The One I should be Married

I was walking down the aisle as tears shed down my cheeks. This was the day of my wedding so I should be proud right? Well, if only the wedding was meant for me but this is just an arranged marriage over the mistake that my cousin has made. I was only the substitute of the fiancee of a man named, Claus Remsworth.

I go by the name Gloria Square. I came from a well-known family of the founder of the Journal of the American Times, Robert Square, and a well-established novelist as his wife, Floria Square. Together, they are cool and warming parents who always provide what I should need and what I should want, including the life lesson of being a nice and caring person.

Even though I should be having a nice and loving family, an accident has taken my parent's life and now I have been living in an orphanage until my aunt, the sister of my mother took me in. Her name was Michelle Square who was married to a farmer, Benjamin Maury. She is a loving aunt but my uncle is different. He is cheap and never allows my aunt to give me food. He even let me starve for three days straight. And despite that, my aunt chose to obey his rules because she is powerless and afraid that she might lose him leaving her alone with her son, Jeremy Maury.

I couldn't complain since I understand the hardship of a mother who will have to take every expense to school their son. I, on the other hand, am just a stranger who is freeloading at their house. Sometimes, I wish I could get out of this place and hopefully, I get a job and persuade my aunt out of this misery.

Once I had my 17th birthday, my uncle surprised me by buying me a cake which is not common for him. He never bought me anything for my past birthdays. This could mean something. My aunt was happy about this sudden change and didn't suspect anything as their son also sing a happy birthday song to me but I was not happy about any of this. I stared down at the cake as my uncle, aunty, and cousin sang the song till the end.

Finally, when they did, my uncle asked me to blow out the candles and wish for them. I silently stare at him with no emotion at all.

"What are you staring at me for? Blow the candle!"

I didn't do as he said as I look back down and stare at the cake. That was enough to make him blow the fuse.

"Blow the candle, you damn brat! You are lucky that I have the compassion to celebrate your last day to be with us."

'Last day?' I don't what that means as I sat there silently. My aunty persuade me to do as he said but I don't listen. My cousin told me, "hey, if you have something in your mind, just say it. I will listen to you."

Typically, he just plays like a cousin since I know the real him. He wouldn't dare to beat an eye on me the second I step inside this house. He must be hiding something from me and so did my uncle.

That's when I felt a force pushing my head down and smashing the cake. I yelped in pain.

"You such a filthy, ignorant, and ungrateful brat! No matter. Since this is the last time I will be seeing your face, I'll let this slide. Go get change! Michelle will help you dress."

I slowly wiped the cream off my face as aunty asked me to come with her.

"Alright. Come, sweety."

"Wait. Why should I?" I asked even though I feel afraid to ask my uncle? He glared down at me.

"Because you will present yourself to a wealthy man! I don't want you to humiliate me while wearing that in front of them! Go get change!" He fumed.

Right before I could say anything, aunty pulled me into my room which is the basement down the house. When we have finally alone, she sighed and look at me with sadness in her eyes.

"I'm sorry but... This is all I could do for you. At least, you can get out of this misery and never come back."

"W-what do you mean, aunty?" I stammered.

"Your uncle and I decided to marry the son of the Hemsworth family."

"What!? Without my consent!? Why!? Do you not love anymore!? What did I do!?"

"No. It's not like that, sweety. It's just..."

"You better get her ready by 15 minutes top, Michelle! Or I will be the one who dresses her up!" Uncle bellowed from upstairs.

"Let's get you to dress while talking okay?"

I nodded as I agreed with her so that my uncle won't be the one who harassed me to get change. While aunty moves her hands to dress me, she started to explain.

"Jeremy has done something wrong and angers the Hemsworth family. He was accused to be the one who stole the fiancee."

"What? Why did he-? Who?"

"Her name was Vivia, the daughter of Clemmons. She runs away on the day of the wedding. There is news about the son being left alone on the aisle and was said that the bride has run away. They said the bride did that because she doesn't want to get married. Which was not the case. She ran away and asked Jeremy for a refuge."

"But why would Jeremy do such a thing?"

"Well, he did something but your uncle defended him. He said that he has run away from home and couldn't contact him anymore. He chose to hide him here and agreed to let you marry their son so that the Hemsworth family won't do anything to harm us."

"...where is Vivia right now?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that since I also don't know." As she said that, she was done dressing me. The dress was simple but elegant to my eye. The hem of the dress flowed like a river and the color blue matched the color of my eyes.

"This is beautiful." I awed and twirled around to get a better look at the dress. Then, I saw aunty smiling lovingly while holding a box at hand.

"What's that?"

She came over to me and opened the box. I gasped. It was a pair of crystal shoes.

"I chose this shoe specifically for you. Your uncle doesn't know about this because I used my money to buy it for you. Here, wear it."

"Oh, but aunty, I couldn't. You have used your allowance to buy me these and I know this is expensive."

"Oh, I insist. I vowed to your mother to do everything in my power to protect but I couldn't. This is the only thing that I could do to repay you for my helplessness against your uncle's abuse."

"Aunty, don't be. I couldn't make it out alive from hunger if it is not because of you. I know you have tried hard to feed me well even though you have to against my uncle's rules."

"But still, I-"

"What has taken you so long!?"

My uncles bellowed again.

"Let's go now before he does something to you. Come on." She said as she held out her hands and escort me out of the basement.

Once we did, my uncle wore a displeasure face while my cousin just eyed the dress nonchalantly. "You have taken too much time to get dressed! Can't you do anything right!?" My uncle scolded me. "And you! Even though you helped her, it still takes a lot of time! I wish I never married a woman who can't do anything fast! Because of you, we are behind the schedule!" Once he said that he exited the house.

Aunty sighed as she endured the insults. I fumed. "Let's get going. We don't want to waste any more time than this." Jeremy said. I glared at his back with resentment. Despite this is because of his fault for angering a wealthy family, he doesn't show any ounce of guilt.

He gestured to aunty and me to get out of the house and after that, he closed the door behind us. 'That son of a bitch.'

"The hell are you standing there for!? Get in already!" My uncle bellowed from inside the car.

We quickly boarded and the ride began.