Arranged marriage : I hate you

Chapter 3

It was already dark outside when Jennie finally woke up. She stared at the ceiling for a while before finally sitting up to see that she was now on her bed, in her room. She sighed deeply, the exhale provoking her tears but she quickly blinked them away. She needed answers, and she was determined to get them.

Getting out of bed, she walked out of her room and headed downstairs. There was no one in the lounge but the lights were still on and the tv was still playing.

She looked around then walked out of the room.

She walked to her father's office. In getting there, she could hear voices talking inside but couldn't quit make out what they were saying. She knocked on the door quietly before swinging it open.

With two pairs of eyes now watching her, Jennie walked into the office, closing the door as she turned and looked at the two elders, her arms folded as she looked at them with anger.

"What exactly is going on?" she asked, her eyes burning with something that none of them could point out. Was it anger? Hatred? They were just not sure.

Joshua sighed deeply, turning to look at his wife who nodded at him, assuring him that they were in this together.

Turning to his daughter, Joshua motioned for her to sit, but the girl just rolled her eyes impatiently before finally sitting down. Joshua sighed again.

"Well, as you know, I lost my old company and money to Miles. I practically had nothing left under my name except for this house and the cars. Our savings were almost running out while the bills just kept piling up," he explained calmly, his heart beating fast as guilt visited him again.

Joshua had blamed himself for every bad thing that happened in/to his family. Even when Jennie had stopped being all bubbly and cheerful due to losing her mother, he still felt at fault. It got worse when he saw how the girl just shut everyone and everything out after he remarried.

"Can we just jump to the part where this has to do with me and marriage," Jennie cut in impatiently.

Murrieta bit on her lower lip nervously. She could never quite understand how a 17year old could carry so much anger and hatred. She had been married to her father for over 7years now, but she still felt like a stranger whenever the girl looked at her. She knew that Jennie adored her youngest son while she didn't care much about her first son, but she didn't know if that was something she could be happy about. All she knew was that she loved this girl like a mother loves her daughter, she just didn't know how to make the girl accept this love.

Joshua took a long breath in. He was trying to keep his emotions in check to avoid making his daughter more anxious by delaying the confession time.

"I met Peterson Brown. Him and I were once good friends back in the days so I thought it was safe to work with him. I told him about my predicament and he offered to help. Being the wealthy man that he is, he easily got me a knew company within a month as well as clients and a few investors to get me started,"

"I still don't get how this involves me though," Jennie cuts in. Her leg had started shaking violently and she was worried that it would soon start to hurt.

"Jennie dear, please, let your father finish," Murrieta pleaded, her eyes looking at the girl with so much care as she placed a hand over Joshua's folded ones. Jennie looked at the woman, her eyes quickly dropping to their hands before she moved them back to her father, her eyes now with an unreadable expression.

"Well, he made me sign a contract. I made yet the same mistake I made with Miles of allowing myself to be made to sign a contract while intoxicated. Peterson spent weeks not mentioning anything about it so I just assumed that it was harmless until... Until he showed up today carrying it. It stated that he would do all that he has done for me in exchange for..." He stopped, a lump growing in his throat but he quickly swallowed it down as he knew that crying would only anger the girl.

"Dad, in exchange for what?" Jennie asked, her voice now low as realisation of her reality started sinking in. She knew what her father would say, or atleast she thought she did. She just needed him to quickly finish up his confession so she could quickly process it. She was really good at that - processing things quickly so they had less time to affect her. She thought it was good for her, thought it helped make her strong. Little did she know that it only delayed her healing process.

"In exhange for your hand in marriage," Joshua concluded, looking away from his daughter to avoid seeing the look that she would wear, because he knew how much it would hurt him.

"Excuse me, do y'all hate me that much or are you just too blind to see how old that man is compared to me?" Jennie asked, her voice low yet dark.

The couple quickly looked at her, panic visible on their faces as they protested, "No no no baby, we don't hate you. We could never hate you. We both love you so much,"

Jennie ignored these words. She didn't know why they made her so angry. All she knew was that she hated them, and really didn't enjoy hearing them.

"I am not marrying that old man," was all she said before looking away from both of them.

Joshua sighed.

"You're not going to be marrying him, you'll be marrying his child. I've never really met this child, but it's probably a son. He never really talks about his child. He just keeps him hidden from everyone with the excuse that he doesn't want his life to affect that of his child," Joshua explains, his eyes now able to look at his daughter. He hoped that she wouldn't try to fight this, because he knew the implications of breaking the terms of the contract.

"Doesn't sound like someone living an honest life to me," Jennie steps in. She was really trying to stay calm about all this.

"He doesn't. He's a very powerful and dangerous man Jennie, it's safer for all of us to just follow the terms of the contract," Joshua pushes on, hoping that his daughter wouldn't switch from calm to angry, she was really good at that.

Jennie rolled her eyes. "Sure, sacrifice the daughter because her life has zero value to you, right?"

"That's not true, you know how important you are to me, to all of us. I'm sorry, but there's really nothing we can do to avoid this. Peterson will be here first thing tomorrow morning to get you. You'll be staying with your fiance while continuing with school. After you turn eighteen, then you both can get married. That's if Peterson's child still wants to keep you," Joshua concluded. It hurt him to have to allow his daughter to be sold out like this, but he really had no choice.

Jennie looked at both of them, her eyes burning with anger and hatred as she stood up, her arms falling to her sides. There was so much she wanted to say, but no right words to perfectly convey her emotions.

"Well then, I better get to bed now, huh? Wouldn't want my father in law to be mad," she says harshly before walking out of the office, leaving the two elders feeling worse than they already felt.