Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36036 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36036 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
I grip the window ledge until my knuckles turn stark white, holding myself in place by sheer will as I rein in my base desire. I want nothing more than to run inside and beat Sonya until all that’s left is mangled and mutilated flesh. But I can’t. Margarete will be stuck here if I make one false move.
I hate the way her voice shakes and her eyes well up with tears. She struggles not to fall. It saddens me that her light will soon be extinguished, and her eyes will eventually be dull and void of joy.
Her honest question is one that most in the community would never dare to ask. Especially not the women. Being inquisitive in front of the wrong person could unleash a nightmare far worse than the fate she was born to. Questioning is the greatest sin with The Covenant. It shakes the foundation of blind faith and obedience with no tangible proof. When a member dares to use critical thinking, the entire house of cards plummets.
Organizations that manipulate through religious indoctrination demand blind allegiance. Questions result in doubt, which creates non-believers and dwindles numbers. These things could be ignored if the defectors remained quiet, but that silence is hard to control once the cloud of lies and manipulation is shattered. Hence, defectors from their doctrine are labeled as the most dangerous of all. Heretics who abandon God and collude with the devil.
“Men are righteous. Women are sinful. We must atone for the way we entice them. That we tempt them has ruined society, and this is the only way to right the world again.”
I grind my teeth, fighting to control the anger a mother’s words to her child have unleashed. This world has brainwashed its disciples so completely that these women would send their child into the belly of the beast in fear of the hellish nightmares The Covenant perpetrates.
I grip the pendant of my necklace and take a deep breath before my anger gets the better of me. I don’t know if Heaven and Hell are real, but if God rewards abuse and instills fear, I would rather burn than live anywhere near him.
My heart longs to go to Margarete. To comfort her. To assure her that all this will soon be a bitter memory and that these people will become a forgotten mirage.
“Don’t worry, Margarete,” I whisper. “I won’t let them ruin you.”
CHAPTER 1
Margarete
Istare up at my ceiling, unable to close my eyes and welcome much-needed sleep to escape the darkness of my life. My heart beats frantically. I’m well aware that nothing I do will calm my nerves. All I know of life is a cage that keeps me in my place. Dreams are worthless because there’s no hope they will come true. The best I can hope is that my prison guard will be merciful.
In our village, the day a woman turns twenty-one is the day she metaphorically dies. The day we are destined for doom.
I didn’t understand the depth of what we do to women until I was asked to be a witness. My parents thought I should understand what was expected of me before my betrothal. After witnessing the ceremony, my understanding is as clear as the rising sun. I cannot fool myself anymore. Lingering denial no longer whispers in my mind. On my twenty-first birthday, they will confine my identity and future to nothing more than chattel.
Ten of us stood in a circle around a pristine white mattress, our eyes cast down, observing the couple before us. Seventy-three-year-old Tobias Shaw’s wrinkled body on top of my childhood friend's twenty-one-year-old flesh.
I didn’t want to bear witness. I had no desire to hold her hand as she sealed her covenant. I certainly didn’t want to gaze into her sorrow-filled eyes as she fought unshed tears while pretending that her selfless act was willing. Her fear lodged like an immovable stone in my stomach, inducing nausea that I had to swallow before I vomited all over them. The whole ceremony seemed immoral. Unjust. How could a loving God wish this upon one of His creations? If our purpose was to serve men, why did He give us emotions or desires? It would have been more merciful to make us vessels with no capacity to feel or process beyond our duty.
Ruth offered me a faint smile and squeezed my hand. “It’s okay. It’s for God. We are righteous.”
She was trying to comfort me in her most horrific moment. She said the words we, as women, were programmed to believe. At one point, I would have taken solace in the vacant sentiment, but lately, my doubt had expanded into something larger. My hesitation had become fear and morphed into contempt.
“We are blessed today to witness the covenant of Sister Ruth and Brother Tobias,” Elder Thomas recited. “Through their union, our community will prosper, and our seal to God will be strengthened.”