Celebrating Her Coronation
Once they got home, Zoe went straight to her bedroom to unwind and clear her head. Since it was her coronation day, Leon was following her and attempting to make her laugh. He would walk over to her bedroom, pick her up, and plant a kiss on her neck until they were in and making love on the bed.
However, Menander walked in without knocking because the door was unlocked. She glanced at her phone, perusing the messages left on social media by well-wishers and congrats on Zoe’s coronation. She approached Zoe and Leon and stood there, still engrossed in her phone.
They halted their kissing game and turned to face Menander, who read the messages, “Congratulations to Zoe Layla, our newly crowned Miss Atlantica 2022. You have consistently shown yourself to be a capable leader and queen of Atlas, and you alone are deserving of the crown for the next ten years. With your lovely heart and us, the Atlanticans, you have so much to gain as a princess and our representation in the cause of beauty. You alone own the universe, well done.”
“That was anonymous, this means, it’s God because the heavens celebrate you as well on this night,” she added, glancing at them. “I’ll host a celebration and invite my friends and neighbors over to join us in honoring you.”
“People are sleeping at this time,” Zoe remarked. “Menander, how about having a party during the day tomorrow?”
“No sleep tonight, my sister. People want to know if you were hurt after that incident on stage,” Menander retorted. “My dad is in contact with his neighbors as well, so you will see him reaching out to invite you to the celebration he threw for his daughter’s coronation…”
“I am losing my words, so I prefer to be quiet and let you deal with me as you wish since I am yours,” Zoe said in her explanation.
Menander and Leon chuckled at this while Menander perused social media comments, finding only kind words that reassured and amused her sister.
It said, “I want you to know that you deserve the title of Miss Atlantica 2022, despite how much I berated you during our live interview on Atlas Television. I apologize for being rude to you during the show before to the beauty contest. Though I have learned from my mistake and am now more aware of the importance of respecting women’s rights as human rights, I didn’t understand how extreme my response in our conversation was. Best wishes and congratulations on your excellent work, my queen.”
While waiting for her sister to make another remark, Zoe remained mute. Zoe’s makeup artist and modeling agency sent her another one, which Menander read.
She declared, “I knew you would take that crown, my friend, take it all the way, and leave your enemies licking their fingers while they ate what was left of you.” You are currently called Miss Atlantica 2022; instead, I am shedding happy tears on my bed. I now know that you are overexcited and unsure of what to do, so please give me a call when you are sober.”
“Angel, that was your makeup artist,” she continued, glancing at Zoe.
Grinning, Zoe leaped from the bed and decided to give her makeup artist a call to express her gratitude for the amazing job she had done on her appearance. She claimed to be in bed, but in reality, she was lying about being at the beauty contest after-party and seeing the bands perform live. Her phone rang and it was Zoe calling.
Angel called for her agent friends to come over and listen in on her discussion with Zoe as soon as she noticed that Zoe was calling. After yelling as everyone exited the venue, she answered the phone, and they all simultaneously yelled, “Congratulations!” before leaving the hall to play the call over the loudspeaker.
“Thank you so much, my friends, but this crown belongs to you and the diligent work you have dedicated yourselves to do,” Zoe said as she thanked them.
Angel replied, “We ought to be the ones expressing our gratitude for all that you gave up to make this beauty pageant a success. You have improved the reputation of our business by confidently branding our agency and our brands. More has been accomplished by you than by anybody else. Someone would claim that this was made possible by the influence of money. But I really believe that a woman’s strength is what drives action in her mission to change our nation. My daughter, I hope that wherever you are, you are doing well. How are you doing?”
“I am at home right now and doing very well, thank you,” Zoe replied.
“I know that idiotic Jasmine’s behavior embarrassed you, but please let it go and let Leon comfort you,” Angel retorted. “Man can be silly at times, whoa.” After grinning at Leon, Zoe turned to face Menander, who was waiting outside, and answered the phone.
“Yeah, I have to move on because I stopped caring for him a long time ago, but he’s just wasting his time by walking around and making my day miserable,” she remarked.
“I respect you, my girl. You are heroic, and I loved how you turned him down and left him paralyzed on the stage. I wonder what he was thinking,” Angel retorted. “Whoa, sometimes men may act foolishly. Until they understand the significance of my insult, I can keep singing the same song about how stupid they are. He’ll be the target of internet mockery. It’s okay, ignore him. Just spend the evening with your partner, Leon.”
“I will do so, my love, and he is right next to me as I speak,” Zoe replied. “He took my family and himself to see me at the hospital. Is tomorrow okay if I take you out to lunch? I definitely need to get some sleep right now. I felt like my heart and spirit were heavy?”
“That would be so sweet of you, thank you, and we will stay in touch,” Angel remarked.
“Good night, my friends. I love you,” Zoe retorted.
Together, they retorted, “Goodbye! Zoe, we also adore you!”
Zoe put down her phone to listen to the music outside the window as she noticed Leon and Menander standing behind her. Gazing through the window, she saw that her father had extended an invitation to her neighbors to throw an after-party for Zoe.
Zoe’s favorite kind of music was soul music, which was playing.
When she turned to face Leon again, he grinned and added, “Let’s join him and his neighbors. You should appreciate your life and accomplishments today more than ever.”
