Chapter 2: Worst Day Ever

“Richard?”

"You mean your friend, Mr. Richard Lawson?" 

She whispered out, her eyes blown wide, her mouth opened, and her heart pounding wildly against her chest wall, she was about to lose control of her emotions as her hands started to shake vigorously, so she quietly squeezed her hands together and took deep breaths to calm herself.

“Yes Olivia, same Mr Richard.”

Richard was a well-known businessman who lacked ethics and targeted weaker companies to absorb them. He has been on her father's neck for years because of the debt he owes him. He constantly threatens her father and even sends thugs to his workshop to destroy things.

It was disgusting to even think of marrying him. 

“Dad, you can't be serious.” 

“I can't marry Richard, I don't love him. Besides, I am still in school." 

She Knows she is digging her own grave by voicing out her thoughts, but she has no other choice.

Her father barked with anger in his face. 

“Love? Love is a luxury we can't afford right now.”

“This is about survival and not some stupid love that won't pay our family's debt.”

“Richard has agreed to clear off our debt if you marry him.”

“No, I won't do it,” I can't marry a man like Richard.” Olivia clenched her fists and shook her head, her voice was trembling with a mix of fear and defiance. 

“How could I marry such a man, a man who loves money more than his life? Do you know how he treats and manipulates people just to get money from them? How on earth can I live the rest of my life with a man who is so merciless in his business dealings? Why do you want to suspend my life to a life of misery and pain?”

She threw her hand in frustration and huffed. “I won't marry such a cruel man, Dad, I don't love him.”

Collins rose from his chair, his face was filled with rage. “You ungrateful little brat! After everything I've done for you, is this how you will repay me? How are you even my daughter?”

He shouted, moving closer to her. “Do you know how much I have given up for this family? You think you can just walk in here and refuse my instructions”.

Collins's hand shot out and slapped Olivia across the face before she could react. 

Her cheek was burning with shock and pain from the force of the slap that sent her reeling. 

She stumbled back with tears rolling down from her eyes and water trickling down her cheeks. 

“You this selfish girl, how can you only think of yourself”

“Dad, how could you?” She whispered, holding her burning cheek. “I'm your daughter”.

Collins’s face was a mask of fury. “You will do as you are told, Olivia. You will marry Richard, and you will save this family from debt. If you don't, I will disown you. Do you understand me?”

“We are drowning in debt and you keep talking about some fucking school and arts and you even dare mention love, while I'm struggling to save this family”. Collins kept rambling at the top of his voice.

Olivia felt as though her heart would burst. 

Olivia knows that her Dad had always been strict but she didn't think he could go as far as slapping and even think of disowning her.

“I hear you,” she spoke softly, her voice barely audible.

“But I will not marry Richard”. “I would rather work every day of my life to pay off the debt than marry him, no family's debt will be used as ransom for my happiness.”

Richard gave her father enough time to pay off the debt; and although he frequently sent his boys there to destroy things in her father's workshop, still it was out of his kindness compared to how he treated other people. 

“But Richard is just too much for me.” I don't want to marry him,” she clenched her teeth and said to her father. Collins's face turned dangerously red and he roared at her in anger and was about to hit her again.

Olivia quickly turned away from his face before he could say anything worse or hurt her further, you could see tears streaming down her cheeks from the slap.

She ran through the house with blurred vision and out into the cool night air until she got to the veranda where she stopped. 

She stepped out of the house onto the busy street, hailed a taxi, and returned to her apartment in school.

                   *******

When she got back to her apartment in school, she broke down crying.

“No, this is just too much for me.”

She felt so betrayed, the only person she thought she could rely on, was flaunting his new relationship in front of everyone. 

She remembered the mean things her dad said to her, and Matt who also betrayed her. She was reeling in pain, feeling completely alone and betrayed. 

“Why should he expect his daughter to marry such a wicked and cunning man?”

First, it was scholarship issues because she didn't have time to read as she had to work different part-time jobs to pay her bills and help her family, then Matt, her boyfriend, and now her father.

She felt like her dream was taken away from her; her dream of attending a prestigious university to study art had seemed real, but it appeared to be fading now, and she could not afford to lose the scholarship which was her only ticket out of poverty.

Olivia rose to her feet and began pacing the room while taking long breaths.

“I need to think, No, I can't go back home.” 

Again, she clenched her eyes shut as tears trickled down with anger in her eyes as she burst into tears again. She feels all alone and deserted by those whom she thought loved her. 

“Why is my life so complicated? When will I ever become free? Why is it always from one problem to another? Just why?” She kept asking herself.

Something suddenly stirred inside her amidst all the pain and betrayal. She realized that she had a choice to make, her problems could either break or make her stronger.

Still crying, she raised an eyebrow and whispered to herself “Get it together Olivia. You are tougher than this. It's going to be okay.”

As soon as she said those words, she stood up and began to pace up and down the room. “I have worked too hard for everything to just crumble down. Oh no, I should concentrate on myself. I must keep the scholarship, increase my grade, and focus on my artwork.”

She muttered to herself while standing up on her feet. She was about to grab her paintbrush to see if she could draw something when her phone beeped with another message.