Chapter 80 THE SHOCKER
"You need to end whatever game you are playing in this matter Melvin", Pastor Davies shouted over the phone.
"What game are you talking about?",
"Tell Sobrina today in clear terms you are not getting married to her",
"What happened?",
"She's fighting Pastor Sheddy in Bosgon",
"But I have told her I'm getting married to Miraya",
"In front of Pastor Sheddy? Miraya's brother! Apparently she didn't believe you. Do something about this matter or you'll face the consequences", Pastor Davies ended the call.
"I'm sure you don't know I have a wife now, Sobrina. She's pretty and still a virgin, unlike you who have been used by so many men", Pastor Melvin texted Sobrina.
"You called me strong when I fought, you taught me how to love. Love is kind and suffers long. I will love you until you return to your senses", Sobrina responded.
"Are you not miserable? At your age you have no relationship, not even with me - the man who got you infected with HIV",
"You promised me you would make things right, and I will keep believing the best in you, until you do", Sobrina responded.
Indeed, Pastor Melvin had gotten Sobrina infected back in early 2011, when he had been trying to transform her lifestyle.
They had been in her little room off campus. She had been drunk, and he had ceased the opportunity to inject her with the blood serum he had taken from his body, using the knowledge he had gathered before being kicked out of medical school.
She had woken up the following day with no memory of what had happened, and he - who had been called by the bar owner using Sobrina's cell phone, to come help her home - had been gone.
He had been so desperately obsessed with Sobrina and extremely afraid he was losing her, the covenant they'd had at his place wasn't enough assurance, therefore he'd planned and waited for an opportunity to get her infected. That way, she would always be his.
He had found out about his health condition five months before that night, when he had fallen sick in Lagunde, during one of the long vacations.
It was actually why he had refused to let her go after she had informed him about her own health condition two years later.
He had kept the secret, and hoped to reveal some of it on the day he officially proposed marriage to Sobrina. But that day never came.
The news was a surprise to Sobrina, but she didn't question him, believing she wasn't certain about how she had gotten infected.
Pastor Melvin called Sobrina's mother after receiving Sobrina's morning text message the following day.
"Good morning ma",
"Good morning Pastor Melvin",
"I have told Sobrina to leave me alone. I am a married man, but she has refused to listen", he reported.
"Alright. I am at my shop right now, I'll be home in a few minutes. I will call you when I get home, so you could speak to her directly by yourself", Sobrina's mother responded. She returned home, called Pastor Melvin after informing Sobrina that he wanted to speak to her, and gave the phone to Sobrina.
"Hello, good morning Pastor Melvin",
"Sobrina leave my family alone",
"After you gave me HIV?", Sobrina questioned in tears, "so you connived with my mother to call me this way?",
"I called your father last year", he said, trying to avoid the question.
"And so what?",
"Leave me alone", he yelled and ended the call.
Sobrina's mother was shocked to discover - through listening to the conversation - that it was Pastor Melvin who'd actually gotten Sobrina infected. She stopped mocking Sobrina openly, and secretly regretted taking the wrong side in the whole affair. But it was too late and she wasn't the type to show affection.
Sobrina was tormented beyond imagination. She wouldn't speak, she only sat by the door to her parent's house daily, faithfully waiting for Pastor Melvin. She also continued to attend church at Saint's Perfection, out of frustration.
Her parents had long began to deny her food when she wouldn't leave the house in search for a job, and she began to depend on pap.
Pap became her rehabilitation. She slept deeply each time she took it, she was also beginning to develop insomnia. She also continued her exercises regularly as well, jogging five miles every morning.
She always jogging past a red-light district, by a night club close to her street one morning, when she saw Miraya dressed in next to nothing standing by the road, waiting for a customer.
Sobrina was shocked, but she kept the secret, assuring herself that God would definitely reveal it to Pastor Melvin. And even if they were going to succeed in forcing him to marry her, as she thought they were doing, this could mean that they'd failed.
Sobrina also didn't want to be accused of trying to tarnish the image of her supposed competitor, in desperation.
Pastor Melvin texted her sister one morning two months later. He knew she was Sobrina's weak point. He had saved the best blow for the last, to hit Sobrina where it hurt the most.
He told Sobrina's sister how she had become a lesbian, because she was raped at a young age, and how they had a hypocrite for a father.
Sobrina was mentally tormented and had thought wrong of her beloved sister, fighting verbally with her regularly. Those were some of the things she accused her sister of, and had revealed to Pastor Melvin through heartfelt text messages, refusing to believe he was the enemy.
But he had of course refined what Sobrina told him many years ago - when the rape tragedy had happened - and all she texted him, adding his own juice, before texting her sister.
Her sister was seating in the kitchen when his text message arrived in her cell phone. Sobrina was in her room, she had texted Pastor Melvin few minutes before then. She heard her sister cry out in excruciating pain, she ran towards the kitchen and saw her sister rolling on the floor, wailing in agony. The incident Pastor Melvin was flaunting on the little girl's face was her worst life experience.
"What is it?", Sobrina questioned. Her sister gave her the phone, she read the text message and ran full blown mad.
The tears poured like rivers from Sobrina's eyes, she was crying without making a sound or even knowing it. Even though she was constantly angry with everyone in her family, including her sister, she still loved her very much.
Sobrina didn't realize she had ran completely mad, and had walked out of the house, until two days later, when an old family friend found her, sitting in a nearby bush.
"Hmmm Sobrina, how are you?", the lady questioned. She was surprised to find Sobrina in such a disgusting, dirty condition. But she hid her feelings perfectly, as if all was normal.
"Oh aunty, I'm very well thank you, where are you coming from?", Sobrina questioned.
"I went for midweek service",
"You attend a different church now?",
"Yes, and it's not too far from here",
"Is that your child?", Sobrina hadn't seen the woman for many years. She knew her around when she was still unmarried.
"Yes, I got married few years ago", the lady responded happily.
"Wow, congratulations",
"Thank you my dear", She turned to leave, but redirected towards Sobrina again.
"B. B, how is your father?", BB was what the people who knew Sobrina as a child, called her back in the days.
"He's very well",
"Is your relationship with him still as it used to be?", everyone knew her father loved her very much.
"Well I'm a grown up now", Sobrina responded after considering the question for some time.
"Alright, I'll see you later", the lady concluded and was gone.
The lady was used as an instrument to restore Sobrina back to her senses, just by that brief conversation, and the way she conducted herself through it.
Sobrina looked around herself and saw she was sitting in dirt, and few minutes later, she quietly returned home.
Her relationship with her sister was forever damaged, and so was her relationship with her parents. Everyone took joy in hitting her unrelentlessly, she was hated for being stupid, and ignored to rot in her room.
Sobrina went to church at Saint's Perfection two days later, and Pastor Melvin came to church with his new wife. They were dressed in matching outfits. He had secretly married her traditionally, over the weekend and had taken her home. She was Miraya.
When Sobrina spoke out in shock, Pastor Melvin joined by Pastor Sheddy and his members beat her up in public, and sent her out of the church.
