My 3D Lovers

Episode 3

Andrew and Rose had the smallest traditional wedding. Her family was there when he paid her bride price, but Andrews’s family was nowhere to be found. Andrew lied to Rose and her entire family that his parents missed their flight in the morning of the traditional wedding and that they sent a chief from their village to represent them.

Unknown to Rose and her family, Andrew hired a fake chief and paid him to come and represent his family in the wedding. Everything was done in deception.

Rose decided to contact Andrews' mom that evening after the traditional wedding, since Andrew said they missed their flight, but the mom’s response was shocking.

ROSE: Good evening ma, we truly missed you today. It would have been such a joy to have you here to bless and witness the occasion. I’m sorry about the flight situation; I understand those things happen and are sometimes beyond our control. Please, know that your absence was felt and I carry you in my heart. By God’s grace, we will celebrate together very soon in happiness and good health. Thank you so much for your love and prayers always. Please, extend my regards to Dad and the rest of the family.

ANDREWS MOM: I don’t understand

ROSE: Andrew said you missed your flight today. That was why you couldn’t show up today, ma. ANDREWS MOM: Show up for what?

ROSE: Andrew came to pay my bride today with some elders. He said, You and daddy missed your flight, that’s why you couldn’t show up.

ANDREWS MOM: Really? Did you tell me you and Andrew want to get married? Or you didn’t think it important to get your man's parents involved in your plans.

ROSE: At the time he brought wine to the house, I didn’t have a phone. That was December 22nd, and he was the one that gave my parents 28th February as the date for traditional marriage because he said he discussed it with you and daddy.

I recently had to start using my mom’s phone. I was offline for almost five months because I lost my phone and Andrew insists I quit my job. I sincerely felt his parents were involved because he told me everything was fine.

Up until today. He said your flight was this morning.

He never gave me a clue that his parents were not involved. The elders that came today said you sent them as representatives.

I am so sorry ma. He told me he was planning everything with his parents and I totally believed him.

ANDREWS MOM: Rose, are you sincerely telling me you had no way of reaching me before now? You couldn’t use your mom’s phone or Andrews phone to call me if you believed I was aware?

ROSE: I sincerely didn’t know you weren’t aware, ma. ANDREWS MOM: Please be a good wife and take care of my son. ROSE: I won’t let you down ma.

Andrew took Rose to his house the next day to start a new life as a couple. But after the wedding, the storm never stopped.

Three days after the wedding, Andrew demanded that Rose submit the little four thousand Vistas she earns monthly to him as the man of the house. This is a ridiculous demand. How could he ask his wife to submit her salary to him so it would feed the house?

Rose learned soap making while she was still working on the farm with Mr Josh and with that, she was also able to do some business registrations and branding. She only needed money to buy containers to package the liquid soap she had made for sale. But Andrew insists she gave him the four thousand Vistas to buy food instead of allowing her to use the money to grow her small business.

Rose spoke to her friend Queen, about it, but when Andrew found out, he seized her phone and beat her until he broke her head in two places.

Rose bled like a thief that was beaten by market people. All this happened and she kept it to herself. She was afraid of leaving because she was thinking of what people would say.

She preferred to stay in pain and prove those who said she can’t stay in a man’s house wrong, then to break free and let people talk.

He stopped coming home at night. When he did, he reeked of perfume and alcohol. When she confronted him, he would beat her and lock her in the room.

"You're mine," he hissed once. "A wife is property. You have no right to question me." She gave up her dreams. Sold her guitar. Stopped singing.

She became a shadow of the woman she used to be.

And when she gave birth to Anthony, it only got worse. Andrew showed no joy. He didn’t change. He just became more distant and cruel.

He never involved his parents in the whole wedding ceremony, and because of that, he did anything he felt like doing. After all, his family was not in support of him marrying Rose because she is from the northern part of the country while he was from the eastern part of the country.

If anything should happen to Rose, it won’t even affect him because his family don’t believe he is married. She endured it all. For her son. For the illusion. For the fear of her enemies laughing at her.

But one night, with Anthony asleep and the mansion dark and quiet, she looked at herself in the mirror and didn’t recognize the woman staring back.

She picked up a suitcase. She whispered goodbye.

And she left.

The morning after her return, Rose woke in the small room she had grown up in. The pink curtains, now faded to a tired rose, swayed with the breeze through the half-open window. Her suitcase lay untouched at the corner, her shoes beside the bed like tired soldiers who had just returned from war.

She hadn’t unpacked. She didn’t plan to.

The silence of her childhood home was both comforting and deafening. Her mother had traveled to her hometown to take care of her sick mother, and her siblings had scattered across cities, chasing lives of their own.

Only her father remained, stubbornly clinging to the house like it was the last thread connecting him to a life he once understood.

Rose sat at the edge of the bed, staring at the floor. The bruises on her skin were fading, but the ones inside her still throbbed like open wounds. She hadn’t cried since she left

Andrew’s mansion and she wouldn’t allow herself to not yet. Memories kept coming. Like every abuse that happened just yesterday.

Later that morning, her father made breakfast. A simple meal of yam and eggs, the way her mother makes it. He said little, only offering a quiet "eat before it gets cold."

She nodded and obeyed. Her father never pried. He had seen enough suffering in his lifetime to know that silence sometimes carried more truth than questions.

After breakfast, Rose walked to the back of the house, to the mango tree that had stood there since she was a girl. She sat beneath it, her back against its rough bark, and finally let the tears fall.

Not just for the abuse, or the lost dreams, or the broken promises. But for herself, the girl she used to be. The woman she had become. The future she was still afraid to face.

She spent the following days in a daze, refusing calls from friends, avoiding the curious stares from neighbors. Only Anthony’s absence burned through the fog.

She missed her son with every beat of her heart.