CHAPTER SEVEN

Chapter Seven

Four weeks had passed since when she caught Will cheating on her and when she had sex with Lloyd. Tia was currently getting ready for her engagement party. Her wedding date was set, it was in six months as society weddings took a lot of time to prepare for. Tia was even more downcast than she was before. She had given up entirely on trying to break off her relationship with William. She had basically been sold to a beast. 

Tia had called Hera after then and they had talked, Hera tried to tell Tia that she should be more assertive and fight for her rights, but Tia was not hearing any of that. She had lost hope entirely. She did not feel that anything could happen again, she was going to get married to William, nothing that she would do would change that.

"Tia, do you want gloss or no gloss?" The make up artiste that was getting her ready for the engagement party asked her, and Tia looked at the lady.

"Gloss please," she replied.

"Oh no, no. No gloss would be better for your looks, we don't need to be too showy," her mother said and Tia rolled her eyes. Even simple everyday decisions like lipgloss application, she was not allowed to make for herself. It was so sad that she did not have that choice.

"Okay Ma'am," the make up artiste said and dropped the lip gloss, not even looking at Tia for confirmation.

"You look very beautiful Tia," her mother said and Tia smiled. She was able to accept the compliment then.

"Thank you mother," Tia replied.

"You do not have to do this if you do not want to, your father does not have the right to force this on you," her mother said. If it was borne out of concern for her, Tia would have been happy to hear the words. But Tia knew her mother, there was nothing like concern in her thoughts, she knew that her mother was just fighting for her sons to be CEO.

"Thank you for your concern mother, I am fine," Tia said to her mother who shrugged then. It was the manner to which she usually replied her back then when her mother was against her marriage to William, that was when Tia was still interested in marrying the man, those days have long past, but she did not want her mother to know that.

"It is alright Tia, you know that I care for you, I would not like to see you married to that bastard. He will only make you cry," her mother said. Tia's eyes watered because she knew that her mother's words were true, she only hoped that her mother would do the same thing if her son's were already CEO. Would she care about her then?

"Stop telling the girl nonsense," her father said as he entered into the room. Tia turned back to look at him. He was looking handsome and unusually happy. Tia was angered because his happiness in this case was her pain.

"Their marriage will be wonderful and fruitful," her father continued. He was glaring at her mother. Tia did not understand why her parents got married at all, they clearly hated each other. Her mother even seemed to hate her because she was her father's daughter, she loved her son's more.

Tia knew that it was an arranged marriage, just like the one that she was about to enter, but both parties had gotten married previously. Her mother's husband died, and so did her father's wife. They got married for convenience so that they will not be both unmarried, but Tia felt like it was all a waste of time as they both abhorred each other. They did not seat at the same table to eat and they did not talk to each other even if they lived under the same roof. They could be enemies on the battle field with the way they related to each other.

"You look beautiful Princess," her father said while smiling at her. Tia faked a smile and stood up to meet her father.

She looked beautiful, she knew, she did not even need to look at the mirror to confirm, she was a beautiful woman and since she did extra and it was an engagement night, she looked even better.

"Thank you," Tia said.

"We should get going to the venue," her father said and Tia nodded.

She did not want to go at all, but she knew that delaying it will not change anything at all, so it was better that she did not delay it.

"We should," Tia agreed.

"Do you not want to see your brothers first? Even Hera is downstairs to see you," her mother asked and Tia looked at her. She figured that Hera would come to dissuade her from doing it one last time but it was not like she has a choice.

"I will see them," Tia said, even if who she wanted to see was Hera.

"I will wait for you in the car," her father said and walked out of the room.

Tia followed suit and saw her three brothers down the stairs.

They all looked alike, Tia knew that they looked like their father because they did not look like her mother. She heard her mother complain all the time that none of her children looked like her and that was including Tia.

Greg, Ian and Evans and stood at the end of the staircase waiting for her.

"And our sister is getting married," Ian said and held her hand when she got down. Ian was Tia's favorite sibling if she had one. He was the sibling closest to her age at twenty-eight and the one most uninvolved in the business of the CEO.

Ian took her hand and kissed her fingers with a smile.

Tia hugged him without provocation.

"If that bastard makes you cry, let me know so that I can punch him in the face," Ian said and Tia laughed. It only Will got a punch for each time he made her cry, his would have been unrecognizable at this point.

