Amadea's fate.

Chapter 9- The Aftermath

THIRD PERSON'S POV

Amadea had been seeing Malli for about a month now, when she suddenly found out that she was pregnant.

She was joyful but apprehensive, she couldn't stop thinking, what if the people were right and she would die during childbirth or have the dreadful disease.

She began to regret her decision to listen to Hume.

When she told Mallam Riku she was pregnant,he was happy but she couldn't help but feel that he wasn't as excited as he usually was when any of his wives got pregnant.

She didn't even know how to feel. She'd finally done it. She'd secured her place in Mallam Riku's house and advertently secured her family's future but she couldn't bring herself to feel happy.

She was finally pregnant so why didn't she feel anything other than guilt.

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It had been about eight months since Amadea learned she was pregnant. She was due anyday now and although she wasn't excited when she learned she was pregnant, she couldn't wait to see her child.

She hoped she was having a girl, although Mallam Riku would probably be expecting a boy. She didn't care though, after all, she was pretty sure Mallam Riku hated her.

She could only hope that the beliefs of her townspeople were just superstitions.

She really didn't want to end up like Remi or Seri who had killed herself when the stigma that came with the ' strange disease ' she had was too much.

Hume had dismissed her fears many times using herself as an example. She'd been doing this since the start of her marriage with Mallam and nothing had happened to her.

She was convinced that the villagers were just spewing nonsense to frighten girls into submission.

She tried to reach out to her parents but when she went home she was quite literally chased back to Mallam Riku's house by her father.

Her mother didn't even try to protest but Amadea kept telling herself that it was okay, that her parents were missing her at least a little bit, that she wasn't sold to Mallam Riku, that deep down her parents loved her even if they didn't show it but she couldn't hold in the tears that formed when she remembered the look on her parents' face when they saw her.

It was like they didn't even know her.

They saw that she was heavily pregnant and hadn't even congratulated her.

She did what she did to get pregnant because her parents expected her to.

One day, while she was in Hume's house eating — which was all she seemed to do, she felt a gush of fluid flow down her legs.

".....um, Hume."

" What is it now Dea? I'm certainly not giving you anything else to eat. At this rate,I'm surprised you've not blown ." Hume said distractedly as she did the dishes.

"Hume. It's nothing like that. It's just.... I kinda think I peed on myself but it doesn't really smell or look like urine"

At that Hume dropped the plate she was holding and rushed to her side.

"Amadea!!!! Your water just broke. You're going into labor. Let me just help you to your house then I'll go call the midwives."

About fifteen minutes later, true to her words, Hume had gotten Amadea to her house and called the midwives to the house.

Mina and Mimi stepped out of their house to see what the ruckus was all about.

Immediately they saw the midwives walking hurriedly behind Hume towards Amadea's house, they knew what was happening.

Amadea was in labour.

They both went to Amadea's house eager to help in any way they could.

Amadea had a long and complicated delivery.

It had been about 15 hours since the midwives were called.

Everyone was on the Edge.

Mallam Riku was in a neighbouring town for business and wouldn't be back for a long while.

The midwives were stressed and Amadea's co-wives didn't know what to do.

Her baby's shoulder was stuck in her pelvis and the midwives were trying to get the baby out before it dies from lack of oxygen.

Finally, after a torturous 20 hours, Amadea's baby was finally out but not without causing a tear in the birth canal  thereby resulting in  a massive haemorrhage.

The midwives spent an hour more trying to stop the bleeding while Hume and Mina tried to get the baby to cry out, wheeze, anything to indicate that she was alive but it was to know avail.

By the 22nd hour, the midwives had finally managed to stop the bleeding but they hadn't been able to suture the tear and it had been established that the baby was born dead....She hadn't been getting enough oxygen while she was stuck since the umbilical cord was being squeezed.

All in all, it was a very sad and traumatizing event for Amadea.

She lost her baby and she got the strange disease.

Maybe the people weren't so superstitious after all.