Speech

Jane's mouth dropped and her eyes wide opened.

The hall had been meticulously set up for what seem to be parties for the high class or royalty, decorated in white. The chandelier dangling up from the ceiling provided light for the entire room. The round tables and chairs were dotted around the room, big enough to contain atleast sixteen people. The tables had been decorated with red and golden flowers and candles.  

The hall decorated, presented wealth and prosperity. Inside the hall were people wearing millions of dollars clothings and jewelries. The women wore jewelries that were either gold or diamond from their bracelets, rings, watches, necklace and earrings. 

"Wow...." She finally spoke.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"I think beautiful is an understatement Lisa. This is....breathtaking." She said still looking at the hall. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Hahahaha. It's because you're always indoors. You don't like going to parties. If you're always partying, you'd have seen more. Some are decorated more beautiful than this." She teased Jane.

Jane just completely ignored her words. Her gaze and focus and everything were fixated on the beautiful decorated hall.

Suddenly, her expression changed to normal, but Lisa could tell something was up.

"Are you alright?" She asked noticing how her expression changed.

"I'm okay." She smiled. "I just need to use the rest....."

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Please have your seats as the party is about to begin." The voice interrupted Jane's sentence. "But first, we're gonna invite the lovely couples to the stage." 

"C'mmon, let's go. We need to sit." Lisa said holding Jane's hand firmly.

When everyone sat down, the hall became quiet and dark. Only the lit candles were on. A slow song started playing to give it a special effect, and when the light was restored, the couples were already seen on the stage standing side by side with there hands entwined.

They were quite old, but were looking a bit younger than there average age groups. Probably taken really care of their skin, especially the woman. The woman wore a red flare gown that started from her waist. Simple golden jewelries that can tell it screams of riches. Her dark hair, wrapped in a bun like Lisa's, and a light make-up worn on her face. Her spouse on the other hand, wore a black suit, a golden watch on his right hand and his neatly combed back.

"Good evening beautiful ladies and gentlemen." The man said. "Firstly, I want to thank everyone of you that are present here. Thank you for attending our wedding anniversary tonight." He paused and there were hands jamming for them. "We've been married for some decades now," he continued, "and uhm... I'll say our journey as married couples hasn't been easy, and smoothe at first like the way y'all see it now. My beautiful wife has been one in a million since the first day I set my eyes on her." He said staring at her and facing back to the crowd. "We uhm... didn't get married as rich couples. I was actually living in small rented room. I had to struggle to get my daily bread. Her parents were rich at that time, and uhm you know how it is, hahaha. I wasn't the ideal type you know, the rich can't marry the poor. Still, my beautiful amazing wife stood and fought for our love. She went against all odds just to make sure we're together." He paused and then continued and his voice breaking. "I remember that she was locked up in a room....." Tears were threatening to rain down from his eyes. "I...I uhm, I'm really sorry, haha." He added cleaning the little tears that rain down from his eyes.

Everyone in the hall looked extremely emotional, some ladies were even tearing up, wiping their tears with their handkerchiefs. While some were blinking there eyes severally and staring at the ceiling for the tears not to fall.

"She was locked up in her room for days, for her not to see me or go out. I uhm, remember how I was paid by her father and her brother a huge sum of money to leave the country and completely forget her and move on. I just...I just couldn't. Because I know she's my world." His voice breaking down more. "So how will I be happy without her? What was the use of living a luxurious life without her by my side. How could I be happy?" The emotions flowed like never before, more and more people began to tear up, including Jane and Lisa. "And then uhm...when her parents discovered that I didn't leave the country, I got beaten up so hard by their men." When those words left his lips, his wife's eyes flooded more and more with tears. She faced the other way to clean her eyes. He gently held her hand, touching her chin to make her look at him. "It's all in the past now. Our love, our forbidden love, our rejected love won against all odds." Tears continued raining down her eyes and his emotions kept increasing every second. "I'm happy. I'm very happy you're the one standing here by my side. I'm happy and proud to call you my wife. I'm grateful to you. I never thought I deserved you, I never thought we'll surpass all the storms and be right here. My beautiful wife. My sexy and lovely wife. I love you so much. I'll keep on loving you for the rest of my life. Even in the next world, I'll keep on loving you, and I'll choose just you and you alone." He wiped his wife's tears with his fingers. "I love you so much..." He added and he kissed her shortly.

"I love you too." She said in an almost whisper voice.

Hands were jammed together as everyone stood up clapping for them.

"Happy 40th wedding anniversary my love." He said.

"Happy 40th wedding anniversary to you too my love."

The couples pecked and hugged each other tightly. The sounds of hands jamming together increased.