An Arranged Hatred

Chapter One

I never wanted any of this to happen. I wanted to be able to look around the world and to know that I could be with anyone that I wanted to be with, but I can't. It is impossible for me to be able to date who I want and to be with who I want without having my parents giving me a problem. Oh, and it is not just my parents, but the guy that I am tied to against my will's parents. Jason Charles Bellsworth has haunted my life for as long as I can remember and I haven't been able to escape. It feels like there has been a curse upon me and it goes by the name Jason. But you haven't heard the best part. The best part is: I am arranged to marry this guy. My name is Elizabeth Belle Stanford and I am vowed, unwillingly, to marry Jason Charles Bellsworth. 

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I'm six years old again. I held hands with a little boy whose hair was a golden blonde and he had a huge smile. I was smiling with high cheekbones and cute dimples on either side of my face. I was wearing a white church dress and holding a hand full of flowers I picked from the meadow in the backyard. The little boy had on a black shirt and black pants with a flower pinned to his shirt. A little girl stood next to us, bible in hand, reading Genesis (not knowing what else to read). It was a wedding. 

My hair was long and brown, with slight waves through out, lips pink and glossy, and tiny hands that fit right into the boy's. I looked happy, happy like when you get a new puppy for your birthday happy. The little girl that was reading from the bible told the little boy to kiss the bride. The boy leaned over and kissed me softly on the cheek as I smiled from ear to ear. 

Now back to reality. I'm a seventeen year old girl and I go to Carlington Academy in Nashville, Tennessee. My name is Elizabeth Belle Stanford and my family owns Stanford Estates. I have long brown hair with some low-highlights and I am about 5"8. I have one little sister, Abigail Sarah Stanford, and she is ten years old. 

I seem like I have the best life in the world, huh? But, I don't. I have to do things that you would never even imagine doing. I am almost treated like I am royalty and that I can not live a normal life. I may be over exaggerating just a bit, but my life is nothing like a normal teenager's -- I promise. 

You wonder how I could possibly hate my life when I have everything that one wishes for. Well, I will tell you how. I am arranged to marry the stupidest, low-life bastard that has ever walked this earth and his name is Jason Charles Bellworth. My family has been friends with his family before we were even born. They all met each other at a banquet and became the best of friends when they were about 15. They all got lucky and fell in love with one another and got married. My dad with my mom and Jason's dad with his mom, but they wanted more. All four of them wanted to be family, not just two. So, they came up with a master plan, but they had to hope for the best. 

Jason's mom was to get pregnant first to see if it was a boy or a girl. When they got the results and it was a boy, the plan seemed to go great. Soon after the results were in, my mom got pregnant. They all crossed their fingers when it cam time to find out the results for my mother, and when it showed she was having a girl, everyone was happier than ever.

The plan was in full process now. The plan was for one to have a boy and one family to have a girl. When they were born, they were going to establish a contract (so to speak). The contract states that the Stanford's daughter, Elizabeth Belle, is to marry the Bellsworth's son, Jason Charles, when they are 20. 

Now, you must think that it is not that crazy that our parents want us to get married, but it is. They have forced us out on dates, make us hold hands and kiss in public, and also start getting used to living with each other by sending us every summer to a cabin with just him and me. Now do you think that they are crazy?