The Lies We Tell Ourselves

TWO

"Runoff? Why would she run off?"

That is what Adeline had kept asking her parent's as they moved the conversation to the office out back so none of the customers would overhear, Amelia following them. The office was a nice homely space that the girls used to spend time doing their homework in while their parents worked. It had a big mahogany desk with a leather desk chair with two comfy leather chairs on the other side of it at one end of the room while the other held a big leather sofa with another two leather chairs nearby with a coffee table between. Recently her parents had put down a new rug that laid on top of the dark wood floor.

Her parents had discussed last night about the best way to handle the situation, especially when it came to telling Adeline. They didn't doubt that Adeline would be angry, but over the years of raising her, they knew that it was better to tell Adeline the truth then it was to hide it from her. Adeline was the kind of person that would keep searching and pushing until she found the truth she respected a person more for being upfront with her. So here they sat on the sofa opposite the chair one of their daughters sat in preparing to tell the truth.

"It started before you were born really... it is a long story, but Addison ran away last night when we told her she was engaged in an arranged marriage which will be happening in a month... roughly." Adeline watched her mother squeeze her father's hand for support.

"Engaged? To who?" Adeline asked not fully processing and understanding what her parents were telling her.

"Silas Porter." Her father's voice answered her calmly when his wife couldn't answer.

"Silas Porter...the rich guy who is the new CEO of his father's company?" Amelia asked just before Adeline could.

"...Yes..." Her mother answered this time waiting for the reaction they would receive.

"Why an arranged marriage? And why, Addison?" Adeline was trying to stay calm until she had gathered all the facts together.

"When we first opened the restaurant, the Porters were the ones to help us financially. They believed in our dream and offered to help us out. As the business grew, we started paying them back it was hard but we managed but as you girls grew the Porters thought we could come to another arrangement especially when they saw how hard it was to pay them back without going bankrupt. We stopped paying them back, the debt would be written off as both families own half the business, but they would be silent partners. In return, when you girls were old enough, their son could marry one of you. They chose Addison when you were 17, but we made sure that they couldn't come near her until she was 21 and they would have a month to get to know one another before the wedding. Now she is 21 it is our turn to keep our end of the contract otherwise..." Nina looked at her husband, not able to finish her sentence.

"Otherwise we lose the restaurant." He finished kissing his wife's hand.

"Why would they want an arranged marriage? Especially to someone who isn't rich like us?" Adeline questioned trying to sort through all her questions.

"We aren't sure, but it didn't seem so bad. She would be marrying someone with a good amount of money who could support her and with a month to get to know one another they could at least like each other first. We couldn't risk losing the restaurant; this is our lives."

Anger filled Adeline for many reasons. To start with she was angry her parents agreed to an arranged marriage without telling them, though she understood why she wished they had told them before now. Most of the anger was directed at Addison, as weird as it may have seemed to others. Addison knew that their parents could lose everything if she didn't go through with this. Adeline understood Addison's anger towards her parents as she had been placed into an arranged marriage without her knowledge, but it didn't seem like they had much choice and they had tried to make it as painless as possible for her, yet she ran away.

Adeline loved her twin deeply but to run off when her family needed her seemed too selfish. Addison could have spoken to her parents to see if there was anything else they could do if she didn't want to get married. The anger that filled Adeline when she thought about how her sister didn't care what happened to her parents was something she had never felt before.

"So, what do we do now that she has run off?" Adeline could feel the stress building into a headache. She wouldn't let her parents lose the restaurant.

"We try and find her. But if she doesn't want to come back, then that's her decision. We can figure it out afterward."

"Okay..."