Chapter 0005

•ANEIRA•

"This dress will look good on you, Narra. Rafael would be happy to see you in it, trust me." Sandra showed me the dresses as she placed them on the bed.

"Whichever one you choose for me will be okay." I flashed her a faint smile, enough to show her I wasn't interested in pleasing Rafael.

She looked at me and sighed. She leaned toward me and took my hands into hers. "I know this is hard on you, but Rafael is your husband, and there's no other way to win his heart if you don't be yourself and accept your new life with him."

"Which dress am I wearing?" I slipped my hands from hers and stepped back.

She gave me a blue mermaid dress and fixed my hair when I finished dressing up.

When she had finished getting me ready for Rafael's business conference, someone knocked on the door.

Sandra rushed to the door and opened it, and when she saw Rafael, she bowed and stood aside, letting Rafael inside the room.

I rolled my eyes and sighed. If only someone could drive a knife through my heart so I wouldn't have to attend the conference with him.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes."

"The car is ready. We must be on our way." He extended his hand toward me, and I looked at it for a while before I grabbed it and groaned.

"Your sister threatened to kill me. Are you going to pretend she didn't tell me to raise your parents from the dead or I'll join them?"

Rafael sighed when we got outside in the driveway. He turned to me and looked at me. "This business conference is important to me, and I won't let you ruin it. So if you don't want trouble with me and Polly, you will behave and stop irritating me. Do you understand?"

I gulped and got inside the car.

When we got to the business conference, I did everything Rafael told me.

I smiled and greeted his business associates as if I were a happy wife who came to support her husband in his business endeavors.

He didn't allow me to leave his side. He was holding my hand throughout the event and only allowed me to have time to myself when I asked to use the bathroom.

"Are you done?" He asked while waiting outside the bathroom, and I sighed.

"Yes, I'm done." I flushed the toilet, washed my hands, and walked out.

He looked like someone who had been waiting for an eternity when it was only a few seconds because he couldn't allow me to use the bathroom for five minutes.

He took my hand as we walked back to the venue and met other people. My feet were swollen by the time the event was over.

"What is she still doing here?" Polly snarled when she saw me when we got back home. "I thought you'd sent her away, Rafael."

"Hi, Polly."

"I wasn't talking to you, rat." She sneered when I greeted her, and I looked away, suppressing the tears that pressed at the corners of my eyes.

"She's here because I'm not done with her yet, Polly. What's your problem?"

Polly rolled her eyes and walked to the dining room. We followed behind her, and when we arrived at the dining room, we found other people who cheered when they saw Rafael.

They congratulated him and gave me nasty looks when I emerged behind him.

"Get us food, Narra. You've had your time as my brother's plus one, but here, you'll be our server," Polly instructed me in front of everyone, and Rafael said nothing.

I went to the kitchen and brought them food. My swollen feet made it difficult to keep up with everyone who asked me for drinks.

On my way back from getting something to drink in the kitchen, I tripped over the veil of my mermaid dress, which sent the glasses and the bottle of wine flying in the air before they shattered on the floor.

I broke my ankle and was groaning from the pain when I felt a hot slap across my face. It took me a moment before it registered in my mind what had just happened.

"You fool!" Polly snarled when I looked up at her. "How are you clumsy and blind at the same time? If you don't get up this minute and clean up this mess, I'll make you clean the broken glass with your hands."

"I'm sorry, Polly. I tripped," I groaned, trying to get up, but my broken ankle wouldn't budge, and when she saw my hesitation, she hit me again and I stumbled on the floor, and cried.

"Polly, that's enough!" Rafael rushed to my side. "Why did you hit her again?"

"Have you forgotten what her father did to our parents, Raf?" she sneered. "She's a constant reminder of their suffering, and I won't pretend as if her father didn't make us orphans."

I furrowed my brow in confusion and looked up at her, wondering what she was talking about.

My father owed Rafael fifty-one million and was supposed to pay it all in installments before he fell ill, and that was the reason we got married — for my father's debt to be canceled.

"I told you I had everything under control, didn't I?" Rafael frowned, and their friends at the dining table excused themselves.

"You married the daughter of the murderer all in the name of vengeance while you're saving his life in the hospital!" Polly snapped, and my heart skipped a beat. "There's nothing you're taking care of, brother, but I'll make sure that he dies tonight for what he did to our parents. I'll show you what you should've done." She glared at me before she left the room.

"Please don't let her harm my father," I cried, kneeling before Rafael. "I'll do anything. Please don't let her harm him. He's all that I have."

Rafael looked down at me and said nothing before he walked past me and left.

I let out an awful scream, thinking of what Polly would do to my father.

It finally made sense why Rafael was marrying my sister, and now I was the one to pay the price for what happened to their parents in my father's hands.

Polly’s gaze locked onto mine, and in that moment, she knew that if Rafael didn’t avenge his parents’ deaths by killing me, she would.

So, I was as good as dead.