I married my sister's husband

"If there is anybody here who objects to this wedding, you speak now or forever hold your peace." The priest announced.

The place was silent for a while. Jordan and I turned to face the crowd. I went to a wedding some months back. It was my co-worker's wedding. The bride fainted when she saw a hand up. The man was just trying to stretch. I was hoping no one would ruin my wedding. Knowingly or unknowingly. But I was wrong.

"I object!" It was my sister's voice, Penelope. I froze for a moment. Not like I was surprised. I expected something like this to happen anyway. But I didn't expect it to come in this manner.

Today is my wedding. It was supposed to be my sister's, Penelope. But it is mine now. Most people expected to see her. They were shocked when they saw me. Most especially, those who knew me and my family. Lovely twist. I knew it was a risk. But life itself is risky. I wondered if Penelope was going to win again by destroying my wedding. I prayed against it.

Everyone turned towards her. She stood still, tears dropping down her cheeks. Everyone was eager to hear what she wanted to say, but she stood there in her red dress. She let her hair down. It was unkept, and it was covering almost half of her face. She looked like she hadn't had any sleep for days. She looked miserable, unlike her usual self.

"What do you have to say, young lady?" The priest asked.

Some of the guests began to murmur. I was scared. Scared for the worst. Jordan did not even look half as scared as I was. I saw my father trying to calm her down. He sat beside her and held her hands so she could sit down.

Earlier on, when I was walking down the aisle, I saw the look on his face. I didn't think I would see my mother, father or sister at the wedding. Regret and disappointment were written all over his face. He looked at me with a straight face. I'm sure he was thinking, "Why would Laura do something like this?" Thinking I would feel bad for it. For what I did. For getting married to my sister's husband. I was happy that I disappointed him. I smiled at him to show him my happiness.

Penelope freed her hands from him and began to shout. I didn't even know her voice could be that loud.

"She stole him from me! They're lying. They're not in love! It's my wedding! She's a thief, arrest her!".

My husband turned to look at me. He bowed his head and sighed. I was speechless. I know Penelope is a crazy one but I didn't expect her to lash out like this. Embarrassing herself in public and making a mess of my wedding!

Soon, she started being violent. I was certain she was on drugs. She started scattering the chairs that were arranged. And shouting at the top of her voice.

"I'm telling you all, this wedding must not continue! You both will pay for betraying me! Leave me to face them. Let him look me in the face and tell me what I did to him. Or I would tell the world. I will expose him! I swear! You'll regret it!"

Expose him? I was wondering in my head. What was she trying to do? And what was she going to say? That was another level of madness.

My husband could not take it anymore. He signaled his bodyguard beside and soon, three men took her away while she kept screaming, "Leave me! Let go of me! I hate you!" I just stood there.

My mother stood up and followed them behind. Her face was filled with disgust, too when I walked in earlier. I noticed it and gave out a smile, a happy one in my beautiful wedding dress. It got to her. I'm sure she felt it. She turned away in disappointment. As if I care. I enjoyed her pain better.

I was happy to see Penelope like that. Ranting like a mad person. The best thing is that I have nothing to lose. Not even the wedding.

I noticed my husband had been silent and unsure of what to do since Penelope began to scream. But when she spoke of exposing him, all of a sudden, he ordered that she should be taken away. I did not think about it much. I was sure he was just scared of his reputation. I was scared for him, too. He was a well-known billionaire. Some people were already recording. He had to end it. It would soon go viral online. Those demons online could never be kind with their words.

It seemed the priest did not want to go on with the wedding after the drama subsided. My husband's personal assistant whispered something to him in his ear. He adjusted and was ready to continue.

"She's an ex-girlfriend who has refused to move on. It's nothing. Go on with the wedding." My husband whispered to him and held my hands. It sounded like an order. As if the priest had no right to say he would not continue with the wedding.

