My precious ex-wife

A family gathering

"Rose" my mother called me from living room "finish it fast, we have to be there on time. After all we are family."

"Ya mom just two minutes" I said applying very light makeup. Though I know all my cousins will be there with tons of make-up, I preferred to be have a natural look.
After finishing and giving myself a final look in mirror I rushed down to living room. Mom, Dad and Pierre were already there. Pierre my brother who is just one year elder to me gave me fake angry look for being late but then rushed to get our car. We have only one car in our family which Pierre bought after he got his first job. My mom dad are so proud of him. Of course they are proud of me too and love both their children the.most in world. In short we are small Happy family who may have some less money but lots of love. I love my family.

After half hour drive we reached to my grandparent's house. It was not a very big house but had enough space for our family gathering. Uncle Joseph, aunt Kaira and my cousins lily and lola were already there. We all hugged each other and soon engrossed in some chit chat. Soon every one was hungry and went towards dinner table to eat the finger licking food prepared by my grandma and my mom. Then we had dessert prepared by aunt Kaira.

After lunch lily excitedly asked me " hey Rose lets go out and have fun". Me, Lily and Lola are more of a besties than cousins. I nodded and we went by pool side to have fun.
Pierre had some office work and went to study to finish it.

"You look a little stressed and worried" grandpa asked my dad. "What is it?"

"Nothing much pa, it just about few business deal" dad tried to sound casual.

"We may have grown old but still can feel when something is not right with any family member" grandma said worriedly "even Kath seems to be tensed on something" aunt Kaira added looking towards mom.

Dad took a long breath and sighed. "Pa do you remember about the loan we took for starting our business?"

"Ofcourse!" grandpa said puzzled "it was 30 years back. what it has to do with current day?"

"We have already repaid it." it was Uncle Joseph who was equally puzzled.
"We had but only the principle amount..." grandpa did not let dad finish his sentence " Yeah !Johnsons were very kind and supportive. They did not charged us interest" he fondly said remembering his old friend Mr. Johnson Sr.

"But now they are asking a favor...in fact a huge favor instead of that amount" mom was having tears in her eyes.

"Why don't you say whole thing clearly" Uncle Joseph was now very restless " just say it!"

" Well Mr. Carlos called me yesterday. His family business is on verge of bankruptcy and needs our help to save it"

"And how can we help them?" Uncle Joseph was more suspicious now.

"By marrying our daughter to his son"
It was almost whisper from Dad.

"What?" was the only word everyone in the room could utter.

"What?" grandma frowned " how can a marriage save a business? We have a small business in compare to theirs. How can a small fish save a big one?"

"Well someone cleverly breached their cyber security and stole most confidential data which resulted in loss of deal. And now if don't stop and correct it, they will go bankrupt" dad sighed.

"They came to know that our Rose has studied cyber security and is working with a big cyber security firm. So they are proposing a marriage between Rose and Ethan" mom added as dad couldn't continue to speaking because of sadness

"If that's the reason they can hire any professional " Uncle Joseph asked hurriedly "Even if they insist on Rose handling it what is the need of marriage?"

After sipping some cold water dad settled down "They need someone trustworthy and no one can be more trustworthy than a family member"

"hmm... That explains the marriage proposal but they are ignoring that it will a big and important decision that would alter Rose and Ethan's life" Grandpa sounded older and tiered than usual " but we will have to help them in all possible way as because of them we have home to stay and food to eat"

Hearing this my mom couldn't hold her tears and cried bitterly. Aunt tried to console her but she too had tears.

"Kath be strong. Our Rose is competent enough to handle all this. Also we cannot forget the truth buried deep in our hearts. It may bring our lost daughter back" Grandpa said in authoritive voice.

"We cannot sacrifice one daughter's happiness for other" mom almost whispered

"Why do you assume that Rose won't find happiness. She is an adorable, caring, beautiful young lady. A beauty with brains. She will find her path to happiness" with that grandpa retired for the day.

Later that evening after we all came to home, I was very tired and went straight to my room. Pierre too went to his room.

Mom and dad were still in living room.

"What if we don't find our other daughter and loose Rose's happiness" mom was very worried.

"Have faith, Kath. Rose is a strong girl. We have raised her that way."dad assured her. "My heart says we will have all our children with us soon.. happy and successful "

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A note from author

Hi to all my lovely readers. Thanks for reading my book. This is my first book and there might be many errors.

Please try to ignore and support. Kindly vote my story and please leave supportive comments.

Thank you