To Be Child of God [A Merome Story]

✧Chapter 18✧

Jacob was not a good man. He had grown up here, just as my family did, but his father had raised him to feel he had control over any woman. I had seen him, the way he treated his mother and sisters, and the poor girl he had been betrothed too had left. She had been apart of the family. He was 22 now, one of the oldest to be left unmarried, but he useful to the elders. He was one of the only among us with mechanical skills, having been given permission to go to trade school.

But Faith was only 16. I knew from the beginning that she would not be able to stand up to him, and he would be unkind to her. He was not a good man.

Once she was calm enough to at least see, I guided her down the path back to the room I shared with Jerome. My visit to my family was completely forgotten- all I cared about now was my little sister. Jerome was already there, it was Sunday after all and there was no work, and he jumped to his feet when he saw me and a sobbing Faith, rushing to my side.

"Mit- Charity, what's going on!?" He blurted, confused and concerned.

"I don't really know." I said, struggling to remain calm. "I need more information. Faith, please, tell me what going on? Why have they betrothed you?"

Jerome's face contorted to one of shock at that, mind racing. I knew he was trying to work out who she had been betrothed to at such short notice, and there was only one answer. He looked disgusted.

Every now and again, a girl would be betrothed. It didn't run that same way as my engagement and marriage had- the girls name was not called out at church, and it was done completely behind the scenes. The elders picked the couple, told the father of the girl and that was it. They would be married usually within a month. There was no proposal, not even a meeting between the couple. I guessed Jacob had threatened to leave if another wife for him was not found, and the community needed his skills.

"He said he would leave." Faith choked out. "If he was not given a wife. They decided it should be me. We will be married within six weeks."

She just started sobbing again, falling against me and going completely limp. I stared at Jerome, helpless. I didn't know what to do. My little sister was in so much pain and I couldn't do anything about it... unless I asked her to leave with me. But I couldn't. Faith was committed to this community and even though our relationship hadn't been the best, I knew she would never leave. She wanted to remain. She wanted to become a wife and mother, raising her children just as our parents had raised us.

It was all I could do then but to hold her and let her cry. I already knew that whatever I said, she would marry Jacob. It was what the Lord had decided, in her mind, that Jacob was to be her husband.

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A full month passed. It was not my responsibility to sew for Faith as I was married myself, but given how little time there was between the betrothal and the date of her marriage, I offered her my wedding dress. It wasn't as if I would ever wear it again. She accepted it graciously, but I knew her mind was somewhere else. She was just as I had been, anxious and scared and completely alone.

The altered dress only took a few nights of work as we were similar sizes, and she looked stunning the one time I saw her in it, but she didn't speak to me. Our parents were always around, our mother looking so proud that another daughter was getting married, and was fussing about everything in a whirlwind. Faith couldn't talk to me, at least not genuinely, about the thoughts going through her head.

I tried to spend at much time as I could in my family home when Faith was there, hoping to find an opportunity to talk to her, but it came with its downsides. The number one being my mother was constantly asking about me. She never said it outright, but I knew she was asking if I was pregnant. The comments came all the time, at least once ever half hour I was there, staring at my stomach, hinting that I might need dresses for maternity wear. I never said anything about it, but it made me uncomfortable.

It only took that month before everything was too much again. It was the stress of knowing Faith would be married to a horrible man, the pressure from my family to become pregnant and the knowledge that I would leave.

One evening, after all of the jobs were done and Jerome and I were getting ready for bed, all of the emotions hit me all at once. I just started sobbing into my hands, curled up on the bed, seemingly unable to even draw in a breath. Jerome just held me. He somehow knew that letting me cry it all out was the best route before trying to comfort me. He didn't even try to get me to explain. I think he already knew.

"It's okay Mitch." He murmured. "It's okay. Just let it all out."

It took me a while, but having his arms around me calmed me down. His presence was comforting, but he didn't push me to speak- hell, he didn't even try to stop me from crying in the beginning. I had been bottling everything for so long that I couldn't stop the ugly tears even if I wanted to. My little sister would be married to a bad man, an unkind, ungodly, awful man, and I couldn't protect her from that. For a moment I wondered if she cried herself to sleep, and if Justice crawled into her bed just as she had done for me.

"Jerome?" I croaked, sniffling as he wiped a tear away from my cheek. "I can't do it. I can't leave her behind like this. I can't leave knowing she's in a situation like that."

"Mitch, I know. I know but sometimes you have to think about yourself. You're being crushed living here and even if it means leaving her behind, you have to go. You know you can't stay."

"I know, but I can't leave either!" I wailed. "I can't leave Faith!"

"Mitch!" He said sternly, finger under my chin forcing me to face him. "Look, I know! I know it's a scary time, I know you don't want to leave her, but you might have to! This place'll kill you Mitch! You can't keep living as Charity when you know that isn't who you are!"

I stared at him, wide-eyed and still crying.

"I'm afraid you'll do something stupid." He said, voice lowered to just over a whisper. "I know they say it's the cowardly way out, ungodly, but I'm afraid they'll push you over the edge. I can't lose you, Mitch."