Chapter 14: Growing Fear

DAHLIA:

“Dahlly, don’t be insane! You can never wed someone you knew for the first time!”

This was papa’s first words when he saw me that day before I left for town. I didn’t eat breakfast because I had no appetite, but he did not care at all. All he cared about was the state of my arranged marriage.

“Papa, would it be better then if I married someone I knew but did not love? Even you had loved my mother wholeheartedly, right? You were fated mates! How can I not do the same?”

My father’s angry face contorted into a pained expression. Every time I mentioned my mother in our conversations, it would always become like this.

“The love of a fated mate is not all there is in this world! How can you think like a child in times like this, Dahlia?”

I felt hurt. I was nineteen – an adult – but still very much like a child too… his own child! Did he not care about me at all?