"Sorry about that, my love." He whispered to me too, and smiled. As if we shouldn't be worried about Penelope's tantrum and what would surface online. I was just there. Trying to come to terms with all the drama and lies. I can't tell what I was feeling at that point.

"You may kiss the bride!" The priest's voice came on.

Jordan held my hands and drew me closer to him. I closed my eyes as his lips were travelling to meet mine. And then it landed. I felt the softness of his lips and the sweetness. I forgot about all that had happened some minutes back.

The crowd kept cheering, but not as loudly as it was before the drama with Penelope. Regardless, all I could feel was the powerful sensation. He stopped, but my eyes were still closed. I was still drawing him closer to me. He tapped me lightly. As if to say,

"We're still at the wedding, not in a bedroom."

"Tell him I'll want to see him now!"

I heard a voice downstairs. I had just woken up from bed. Jordan was still fast asleep. We went to bed after our wedding party with our clothes and shoes on. I took off his shoes this morning when I woke up.

"Yes, ma'am." It was Anna, the househelp.

I peeped to see the owner of the voice.

My mother-in-law! It dawned on me that I had not been properly introduced to my husband's family. Especially his mother!

Anna came up to me, where I had been standing. I didn't think of waking Jordan. I just stood there, still trying to process what I would tell his mother. She had been away for some time. She came in for the wedding a few days back, but we did not meet until the wedding day. I mean, we never even spoke for once. I only saw a picture of her. The ones Jordan showed me. I've not thought of her reaction after Penelope's drama at the wedding.

"The boss's mother is here, ma'am. She asked to see him." Anna told me. I heard her approaching earlier, so I immediately pretended like I didn't hear anything.

"I would speak to him. Go and make sure she has something to eat. We'll come down shortly." I told her. At this point, my heart was pounding fast.

I was about to go in when I heard her voice again. She had a loud voice. Too loud for an elderly woman like her. She was on a phone call.

"Your mother wants to see you." I woke him up.

"Why? Where is she?" He asked, as if I were her personal assistant.

"Well, I don't know why she would want to see you. She's your mother."

He stood up and walked out. I called out to him to take off his clothes from yesterday, but he said nothing.

I went back to where I was standing earlier to listen to their conversation. I just wanted to know something.

"There you are, coming at any time you like. Where is that wife of yours?" I heard her ask him. I was waiting for the worst.

"Mum, you have no business with my wife. Tell me why you're at my house this early. It's unlike you."

How is he able to speak to his mother like that? Before the wedding ceremony, she congratulated us. But something was weird about it. It was like she was talking more to her son and not to me. She did not ask me any questions. I wondered if she wasn't curious about knowing who her son was getting married to. But then, I did not want any further complications. I ignored it too and moved with the flow. I'm sure everything must have escalated now. All thanks to Penelope.

"Why are you still in these heavy clothes? Did you sleep in them?" She asked him.

"Do not start acting like you care, mum. Why are you here?"

I was kind of surprised. I never knew Jordan could speak like that to anyone, not to mention his own mother. What was this sudden tension all about?

"You have not learnt to respect me. Well, that's none of my business. I..."

"Nothing is ever your business. It cannot begin now. Say what you want to say, let's get done with this." Jordan interrupted and sat heavily on the couch. He still had hangovers.

"I see. Have you seen the news?"

"What about it?"

"Look at this, Jordan." She opened her phone for him to see. "Everyone is talking. What is this I hear about you marrying someone else? I thought this was the woman you told me about? Who was the other lady at your wedding?" She asked.

We were trending online. Some said Penelope was jealous. Others said I snatched him and many other things. I never thought I could see myself one day on posts and blogs. The joy of marrying a rich man. Though we were trending in a bad way, low-key I was glad the world would now have a chance to see me. It was something.

"The Internet is never silent. They would always talk. It will soon die down." Jordan said.

"It doesn't look that way to me. You're on every blog for God's sake! Doesn't it bother you? What does that say about you? Your reputation! This is not good. You'd better look for ways to salvage this."

