Chapter 1: Marriage

"What the heck do you think I am? A child?" With her ballistic voice, Dalmi hurled her bag towards the mattress.

She had been out for a night, but her parents called her and told her to go home. After being furious for a halted adventure, she was welcomed by this sudden announcement.

Her father walks near her, his hands reaching out to her thin, paper-white skin, but she moved backward and slapped his hand away. Her brows crimped, and her eyes bloodshot.

"Dalmi, we are just thinking about your future and–" triggered by his father's peeving voice, she interrupted.

"Thinking about my future, my ass! You're doing it for yourself!"

She clamps her fingers into white-knuckled vise-grips, trying to prevent more words from coming out of her lips.

"Your mouth, Dalmi! That was your dad!" Her Mom stood up and pointed at her.

"What? You are telling me to get married to a man I don't even know! How come it was alright for you?" Dalmi gritted her teeth. She was determined to explain how this idea can put her life in turmoil.

This is a mess. Dalmi thought to herself. If she knew that this would happen, then she wouldn't bother going home! 

"It was for your good, Dalmi. We are aging and–"

"I am of age, and I can do whatever I want. I have my own decision now, how could you tell me that I will get tied to a...what do you call it? To a business partner?" She wasn't the type of person to disrespect and bawled at elderlies, but she can't contain her feelings.

Marriage is not something that her parents could meddle with. The picture of her in a long, white gown with a bald, rich old man made her cringe. She will never approve of this fixed marriage!

"Dalmi, we are doing this for your own good! We are getting older, and we want you to be with someone by that time!" her father insisted, but her mind doesn't want to accept petty reasons.

"Be with someone who's just as old as you?" She shook her head. She remembers her father as someone who loves her dearly. But right now, all she could see was a person with a too much greed. 

"I am just 24! By this age, I should be traveling the whole world, and you should never dictate what I should do! Do I look like a teen who still needs to be guided?"

Now I know how Nikita feels about her fixed marriage. I regret encouraging her to give it a chance. It was one of the thoughts running inside her mind. Nikita is one of her Chinese friends who was a victim of that fixed marriage. She was then one of those people who encouraged her to do it. Now, she was remorseful.

"Dalmi, you should reconsider it. You need a partner! You are getting older, and we won't be here for too long." her Mom's hands touched her arms. It was warm, like it was telling her that everything was just fine.

"You can never decide on my marriage." In pure fury and dismay, Dalmi whirled around and glanced at them behind her shoulders. With her sharp, rolling eyes and firm voice, she ended, "I need no sugar daddy." and stormed out of the room.

It was only six pm, and bars are still closed. Tayla wasn't really fond of going to those nightclubs where men and women flock for a thrill but providing her situation right now, she thought, maybe it was an appropriate place for her to spend the night.

She glanced at her wristwatch and jumped inside her Cadillac. I think I will just go to Jackie's. She concluded.

"Omg, girl, don't you have manners? Don't you believe in piracy?" Jackie, her best friend, growled.

"It was privacy, Jackie. You've got a lot of money, you're a filthy rich friend of mine, but it seems like your brain is not working at all." She sarcastically answered as she slumped on his friend's mattress.

"It was a joke, alright?" He sighed and sat in an Indian position at the middle of his bed, his arms crossed as he looked down at Dalmi with his deep brown eyes.

Jackie is a man with a girl's heart. Dalmi considered him her best friend after he saved her from an attempt at sexual harassment. At first, she doesn't like him. He confessed that he would do no harm for they like both males and that she owes her something. She doesn't want to have a third sex friend, but she found him more significant than a girl's best friend after more encounters with him. He is hiding his real identity. Jack is his name whenever his dad is here, but he was Jackie almost all the time because his parents only go home thrice or twice a year.

"I got a huge problem, Jackie. I mean, my whole life is in danger, and I need to do something!" The frustration in Dalmi's voice made Jackie's forehead more scrunched up. 

"If I would also have that kind of face, then I'd be really problematic." He rolled his eyes and flipped his invisible hair. "Don't bring it up anymore!"

Dalmi's face became stern. In the most severe and profound voice that she could formulate, she muttered, "I'm dead serious. I'm getting married."

"Oh? When?" He stopped laughing and glanced at me with her dreamy eyes, and after some seconds, he began shaking my shoulders.

"What the heck, Dalmi! You got yourself a freakin' boyfriend, and you didn't tell me? What? Is he handsome? Where is his gym? Is he..." he stopped shaking Dalmi and then glanced up the ceiling, his Adam's apple moved from up to down as he gulped.

"Is he good?" He shrieked with his fake, stagy voice. Dalmi closed her eyes and covered her ears, not wanting to hear more of it.

"You didn't even tell me that you have a man! That was so unfair of you–"

"I don't even know I am getting married, Jackie! It was a fixed marriage!" she groaned in frustration.

Jackie's eyes widened, his jaw fell open, and his whole face looking so dumbfounded.

"What...the? Are fixed marriages still a trend in this generation? You are already rich! Why the heck would your parents will arrange something like that?"

He stood up, patting his forehead lightly with his fingers as he paced back and forth.

"It happened to Nikita. Maybe they got the idea from her family." Dalmi hissed.

"But Nikita is Chinese! You are a Filipino and–"

"Correction, I am a half-blood," she sighed. "And they told me it was for my own good. I am 24, and they kept on telling me that I need to settle down." she shook her head and went towards his wooden cabinet, pulled out an oversized white shirt, and glanced at him with her bored eyes.

"Turn around. I'm going to change."

"Oh? Then your parents are just making moves for you! If I were you, I would get married!" He cheerfully said even when he was facing the wall.

"But you weren't me," Dalmi retorted as she removed the buttons of her cropped polo and wore his oversized, white shirt.

"And I don't believe them. I know my parents; they just want to expand our business."

After she was done changing, he made Jackie turn around. He sat at the edge of the bed and glanced at her with his brows furrowed.

"But what if the groom is handsome?" he asked, almost making Dalmi puke at his hilarious question.

"But what if he was a bald, old man?" she raised her left brow and crossed her arms.

His face turned sour, and then he made some moves like what he imagined was so cringy.

"I need your help. We need to stop my parents and get my freedom back," she uttered in a firm voice and started to walk towards him.