CHAPTER 1: Disappointed and Betrayed

“Dad, please!”

“My decision is final, Cassandra!” he said in his strict voice. He looked done with this conversation.

I shook my head. I couldn’t believe him! “I don’t know that man!”

“You will know him once you two get married.” He sighed deeply and then his eyes softened. He held my hands. “You have to do this for our family, hija. You already reached 25 years old. It was already in the agreement of your grandfather with the Lannister family that you’ll get married to their only son.”

Tears formed slowly around my eyes. I felt a pang in my chest knowing that I couldn’t do anything.

“Dad, I’ll do a-anything, not just this one.” My voice was desperate. I looked at my father pleading. I couldn’t care less if I was trying to sound and look pity.

“I’m sorry, hija, but this is final. I already talked to the Lannister family.” He looked at me apologetically.

I felt betrayed. How could my own father do this? He didn’t even hear my side, if I wanted this or not. I was about to talk when he immediately turned his back on me like he didn’t want to hear anything from me.

He walked out of the office. I was left here in his office with my heart tearing apart. I sat on the couch, feeling weak and tired. I let my tears fall from my eyes. I cried harder.

I heard the door open, I was expecting that it was my father but I just got disappointed. It was my stepmom. She raised her brow at me and laughed as if she saw something funny.

I clenched my fist while holding the fabric of my dress. I know that she’s happy knowing that I will be forever out of their lives. She had been waiting for this to happen.

“You look pathetic, hija. OMG! What will Killian say knowing that his soon-to-be wife is a crybaby?” she said as if she was sad. She chuckled and crossed her arms in front of me. She looked down at me. “I know for sure that Killian will also abandon you after he gets what he wants.”

I refused to say a word. She was right after all. I know that in the end, I will be left alone. No one will be there for me, only myself. If my mother was still alive, I knew that she wouldn’t let this thing happen.

I glared at her. “Leave me alone.”

She chuckled. “Oh... I won’t do that. It’s you who will leave us alone.” She was shaking her head as if she pitied me. She turned his back on me. “Poor Cassandra.”

I heard her laughing humorously before she was out of my sight as she slammed the door. I leaned my back on the couch and stared at the ceiling.

“What should I do, Mom?” I whispered to the air as if someone would answer me. I closed my eyes and tears fell from my eyes.

Everything went to nothing when my father got married again. The perfect family I once had vanished. All I could do was recall it from my memories. The family I had became someone else’s family and I was left alone here.

My father was now happy with his new family. He even treated my stepsister like his own. I was abandoned. There was part of me that maybe this marriage would save me.

I went back to my room and decided to take a rest; I wanted to escape this reality for a while. My forehead creased when I noticed that my room was slightly open.

My lips parted when I saw Vina, my stepsister, fixing her things when I entered my room. My clothes were now scattered on the floor. I could feel the heat rushing through my head.

“What do you think you’re doing!?” I couldn’t help but shout at her because of madness.

She almost jumped to her place. She gasped when she saw me before she smiled at me. “Daddy said that this will be my room now!”

I was just a year older than her, but she was always acting like a child. It was making my head boil, seeing the happiness on her face, knowing that she would have my room.

“Ha? Are you crazy? I’m not leaving this room!” I gritted my teeth as I said it to her furiously.

“What? But you’ll leave this house because you are about to get married!” She was even throwing tantrums like a kid. “This will be my room now!”

I wanted to slap her, but I knew that I’d end up being the villain again. And my hands don’t deserve to get dirty because of her thick face.

“You can have the guestroom for tonight! You’ll leave tomorrow, right?” Her face was glowing with happiness as she said it to me in a bubbly tone.

The audacity of this girl!?

“No way! Leave now!” I was really angry that I might pulled her hair.

“What is happening here!?”

I was startled by a loud voice at my back. I turned my sight from where that someone was and saw my stepmother’s angry face.

“Mom! She wants me to leave my own room!” she said hysterically. She was overreacting! She was acting like she was really hurt.

My stepmother faced me. She raised her brow. “You are the one who should leave, Cass. This isn’t yours anymore.”

“Stop acting like you own this house, Viviane,” I said firmly. I stared back at her fiercely. I was already out of patience. “You and your daughter should be the ones who will leave this house and not me!”

I saw the vein in her neck showing. She was gritting her teeth in anger. She took a step forward. “How dare you!?”