"Thank you Ian," Tia said.

"Congrats Sis," Evans said. He was just there. Tia did not think much about Evans as it seemed that her brother did not think much about himself. He was on the fence. Always. Sometimes he was a living brother and other times he wanted what she had. Tia would call him cunning or hate him, but she knew him and she knew that he was just trying to balance both sides.

"Thank you Evans," Tia said.

"Congratulations Tia!" Greg said to her with fake over enthusiasm. Greg was the sibling that Tia hands down hated the most. He was the lost competitive and the eldest of her siblings. He had a company of his own at thirty-six, and he was married with a child. One would think he would be comfortable with his company, but he was too greedy and always wanted more.

"Thank you Gregory," Tia said with an obvious fake smile.

"I have to get going to my party. Thanks for all your well wishes. I will see you there," Tia said and turned from them to Hera. She could hear her mother call all her sons, probably to start a new plan.

Tia walked towards her friend, Hera, who looked very casual, she was obviously not attending the party.

Hera hugged her the minute she got closer and held her close.

"Are you really going to do this Tia?" Hera asked and Tia nodded. Tears stained her eyes then. She was going to cry.

"Do not act like I am being sold into slavery or something like that, I am just getting married, it is my engagement party, so it a happy event," Tia said to her friend who just shook her head.

"It is nothing of the sort and you and I know that," Hera said and Tia shrugged.

"It is what it is," she replied.

"I wanted to ask you something before you did this. It occurred to me that you might have not used protection during your one night stand and you are not on birth control as I remember. You were complaining about period coming late. Are you sure that you are not pregnant?" Hera asked and Tia was shocked. She shook from the surprise of the question.

Pregnant? That was not even an option. There was no way she could be pregnant.

"I saw my period after then, do not worry," she told Hera and laughed.

"And what sort of question is that?" Tia asked, she was still laughing.

"I was just worried about you. It is good that nothing happened after all," Hera said and Tia nodded. She had seen her period, but it had come late and it was barely there, just spotting, she was actually getting worried. She would take a test later, but there was no way she could be pregnant.

"Thank you. I know that you are worried but I will be fine. I will be okay. Marriage is not the end of the world and I am hoping for good things," Tia said to her friend. She was seriously trying to look on the bright side of what happened. Everything would be fine, she was getting married to her first love and they would live happily ever after.

"I am afraid for you Tia, but it is your choice," Hera said and Tia nodded.

"It is, thank you so much for all you do," Tia said.

"You sound like you are saying goodbye, no one is dying. Knock yourself out at the party," Hera said and Tia laughed.

"Will do," Tia said and left the house to meet her father.

"I do not like that girl, I don't know why you keep her as your friend, you should know that when you are married that William would not tolerate such," her father said and Tequila frowned. She was not in yet and it seemed like she would be losing her friends.

The drive to the venue was long and suffocating because of the words of her father and Tia was imagining how life would be when she was married. How she would have to cater to Will's every whim.

They got to the venue and the place was filled with paparazzi. It was a nig event as the children of two big business moguls were getting married and it was their engagement party. Tia came down from the car with her red ball gown flowing around her. The dress was chosen by William as he felt that red look good on her. Tia was actually feeling very murderous towards him.

The way things were going, he would be the one to choose her wedding gown. Tia would not care because well she did not want to get married in the first place.

Tia posed for the cameras as they took multiple pictures of her that Tia knew would be plastered all over magazines the next day. Tia was with her father taking pictures when William started to walk in with his sister, Isla. Frankly, Tia thought that Isla was a spoilt brat but a lot of people thought the same about her.

They switched partners and Tia was with Will, he was holding her close and pressing kisses on her cheeks. Tia was not sure how she would endure having Will close to her all of her life as she felt like hitting him because he pressed his lip on her face.

"Relax," William said and pinched her wrist. This only made Tia frown before she noticed her mistake and smiled for cameras. The flash of the camera made her confident rather than scared her. Tia loved to pose for pictures, but she figured that the right person was needed for that too.

"I think you would need some serious acting lessons," Will said to her as they entered into the hall. Tia rolled her eyes because she could not see why she should learn to act because she did not know like the man that she wanted to marry. 

"Smile," he said again as they entered the hall and pitched her wrists, they would be sore by the next day. The night just began but Tia could not wait for it to be over.