Chapter One
1476 Words
“Why don’t you want to marry him?” Her mother cried out as Edwina was focused on her laptop screen,
“Mother, I’m busy with work. Can’t this discussion of yours wait?”
“No it cannot wait! Edwina, you are twenty-five for goodness sake, nobody, not one person, not one woman from your father’s side, or my side has ever had to wait that long to get married.”
“That is for you, this is me, it’s not the same time, so things obviously will be different.”
“Edwina, your stubbornness is bringing shame to this family.”
“Mother, I cannot sign this contract if you’re busy breathing down my neck about an irrelevant matter,”
“Irrelevant? Edwina irrelevant? Your eldest sister, Georgia, got married at the age of twenty-one and she already has three beautiful kids,”
“Okay?” Edwina kept trying to keep her eyes focused on the screen of her laptop, trying to read through the terms and conditions of the contract she was about to signs
“Your eldest brother, Kingsley, got married at the age of twenty-six, and guess how old his wife was when they got married?”
“I don’t know, you tell me.”
“She was twenty-three and although they faced a bit of complications, they have two beautiful kids.”
“Wowww, I didn’t know that. Marvelous.” She said sarcastically.
“And last but not the least, Tracy, your immediate younger sister got married not too long ago, at the age of twenty-two and she has a beautiful daughter,”
“I had no idea that my siblings had gotten married. It’s pretty interesting you know,” Edwina said as she kept typing on her keyboard.
“You’re the chief bridesmaid to Maya, your cousin, who is getting married this weekend, and all eyes will be on you. Selena is just twenty-two, people will talk. Why are you choosing work over your responsibilities?”
“Responsibility to who? You and dad?”
“You have your head buried in this work of a thing. I was totally against your father introducing you to the companies, you are meant to be performing your wifely duties,”
“Again, to who mother?”
“Don’t you want to get married? Are you not jealous that your younger cousin is getting married before you and you will be her maid of honor?”
“In fact mother, I am thrilled that she’s getting married and not me.”
“Edwina!”
“I have to submit this contract to my board of directors. I can’t concentrate with you heaving down my neck about this same topic. I am not God that will just create a man suitable to my taste, and they don’t sell them on sss that I could have easily shipped them down here. I’m not worried about anything, so don’t expect me to feel the pressure that you’re feeling because it’s clearly not reaching my side,”
“What is this noise about? You two have been going on and on that I can’t sleep in peace. Your voices are too loud,”
“It’s your wife dad. She won’t let me be. All this talk about marriage is draining and distracting me,”
“Marriage?”
“Honey, you know that our family is of stature. Having being affiliated with the royal kingdom, we even have a wider recognition. Families like ours, the daughters are not meant to face marital difficulties. We are born and raised to serve the men, not take over their various responsibilities as your daughter is doing right now.”
Her father sighed, sitting on Edwina’s bed, folding his hands.
“Edwina,”
“Yes father,”
“Drop that work you’re focused on and turn to me.”
“But dad, this is very important.”
“It is my company, you won’t be fired.”
“But…”
“Edwina…”
“Okay okay, whatever you say.” Edwina said turning around her swivel chair to face her father. Her mother went over and sat beside him.
“We do not enjoy bringing up this conversation with you over and over again,”
“Believe me, I don’t enjoy it too.”
“Why have you decided not to get married?”
“I did not just decided that, wasn’t it a love marriage you and mommy had?”
“Love marriage? It was merely an arranged marriage, and we fell in love after.”
“It’s not the same for my siblings,”
“They were open to relationships, you are merely a closed off book.”
“I’m not enthusiastic about getting married, I’m tired of always saying this to the both of you.”
“You cannot escape your responsibility as a daughter of this family.”
“I have not found a man,”
“You have had a number of suitors, even recently you blankly refused one. Honey, she threw his proposal in his face and stormed out.”
“Edwina,”
“Did you see that man? Look at his beards scattered everywhere, his teeth were yellow and gross, how on earth would you expect a yes from me?”
“We’ve had young fine men come here, we simply thought you liked them old and ugly,”
“Mother!”
“Well, Edwina, your time in my house is running, and it’s far spent. You need to leave,”
“Dad?!”
“Don’t dad me. You should be aware of your responsibilities towards this family. Bring a man home or we will give you a man that you would have no other options.” With that he left the room leaving Edwina and her mother.
“I don’t like this thing, I don’t like what you’re all doing. See now, I cannot even work with my head being clogged up with all these marriage talk. Can’t you all just give it a break?” Edwina said as she got out of her chair and headed for her wardrobe.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going out with Selena, my best friend.”
“Selena who is recently engaged?”
“Mommy don’t even go there.”
“Are you not also her maid of honor for her wedding coming up after your cousin’s?”
“Am I a plague? Am I sick? Why are you making it sound like there is something wrong with me because I have not been engaged or I don’t have a boyfriend or a husband.”
“I’m beginning to think that there is actually a problem with you. I might be forced to call the Priest home to do some cleansing,”
“Let the Priest not enter my room though, I would not appreciate the invasion of privacy.”
“Make sure that wherever you’re going to, you come home with a man. Okay?”
“Every time man man, husband, children, heirs, when will you people rest in this family with all these talk. I’m the second to the last born, that’s why you’re all pouring this heat on my head. I’ll just run away from this house so you people can marry yourselves.”
So there she was, throwing her clothes out of her closet in anger, irritated by the constant talk of marriage initiated by her parents.
Edwina Middleton is a twenty- five year old girl, graduated from the university of Oxford with a first class degree in business management. Immediately after that she began to run her three of her father’s prominent companies, earning her position as the head of the board of directors, directly under her father.
Five foot three in height, with a ginger colored waist length straight hair and green eyes. The only one in the family of the Middletons with no desire for marriage but extremely work focused. Even with her stiff lifestyle she knows how to enjoy herself, being the life of the party with her outspoken nature, her best friend being the opposite.
Edwina had faced the stress of suitors flooding in and out of her parents home with gifts and requests to have her hand in marriage, ever since she was twenty, but she blankly refused them all because they were not her type.
So there she was, yet again facing the pressure to bring a man home. A man that ticked all of her parents boxes, and all of her boxes. And both boxes were of different things, making it difficult to make a choice.
Getting ready to run away from all of the pressure of getting married, she decided to accept her best friend’s open invitation to a church opera, hopefully she would meet a man there, or so she thought.
- Writer
