Chapter Two

Ana POV

Oh, my God!

What are you doing to me, Father?

What wedding?

"Ana, we are here today, at this dinner, to inform you that you are getting married, in two weeks there will be a wedding that will unite you in marriage." I stared at my father and burst out laughing very loudly, attracting the attention of the other people at the surrounding tables, who turned to look at us, a tremor in my hands was not long in coming and I felt like I couldn't breathe.

"Tell me you're kidding, Dad," I blurted out, still laughing. "Tell me it's a lie?" I said with a voice that was somewhere between clipped and soaring.

"I'm sorry Ana, but your mother and I have talked about the two of you, you're both of marriageable age and I think it would be best.... Besides, you're single, so is he, and the two of you can get along."

Dad's smile was the ugliest I have ever seen in my life, did he even know the pain he was causing me? Because I doubted it.

"No, the only thing going on here is that you are selling me to a rich family, Dad, are you crazy? I'm your daughter, you can sell the shares on the stock market, you can get more offers for the company, I... I really don't think this is the solution," my tears threatened to come out and I held them back, "You're crazy, dad! How can you sell your daughter to save a company? Why don't you sell Andres?

"Ana, stop being rude, you are a young lady who has been taught education and respect, you are making me look bad in front of my partners, this is a decision I have made, you will do what I say," said my father. "Excuse her bad upbringing, she is not supposed to behave like this."

They had gone mad, really mad, the truth.

"Mother, say something." A choked sob escaped my throat. "Mother, don't let her do this." I clung to her hand.

"I'm sorry, Ana, just do what your father says." No, that was a lie, my father wouldn't sell me, would he?

But then why didn't Mom want to look me in the face?

"Mom..."

Mothers protect their children, but mine didn't, my mother always supported whatever my father did or said, she was like a puppet with no sense of belonging who could only follow in the footsteps of her adored husband.

I could no longer watch them sell my life to another company, because it was no secret to anyone in this country that Maldonado Construction was bankrupt, many of the investors pulled out because Dad was buying second hand materials and some people died due to the collapse of a building in the middle of the city.

They were looking for a way out of their financial problems by using their children as bargaining chips.

I got up from the table because I felt that my life was going to collapse in the middle of my favorite restaurant and in front of many people.

They were all so calm, as if they had been prepared to see how I would react, it was obvious that this had been planned for a long time and I, like a fool, was not even aware of it.

Well,' Andres said, it was our time to flee because later we were going to regret staying.

I do regret it.

"I can't. I don't want to get married. I... I'm sorry." I run out of the restaurant as fast as I can, not knowing what to do or where to go, I run as far as I can until I reach a small park and drop my body on a bench as I cry.

A wedding in two weeks was crazy.

Was I dreaming?

It had to be a lie, they were playing with me, why didn't they do that to Andres, the creature who only knew how to humiliate the family, to do God knows what shit with the people he hung out with in the dirtiest neighborhoods of the city.

"Can I sit down?" a hoarse voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and when I saw who it was, I jumped. "Ana, I'm not going to hurt you, I just want us to talk, I want you to know that it's a surprise for me too, Dad came to the company a few days ago with this crazy idea and I'm not the one to stand up to him." Gabriel speaks in a calm and paused way, it made me think, I didn't see him worried at all about what was happening.

He talks to me about accepting a marriage without love, in the year our parents think we are, these things only happen in Asian countries and nowadays these things don't happen anymore.

"You're not going to reject this madness, are you going to accept a marriage without love?" I don't pretend to smile and even less that I'm happy to see him worse, I'm still bothered by his serenity in facing this situation his and my parents have trapped us in. "I don't know what our parents are up to, but everything is going their way and you have to help me find a way to talk some sense into them." I wipe all traces of tears from my face because I don't want to show my weakness to the enemy, and right now this guy is my worst enemy.

As if fate was playing a trick on me, my phone started ringing with a call from the last person I want to see right now.

Because I don't know with which face I should face Lían.

What would I say to him?

Lían, my beautiful friend, called and I didn't know what to do or say, because telling the truth was the last thing I would do.

I decided to ignore the call, the phone in my hands began to shake until it fell to the ground and Gabriel picked it up even though the call was active.

The phone stopped ringing, but before I could take it out of Gabriel's hands, Lían's name, which I had as a contact, and the picture of us embracing were clearly visible.

Without knowing why, I wanted to explain to him who Lían was, but I remembered who I was with and who he was, so I preferred to observe in the same way, appearing calm and serene, which in reality I did not have.

"If it's a boyfriend or a special friend, whatever you have with this guy who makes you so nervous just by calling you, it's not right, you know that can bring us a lot of trouble." Her face was completely calm. "Both with your father and with my father."

Gabriel's way of acting made me believe that all this was so normal for him, what's more, I think he was already aware of it, because at the table when they were talking about performing the wedding, he was so calm, the only stupid one who didn't know what was going on was me.

That's why dad told me to be a little late, and made up that pathetic excuse about me being a girl who likes to go out well-groomed and be late to waste time.

They were agreeing all the time in the restaurant, while I arrived, plotting how to ruin my life in a loveless marriage.

Wow, Mom and Dad hit the jackpot as the best parents in the world.

"Ana, marriage is not based on love, it is a business where both parties win, and your parents really win a lot, let's say or do something, our parents will marry us anyway, I am not in a position to oppose the wedding because I will lose a lot, Ana, I know it will be difficult for both of us, but then we have to get along, live together." Gabriel said it and made it look so easy, "Ana, in time we can be friends and I know you will be able to cope with what will be our new life from now on." One of his hands rested on mine and dropped the phone. "Ana don't mind because if it's not me it will be another man your parents will marry you off to."

"'Friend'?" I said in a mocking tone. "Gabriel, I don't want to marry a man just to be his friend, I always thought I would marry the man I would love and he would love me as well, I would live happy and quiet like in princess stories, you and I both know that when we get married most likely in less than five months I will want to separate from you because we will be clear we will hate being next to each other, I know because we are strangers."

"We just have to prepare ourselves, Ana, this is something we will not escape and you know it very well, your parents are like mine and no one will stop them, I want you to take it calmly, don't worry, we just have to put up with it for two years and then you can be free.