Chapter 2 An Arrogant Husband.

RUBY.

“But dad, how could you do this to me? Who still does arranged marriage thingy? Why would you choose a husband for me? I don’t have a problem.” I shouted crying my eyes out, I probably looked like a zombie at that moment due to the fact that I had been crying endlessly after dad announced the shocking news.

“Yes, you can’t just keep living ur life as such an introvert like this. Are you going to marry your books? Why can’t you just understand that this is for your own good, you are getting married into the mighty Daniels’ family. You should be happy!” Dad said adjusting his glasses and still focused on the paperworks on his desk.

“Happy? Did you just say happy? Do you even know Toby Daniels? He’s a jerk, an arrogant womaniser, a heartbreaker, a cocky idiot, many newspapers have so many scandals of him. He’s so arrogant and full of himself! And why does it have to be me? Why not Sapphire, huh?” I shouted getting more annoyed and frustrated.

Dad must have been so obsessed with precious stones way back that he named his daughters after them, Ruby and Sapphire. It is unique though and always made us stand out.

“You are older than Sapphire, she’s just nineteen and I can’t push her into such a thing.” Dad said, so calm that it annoyed me so much. He defended Sapphire all the time. It always had me wondering why she got the best treatment in the house and even everywhere, was it all about body, beauty and looks?

What about brains!!

“Oh! So now I’m the oldest! You didn’t realise that when you sent Sapphire on a vacation trip to Hawaii, you didn’t know this when you appointed her to represent you in Paris even though I am actually the one who should have gone to represent you there. You only remember that you have a daughter somewhere whenever it’s time for a kind of sacrifice. I am just an option for you, dad, you only use me for your selfish interests!” I shouted louder at him.

“But… you like Toby. You’ve always liked him, it was so obvious.”

I would never deny that I had a very huge crush on Toby Daniels from way back and even now, but I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life with him. A stupid crush doesn’t mean I’d like to live my life a misery. I never even wanted to have anything to do with him. He was always so rude, arrogant and proud. He had this mentality that the whole world revolved around him, that bastard.

I could vividly remember back then in High School, when he told the whole school that I was such a dog who wouldn’t stop following him around. And Daniels academy being his father’s school and one of the best rich kids school in the country worshipped the floor he walked on.

He was the most popular, influential and richest student. Everybody wanted to please and be on his good side. He practically acted like a god. I can’t even begin to count all the mean things he said to me. He was always calling me fatso, ugly and so on. It wasn’t my fault that I was a little bit chubby and not that much of a beauty like my sister.

“Yes! But don’t act like you don’t know how he always treated me! He treated me like trash even as kids! I’m sure he’s even worse now! Dad, you have to cancel all these arrangements, it’s not right. You can’t make such decisions for me. I still have a lot of dream I’m yet to fulfill, this will cut it short. Moreover I’m still in school and I’m just twenty two.” I explained trying to make dad see reasons but he was even more adamant.

“Ruby, you’re getting married to Toby Daniels and that’s it! Take it that way!” He snapped.

“I can’t believe this! You’re the worst father ever!” I shouted and ran into my room. I shut the door and started to cry again, this time more louder. I couldn’t believe that he would do that to me.

“Ruby, please, just open the door, I’d like to explain things to you.” I heard his voice behind my door, but I was too angry to let him in. He deserved to be locked out.

“Look, this is for the your sake, Ruby. I’m sorry you feel this way but you’ll be rendering so much help both to us and yourself if you do this. You’ll be in so much wealth and you’ll never have to worry for a day, you know how much I want my babies to live princess lives.” He said again, when he saw that I wasn’t ready to open up the door and listen to him, he started to leave as I could hear his retreating steps.

I stood up to just go collapse onto my bed and cry even more, but then I stopped on hearing my Dad and his wife’s loud voices. Lola had a annoyingly loud voice that irritated me to a fault coupked with the fact that she was a typical Karen.

“Why won’t you just tell her that we’d all become as poor as church rats if she doesn’t get married to that man? In fact, we’ll probably die of hunger in a matter of months…” she started to say until dad interrupted her.

“Shush your mouth, Lola! Telling her it’s for her sake is better than just outrightly telling her that she’s simply a sacrificial lamb! Just calm down.” He whispred loudly, obviously trying to pacify her.

“How does it matter? Why go through the hard route when the fast route is there? She’s such an emotional one so she’ll obviously do anything for her family. Just let her know that we are bankrupt and our only hope of survival is her darn marriage!” Lola snapped again, speaking even louder this time.

“Just… shush…” I heard my dad’s faint voice say and soon, I couldn’t even hear both of them anymore.

Lola had shouted so I could hear, she knew what she was doing. She knew just how to gaslight me, she knew I would start to reconsider my decisions once I heard that I was the help needed for my family, she was a manipulative snake after all. But what I would never understand is what happened to my dad.

Where did that sweet dad go to? The dad who always bought me ice cream and Teddy bears, the dad who loved to pamper me a lot, the dad who hated to see me cry. That dad who would always try to satisfy me and do what I want.

Well, this was all because he remarried, he changed ever since he said ‘I do’ to Lola.