Chapter 1

   

      I sat on the bed and was still fuming with anger when my phone rang.

  If I hadn't checked the caller, I'd have cussed out.

  It was my dad.

  I picked up on the last ring.

    "Hey, Carol," my dad said in his all-masculinity.

   "Dad! Call me Caroline or don't call my name at all," calling me Carol makes me feel like Santa Claus getting chased on Christmas Day but my mum and dad never take me seriously, as well as the new neighbor.

   I don't get why everyone thinks Caroline must always be shortened to Carol.

  "Alright, Carol," he repeated and I shrugged.

  "We got you a job," he said and I could hear from his voice that he sounded like a proud dad for landing the milestone.

  I perched the phone more tightly to my ear but then again, reality hit me and I remember being willing to give up.

 "I'm done going to any of your friend's offices and I am done taking your letter-headed paper for submission. I am also done getting school loans or going for job interviews," I explained and laid back in bed.

   "Still, you should come back home. You'd love to listen to the details," I heard my mum say.

  "You want me to come over?" I asked with surprise laced in my tone.

  "Not to come over, but to return home so you can get the job done," she said and I could hear my dad murmur something in the background.

   "Come on, mum! You know that's not possible. You want me to leave behind my whole life here and just start a two hour journey down home because you got a job for me? A job that might end up like the others? Nah!"

   "If it's not worth it, we wouldn't ask you to return home," my mum said.

 "We wouldn't," I heard my dad adding in the background.

  If making money doesn't sound good, I'd have ended the call and continued my peaceful reading or painting or whatever it was I was doing before the intruder.

Still, making money sounds so cool so I gave in.

  "I should be there before nighttime," I retorted before ending the call and I started packing my things.

I packed a very few things, including all of my toiletries.

A few things since I might as well not get the job and end up coming back here. Exactly where I belong.

 Yet, the thought of what to do with my life struck my mind. I guess it's too early to start planning that.

   I was done packing and was shutting my door when the next-door neighbor came by again.

  She attempted to speak but this time, I gave her no audience. I walked past her without a smile on my face.

  "Be safe, Carol," she screamed at my retreating back.

  Only if I could squeeze her bones out.

   A couple of hours later, I was unpacking in my teenage room. Where I had thought wouldn't be my resting place unless it was Thanksgiving or Christmas.

  My mum came by with a cup of water and told me to come down for dinner.

  I looked at her as though she was missing something but she didn't get the glimpse or she doesn't want to.

  I took a large gulp before placing the cup down and finished unpacking. There was little to nothing to unpack.

  I looked around the room and forgot the smell of cinnamon mixed with roses smell that always intertwine with the air in the room after I use my favorite shampoo.

  Now, it's replaced with the smell of dust and rain.

   I took a picture frame that was taken in high school when I dressed as a nurse for Halloween. The memories of that day played in my head like a movie.

I had always wanted to become a nurse since I was in fourth grade but the passion was fading away after I searched for a job in multiple hospitals and was declined, so I decided to opt for painting, and still, I wasn't accepted.

 I always thought I was quite versatile.

I made friends with a nurse that treated me back then when I was sick. She looked so beautiful in her dress, which rose the passion to be one within me, and now, I think I should have a painting of her.

  "Caroline. You should come down now for dinner," my thought was disrupted and I hurried out.

We said 'the grace' and I was going to take a bite of my meal when my dad spoke.

 "You are just going to act like you don't know why you're back home?"

I dropped my spoon and looked at him.

"In all honesty, I do not have a tad of faith in the job and I'm not acting like I don't know why I'm home, I simply just do not know, " I replied and they looked at me as though I was drunk.

"It's a multi-million dollar job," my dad said and I smiled widely.

  "Multi-million dollar job?" I asked and my mum nodded.

    "Tell me about it, dad,"

"Now you wanna know about it," he said with a smile before taking a mouthful of his meal.

  "We should celebrate this," my mum stood and retrieved a bottle of red wine.

    "I mean, it only makes sense that I know about the job now, don't you think?" I set down the cup and if it wasn't a red wine, I'd have concluded that I was tipsy but then, even water could get me drunk.

   They looked at each other and everything within seem so suspicious.

 "What's it?" I asked, already feeling impatient.

 "You are getting married. You are getting married to the contractor's son," my dad announced.

 I gulped down the rest of the wine in the cup. I looked at my dad straight in the eye without blinking for a few seconds before bursting out in quite audible laughter.

"Why would I be getting married? To whom? Why?" I demanded as soon as I realized that they hadn’t been telling one of their usual terrible jokes. 

