Resentment

Wedding Bells

Kleff reclined into his seat again, and raised both hands, a ballpoint pen between two of his fingers, as he crossed his leg over.

"Your wedding, the happiest day, or what's supposed to be the happiest day of your life how could that have gone wrong?" Kleff asked softly.

Michael cleared his throat through clenched teeth, pulling his eyes from his scowling wife, to address Kleff.
"It's not that it went wrong, it's just, the warning signs I didn't see,-"

"Warning signs?" Afia strained angrily, almost snarling at the man opposite her.
Michael furrowed his brows, almost patronisingly, giving Afia a taste of her own medicine.

It was his turn to do the talking.

"Affie, you wanted to call it off.." Michael shook his head, smiling that evil smile again, "You didn't want to get married!"

"I did! Yes I fucking did! I was scared, I was nervous! I was pregnant! Jesus, Michael!" Afia hissed.

~
Neverland Ranch, August 12th, 1988

"Surely Kathy and Joe want to see their son marry.." Damaris was frowning at her daughter, who stood on a tailoring podium, draped in a white wedding dress.

Afia pursed her lips, turning away from the judgemental gaze of her mother and sister Kandi.

The seamstress, who although was visibly busying herself with measuring tape and Afia's sleeve, was also listening intently to the gossip of her client.
"He's too nervous. He'd rather it just be all of us.." Afia realised the more she said it out loud, the stranger it sounded.

"Afia, the only person from Michaels side will be Bill, and Bill isn't even his blood.." Damaris scoffed, tilting her head, "That dress is gorgeous.." She finished with a soft sigh.

Afia couldn't hide the fears in her heart from her face. They showed in the wrought expression she made in the full length mirror.

Getting married in front of Michaels entire family wasn't even what she wanted, let alone what Michael wanted.

Was it really that strange that he didn't even want his mother there? Was there some kind of shameful secrecy in him being in love?

Was he in love at all?

Questions that any bride-and-mother-to-be shouldn't be asking only ten days before the wedding.
Afia was two months pregnant, and was impressively hardly showing it.

Now she was wondering if the whole reason for this small, and intimate wedding, was for the simple reason that Michaels religious community would shun him, if he impregnated her out of wedlock.

Damaris was a hard faced woman. Dark, oak like skin, and deep set eyes that stared coldly, although with good intent.

She had her hair in long braids, a style she'd rocked since the 70's, and she was a proud black woman. Damaris didn't want to see her daughter taken for a fool, even if the man was Michael Jackson.

Kandi on the other hand, was just like Afia's father.
Rude, loud, and opinionated.
However today, her lips were pursed as she watched her sister sway in the mirror, about to be married off to the most famous man on planet earth.