CHAPTER 2: PROPOSAL
1120 Words
I stared at her. Then I laughed nervously.
"You're joking."
I searched her face, waiting for the corner of her lips to twitch.
She always laughed first whenever she managed to fool me.
This time...nothing.
The smile never came.
My stomach tightened.
She wasn't joking.
She couldn't be.
"Tell me this is one of your stupid pranks." I said, almost sounding like convincing her to say that this was a joke.
Silence. My smile slowly faded.
"You're serious."
I shook my head, "No."
No way in hell was I marrying someone I'd never even met.
"Jade..." she called pleading.
"Do you even hear yourself, Czarina?" I asked frustrated. "You're asking me to marry a man I've never met."
I sighed in disbelief. "What happens after the wedding? What about your family? What about Connor? What about my life?"
"Jade, calm down."
I looked at her unbelievably.
"Calm down? How? Czarina...this is insane."
She breathed heavily.
"I know but there's no other way."
"Have you completely lost your mind? Why me?"
She shook her head, "You're the only one who can do this."
"No," I said immediately. "I'm the easiest person to ask."
She frowned.
"There's a difference."
"You know I can't say yes to something like this."
"That's exactly why I'm here." She paused. "Because if you do..." Her voice cracked. "...I'll know you did it for me."
I looked away.
That somehow made everything worse.
"Why not another relative? Hire someone, or tell your grandfather or just tell Connor."
I paused, my head hurts with this conversation.
"Why can't you just tell them no? I can't do this."
She looked at me and smiled sadly. "Do you remember my grandfather's birthday banquet three years ago?"
I nodded.
"That night...he told me. Our grandfathers signed a business agreement decades ago." Her voice cracked.
"A contract? What kind of contract?"
"When the Schuet heiress turned twenty-five, she would marry the eldest Luciano son." She answered.
"People don't arrange marriages anymore."
Czarina gave a bitter laugh.
"People like us do."
Her eyes sparkled, not with amusement nor excitement. It was fear—sadness.
"It wasn't just an engagement, Jade. A legally binding agreement."
"If I refuse..."
"We lose everything."
She covered her face with both hands.
For several seconds, she couldn't speak. I had never seen Czarina like this.
Growing up, she had always been the stronger one. The one who defended me. The one who found solutions whenever life became difficult.
Now...
She looked completely lost.
All of that came rushing through my mind.
"I'm tired, Jade," she whispered.
"I'm so tired of being everyone's granddaughter. Everyone's daughter. Everyone's heiress...I don't even remember the last time someone asked me what I wanted."
Silence wrapped between us. And when she spoke, her voice sounded even more desperate.
"I wanted to run away...but that means the Schuet family will lose everything too."
"I can't do it, Czarina."
I had spent my entire life making my own choices.
They weren't always the best ones, but they were mine.
Where I worked. Where I lived. What kind of life I wanted to build.
It wasn't glamorous. I wasn't rich. But every morning, I woke up knowing the day belonged to me.
Marrying a stranger meant handing that freedom to someone else.
To a man I'd never even met.
"You know me," I continued quietly. "I've never wanted a life where someone else decides my future."
I wasn't afraid of hard work. I was afraid of losing myself.
I wanted to fall in love because I chose to. I wanted to get married because it felt right. I wanted to build a family because I was ready.
Not because someone else signed a piece of paper decades before I was born.
I looked at her.
"I can't give that up."
Connor Luciano. Even I knew the name. Newspapers called him ruthless, business magazines praised him, social media feared him.
I'd never seen him smile in a single photograph.
Marry someone like that?
I'd rather spend my life making coffee.
Czarina's fingers tightened around mine.
We'd held hands a thousand times growing up.
Crossing roads. Running through school hallways. Celebrating birthdays.
Never once did I imagine she'd hold my hand just to ask me to surrender my future.
"Please..." She pleaded. "Do you remember visiting our company when we were kids?"
I nodded.
"My grandfather knew every employee by name."
She smiled sadly. "He still does."
"If this deal falls apart...It won't just destroy our family. It'll destroy thousands of families."
I sighed and held her hand softly instead.
"I'm sorry...but I can't."
"Do you know why I'm asking you?"
I didn't answer.
"Because you're the only person I trust."
I sighed as I continued listening to her.
I remembered the first day we met.
She was crying because no one wanted to sit beside her.
I shared half my sandwich.
I still remembered the next day.
She arrived with two lunch boxes.
One for her. One for me.
We ate together beneath the old acacia tree behind the school building.
She complained about piano lessons. I complained about math.
Somewhere between trading sandwiches and complaining about homework, we became best friends.
Money had never mattered between us.
She was simply Czarina. And I was simply Jade.
Somehow...we'd been inseparable ever since.
"If I asked anyone else...they'd sell my secret." Then she paused, "You wouldn't."
Silenced stretched between us.
"His name is Franco." She smiled.
It was the first genuine smile I'd seen all afternoon.
"He teaches music."
I blinked. "Music?"
She nodded.
"My grandfather would call him ordinary."
"I call him home."
My chest tightened.
I'd never heard her describe anyone like that before.
"So what's your plan?"
She glanced back at me and smiled weakly.
"Leave."
I frowned.
"Leave?"
"Another country...never come back."
"Does he know you're doing this?"
Czarina smiles. "He begged me not to."
"Wait." I paused. "How about Connor Luciano, does he know you're planning this?"
Silence then Czarina looked away.
"He doesn't..." She shaked her head.
"No." I slowly stand up. "Then this conversation is over."
I walked away, still couldn't believe Czarina asked me to do that.
"Connor Luciano has never met me."
I frowned.
"What?"
"He's only seen photographs."
I stared at her. My mind immediately rejected the idea.
No. That couldn't be enough. Could it?
Two women could never look that alike...
...could they?
"Our heights are almost the same," Czarina said quietly, as if reading my thoughts.
"We've been mistaken for each other before."
Memories flashed through my mind.
The waiters, teachers, old classmates—even strangers.
My heartbeat slowed.
And for the first time since this conversation began... I couldn't find another reason to walk away.
- Writer
