Her eyes flickered briefly toward her mother, no reaction. Mrs. Anozie's calm was terrifying in itself.
"After a few months of talking again," Olaedo went on, "he asked me to marry him. I said yes. We've already registered the marriage and... we plan to do the traditional rites later."
For a heartbeat, silence reigned. Then Mrs. Anozie's composed expression shattered.
"Olaedo," she said, shaking her head slowly, disbelief threading through her words, "you got married months after being betrayed so deeply? You didn't even give yourself time to heal! And worse still, this man—" her voice sharpened like a blade, "—couldn't bother to meet your family first?"
"Do you realize the level of disrespect this is, to us and to you?" Her voice rose with each word, sharp and trembling with emotion. The calm she'd tried to hold on to was gone now, replaced by years of maternal authority and wounded pride.
