Marriage of convenience

Chapter 1

"Congratulations on your 18th birthday!" My grand mother woke me up with a smile on her face. She was an old lady, almost in her seventies and behind her stood my grandfather, looking young, even with the silver hair, almost in his eighties. He had a huge smile plastered on his face, not the happy kind, but the I'm going to surprise you and you are not even going to suspect it kind. It gave me the creeps, but I chose to smile instead. My grandmother handed me a glass of milk and patted my hair. She never ever did that no matter what happened, but I let it slide thinking that it was the effect of my birthday. Looking at her closely, she looked very suspicious, but I think they arranged some party of a kind so that was the reason why they were behaving so weirdly. I actually looked forward to it.

"Get ready soon! You don't want to miss college!" She said and I got out of bed. Maybe the surprise was for the later part of the day. I walked out of my room and carefully scanned each and every corner of the other rooms to find something out of place. Maybe I could find some indications about what that surprise was, but unfortunately, I didn't find anything. Sighing to myself, I got ready and left to college on my bike.

The day went brilliantly. Everyone seemed to be in high spirits, almost half of the college wished me for my birthday, everyone knew the one and only gift that I wanted. Chocolate. I got a bag full of chocolates, along with chocolate delicacies, donuts and even milkshakes. I filled my bag with them and smiled at almost everyone. This was perfect. This was my best birthday ever!

As the afternoon came, my phone buzzed violently and on the screen flashed, Grandpa. Wondering what happened, I picked up the call and spoke, "Hello? Grandpa?"

"Angela?" He sounded worried. 

"Yeah, Grandpa? What happened?"

"Your grandmother!" He yelled, "come quickly to the registrar office."

"Registrar office?" I frowned. "What happened to grandma?"

"No, the hospital beside the registrar office," he corrected himself quickly. "Your Grandma is very ill. Come quickly!" And with that he hung up the call.

Immediately, I raced out of the college on my bike and to the registrar office. I didn't remember a hospital being there, but I wasn't a good observer, so there might actually be one without me noticing. I parked my bike in front of the office when I saw my Grandpa hurry towards me. 

"What happened? Where is she?" I asked frantically. Wherever I saw, I only found government employees and civilians. Where in the world was my Grandma?

"Come with me!" He said and dragged me with more force than what an old man was capable of. We were ascending a flight of stairs within no time. We barged into a room and I saw my Grandma sit on a wheel chair, with another old lady, almost her age, or even more, sitting on another wheel chair along with a few people with expensive suits adorning their body. Both of them looked so feeble that my heart hurt for them, but I didn't understand what they were doing inside a registrar office in wheelchairs.

"Grandma! Are you alright?" I dashed into the room and bent down on my knees beside her. "What happened to you?"

She didn't reply. Rather, she shoved a few papers and a pen in front of me and my Grandpa spoke instead of her. "She wants you to sign them. It seems to be her last wish. Do it when she still has her breath," he quivered.

I immediately scribbled my signature on it and gave them away to my Grandpa. "Is that fine? I signed it. What exactly happened to you?"

By the time she could reply, the door barged open and another guy, who was around my age, ran towards the other old woman in the wheelchair. He was almost on the verge of tears as I was and knelt down beside that old woman.