Episode Three

I can't worry about that now; I'll think about it in the morning. I stayed in bed the rest of the weekend until my parents returned home and my mother entered my room. "Honey, are awake! We made it back. Kita! I saw so many beautiful gowns for the wedding."

I didn't respond to her enthusiastic disposition. "Is everything okay? How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay." I lied. I felt sick to my stomach. I wish I could just throw up and be done with this feeling.

"Kita, what do you think about this dress?"

"Oh, Mom, I have a horrendous headache this morning." I didn't even get out of bed to do my morning exercise. I didn't feel like it. For the first time in two days, I walked around my room to try and strengthen my weak body. I picked up the bottle of ibuprofen and down three tablets. The headaches, sore shoulder, and general feeling of fatigue still existed. I was still trying to recover more from my horrific experience. Every time I think about it, my heart twists tight in my chest.

"Mom, I need to talk to you and Dad about the wedding."

"What is Kita? You look miserable. This should be the happiest time in your life, dear. We've picked out a good match for you." 

I began crying, shaking my head no to what she just said. Then I told my mother everything that happened to me a few nights ago. My mother hugged me. "Kita, it's going to be alright. I'll talk to your Dad and tell him what happened, okay? Get some rest, my dear." 

My mom helped me to bed, and I lay back down, relieved it was over. She didn't react badly, knowing I didn't want to marry that awful man. 

After a few minutes, an urgent knock came to my door! My father entered my room. I figured he was coming to apologize for arranging for me to marry that awful guy. An array of hope entered my heart!

But when I looked up into my Dad's eyes, he pulled out the chair across from me, sitting and staring at me with unapologetic eyes. I take a deep breath and chance a look, just a tiny glance, waiting to hear what he says to me as my heart thumps, thumps, thumps so loudly.

"Hi, baby girl. How are you feeling? You look a lot better than your mother described."

"Hi, Dad," I replied expectantly.

"I need to talk to you. I hope you feel better now that you have had time to think more clearly. Mother told me about what happened." He said, clearing his throat.

"I know you feel bad about everything, and so do I. But Kita, Mr. Cole is a very important business person. Did you ever think about that young woman being a client? Kenneth is a man who deals with a lot of people all across the world, and that includes females." 

"What? I'm so sorry, Dad, I know what I saw! I can't believe what I'm hearing coming from you! Are you making excuses for him? I can't talk any longer. I can't breathe right now." I clutch my robe to my pounding heart inside my chest!

I took deep breaths of air into my constricted lungs. I begin shaking while speaking.

"I'm so naive," I tell my father.

"No, you are not! You are just inexperienced, my daughter. I need you to listen to me for a second. I know what you are thinking. This is a mistake, but trust me, I'm watching out for you as my daughter and future grandchildren. Kita, you will never want for anything with Kenneth Cole." 

"Nothing but for my husband to love me!"

"Your mother and I are not perfect, but we have more experience than you, and we know what's best. Everyone makes mistakes, and what makes a lasting marriage is being a good forgive.

"Dad, I could forgive him, but I will never forget."

"I understand you think he is the wrong man for you. But he's not. Kenneth Cole is one of the smartest and youngest billionaires to come to the island! He appreciates the kind of girl you are. He knows you will make him a great wife. Besides, I can't take the future of my company lightly; we need the merger, sweetheart, to survive."

I didn't and couldn't respond. My tears could not stop falling as I listened to my father! My father and mother were the closest people to me. I've always heard of and respected them. It wasn't easy for me. 

My Dad said, leaning toward me. "You have been getting so many marriage offers, but none are as lucrative as Mr. Cole's offer, Kita; come to your senses! Now, I've talked to him, and all he wants you to do before the wedding is apologize for the embarrassing public scene you caused the other night."  

I closed my eyes tight! A pain shot through my head and heart simultaneously! 'Lord help me!' My heartbeat was so fast at hearing my father's words. I wanted to scream! Yet, I felt like a little girl who longed to please and not disappoint my daddy. I've always dreamed of a daddy to make my hurt go away.

"Think about it, Kita! It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to marry a man like Mr. Cole! What's a little apology in comparison?"

My breathing became erratic again. It would painfully stop all the jagged in my throat. Once again, I had to take deep breaths. It felt as if something was taking over me. Something I wasn't familiar with at all! I moved from in front of him, trying to calm my breathing. '

My eyes filled with tears at hearing my father. I'm trying to control my emotions. The scene of the man I was supposed to marry with another woman kept reappearing like a broken DVD movie stuck on repeat. What would my life be like if I married a man like that? A man didn't love or respect me?

