Emergency Wife

The bride and the groom were at the altar, the priest started the ceremony. After a long and bored admonition from the priest, he proceeded with the other aspects of the joining.

At this point, the priest said to the congregation,

“Is there anyone in this congregation who has anything against this marriage? say it now or keep mute

about it for the rest of your life.”

This was a formality observed in this congregation and its branches worldwide.

It was not out of the ordinary, although some of the branches are beginning to skip this part saying that it was old fashioned.

But this priest, being an old man himself, did not and has never skipped this part in any marriage ceremony he has conducted in his 45 years of ministry.

The man looked at the congregation un-expectantly, and was to proceed to the next stage, when a woman of about 22 years of age suddenly stood up and shouted “yes, I have something against this marriage.”

The whole congregation gasped in astonishment.

Even the priest, he was old and vexed in age, he staggered and nearly fell to the ground, if his assistant was not on hand to hold him he would have fallen.

This has never happened before. In his forty - five years of pulpit ministry, he had never seen something like this.

Within this period he has been a minister, he had officiated more than 205 marriages.

And had said the same thing over and over again, but no one has ever stood up to say that they have something against the couple being joined in matrimony.

This was the first time, and it was clearly shocking.

People in the congregation were whispering with each other

“Why would the priest ask such question; didn’t he know who the young man was?”

The next neighbour would reply “that question is part of the church dogma for marriages, the dogma of the church cannot be changed because of one person.”

“Well everybody knows the young man, how notorious he has been, he has broken so many ladies’ hearts.”

“I still insist that the priest should have made concession for him.” Another person insisted.

“Maybe the priest doesn’t know his stories” another chipped in.

At the podium, there was a deadly silence.

Bon-Hwa Rohan Fernando was nicknamed ‘Gravity’ by his friends and mates. He was nicknamed ‘Acada’

by his family.

He was like the wind; impossible to trap, dangerous to offend, difficult to predict. He was very arrogant and full of himself.

He was tall, handsome, cold and dashing. The domineering aura round him made people breathless when they came close. He was the grandson of the great Bon-Hwa Fernando.

He was not just a play boy, but he was a wicked playboy. He had stepped on the feet of so many powerful men, and he was under threat from many angles.

This is the reason this wedding was supposed to be a secret, quiet and low key wedding, but alas! It turned out otherwise.

After the first initial shock, the assistant priest quickly picked up the microphone and announced that

“young lady, please come with us to vestry” the young woman was still standing up.

The young priest signalled to the couple to follow them into the vestry.

“please everyone should sit put, in the next twenty minutes, we will ratify the issue and the wedding will still go on.”

Immediately, the young woman was pulled roughly by two of Rohan’s men into the church vestry.

Within five minutes, the whole church premise was agog with the police and military men, journalists were everywhere.