Two

Naya’s POV

I sat unmoving in front of the overly decorated vanity mirror, allowing the young maidens who looked a little too eager to comb through my hair and pamper my face with things that made me uncomfortable.

They were slowly dolling me up and I was quickly beginning to fall in love with what they were doing to my face and body but I wasn’t in a good mood.

I couldn’t be… especially in a situation like this.

The only thing which had gotten me so worked up was the fact that I was being decorated for a ceremony that I wasn’t in support of.

I had always envisioned looking this great on my wedding with the love of my life and not with an unfeeling handsome young man who in a way reminded me of my father.

As soon as they were done with my make up and my hair, they happily helped me into the big white wedding dress that my father had gotten specially for this occasion and stepped away to allow me look into the mirror.

They expected me to gasp and croon about how I looked like some hormonal teenager would but I didn’t.

I couldn’t even bring myself to admire how beautiful I was because I didn’t feel it.

The sound of my phone ringing snapped me out of my train of thoughts and when I picked it up, I was shocked to see that it was my boss calling… again.

He had been calling me for days now and I have not been able to bring myself to pick his calls because I didn’t know what to tell him.

Was I supposed to quit my god paying job over the phone because my father asked me to get married to some stranger to uphold some crazy tradition?  

I quickly long pressed my power button and sighed when the phone went off, but as soon as I did, I heard the door opening up and I quickly turned my head in its direction only to see my father walking in with a smile on his face.

I wanted to rub it off!

“You look beautiful.” He complimented me but I could only nod as I felt tongue tied.

I already knew I was beautiful and also didn’t need him telling me that. In fact I wasn’t ready for all of these at all. I didn’t want it.

“Zach would be so lucky to have a woman like you.” He smiled.

I saw the maids bow their heads and quickly scurried out of the room but none of us acknowledged them.

“But I am not so lucky to have a man like him as my husband and another man like you as my father.” I replied sassily.

I immediately saw a deep frown etch across his face but I didn’t care.

His expression looked stormy and even his jaw was set in such a tight line but that seemed to irk me even more because I was supposed to be the angry one here and not him.

I focused my attention to the subtle rise and fall of his nostrils as he panted in anger, willing myself to calm down because I could already feel myself heating up with anger.

“When did you become this rude?” He growled in my face. I could see how much he tried to restrain himself from hitting me and even though I didn’t want to be struck, I also wanted to frustrate him to the point where he unleashes the beastly part of him.

“Rude? Did you just say rude, dad?” I asked cockily, and when he wouldn’t say a word, I added;

“you and I know that I’m not in any way rude to you or anyone else… I just look and behave so much like you that you find it quite uncomfortable to have a second you walking around.”

I knew that my response triggered something in him, for almost immediately, he snapped, gripped my arm in a tight hold and began to squeeze tight until I was sure that I would get bruised from its impact.

I gasped in shock… dad had never laid his hands on me in my entire life!

“You do not get to talk to me like tha—” he started saying but stopped when someone knocked on the door.

“What is it?” He growled at the person.

“It’s Maxwell sir, I came to inform you that everyone is ready and awaits the bride.” Maxwell answered from the other side of the door.

He was my father’s butler, and sadly, was just as mean and ruthless as his employer.

Father immediately let go of his hold on me, rubbed gently on my now sore upper arm and smiled at me in a way that sent shivers down my spine.

“Take this.” He said, handing over a necklace to me that had a small heart shaped object as its pendant and I took it, skeptically.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Isn’t it obvious!” He snapped, eying me with so much anger that it made me squirm.

“It’s a necklace… a very old one at that. It was given to me by my father, and his father gave it to him…I do not have any other child aside from you and so the reason I’m giving it to you.”

“I do not want it.” I deadpanned.

“Stupid child… you’re not throwing away your family’s heirloom because of your unreasonable pride!” He snapped.

“Inside that pendant, there’s an elixir that should protect you whenever you’re in danger. It’s very potent and shou—”

“What’s it for?” I questioned, cutting him off.

I didn’t know why I felt the way I did but I didn’t want the gift, in fact, I smelled foul play in this whole thing.

“Why do I need to be protected by something like an elixir if I’m only about to get married? Are his family members witches?”

“No, they’re something worse than that.” He replied.

My heart skipped a beat at his utterance and I had to steady myself to keep myself from sprawling to the floor from shock.

“I don’t know what you mean by that but I can’t do this, Father.”  I whispered, shaking my head but he would have none of it.

He slowly shook his head, smiled and reassured me of how strong and resilient I was.

I knew that it was total bullshit… all that he said, and so I simply let it slide.

I told him that I would do it and secured the necklace around my neck. He smiled.

I smirked to myself as he walked away from me with a satisfied grin on his face, took off the necklace and poured its on the floor with an equally satisfied grin on my face.

Life was never this difficult, people made it…

***

I walked into the wedding hall filled with people I never knew with a smile on my face, even though all I wanted was to squeeze out the living daylight out of their necks.

Zach stood at the end of the hall, close to the traditional ruler and I couldn’t help but wonder why the wedding was being held this way instead of the conventional method.

His deep eyes pierced into mine and held as I walked towards him but I immediately shrugged it off because I was in no mood for a stare competition.

With a shaky voice, I agreed to most of the wedding rights but as soon as the religious leader asked Zach, the handsome devil, to kiss his bride, my breath immediately hitched.

He bent down slowly, his lips almost touching mine. I could feel my heart jump in excitement at the prospect of being kissed by someone this handsome but as soon as I tilted my head upwards to grant him access to my mouth, he pulled away, making the crowd erupt into a wild frenzy.

My heart sank.

He smirked though, quite unbothered by what he had just done while I stood still, with tears in my eyes, scolding myself for being gullible…