Chapter 39 39. Saintilia's Defiance!
Saintilia POV
He must have seen me approaching the table, he deliberately raised his voice, ensuring every word was meant for my ears. It was a calculated move, a performance staged not for Tina, but for me. He wanted me to hear him, to feel the weight of his presence as I drew closer, turning the simple act of serving coffee into an unsettling confrontation.
He was boasting, his voice laced with a confidence I found both arrogant and absurd. He spoke of providing me with a life of comfort, of showering me with endless material possessions. But the most remarkable part of his audacious claim was his offer to send me to school; a privilege so rare, so far beyond the reach of any woman in our village, it felt less like a promise and more like a fairy tale meant to dazzle and disarm me.
Tina's face remained a blank slate, offering no reaction to his grand promises. While I could acknowledge the potential value of his generosity and what seemed like good intentions, I knew with a certainty that settled deep in my bones that I could not build a life on the foundation of his empty words. His proposal, no matter how glittering, was built on air, and I refused to be the fool who reached for it only to fall.
I wanted to experience that unique, profound emotion of falling in love that Celia always talked about. She often spoke of a different kind of love than the one that existed between me and Jonas. She insisted the love she shared with her husband was something utterly distinct, a force of its own. And it was that powerful connection I truly wanted, not the practical arrangement being laid before me.
"You need to experience it to know it," Celia had said, her voice holding a note of gentle certainty. "And someday, when you are much older, you will have a better understanding of what I mean." She had not gone into much detail, deeming me too young at the time to understand the full weight of such a complex and powerful emotion. Her words were left to hang in the air, a mysterious promise for a future version of myself.
The distant "someday" Celia spoke of, when I would be old enough to understand, had arrived. Yet here I stood, facing a proposition that was the very antithesis of that profound, mysterious love she described. The future had come, but it brought no clarity, only a stark choice between a practical, hollow arrangement and the faint, enduring hope for something real.
I couldn’t see myself going to his home to become his chattel, to serve him, when there was no guarantee that he would keep his promises. He had the audacity to claim he wanted to make a respectable woman out of me. What exactly did he mean by that such condescending remark implied I was currently not respectable.
I placed the coffee tray on the small table before them and walked away. It was a silent protest, a small act of defiance against the entire unsettling scene. What an arrogant man. His self-serving words held no power over me; I was not intimidated. From the little I overheard; his purpose was painfully clear. Tina looked visibly uncomfortable, and I knew she was silently annoyed with me for leaving the coffee in front of her, forcing her to serve him.
Not long after, Tina abruptly appeared in the kitchen and asked me to follow her. She did not have to leave the porch; she could have simply called my name. I supposed she needed to physically step away from him in order to calm her rising fury. I kept my eyes fixed on the man. I already knew what his true motives were, and I was not interested.
I stood there, feeling wary and deeply puzzled, trying to figure out why this man was pursuing me. The chilling thought surfaced: Perhaps this entire visit was a grotesque setup between the two of them to simply get rid of me.
"Saintilia! Thank you for the coffee, it's really good."
I offered a stiff, barely visible bow of my head in response. I truly did not like the way this man looked at all.
"I just told Tina here that I want you to come home and live with me. We will go to the justice bureau and get a marriage certificate. Would you like that?" He continued, completely unaffected to my disdain, bringing the cup to his mouth.
Was he serious? Did he actually think that I was going to leap with joy merely because he wanted to make me his wife? I was not desperate. I had absolutely no intentions of spending the rest of my life cooped up in this suffocating village, bearing children for a man I did not even like to look at.
"Why do you want a loose woman like me?" I asked, throwing his own despicable, cutting words back at him with icy precision.
"You will no longer be floozy once we are married. I would make sure everyone knew it, so no one would dare disrespect you again. Also, Jonas knew this day would come. Since Jonas is not here, I am here asking you."
The nerve of him. Did he think that I was that desperate?
"I am sorry to bring so much trouble to you, Tina." I swapped my gaze to a softer look and a much gentler tone, addressing Tina. I was sure Emilio noticed the calculated shift in my demeanor. "I am too stupid to be anybody's wife. The gentleman said that Jonas knew about this. How could that be? When he repeatedly made me promise him that I could never agree to any marriage proposal without him. So, which one of us do you believe, Tina? And since Jonas will never give me his blessings, then I will never take a husband."
Once I had made my defiance clearly known, with my best fake smile, I invited him to stay for dinner. Seeing that man there, only brought memories of him watching me at the river. It was only minutes before I was violated that this very man was watching me. Perhaps he had all kinds of ugly thoughts about me that night. I didn't know for sure who rped me that night, but the identity of the perpetrator might remain unknown forever.
Although There were rumors about me. Some of the villagers did not believe that I was defiled but I was rather too embarrassed to admit that I was easy and sought to gain sympathy. To them, I invented the story to gain sympathy. That was barbarically ridiculous. Only Adeline and Tina knew the brutal state I was in. The truth was the truth, and the hateful opinions of those who did not believe it were beyond my control. The question was, how did they know I was assaulted when I never even told anyone that I was?
Continue……….