"Dad, I am your only child! You want me to have a good life. But I want a happy life filled with love. Don't you get it? I hated trusting a man who had proven to be so untrustworthy! Initially, I was willing to go through with this marriage. I wanted to make you and Mom happy." Tears welled up in my eyes once again.

"Trust me, he's a great catch! We need to act while we can! Here, read this."

I looked down at the marriage contract and could not believe my eyes. When I read what was in the matrimonial section of the agreement:

"Oh my God!" I screamed aloud.

 I found the strength to rip that agreement to shreds!

My father stopped dead in his tracks, stunned for a second. I threw the marriage contract in the wastebasket! Tears streamed down my eyes!

"No! I refuse to become another casualty like so many of my friends in this town!" I said, standing in my bedroom as my father was shocked at my response.

"I don't know what's wrong with you!"

My mother swiftly came to my side, holding my trembling hand, looking concerned. "Honey, your father thought...." my mother began to say.

"Does Dad think about anyone but himself? No! He doesn't! He just seems to act on what he wants!" I yelled.

His brows furrowed with narrow slits in his eyes. He looked at me and then back at mother.

"Watch that mouth of yours, young lady! I'm still your father!" My Dad says, now standing after taking a few deep breaths. My mother continued. "It's not that simple, Kita."

"If you think I'm getting married to that awful man. You better think again!"

"Honey, think about all the work we have gone through to convince his mother, Mrs. Cole." My mother uttered.

My eyes expanded! My ears could not believe what I heard as I stated. "You had to beg her to let me marry her son! Are you that desperate? Or are you two that keen to get rid of me? Don't bother answering that! Because I'm leaving!"

I said, opening up my closet and dragging my suitcase out.

I never wanted to leave home like this, but running away seemed my only option. I knew my mother wouldn't force me to do anything. But my father hurt me badly, and he didn't have the decency to apologize, and the only thing he thinks he did wrong was selecting the wrong type of guy.

"Stop it, Kita! Where are you moving to? We are family!" My mother says, upset.

"I can't stay here under this roof with his archaic rules. I can't do this any longer! Now, you want me to apologize and marry this man whose mother you begged to accept me. What's going on here?"

"So you're not going to marry him?"

"Father, I've asked you not to make me follow this tradition."

"Kita, I've been knowing him for years."

"Exactly, father, you've been knowing him. Look, I'm not interested in arranged marriages. I tried to do it your way, but not anymore!"

"So, will you be single for the rest of your life?! Kita, this isn't right!"

"Mom, I'd rather be happy and single than be married and miserable! I will find the right man and get married on my own."

"But how Kita? My mother asked, deeply concerned.

"I don't know how, mother. But I don't want to marry Kenneth Cole!"

"You will find a man who only wants to marry you for the wrong reasons. You have no notion of how men can be Kita!" My mother said.

"And you knew Kenneth Cole's true motives?! He surely wasn't interested in marrying me because we had fallen in love. His motives were just as impure as any!"

"I don't believe I'm hearing this from you, Kita! You've always been so sensible about things in the past. I worry you've taken leave of your senses."

"I haven't taken leave of my senses. I have come to my senses, Mother! I'm 21 years old." I turned and rolled my suitcases out of the bedroom.

"If I've been so sensible in the past, you should trust me not to do anything foolish now. I know what I'm doing, and there's nothing you can say to convince me otherwise. I want to know what it's like to be happy and truly in love." I said, finally in tears.

I could tell from the look on my mother and father's faces they didn't understand.

"You're our daughter, and we only want to see you happily married to a man who will do you good and be a credit to the family." Her mother said.

I sighed. There's no point in arguing about it anymore."

"Even though you're leaving this house, young lady! I still have a say in who you marry! Do you understand?!" Her father yelled, walking out of the room.

My parents wholeheartedly believed in their way. But at that moment, my possibilities of finding the kind of man I wanted in my future felt slim to none. Being confined in this small town with everyone thinking and feeling the same, I didn't have much hope for marriage. 

"Please, Mom, I would appreciate it if you would drop the whole subject and" try to understand me for once."

"I don't know if I can do that," My mother said with tears.

"I'm not going to marry Kenneth Cole!" I said"firmly.

"I don't believe I'm hearing this from you, Kita." I just don't believe it."

"Believe it." I compressed my lips to control my temper." Because this is my mother, and I highly respect and love her. I hugged my mom and told her that I loved her very much.

"But I got to go."

"Go where, Kita!" My mother called behind me" as I walked out "of"the door!