"Just say it. You're here because this affects you and whatever business you have going on. It has nothing to do with me."

"Is that what you'll say to me? Well, yes. It doesn't affect you alone. It affects me! It affects your sister! It affects every other person involved in the business. The partners and all. So yes, Jordan. It's not all about you. Nobody should suffer because of your terrible decision."

"I've told you not to bother. It's my problem and I'll sort it out. Besides, you don't care about me or Racheal. And I don't see how this affects you. Last I checked, you withdrew from the family business to start up another that no one knows about."

She was silent for a while after he said that.

"And where's your wife? I want to see her." She said after some minutes. My heart was beating fast.

I didn't know when Anna came up to where I was standing. I turned sharply.

"What are you doing here!" I was startled, and annoyed at the same time, that she had to see me eavesdropping.

"Sorry, ma, I came to clean." She said. I was sure she was surprised that I was listening to their conversation.

"Leave. You'll do it later." I told her, feeling slightly ashamed.

"Alright." She said and tried to leave in a hurry.

"And hey," I called her back. "You did not see anything."

"Noted, ma," She said. I watched her leave until she was out of sight.

"Aren't you going to answer me?" Jordan's mother asked again.

"I've told you, you have no business with her."

"I will be back, Jordan. This isn't over. You have a lot of explaining to do." She grabbed her handbag and left. I heaved a sigh of relief.

I quickly went back to the room so that Jordan would not know I had been eavesdropping.

"How'd it go with your mum?" I asked as soon as he walked him. I was pretending to arrange the clothes in the cabinet.

"Never mind," he said, and relaxed on the bed.

"I know, right, online trolls."

"You did not come down to greet her." He said, ignoring my statement. I was wondering. Was I supposed to? Maybe I would have, if I wasn't eavesdropping.

"I thought she wanted to speak to you about something important. I didn't want to interfere." I said, unsure if I lied correctly.

"She's your mother-in-law. You should have come down to say something."

"Why will I do that? You don't even respect her yourself. How would I have approached her when her own son despises her? Why didn't you introduce me to her? What could I have done? It was you she wanted to see, not me!" I felt the urge to say all this to him, but I kept it buried in my head.

"I'm sorry, Jordan." I said finally after some minutes of silence."

"Never mind. I wouldn't even want you to."

"You just said I was supposed to," I said, pretending to get annoyed.

"Don't mind me. It's nothing. Just pulling your legs." He said and invited me to the bed. He began kissing and caressing me softly.

Pulling my legs! That was the tip of the iceberg. With what I saw there, I knew a lot would come my way. There would be so much to deal with. The woman I saw, my mother-in-law, looked like trouble. Trouble was written all over her. When I first saw her on the morning of the wedding, I was scared that I might not be enough. Even though I had this confidence within me, I was still scared that she might not like me. Now it was all confirmed.

It's too late to back out now. I should have probably left my sister with her baggage.

I did not just wake up one day to say I wanted to marry Penelope's fiancé. I watched from my window some weeks back as her billionaire boyfriend, Jordan, dropped her off and kissed her goodbye. I watched as she waved at him and walked towards the door. I slowly covered the curtains and lay back on my bed.

"We went to supervise some of his businesses, and then we went for lunch in a very beautiful place. He took me shopping afterwards." I heard her say to my parents downstairs. I could feel their excitement already. There was happiness in her voice. I decided to get a cup of coffee. I just felt like taking it.

"Come here, Laura." My father called when I walked past them. I knew it was bad timing. I shouldn't have left my room.

"You called me," I said as I came closer to him.

"Why did you just behave as though we were strangers? You've been in that room since morning, and you just don't say hi to anyone." He said. I wondered why he always tried to act like the nice one, as if he cared. He is just as terrible as my sister and mother.

I opened my mouth to speak, but Penelope's words came before mine.

"She's just jealous. I know she's not happy for me." Penelope said with a smirk, while admiring the gifts she came with.