“When did these people come here?” inquired Zoe.
Menander retorted, “They chose to come and celebrate you because they heard the music playing and saw you on TV, so they knew you were back. My sister, there is no sleep for you tonight, so let’s go and join them.”
In an attempt to respond to her sister’s invitation to join her father and the neighbors for a celebration, Zoe stumbled.
But her father Frank, carrying a glass cup full of alcohol in his left hand, came into the room while singing “The Power of Love,” her daughter’s favorite Celine Dion song.
He strode over to her, set down the cup, and lifted his singing daughter. Wondering what her dad was thinking, and shocked by his vigor, which allowed him to pick her up like a small child, Zoe screamed shyly. Menander picked up the glass that Frank had set down to dance, sipped it all the way to the bottom, and continued dancing.
Then he put his daughter down and stayed silent, exhausted. And with that, he began to dance with her. As the music played outside, Zoe danced with her dad while grinning, but her focus was on Leon.
Menander approached Leon, joined him in a dance, and then left the room to go to the area where other people were having a party. They emerged from their house and started dancing. in the field where Frank’s friends and neighbors were having a celebration.
The fact that Zoe and her father were attending the celebration caught their interest. Menander and Zoe’s boyfriend danced. They were greeted with a wave of applause and clapped hands upon arrival.
Gifts and letters acknowledging Zoe as their friend and daughter were given to her in celebration. Frank’s buddies, Joseph halted the music to pay tribute to Zoe.
“I thought I was dreaming when I watched you on television taking Miss Atlantica 2022 crown,” he added, standing close to the music player. "When I discovered that the winner was my friend’s kid, I was astounded. I got out of bed and started to move around my room when I heard your name mentioned, waking me from a sick dream. You have shown us pride in this setting, and our community’s name will live on forever.
We have brought you up to be a beautiful representation of who we are in the outside world. On this day, my daughter, we celebrate you no matter how old we are. Your peers and other citizens are present in the nightclubs and will join you in celebrating. Be blessed, my daughter. My child and I are in love. Emma has invited you to supper tomorrow and will be bringing you gifts.”
She rushed toward Joseph, jumped into his arms, and sobbed there. She turned to face the people observing her, sipping wine from their cups, and her tears ceased as they focused on her.
Zoe expressed her gratitude to them by saying, “I owe your sacrifice and labor for my life today. You gave me a purposeful upbringing, and I still believe that it takes a village to raise a child. Since my success is also your success, you should rejoice in your child’s accomplishments. I am now the person you raised me to be.
I’ve messed up and wounded your feelings. I acknowledge that my pride in my physical attractiveness and ignorance of life’s realities were the main factors in instilling manners in me. As an adult, I am appreciative of your hard work and assistance. Thank you for your help.” Anna, the environment’s priest, attended Zoe’s celebration.
Approaching her, he gave her a hug before praising her and adding, “I am the priest and the teacher in this township of North Atlas,” as he peered into Zoe’s eyes.
“After all that you have accomplished to change so many lives, I was touched by your coronation. My daughter, you truly are a saint in the eyes of God, and I am proud of you. Ever since I learned that you had returned from the hospital following the incident that a boy on stage had created.
I woke up from my slumber. “My daughter has restored the glory of Atlantica to the North Atlas,” I thought to myself. “Before we could make it over to visit you, I was ecstatic and was jumping around and dancing in front of my wife, who kept laughing at me. Do not take this crown out of this place, please.
I believe your younger sister ought to make the most of her grace in modeling by competing in every beauty pageant as a model, just like her sister. in order for the crown to endure for the benefit of North Atlas’s future generations and Layla’s offspring.”
Anna’s speech made them laugh, and Zoe, who was standing close to the priest, chuckled too.
“I thank you father, Anna, for the blessings, but I wish I could keep it with me forever because people judge,” she remarked. “I now consider this to be the pinnacle of my father’s name throughout generations.”
Leon approached Zoe while she was still speaking.
“Who is this handsome young man that greets us with respect as a son-in-law of Frank?” Anna asked Anna as Leon stood in front of the crowd, inebriated.
The music began to play, and the inebriated crowd got up to dance to it.
“I am Leon, Zoe’s boyfriend,” Leon said in response to Anna’s query.
“You must be a bright young man with a bright future,” Anna remarked.
“Thank you, dad. You look good too. Are you in your twenties?” Leon retorted.
Leon’s reply made everyone chuckle, but Anna bid them farewell with, “I have seen you, my child, and my heart now rejoices in the Lord. My dear, enjoy today as if it were your last. I’m about to turn in for the night. I bid you farewell, hope you have the best days ever, and want you to celebrate like never before.
“Goodbye, man of God. We would love to come and get married in your church,” Leon remarked.
“I would be happy to be the one to join you as husband and wife, my children,” he said in response to their laughter.
They also chuckled at that. After his spouse called and dragged him to the car, they left Zoe chatting with Leon and drove home. All the other neighbors left for home as well. Menander drank her father’s whiskey, which made her extremely inebriated and unable to walk straight.
So, Leon lifted her and took her to rest in her bedroom. He returned to Zoe and went with her to sleep with her in her bedroom but he didn’t touch her and Zoe was still a virgin. In the end, the party was over and Frank eventually drifted off to sleep.