04: In Exchange

CHRISTINA:

This was supposed to be a joyful day, but how come it led to this? 

My heart was already full of anger so that tears wouldn't come out of my eyes. It had been a couple of hours since I left our house and stayed in my car. 

I wanted to go to Poppy and pour my heart out, but Sebastian and her were newly made up and I did not want to become a burden to them. 

If I had known I had such kind of parents' I  would have never been born.

"You're fat. Do some exercise," I remember Mom said upon seeing how my clothes no longer fit. I had an additional half pound on my weight and she already said I was fat, though there was nothing wrong with being fat.

"Wear some bangs. You have a huge forehead," she said another time.

I never remember her praising me for being good. For excelling in my academics. All she was focused on was my physical appearance and how I was different from my peers who were already marrying billionaire husbands.

Mom did not know how to show affection to us, nor did she ever feel any love at all.

My phone suddenly rang.

Without even reading who was calling 'cause I was too tired to read it, I answered the phone.

"Hello."

"Christina."

A long pause. 

Everette. The demon in my life. 

I was about to put down the phone when he said, "Do not end this call."

"What do you want, Mr. Watson? Isn't it enough for you that you ruined my life?"

"I did not ruin your life. All I did was reply to your chats. It was you who first messaged me on Swiped."

Yeah. I was the one. Who wouldn't? His profile pic was of a man wearing eyeglasses, his head down. It was heavily edited using AI, with only a few resemblances of his real self, and I totally fell for it. 

"I'm so tired of this, Mr Watson. Why don't you leave me alone?"

All I wanted to do right now was cry until the heaviness was already gone. 

Everette won't empathize with me. Unlike me, he had loving parents who treasured him so much. He did not have a mother who told him that he was useless while I had been told countless times just because I didn't bring any money to her. 

"Oh, come on. Where is the sweet Tina I've been chatting with these past few months? It looked like this is the new Tina now."

I went by the screen name Tina in Swiped.

"She's no longer here. What do you want, Mr. Watson? I'm tired from everything." 

And there was my Mom threatening me to end their life. How fucked up has my life turned around? I envied Benedict. He had long gone away from Mom's clutches and could no longer manipulate him.

I wanted to escape from them, for the second time, but there was Everette. He would ask someone to look for me. 

"Tell me your answer. Will you pay me or will you marry me?"

Why did this mean set on marrying me? There were far more beautiful women and skinnish women than me. Why was he set on pursuing me even after five years?

"Why do you want to marry me?" I asked, blurting out what was in my mind. 

"You want an answer? Let's meet."

"I cannot escape you forever, huh?"

"Now, we are finally talking, Christina. No one can except me. Sooner or later, I will find you."

"I was able to hide from you for five years, Mr. Watson."

A low growl escaped from her lips. 

"I will be sending you the location and you don't have to worry about the expenses. It's on me, cupcake."

"Stop calling me cupcake."

Everette chuckled. "Why? You loved it before."

"That was before I knew it was you. You were Rett to me. Let's finish this off. Send me the damn location."

----------

I thought Everette Watson wanted a luxurious five-star restaurant for a meet-up because that was what he loved—showing off his wealth, but it turned out he wanted to meet me in a park near a beach. This was usually the place where Kelly wanted to go and visit. 

I just hoped Poppy and I wouldn't be meeting her, cause if we did, she would ask me lots of questions which I had no time to answer as of the moment. 

Since it was during work hours, only a few people had visited the place.

Finding Everette among the crowd was not a problem. He was always an eye-catcher. People, especially ladies would usually have a double take on her. 

I found Everette leaning on his car while watching the people walking back and forth. His eyes specifically were trained on a couple walking hand in hand. 

I stopped for a moment, admiring how perfectly sculpted his face was. and when I found out what I was doing, I shook my head. 

"Everette is your enemy," I muttered to myself. 

Everette was handsome. He was one of my crushes before, but then something made me choose to not accept him as my groom, and ran away from our wedding.

Did I regret running away from him?

Partly.

What would our marriage world look like if I pursued the wedding?

As if sensing he was being watched, Everette's eyes looked for something or someone and waved his hand at me, as if urging me to approach him.

I never wanted to marry a CEO or a billionaire for that matter, another reason why I did not want to marry him. I know how my life would turn to—miserable. 

I stopped right in front of him. "Let's not waste any more of our time."

Everette strengthened himself while smiling at me. 

Damn. 

I did not want to see his pearly teeth, it made my heart jump and I would go back to being the Christy who would always fall from a man. Then I would get heartbroken and I would search for someone again to fill that void. Yada. Yada. 

"I see. You made up your mind."

"Tell me what I will get from this business marriage," I asked, without getting around the bush.