"Why would I be jealous of you?" I asked her, already getting furious. Wondering why she would even think about something like that.

"Because she has achieved way more than you. Let's not even talk about how good-looking she is. But look at you, you've been sleeping for the whole day with nothing to show. Just like that riff-raff you call a boyfriend. You cannot even attract important people in your life to save you." It was my mother.

There was a knock on the door immediately.

And just like magic, my riff-raff of a boyfriend, as my mother described, was at the door. Thomas knew he was jobless and also knew about the constant crises with my family. Yet his audacity was what pissed me off. The effrontery! Coming to my parents' house. At this time!

"What are you doing here?" I whispered immediately as I opened the door and saw him. I was signalling him to leave while trying to close the door. It was a bad time already. Yet he stood there, like an idiot!

"What's going on there?" My father asked.

"It's her broke boyfriend. She's trying to hide him." Came Penelope's voice. Her annoying voice. I felt like smacking her on the head.

"Let him in," my father said.

I was still signalling Thomas to leave. He still did not get the signs. He was smiling while he walked in.

"Good afternoon, sir," he greeted my father. He was about to greet my mum when she turned her face. He understood and kept quiet. I was just by the corner. Waiting for the worst to happen.

"Who are you here to see?" My dad asked. Such a stupid question. He came to see me, of course.

"I... I came to see Laura." He stuttered. We were supposed to go out today.

I felt like burying him. Did he have to mention it to my parents? I knew we were supposed to go out. He should have called my line. That was a simple thing to do. I checked my phone and saw five missed calls from him. I sighed.

"Out to where?" Penelope asked, laughing. "To the gardens, forest, or maybe the hills?" She asked again and laughed harder. It was all so embarrassing. I kept looking at her, my heart hurting. My mother was laughing with her. My father smiled too. He wanted to laugh with them, but he tried not to show it.

"You want to take her out, you mean? Do you now have a job?" My father asked.

"I don't. I'm actually helping her to look for one. We are going to check out some places." Thomas said. He must have thought saying that would make them pleased.

"Interesting! You do not have a job, and you want to help her find one. Isn't that amazing?" Said my mother.

"Have you seen? Have you seen what I'm talking about?" She said, turning to me. I just watched her. I haven't said a word since they began questioning him.

"Honestly, sweetheart, I think you should just let Laura do what she wants. It's obvious she's not ready to change." My mother said, and I watched her with so much anger and hatred in my eyes as she sat on the couch. I was finding it hard to believe she actually gave birth to me.

"She does not know what it means to attract things of good value," Penelope said and laughed again.

I couldn't bear it anymore. I raised my hand to slap her across her face, but my father's voice stopped me.

"Don't you dare! Your mother is right. They are right. Laura, why can't you..."

"Enough!" I cut in. "At least I'm not like y'all, fantasising over mere gifts and rewards like wretched people!" I snapped and walked to the door. Thomas followed me silently.

"She is strange." I heard my mum say, while we were walking out. I didn't hear what else she said. Thomas closed the door behind him.

"I'm sorry." He said as we were walking down the road.

"Sorry for what?"

"For what happened earlier. It was all my fault. I shouldn't have made things worse for you by showing up."

"Of course, Thomas, it's your fault! You should have called me! You are not making it any easier for me. If you're not ready to find a job, you tell me so we end this thing called a relationship. I'm tired of having to deal with my family's bullshit and now you!" I screamed.

"But you know I'm trying. It's not easy for me either. Do you think I enjoy watching you do all the things I'm supposed to be doing?"

"Then wake up! I'm tired of listening to your complaints!"

"But I called you. You were not picking up. That was why I decided to come to your house. I thought something was wrong."

"Honestly, Thomas, I'm sorry I missed your calls. But you need to do more than care for me. I can take care of myself! I'm not a child. I'm tired of all this pity party." I said and began to walk faster. I knew I was a bit harsh on him, but at that point, I was angry about many things and could not control my words. I hated everything happening to me.