chapter 2

I saw my father sitting on our long couch, his head hanging low with his face in his palms. While my mother sat on the smaller couch on his opposite him.

The sun illuminated a soft glow on her face, and I was reminded of how beautiful she was, even when she looked so sad.

“Okay, I am ready to talk”. “I’am calm now, so let's have a truthful and civil conversation, no bullshitting, I said, sitting on the other couch laying in between my parents seats”.

“Don’t miss out any details, cause this is my life we’re talking about here”, I said calmly.

“Okay”, my dad said, “but, firstly, let's go to my study”.

“I looked at his pleading face, restraining myself from saying anything else.

“OK,” I said weakly, my mother smiling weakly, holding my brother who was looking at me while blabbing and drooling.

We walked to his study, silence filling the air around us, as he opened the door to the study, flipping the light switch, and light entirely lit filled the room.

“Sit down” he said, patting the long couch gently as he sat on the opposite side of the couch.

I sat, looking around the room, taking a mental note of my surroundings as no one but my parents were allowed to enter the room.

“Kiana”, my father said calmly while holding my gaze, “we are in a very bad situation, and we are so - so flat out broke, we have been given an evacuation notice by the bank concerning the house”,and in about two weeks time.

“The company has gone under due to some bad major investments”.

“On a normal day, I wouldn’t dream of marrying you out this way, but my love, we are completely helpless”.

“I have gone everywhere to look for help, but for some useless reasons or the other, I have been rejected or turned down”.

“Fortunately, Mr Tate Brown agreed to help with the company but with a condition that you will marry him.” He said, looking at me in desperation.

I looked at him, watching his face closely, wanting to see a slight change in his expression, praying in my mind that this was a prank or at least a dream.

But alas, it was none. He continued, staring at me as he paused as if to let the words sink in.

“All our relatives on my side of the family has turned us down, courtesy of your grandmother and you know your mum is an only child and for Gods sake, she is just an orphan”, he continued staring at me.

For God’sake, I have always been an obedient and dutiful daughter, always living by my parents rule cause I thought it was what was best for me, but this, this was so sudden and sprung up on me And I knew I had no choice.

I looked at my father with tears pooling in my eyes and said “okay, I agree I, – I agree”.

He looked at me and exhaled a sigh of relief. Just as I stood up to leave the room, my father just suddenly hugged me.

“Thank you, thank you, my daughter, I promise i will make it up to you”, he said.

I left for my room, ignoring my mother and brother, who were both watching me with pitiful gazes.

Laying down on my bed, I began to think, what would I tell Calvin, my boyfriend whom I’ve been dating for two years now.

How do I tell him without breaking his fragile heart. He was a very sensitive person emotionally, and I knew this was surely going to break his heart.

How do I tell my best friend and my close friends. This question kept

These thoughts begin to fill up my mind and suddenly tears fill up my eyes and I begin to sob, choking up quietly, rocking myself to sleep, wishing this was all a dream and I would wake up from this horrible dream.

To most people, marrying into a wealthy family is the ultimate jackpot in life for them, but to me, it was a burden I didn’t want.

I had heard about wealthy people and their marriages, especially women who are not in the same social class as they are.

My father himself comes from a very wealthy family. In fact, they are one of the first families to invest in the oil industry in America during the mid 60’s.

They also invested in the train industry in the early 20th century, so you can say his family is what we call old money.

My mother came from an average lower middle-class home turned orphan.

They met in college during their rush week, and my father was a business major while my mother was a psychology major.

They were college sweethearts. They dated for three years before my dad introduced her to his family.

According to my mom, his mother never liked her, not one bit.

His father was not against her dating his son but once the idea of marriage.

So when it was brought up by my dad, his father called her to his office and offered to pay her to break up with him, telling her that he was meant to marry one of his friends daughter.

They taunted and threatened my mother using various means. Meanwhile, my mother kept it a secret from my dad.

Once my father became aware and he saw that his family were against them together, he secretly got married to my mom in a courthouse with a few of their friends as witnesses.

When my grandparents learned of this, they disowned my father, which was fine to my parents.

My father had a stable small business capable of taking care of him and mum.

Growing up, I watched my mother quit her job as a professor to take care of me since nobody was around to watch me as my dad’s business took most of his time in a day.

She had told me stories of the abuse she suffered from the hands of her in-laws during the marriage.