 "I told you about the multimillion-dollar job. It's a contract. Listen, Carol," he turned sideways till he was facing me. "You only need to marry him for a year, you'll get paid and that will be all,"

"Come on, baby!" my mum added as soon as my facial expression darkened.

I don't understand why they think it's that easy 'and that's all' he said.

   "Hold on, you want me to get married to a man I don't even know? Someone I haven't met, someone I don't even love?"

"He's actually someone you know. He's quite famous. He's the son of the famous businessman, Mr. Trenton,"

 "You mean, Richard Trenton? Why would I get married to him," the uncertainty that dawned on me was becoming unbearable.

 "You are getting married to him and that's final!" my dad said angrily.

"What do you mean that's final?" I was equally getting worked up as well and sitting wasn't portraying that fact, so I stood.

 "What do you mean that's final?" I repeated. "You think you can just make a decision behind me and have me acknowledge it like I am some teenage girl trying to sort out her life?"

 Even if I'm trying to sort out my life right now, my dad is not the rightful person to show me that.

"Caroline," my mum cautioned but I wasn't having that.

"You think you have your life planned out? No, you don't, Caroline. You need this job and we know it,"

I scoffed before I continued. His audacity was quite shocking.

"I have always followed your decisions over my life since I was a kid and now that I can make one for myself you are depriving me of that? You have always put your best interest over mine and you're going to do that till the end?" at this point, balls of tears were already dripping down my eyes.

"You think everything we do is for ourselves, right?" my dad asked.

"You are so unbelievable. You were never there for me. You came back to my life a few years back and you think you can take total control over my life like you are some good father? Stop acting like one!"

Before he could stop himself, his hand landed on my cheeks. The stunned look on his face showed his instant regret.

"Mike!" my mum yelled. Outrightly shocked.

"You never disappoint!" I held my cheek and cried out before running over to my room. My mum called after me but I never bothered to look back.

I was on the verge of losing my mind but as I laid on the bed with my eyes tightly shut, all I could think of was a cup of coffee at that time of the day.

My mum knocked persistently on the door, disrupting my thoughts.

  I knew nothing could change my dad's mind, not even my stubbornness but I still wanted my peaceful space. I still wanted to stand my ground.

  If at all there was something I'd have thought would happen in my life, entering a contractual marriage with a rich man's son for a year was the least.

 I am an adult and I deserve to be heard.

  I was so hungry that my head hurts after continuous weeping. I wasn't even given the chance to finish my meal before the unpleasant news was broken.

I looked at the time and knew my parents must have slept since the endless knock had ceased.

 I quietly unlocked my door and at the doorstep was a tray with orange juice which obviously was dropped by my mum.

  I shifted it to the side with my left leg and walked to the fridge in the kitchen. I wasn't ready to accept that.

After an immense search throughout the cold object, I settled for water though it wouldn't quench my hunger.

I dropped the glass of water in my hand after I closed the door to the refrigerator and saw my mum standing, arms akimbo.

  "Oh my God. Mum!" I exclaimed. I hurried away to clean the spill up.

"Sorry, sweetheart," she said before sitting.

"I thought you were asleep," I said, trying to start a conversation which she would have started with the subject known to us both.

"How could I when my baby is upset," she replied and I sat by her.

"You were always my baby even now that you're twenty,"

"That rhyme could fit for a rap," I smiled and she did in return.

"Come here," she gave me a very tight hug and I could inhale her fragrance— Victoria secret.

"You know we love you a lot. Your dad might seem so bad at exhibiting that but you are the best thing that happened to him,"

"We wouldn't force you into a home that wasn't meant to be built. Not even a marriage that wasn't meant to be. This marriage would be a turnaround for us__for you. You know we always want the best for you,"

A mother's word has its effect, an effect no one can overlook. I looked at her with admiration.

"But mum. I don't know this man except that he's famous and rich. I don't even love him. This all feels like a dream. I find it so hard to accept,"

"Listen, baby," she said, tucking in a strand of stray hair behind my ear. "Love is a feeling. It grows over time without either of you knowing. You don't have to love him now, you'd grow to love him subsequently.  By then, you'd see this whole thing isn't a bad idea after all," her words were convincing but still, it was hard to accept.

"It's a multi-million dollar contract, Carol. We shouldn't say this much to earn your acceptance. You are only living with him for a year," she concluded. The money is quite enticing, to be honest.

"I want you to think about it overnight. I would never allow anything that would hurt you and you know that," she said before pulling me in for another hug, rubbing my head to soothingly.

"I love you, mum," I acknowledged because it was true. I love my mum so much.

"I love you too, sweetheart," she replied, kissing my head.