Forced to Marry

Chapter 2

The next morning I awoke with a newfound determination. I was going to meet this guy, but was going to make sure he never wanted to marry me. Not even for his country's benefit. I quickly took a shower, changed, and made my way down to my father's office. I knocked once and let myself in. "Don't Nag me, about coming in without your permission please dad," I said, "I just came in to ask when Prince William was coming down to meet everyone."

He choked a bit on the coffee he was drinking when I barged in, and looked at me like I had somehow grown two heads. "Why the sudden change of heart? I thought you wouldn't have wanted to meet him after everything you said and did yesterday." He looked at me in suspicion and continued with his work and took another sip of his coffee.

"I don't want to meet him, but I think that meeting was going to happen whether I liked it or not," I said to him as I took a bagel from a plate on his desk. "Or am I wrong? Would you have actually taken my feelings into consideration this time?" I regretted that last question the second I saw his face. He looked genuinely hurt, but I wasn't going to say sorry. There were many more options and he chose the easy route. The one that would ruin my chances of ever making the one decision I had left to be able to make on my own. He wanted to force me to marry someone I didn't love and then produce an heir.

Despite the hurt he so clearly felt, he answered my initial question. "He's coming in a week from now, perhaps before then, if he can make the time." I scoffed, if he can make the time? I hope he decides not to come at all.

"Katerina, I'm really sorry. I really am. I had to do this for our country." He got up and walked over to me. I stepped back a bit and looked him straight in the eye, "that's just it, did you ever think about me? What I had to give up for this country and am now being forced to give up something important to me for this country once more? I exist, I'm alive. I can breathe air, I can eat, I can sleep, but I'm not living. I gave up the possibility of a remotely normal life when my brothers gave up the throne for someone they loved," A tear fell and I sat down on one of the chairs in front of his desk.

"I was forced to give it up. Now, I'm being forced to forget about making an even more important decision for me. I wanted to at least make the decision of whom I was going to marry for myself. Who I was going to spend the rest of my life with." I looked up at him from the chair and he sat next to me.

"I'm sorry, there just weren't many more options we could think of. We tried everything but, do you really understand the state in which our country currently exists?" He held my hand as he continued "I didn't want you to have to give up your right to choose. We are in an extreme amount of debt. This is the only way that we believe will work for sure. We tried many other things before we made this decision but nothing worked. Not even the slightest bit." I looked him in the eyes and saw only complete sincerity. Damn it. I thought to myself. Why can't there be a better solution?

I sighed and spoke up "I'll try to be civil and get along for the sake of this 'deal'," My dad rolled his eyes at me and smiled "but you have to promise me one thing." He looked at me, fully willing to hear what I wanted to propose. "This marriage will only last at most, one year and a half. Nothing more. Then, I will be free to choose whoever I want to, whenever I want to." He considers my offer and tells me that he needs to talk it over with William's parents but that it's something he can manage to convince them to say yes to. I get up and head to my room.

I've got to come up with a plan. A good one. Especially if I want that prince to completely disregard everything he's been told to do and not marry me. I'm not sure what my plan will consist of, but I know it'll be great. I can't let my right to choose be taken from me. If my plan fails though, at least the marriage will only last a year if my dad can talk to Prince William's parents about it.

Suddenly, I think of a plan that could be full proof, and I can't wait for him to see what I have in store for him. Its game time. 

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So, I'm aware that it's been a reeeeeaaaally long time since i posted the first chapter, but here's a very short chapter 2. I'll try to have more up this weekend or sometime next week. I'm very sorry that i never kept up with the story but i'll try my hardest to keep up now. School is a killer. xo 

(Up on the top, where you see the Gif, is the way i kind of imagined Katerina to look like when i first started to write this story.)