One

Naya’s POV

The smile on my face instantly fell, the moment I took in the seriousness on my father’s face. It took me a while to finally get it but then the realization dawned on me that he was indeed serious!

“You promised me, father!” I snapped angrily. “You promised that I would have a say in this..”

Who the hell was he to dictate my life like this? And what kind of sick joke was he trying to play?

“I was wrong, you do not have a say in this one, you’re getting married to Zach Montgomery.” He said with a note of finality, and then stood up to walk out of the room as if he had not just said something that was bound to change the entire course of my life.

I hated this! I hated that I had to be his only daughter and the fact that it was my father’s clan’s turn to give out one of our daughters in marriage to the Montgomery present leader.

Some months ago, he had discussed with me about the tradition in my family which always made high ranked members of my family give their virgin daughters to the present leader of the Montgomery family.

At first I didn't know why he was telling me something like that because he had other higher ranked brothers who had more than enough daughters to save our family’s face but now I know why…

…they were coming for me!

Now, I wasn’t feeling angered about it because I was literally being forced to get married to someone I knew practically nothing about but felt this way because dad had always promised me that I’d always have a say in anything that concerned my future.

It has always been like that, he’d make the decision but sell my consent… but then I’m this case, he simply did not care. He wasn’t even interested in listening to whatever I had to say about it.

To think that he called me from my home in San Francisco only for him to greet me with such news annoyed me more than it disgusted me and I couldn’t help but talk back at him even though it was the one thing I hated doing.

Never!

“I am not doing this, father!” I yelled out at him who immediately stopped by the door as soon as he heard me speak.

“Okay, fine then, do whatever you want.” He said.

Wait… what?

“…but then you’ll seize to be my daughter and would be cut off from me and every other person from this family… and also lose access to all the bank accounts and jobs you have as my daughter.” He finalized.

“You can’t do that! I’m your only child!” I sneered but he instantly turned to look at me like I was some stupid toddler.

“Watch me.”

My eyes immediately widened at his utterance. I couldn’t believe this; couldn’t believe that he would stoop this low… and try to threaten me just to send his stupid point across.

I visibly shivered when he gave me one last hard look, and then strutted out of the room as if he had not just threatened me into getting married to some stranger simply because of some family tradition.

A tradition that I absolutely never had any business with.

My heart fell, I didn’t want this! I had a life already and a job somewhere else… I can’t do this!

In anger, I picked up my bag and was about to walk out of the house when I remembered that one day, I had overheard Richie, my boyfriend telling someone over the phone that one of the reasons he liked me was because I was going to help him climb up the social ladder.

I had brushed it off that day because I knew that a lot of guys wanted me for that purpose… but then what would happen now that I had no social ladder to offer to him?

Angry tears sprung into my eyes but I refused to let them fall as I stormed angrily into my old room at my father’s mansion and threw myself on the large bed in the middle of the room.

I guess my father was always meant to win anyways and that should be the reason for his unreasonable cockiness; only that this time, I had a lot of things in store for him and my so-called husband.

The kind of things that would make them all decide I was a psychopath…and yes I was,

I was just like my father.

***

I groaned in fatigue as soon as I got to the top of the stairs and stretched.

I had been out jogging for the past hour because I had been looking for a way to avoid breakfast with my father which I successfully did.

I didn’t want to see him yet, especially after that stunt he pulled some hours ago and still wasn’t intending to until he decided to hear me out.

As soon as I got to the corridor leading to his room and mine, which also had his sturdy, I paused when I saw light seeping through his office into the dark corridor.

I could make out the voices of men arguing heatedly in the sturdy, and from here, I could also sense the anger in their voices as they spoke.

It sounded like a fight.

In curiosity, I tiptoed towards his door to eavesdrop on their conversation but I still couldn’t make out most of the words they said.

I could hear the banging of tables and even that of people growling, but instead of walking away like any sane person would, I instead stood rooted to the place because I naturally wasn’t sane.

Everyone knew that…

I knew that my father was in no form of trouble because he was always and has always been able to take care of himself during conflicts.

The person I feared for was the one on his receiving end.

I slowly crept up to the door in order to be able to hear them a little more clearly than I already could and pressed myself against the door, with my ears laid flat on it.

I could hear them clearer now but as soon as I pressed my weight against the door, I heard the clicking sounds of something and wasn’t fast enough to react as I fell straight into the office when the door suddenly sprung open.

Dang!

I laid on the floor unmoving, unsure if I had the audacity to look up into the faces of the men who must think of me as a fool for embarrassing myself this way.

“Naya? What do you think you’re doing?” I heard my father ask in surprise and I sat up slowly, not wanting to meet anyone’s gaze.

Embarrassment crept up my cheek and I could feel it sting my ears as I looked up at my father and whispered; “I was eavesdropping.”

I didn’t want to lie to him, couldn’t bring myself to even though I could have thought of something else to say.

I heard someone’s muffled chuckle sound behind me, and in curiosity, I turned to look in the direction of the voice only to be met with the most silver shade of eyes I had ever seen in my life.

It belonged to a man who looked almost as old as my father but had fine lines around his eyes and had a kind of peaceful smile on his face that even my father could never have.

He looked down at me with so much affection and I unintentionally squirmed because I had never been entitled to this kind of open affection in my life.

“That’s my daughter, Naya.” My father said gruffly from his position behind his desk. I could sense the anger in his voice as he spoke, and even the…embarrassment.

My face flushed.

“Naya, that’s Adonis and his son, Alpha Zach… your husband to be.” He said to me and I gasped.

I slowly turned to the other man who stood a little too close to the handsome old man, and gasped as well when I was met with younger silver eyes.

He looked exactly like his father but had some distinct features that made him quite more physically attractive.

They had these stern expressions on their faces, but that couldn’t dispute the fact that they literally looked like Greek gods.

The ‘Zach’ smirked in my direction, and winked at me.. and for a minute, I wished for the ground to open up and swallow me…