Love And Fate

★Eighteen★

Two and a half months later.

As days turned into weeks and weeks into months, the news of the engagement between Serene and King Hudson-Odoi spread like wildfire, every single person was looking forward to it.

It was already vacation, the Addoo residence was full and packed as the family prepared for the engagement which would be happening in two weeks time.
The mansion buzzed with life as servants moved around, going about their assigned work, distant relations and friends of the family would arrive daily, making the mansion more lively and noisy.

In the spacious living room sat the Addoo family and other relatives who had arrived earlier with the exception of Serene, who had adamantly refused to leave her room, it still grieved her that the Old Lady had stuck to her words, she even made Ivan quit his job in the mansion, even his younger sister, Akua, no longer worked in the mansion as Serene's personal maid.

Though she was constantly visited and entertained by Cassandra and Flora, the feeling of loneliness and sadness never left her, her mind always drifted to Ivan and her heart always ached when she thought of him.

The extent the Old Lady could go to get what she wanted was far from what Serene had imagined and as she sat in her room, thinking about the two months or so,of fighting for what was hers, she felt she was loosing, everything was getting out of her hands.

She hugged her knees to her chest, a story she was working on long forgotten.

What could she possibly write?

When everything was going the wrong way.

She gripped the pen in her hand tighter, her thoughts were so jumbled, her heart racing faster with every day that passed, her fear and panic more as she watched people arrive from her balcony, and the fear of loosing everything more as the day got closer.

She threw the pen away angrily, it hit the wall with the slightest of noise and fell to the floor barely broken, the mere sight of it not broken irked Serene. She shot out of her bed angrily moving to stomp on the pen with her bare feet, she yelled angrily and stopped when she heard the satisfying crack of the pen.

That was how it was the past months, her anger and frustration getting more worse as the day drew closer, making her a bitter version of herself.

Her mind was violent, and she mostly vented all her anger on the poor maids who got unlucky, the sweet and innocent 'Miss Serene' they all knew becoming a stranger,  darker and bitter version.

But how could they blame her?

In fact, they all pitied her, some even swore they understood her predicament.
Who wouldn't be this bitter? After loosing both parents and then moving to a home were one was forced to be what they were not, thrown into the spotlight of the world, were everyone wanted take advantage of you.
As if that wasn't enough, you were forced to marry someone you didn't love.

Who wouldn't be bitter?

Serene ignored the pain that shot through her feet as she staggered to the vanity, there, she stood in front of the mirror watching the wretched reflection of herself, what she saw wasn't who she was used to seeing, the Serene that looked back at her had swollen eyes, blood shot eyes and a face twisted into a scowl, her collarbones poked out of the dress she wore, even the dress looked oversized on her, the neckline too big that one side fell to her shoulders, exposing dry skin.

As if all the tears she had been shedding for the past months weren't enough, her eyes begun to sting as fresh tears snaked down her hollow cheeks.

She couldn't stand watching herself, she turned her back to her reflection and moved to the balcony, there, she stood at the far corner, where she could see everyone but everyone couldn't see her.

Yet another arrival, it drew her to reality, making her realize how close the engagement day was, and then there was a stylist she was supposed to see the next day.
She still wasn't ready to see the people that arrived, she wasn't sure she could stand them.

Serene moved closer to the railing when something caught her eye, she squinted her teary eyes trying to see if it was truly them, when that attempt failed, she brought her hand to her face wiping tears away as quickly as she could.

There on the large compound of the Addoo mansion stood her friends, Ezlynn was holding a suitcase, Olive was talking to a maid heartily, Zara was typing away on her phone.

Another round of tears spilled out of her eyes as relief and happiness flooded her heart for the first time in months.