I looked Presentable

Fanny shook his head in the affirmative and became all smiles. His eyes sparkled.

“You are welcome to my humble family, my adorable sister-in-law,” Kate intoned, with a lop-sided grin.

Kate was the second-eldest daughter of Fanny’s.  She was chubby, short and with pink cheeks that often smiled. Her hair was auburn. She kept smiling and shaking her head just like every other person except Eva.

 Her nostrils flared, “Who is she? And who is her family in Rio Hondo?” Eva asked, gritted her teeth, shot her go-to-hell stare at me and walked around me as though I was some laboratory specimen.

Among the girls, it was Eva who cherished Brian most. She wanted the best for Brian and wished her family could give Brian a better wife than she saw. Although she rarely showed it, the love Eva had for Brian was rare, and she could sacrifice her life for him if there was need for it.

“No, no, Eva”, Opula, the eldest, protested with her hand, gesturing at Eva. She protested yet further, “You don’t have to raise that issue right now. I have not invited this pretty girl to be assessed by you.”

Eva raised a brow and squeezed her lips; that face of hers held thunder as she cast a menacing stare at her sister and then at me.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Eva queried Opula “You can’t choose this dirty, poverty-stricken girl for our brother!”

Opula stood to her feet with her hands on her waist. She had already gone crimson. She kept rolling her eyes and sighing.

Opula snarled, “And since when did my egocentric sister become interested in the family’s affairs, uh? You never wanted a wife for Brian! Possibly you enjoyed the way he is being attended to by nobody and goes the whole of Rio Hondo naked and being mobbed!” Opula barked radically.

Every other person became on looker as they quarreled at the tops of their voice.

Her nose wrinkled. “I have better plans for my brother, not this,” she gestured her fingers at me, “Poverty-stricken, disgusting girl. We are the richest family in Rio Hondo. Poverty and wealth have nothing in common. Do I need to remind you, sister uh? I thought you were going to fetch a model, a movie superstar or a musician for our brother. Come on think big.”

Opula interjected in fury, “She may be poor, but she is more presentable than the ugly wealthy women of easy virtue you presented earlier…” She wanted to speak yet further when Fanny intervened,

“Enough! Everywhere went cold at once at the groaning of his voice, “Is this how you girls want to welcome our new wife?” Fanny barked, and cast an appreciative stare at me. 

My head bowed just then as I averted my gaze.

Wife? What is happening? Have they made me a wife already?

A wife to whom, if I may ask? I came here to see if I could borrow the money needed for my mother’s hospital bills and here I am donning diamond bracelets and jewelry, clad in a luxurious Turkish gown which I may never afford in my entire life.

As I looked at myself from head to toe, I wondered if I could summon the courage to question their actions, and why I was being given as wife to a man I knew nothing about and wasn’t in love with. 

Something must be fishy. Are they mistaking me for someone else?

“I am confused please,” it almost sounded like a whisper, but with some reckless courage it sounded loud enough for everyone to hear.

Fanny smiled at me, and then stood at her feet. His face flushed with uncertainty.

“You see, my dear, for more than four nights now, my family has been in search of the rightful bride for my lovely son. I don’t know how my eldest daughter found you, but I must commend you for looking presentable and beautiful for my son. If you agree this minute to become the wife to the only son of the richest man in Rio Hondo, I promise you your poverty is over. You will have anything that is under the sun. You can be rest assured that hence forth your generation shall know no poverty,” he said and burst into a radical laugh.

Every other person smiled except Eva who was busy fighting me with her quarrelsome stare.

But Eva wasn’t my problem now. My problem was how it all happened suddenly. I had come to borrow the half a million dollars needed to commence treatment on my mother and not to be given as wife to any son.

I am losing it now. These billionaires could be so annoying. They felt everything was answerable to them and, because they were wealthy and influential, nothing was impossible for them to achieve.

Come on! Things are not done that way! How could you just see someone at the gate, and then you get her all luxuriously dressed, just to be given as a wife to your only son? A son I knew nothing about?

I protested, “Sir, I am here to see if you could lend me money for my mother’s medical bills. My mother has auto…auto,” I stuttered as I couldn’t recall the name of the disease the doctor called, but I just managed to say, “She has kidney disease and the doctor is requesting half a million dollars to save her life. She has just twenty-four hours to live if that money is not provided,” I intoned, went down on my knees, and bowed my head, “Please, my mother is all I have. Have mercy on a poor girl like me. That is my reason for coming to your mansion and not marrying your son.”

Fanny’s face held a huge grin. His jaw clenched. I knew he might be wondering what gave me the guts to visit his mansion in the name of borrowing money. I was young and naïve. I wondered what could be more important to me than my mother’s health. Marrying his son or whoever was out of it.

He pointed out, “You see that artifact over there. It is worth twenty million dollars. Do you see that artwork with diamond stones? It is worth thirty million dollars. Money is not my problem.” 

He dug his hand into his blazers and slid out a credit card…