“What?”
“What do you mean what?” she asked and I winced. “Your husband is coming home.”
“Oh,” I said, blinking. “Oh yeah.”
My ‘husband’, the man I met for less than twenty minutes on the aisle before I said ‘I do,’ when of course I really wanted to say ‘Are you freaking kidding me?’ but with some more R rated words in between. And then there was the five-minute awkward car ride where neither of us talked, partially because I was frozen staring at the heavy ring on my finger intruding my personal space. And then this so called husband disappeared for the next six months to continue his studies, training, whatever he was doing.
Today he was coming back and I couldn’t even remember how he looked.
Rose crossed her legs, smoothing the fabric she was wearing before she looked at me and I recognised that look. It was her ‘big sister’ time.
“Look, I know this has been hard, and we both know you were forced to marry him but it’s done. And he can’t be that bad. This is Darius, the hot businessman. At least one bonus point is you can shag a hot guy.”
I cringed at her words. Typical Rose. I held back a laugh imagining some of the women’s face if she ever said ‘shag’ in a tea party.
“Are you listening to me?”
No.
“Have you even seen the papers lately? Trust me, girl. If I were you, I would marry him.”
No, I have not been reading the papers. This whole thing was like a nightmare, one that I would love to wake up from any moment. Yes, feel free to jolt me awake.
But it wasn’t a dream, even though I was still confused about the whole situation. I know I was forced but at least wouldn’t he have the common sense to say no? If he were this successful businessman, surely he would have a say in his life. There was no way the ‘old promise’ our great grandparents or whoever made was still strong on his side like mine.
It was either marry him or say goodbye to everything I loved. The irony was that even after I married him, I said goodbye to everything I loved.
If these past months were anything of what was about to come, or how I would live the rest of my life, I would have said no.
But it was too late. The only happy moments I had were re-living the memories of the times I went to the beach with my friends, my childhood moments and just imagining going to the movies.
Now all I went to was the backyard for some me time. It was like the happiness in my life was stolen away and I was becoming a skeleton of who I was. I ate, I slept and I sat around all day, unless I was at a party, then I would be sitting there.
I was sure one day I was just going to fall asleep and not wake up.
Rose was still staring at me with a worried expression on her face and I looked around at the door, expecting it to burst open with this husband of mine with a file in his hand with divorce papers in it. Surely after six months he would have realised the mistake we did. I couldn’t break it off; if I did, my parents would bury me alive and watch me suffer, or at least my mother would. But if he broke it off, it wouldn’t be my fault at all.
“Are you going to get ready? He’s going to be here anytime now,” she said, standing up. She reached up fixing her hair and I got up envying the way her hair tumbled down her shoulders. Mine was in some tight bun, making me feel like an old woman.
The not-so-familiar sensation of my thumping heart came back as I held my dress tightly in my hands. I followed her to the front door where the butler was standing smiling at us. The front gates opened and a limousine stopped, the window rolling down as the guards spoke something. It seemed like a decade before the limousine started to move again and I gulped, a million things going through my mind.
How was one supposed to greet the man you had barely met?
How was one supposed to meet a man that you would spend the rest of your life with?
How was I supposed to meet my husband?
And all thoughts fled my mind as the door opened and one glossy black shoe stepped out, followed by another. Rose squealed like a schoolgirl, grabbing my hand as he stepped out.
And my breathing stopped.
That was him?
Chapter Two
Six Months Ago
"Ivy, Ivy!" Rose shouted, shaking my hand. I gasped and turned around, wiping my eyes quickly. The blood that was surging through my body was on fire and I rushed to the front door. Rose ran after me, telling me not to do anything rash, but it was too late. I had already banged loudly on the door.