, later when I went for a scan, I was certified okay and my womb was not destroyed. Of course I never saw him again.

That was until last year when I met Bryan. I was not sure that I wanted to get into another relationship. I could not trust that my heart would not be broken again.

I decided to take the risk because life itself is a risk and my gamble paid off and that is why I want his family to accept me. If that happens, then I am as good as married to him'. Anna concluded.

Nancy could not stop staring at her with wonder.

'And I thought that I had gone through alot in the hands of the male folk. My experience is child's play compared to you. Oh, Ann, I am so sorry you had to go through all that. I shall pray that all work out for you this time. Though I have a gut feeling that my prayers won't be necessary because the deal is already sealed and delivered' .

Anna hugged hugged Nancy.

'Thanks for your good wishes. And don't be sorry. All that was in the past. I am over that now and I am happy and pray that this happiness last forever'.

They both smiled through their tears as they hugged again.