CHAPTER 4

I wake up from the loud knocking on my door. I forced myself to stand up. I could barely open my eyes. I put on my slippers and walked towards the door.

The mayordoma or the head of the maids in our house greeted me.

“Good morning, Princess. A special visitor paid a visit and your father said that you need to dress decently right now and join them for breakfast,” she said in a British accent.

“Do I really need to be there?”

“Your father said yes. The visitor is here for you, actually.”

My brow crossed as I got confused. I don’t remember inviting anyone over to our house. Who could possibly it be?

“Okay, I’ll be downstairs in twenty minutes.”

“Certainly! Take your time, Princess” she said before leaving and I shut the door.

I face-palmed before going to the bathroom to wash my face. I then fixed myself. I put on a blue below-the-knee off-shoulder dress and flat sandals before going out.

Our house is huge while there’s only seven of us living here. In fact, a hundred people could fit in here. We are surrounded by gold furniture. My parents just love gold very much, obviously.

The design of our house is a somewhat modern version of a vintage design. Almost similar to the house designs I saw on princess or fantasy movies. This place is literally a palace, a castle, but a modern one. We have elevators for easy going up and down and other advanced electronics.

I don’t know how they still call this a house, this is not even close to a mansion.

My parents are waiting on our long kitchen table with unfamiliar faces that I had never seen before. They’re probably the visitors. But, what do they want from me?

I went in their direction and a gentleman who was one of the visitors stood up and pulled the chair for me. He looks young, probably the same age as me. And he is fine-looking, too.

Everyone smiled at me, including my parents and I could sense that they’re up to something no good. My parents does that kind of smiles when the biggest show of our businesses is about to happen, but one of the family members has to sacrifice to achieve the goal.

So, it is me this time.

The maids served my food. But, I don’t have the appetite to shove anything in my mouth with the thought that something might happen that is not in favor of me.

“So, Princess, me, your mother, and these ladies and gentlemen who joined us today are just talking about something so important, and it involves you,” my father started the conversation.

“What is it, dad?”

“Well, we discussed something last night, right?” he asked, looking at me and giving me his deadly stare.

When did we talk? The last time we had words for each other was two weeks ago. Afraid of getting scolded, I nodded my head. “Sure,” I lied.

“This is what I meant by that. The Salcedo family wants to seal an official business merging with us. I can’t say no for they were also generous to us for the past months. And this gentleman in front of you,” he referred to the young man who pulled the chair for me. “He’s your fiancé.”

Fiancé? Fiancé? The word echoed inside my head. I was stunned for a second or two before I forcedly plastered a smile on my lips. I’m not prepared for this. They could have told me earlier so I could have time to grieve my soon-to-be gone freedom, and so I could act perfectly normal in front of them.

I’m just actually forcing myself to act normal. I’m stopping myself from panicking or making any irrelevant reactions.

Why me? I have a lot of cousins who are the same age as me, so why me? Why not one of them? None of my older siblings is married yet. So, why did arranged marriage have to start from me?

“Isn’t it nice? We will be another powerful family that’s going to be known. Our businesses are going to have their biggest improvements,” the man, whom I assumed is the head of the other family, said.

My dad nodded his head. “Certainly, I can’t wait to start the planning. Investors will be wild, trying to share assets with us,” he followed with a laugh.

They elegantly laughed while I was here, maintaining the forced smile.

I didn’t even know who these people were. I didn’t even get their names. There wasn’t any formal introduction.

But, whatever. I can no longer do anything about it. In fact, I can never do anything about it other than following their plans.

I didn’t have the voice, the authority, the privilege to say anything. Just their words and everything is settled. This is not a good scene to start someone’s day.

“You two will be visiting a wedding organizer after this. You need to start planning ‘cause the wedding will be happening six months from now,” dad said.

My body weakened and my stomach became upset. “Why are we rushing? Should we take our time deciding on the perfect setup?” I calmly said, maintaining my composure.

“Don’t worry, Princess,” the lady, whom I think is the mother of my fiancé, said. “The wedding organizer you are going to visit is the best of the best. They are world class and can do fast jobs. You don’t have to worry about it. They’ll surely make everything perfect, just the way you like it.”

I just nodded my head and went to focus on my food that I could hardly swallow.

“Dad, how about our engagement party?” my fiancé asked his father.

“Oh, about that. Mr. Adolfo and I already talked about it. We’re gonna make this a surprise for everyone. No more engagement party, we’ll invite everyone days before the actual ceremony. That would be exciting and fun.”

“Hmm…” my fiancé nodded his head and then continued eating his food.

They went on talking about the wedding and all I did was smile and nod my head. My brain is still processing what they just told me.

After eating, I excused myself and went to my room. When I closed the door, I let out a deep breath and closed my eyes. This is it, I can no longer turn my back.

After a while I opened my eyes and went to my walk-in closet. I need to change my clothes. As I was looking for something decent to wear, I heard my door opened and closed, a sign that someone went in. So, I went out to check.

My so-called fiancé is inside, roaming around my room as if he has all the authority to do so. He is touching all those little figures I displayed on my table and would just throw them back. The audacity of this man is amazing.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

He immediately turned to me and gave me a devious smile. “Your dad told me to help you decide on what you are going to wear today. You know, he said we should start getting along and getting close ‘cause we’ll be husband and wife six months from now.”

“Thanks, but I can do it myself.”

“I know, I just followed you all the way here so they’d stop telling me to follow you. You're not a child who needs help on what she's going to wear.”

I got slightly offended. “Yeah, so, why don't you just sit there and not touch anything.”

“Why? All these things of yours will also be mine very very soon and you can't tell me not to touch them,” he replied, giving me a fierceful look as if whatever I say won't matter to him. He even threw on the floor the Captain America figure.

“Could you please stop feeling superior or yourself?! It doesn't suit you well. And please, you're just my fiancé, we are both here for business. I don't even know who you are, or even where the fuck you came from,” I calmly said.

I see, he's one of those feeling-superior boys who thinks low of women. I take back what I said earlier, he's not fine-looking and his attitude is terrible. No woman would want this kind of man to be married with.

He gave me a sly smile. He then stepped forward towards me. “You don't know what I am capable of doing, honey. I could destroy this whole room right now, and I could also destroy you too if I want to and none of your parents could do something to make me accountable.”

His threat is making me cringe. How pathetic!

I stared at him dead in the eyes and smirked. “Why don't you do so? I'd be happy to let everyone know that you're canceling the wedding. You know what, you're so fucking pathetic. Being arrogant doesn't suit you well. Your threat doesn't even sound scary. You need to do better than that.” I leaned closer to his ear and whispered, “You look like a child who never received any love from anyone and so you became an attention seeker bitch.” I rolled my eyes at him one last time before turning my back and went back to my closet.