Chapter 1 The arranged marriage

• My marriage was a huge failure. Well, what did I expect? It was an arranged marriage after all. Usually, nothing good ever comes out of an arranged marriage. Just pain, frustration, despicable stares from people around, and miserable life.
• This miserable life was assigned to me by my parents.We were well-off. Riches were underestimation. We were loaded; we had virtually everything in the world.
• Regardless of that, it appeared that mum and dad were not satisfied with that. They craved the whole world for themselves. My parents were what I could call insatiable individuals if those words even sounded good enough to assess them.
• My name is Jasmine Nova Hill and I’m 28 years old. When I was little, I never really enjoyed quality time with my parents. They were either busy with work or I don’t know. I spent most of my time with babysitters who took good care of me; more than my parents ever would.
• It was not long before they chose to drop me off with dad’s parents. Mum’s parents were dead long before I was born so I don’t know them.I was only 6 when they dropped me off at Nana’s and Papa’s place and they seldom came to visit. I lived with my grandparents and spent time with them more than I ever did with my parents.
• Nana and Papa cared for me better than my parents ever did. My parents were never there for my birthdays. Rather, they would bring a gift two months after my birthday. Multiple times, they’d simply deliver it through the driver or a secretary.
• Papa and Nana never made me feel the rejection of my so called ‘dear parents’. They made me feel loved and accepted. They treated like I was their own kid and I must say at some point, I saw them as my birth parents.
• They told me every single day that my parents loved me so much and were busy working so they could give me all the good things I desired but I knew they were just saying all that so I would not grow up to despise my parents.
• An awful incident happened when I was 16. Papa left us. He died in his sleep. Nana and I wept so much our eyes almost jumped out of its sockets, especially on the day of his cremation.
• Few months later, Nana left me too. I was miserable and wept so much I felt my eyeballs would fall out. It was not until after Nana’s funeral that mum and dad chose to take me back in.
• Now after forsaking me all these years, they come back now thinking they could do as they liked with me by making me walk down the aisle with the most arrogant, cruel, man I’ve ever heard of. Sebastian James Kings.
• They want me to tie the knot with Sebastian just because they want to be in coalition with his parents, who were business moguls.
• Like I said before, mum and dad wanted more fortune for themselves so they are ready to do everything and anything they could to have the whole world, if that was even possible. That included marrying me off to a total stranger.
• “Mum, Dad, do you realize that we don’t even know these people except for what we read about them on the tabloids.
• They could be drug lords or something way dangerous than that for all we know. Besides I don’t know or love this man in question and yet you just want to marry me off to him”, I ranted when they told me.
• “Well, it’s not like you are in a relationship in someone else at the moment and even if you are in a relationship, you have no choice because this could be a tremendous breakthrough for our family.
• This could be our chance of becoming multibillionaires, child”, her father replied.
• “So you prefer to swap your child with money so you could be a multimillionaire, Dad. I used to think you were frugal but now I know you’re not only frugal but callous as well.
• I shouldn’t be amazed. You and mum have never liked me; you’ve always chased wealth and prestige and you never even remembered that you have a child. I’m not going to sit back and watch myself get married to that man. I might just escape”, I said.
• “You wouldn’t dare. If you do just that then you do not wish to continue being my daughter”, my father replied.
• “You heard me correctly. If you choose not to get married to Sebastian then I’d have to repudiate you as my daughter. If you won’t help our family become a multimillionaire family, then you have no purpose to remain here under my roof”, Dad announced.
• I couldn’t believe what I was listening to. My own father would waste no time in repudiating me if I refused to get married to someone I don’t even know or love. I couldn’t say anything else because I was so pissed so I stomped off to my room. I wasn’t going to agree to my parents wish without a fight.
• I recalled that throughout the whole time dad and I were contending, Mum just sat there tapping and swiping on the screen of her phone profusely, probably attending to some issues pertaining to business.
• I have always thought perhaps mum and dad didn’t hate me; they were just busy with the company like Nana and Papa always told me and now this has proven to me that they were wrong all along.
• I would rather leave the house than get married to that man. For days, dad didn’t talk about the topic of marriage and neither did I.
• I pretended that day didn’t actually happen. It continued until one day, I came back from work to meet some visitors at our house. Dad and mum were all smiles while discussing to the visitors and when they finally caught sight of me, dad and mum walked up to me with phony smiles on their faces.
• “Jasmine darling, we were just talking about you. Sebastian and his parents are here to meet you and begin preparations for the wedding”, mum said, gaily.
• I’ve never seen mum so joyful, however I knew it was all but a phony. Wait, what? I think I heard ‘wedding’ and ‘preparations in the same sentence.’
• “Who is getting married?”” I questioned, playing dumb.
• My parents hurled death glares at me and turned with radiant smiles on their faces to the guests.“Oh please, don’t mind my daughter. She loves to tease around and besides she’s still in surprised that she would be getting married soon”, dad, replied.
• Dad twirled around to face me and with a soft, but threatening voice, he said, “Don’t you dare humiliate me now”. Mum and dad dragged me towards the guests and I could see Sebastian and his parents.
• This was the first time I was seeing them in person. All I’ve seen were their pictures on the internet and tabloids. Well, I must admit, he looks really attractive but then again I guess his attitudes are just as awful as the tabloids say they are.
• His mum walked up to me and embraced me so tight I thought I was going to run out of breath and die. She released me from her tight grip.
• “She’s so beautiful”, she announced, turning her husband now, who simply nodded his head. He seemed less interested in whatever was going on.
• I simply smiled at her, not wanting to seem rude. Through the corner of my eyes, I peeked at Sebastian. He was on his phone, just tapping, scrolling, and swiping. He looked like he was compelled to do this marriage thing too.
• He had the same facial expression as his father. Unconcerned. Irritated. In a hurry to leave this place.“Bro, I’m in a hurry to leave this place as well”, I thought.
• I glanced back at his mother who was staring at me like I was a gold medal she had just won. This was beginning to feel absurd. What if I was right? What if she’s into trade of poor girls like myself and now is thinking of how to sail me off to Africa as a prostitute or something? The smile on her face was so adorable and contagious but I didn’t know what’s going on in her head.
• “Anyways, since you’ve signed the contract, the wedding will take place in two weeks. You don’t have to worry about wedding arrangements. We have settled everything, including her wedding dress”, she turned to my parents, who had bright smiles on their faces. They looked like they’ve just won a lottery.
• While I on the other end couldn’t believe that I was going to get married to a stranger in two weeks’ time. I heard Sebastian’s mother talk about a contract. I guess I’ll have to ask ‘my parents’ what she was talking about.
• Plus, I vividly remember telling dad that I would be getting married to nobody. Not Sebastian. Not somebody I wasn’t in love with.