Chapter 74 DISAPPOINTED

Pastor Melvin had told her while responding to her goodbye text the night before she left from the University, that he would start forwarding her text messages to her father. She had thought it was for the purpose of assuring her that he was being accountable, transparent and protective like he had promised. And what better way to do it now that she was leaving the University, than to be accountable to her parents? Unknowning to her, he had a much darker purpose.

She was cooking in the kitchen few weeks after her return from school and few days after she'd received the mysterious call from Pastor Davies when her father approached her.

"Who is this?", he questioned. He was looking at his cell phone. Sobrina went over and took the phone from him, she read the text message which was summarized with, "from Sobrina Malcolm". It was sent by Pastor Melvin who'd had her father's contact for over many years. She was excited to see that he was keeping to what he had said he would.

"It is Pastor Melvin. That my friend who once came to our house few years ago", she responded, while smiling. Pastor Melvin's name was not strange in her house, therefore even though her father wasn't quite pleased, the joy he saw in his daughter's face made him relax a bit, thinking there must be a good reason for the text in his cell phone.

Sobrina also noticed that Pastor Melvin had edited her text before forwarding it to her father, but she didn't feel suspicious, thinking there must be a good reason for that. At first, he edited and forwarded her sweet messages. But with time, he gradually started editing more into her texts, before forwarding them to her father, and through that means, they got to find out she was sick.

A lady from the Fellowship who was from the same state as Sobrina, and also Pastor Melvin's close friend was wedding in a nearby church. Sobrina decided to attend, hoping she would get the chance to see Pastor Melvin again. It had been months since she left the University.

Pastor Melvin did attend the wedding, as did many other members of the Fellowship. The lady had held a strong position in the Fellowship.

"I heard Pastor Melvin will soon be getting married", one of the ladies Sobrina was sitting with, on the round table, informed her.

"Really", Pastor Melvin was a controversial topic among the ladies of the Fellowship, and this particular one had also been in WUCC with him, during the time Sobrina was away.

"Yes",

"How would you know this?",

"We are close pals. There are five of us", the lady opened her cell phone and showed Sobrina a group picture they had taken during the time.

"So you knew this, because you are friends with him?",

"Yes, he told us by himself, in our group chat, online",

"Hmmmm, did he say who the lady is?",

"No, but he said she attends the same church with him, and has just finished her MSc at the University of Science",

"Not even a picture?", Sobrina cunningly questioned, while beginning to smile.

"No. He has never posted a picture of her anywhere on social media", the lady responded, and Sobrina was now certain she was the one. She met all the description, and Pastor Melvin has never posted her picture on social media, since all the years they'd known.

"Well, am the one", she happily informed the lady.

"Wow, congratulations", the lady said, while hiding her feelings. She'd been washed from hair to toe with jealousy at what she had heard.

"Thank you, but he actually took me to that church", Sobrina explained, trying to rob it in, without looking at the lady. "I didn't know he talked about me", she concluded.

"Well, it was just to us, his inner circle of friends", the lady responded.

Pastor Melvin had not arrived in the auditorium before the conversation. The lady had also been thinking Sobrina could be lying, "what a desperate low life", she'd thought. But when Pastor Melvin arrived, the lady took one look at his behavior, and the way he stood, staring at Sobrina like a lost idiot. And Sobrina's claims became true in her mind. She stopped talking to Sobrina, who didn't care.

Even though Sobrina was excessively glad to see Pastor Melvin, she didn't have the guts to approach him. She sat stiff on her chair, pretending she didn't notice when he arrived.

"Pastor Melvin is her", she whispered to the lady.

"Where is he?",

"Behind us", The lady turned around and happily greeted him. But Pastor Melvin continued to stand stiff, staring shamelessly and stupidly at Sobrina's back, ignoring the lady's greeting.

"He has seen you", the lady whispered to Sobrina.

"Don't mind him", Sobrina advised her, while watching him from the corner of her eyes.

Pastor Melvin took a seat few minutes later and never stopped staring at Sobrina, who did her best to shyly avoid his eyes during the entire ceremony.

Sobrina had mistaken Pastor Melvin's attitude for love. She thought he must have also terribly missed her, and even though he fought it, he actually had. But he was actually staring at her in disbelieve, he had planned to use the occasion to show the members of the Fellowship that he wasn't into Sobrina, without speaking. Everyone that mattered in the Fellowship was present. He had been hoping that Sobrina would rush up to hug him, the moment she saw him enter the auditorium. Which was why he'd decided to arrive very late. He had intended to push her so hard that she would hit the ground. He stared at her with a mixture of respect, disbelief and disappointment.

He monitored Sobrina, and went outside around when she was about to leave.

"Good evening Pastor Melvin", Sobrina greeted, happily smiling at him. She had seen him on her way out of the premises.

"Leave me alone Sobrina", Pastor Melvin murmured, and gently began to walk towards the entrance of the auditorium. He was hoping that Sobrina would follow him, and when he arrived at where everyone could see them, he would push her like he'd planned.

But Sobrina walked away deciding he was probably shy around his old time friends, and was probably intending to surprise them soon with their marriage announcement. She turned around as she walked and waved her goodbye, lovingly at him. She saw the shock in his eyes, but mistook it for something else.

Sobrina didn't know he had actually revealed the identity of his fiancé to his male friends, in the Fellowship, and they knew that it wasn't her.

She texted him later that night, and he responded with a quarrelsome tone. She fought a bit with him and they mentioned she was sick, she was surprised when her father who was visiting the village that day started forwarding her edited text messages to her. And she saw that Pastor Melvin had added the news about her health.

It was a terrible thing he had done, and deliberately so. He was well aware that her parents didn't know about her health, as far as Sobrina knew. But they actually knew, a blabbermouth at the hospital where she was diagnosed, had revealed it to her mother, it was part of the reason they dreaded her staying home.

Even though her father was educated, her uneducated mother, had total control over him. They chose to treat her like an abomination, ignorantly trying not to get infected through her. A character that had reduced over the years, even though they chose to get a house with separate toilets, where they presently lived. Sobrina who didn't know for sure that they knew, feared what would happen if they actually found out. She knew she wouldn't be able to mentally handle being treated like dirt by her own family as a result of her health, and therefore had chosen to keep the secret at all cost.