“I do not want pity,” she said.
He studied her, then slowly nodded. “It is not pity.”
“Even if it is not,” she answered, “people will still say it is.”
Chidi took the money back, and Adana thought the matter was over.
Instead, he rolled up his sleeves.
“If you will not take money,” he said, “then let me help with the work.”
Adana stared at him. “You are the crown prince.”
He smiled faintly. “And? Are my hands only for decoration?”
Then he picked up a hoe and began to work.
Not playfully. Not for show.
He worked.
He cleared weeds, dug ridges, carried water, helped her mother sit more comfortably, and returned again and again in the days that followed. Slowly, the distance between them began to disappear.
At first they spoke only of farm work, health, and weather. Then it became more. Dreams. Fears. Quiet laughter. Long looks. Walks toward the stream at sunset. Shared silence under a mango tree.
One evening, under that tree, Chidi turned to her and said softly, “I have been fighting myself.”
Adana looked at him. “Fighting yourself for what?”
“For you,” he answered.
Her breath caught.
He stepped closer. “I do not want to play with your heart. I am not like the men who speak sweetly and disappear. I want you to be the love of my life. Will you be with me?”
Adana’s eyes filled with tears.
“You are a prince,” she whispered. “One day you may remember that, and I will still be me.”
Chidi lifted her chin gently.
“A heart is not measured by a wrapper or a farm,” he said. “Will you be with me?”
Adana nodded.
“Yes.”
From that day on, their love became secret and deep. They met under the mango tree and beside the stream. They laughed, spoke, held hands, and kissed with the careful tenderness of two people who knew the world would not understand them.
Then one morning, Adana woke up dizzy.
She sat up too fast and the room spun. Her stomach turned. She swallowed hard and pressed a hand against her belly.
A thought rose slowly, heavily.
What if I’m pregnant?
Before she could even gather courage to tell Chidi, something terrible happened.
One night, Chidi left the palace to climb the hill behind the farms. He often went there when palace life became too heavy. From the top, he could see the whole village and feel small in a way that gave him peace.
But that night, he did not return.
On the hill path, someone followed him in the dark.