WHEN DUTY BECOMES DESIRE

SOPHIA’S POV “By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.” The pastor said as Ethan lowered his head, closing his eyes and kissed me , tears just flowed through my face. I wish I could believe that I’m already someone else’s wife. I don’t think I can handle it. You know since I was adopted, I made a promise to myself that I will never wish to start my own family. the way my parents treated me, it really showed that they only adopted me to be their servant, they just needed a maid and I was fit for that. You know, my adoptive mother wasn’t able to consive a child, her womb didn’t allow her to carry a baby. But when she decided to adopt me, her life changed as well as my adoptive father’s. She got pregnant and gave birth to a healthy baby, my adoptive sister Isabella. That is where my adoptive mother started to hate me , convincing herself that I wanted to take Isabella’s right as my father's heir since she is her biological daughter while I’m her adoptive one. She even hated me more when Isabella took my side every time when she shouted at me than taking her side. You know Isabella is the only person who loves and care about me. Even my father, the person I trusted the most just stayed mum all the time when mom abused me . And what hurt me the most was that my parents made a deal with the Maxwell family. That if they invest in their company, they will make one of their daughters marry one of their sons, and those daughters were me and Isabella. At first, I was happy because I knew they were talking about Isabella since my mother would never allow me to steal Isabella's limelight. And when Isabella heard about this, she ran away with her boyfriend who my adoptive parent don’t like. Ever since Isabella introduced him to them, they never liked him and they even asked Isabella to break up with him. As for me, I think there is nothing wrong with Logan (Isabella’s boyfriend), he is good looking and anyone with eyes could see that he truly loves Isabella. Unluck me who was forced to take Isabella’s place because she eloped. And they can’t just tell the Maxwell family that the bride that was supposed to marry one of their sons escaped. And it truly proves that I was and will always be just a thing in their eyes. As I come back to my senses, I found everyone happy for us. While I looked at my parent, they were just pretending, knowing that I’m married to a billionaire instead of Isabella. It truly hurt them. The evening wore very quickly and I couldn’t believe I was leaving the one place I once called home, the people I once called my family from the very first time I entered that house but never thought living with them would be like hell itself. Even though the way they treated me was awful, I did spend good memories with Isabella there. And some with them before Isabella was born. Watching the person I will now start calling husband, I noticed that he was somewhat happy. I failed to understand how he could be happy to be married to someone he doesn’t love. As I looked at his enter family, I noticed that his older brother, Liam was not present. Was he even here? Speaking of him, I heard that these two brother are completely the opposite of each other. Liam Maxwell is the older one, he rare smiles, as far as I have heard about him through people who love to gossip a lot, he is someone who doesn’t have time which is why sometimes you won’t find him even in family celebrations. And that's why he's never loved any woman in his life and I don’t why. He does love his family especially his baby brother, the only person you will find him only smiling with as the rumours say. As for my now husband Ethan, I heard a lot about him from his mother. He is so childish, always make jokes, likes to laugh which is why it is rare to see him angry. He plays around and spend his father’s money on unnecessary things - that I did not hear from his mother. He is always smiling and he is always cheerful. ETHAN’S POV When we arrived home, it was already late. You know I still can’t believe that I’m a married man. But what happened has happened and I can’t change it, not that I wanted to. When I first saw Sophia, I fell in love with her at that moment. She is so beautiful and I think her beauty reveals what kind of a person she is. And I’m happy that I now have the previledge of calling her Mrs Sophia Ethan Maxwell. At first, I was not happy with the decision my parents made that I have to get married to Sophia, because they knew absolutely well that my brother would never agree. I don’t know why my brother hates women but that's not important right now. In the end, I finally gave in because I knew what mom and dad were doing. They were doing it for me, and who am I to disagree with them? If they thought I had grown so much, that I was at the right age to get married, who am I to disagree with them? My mother told me to take Sophia to our room since she will be living with me. I told her to follow me and she did like a puppet of mine, and I couldn’t help but smile as I looked at her beautiful face. When we arrived, I removed my shirt and remain shirtless, it had been a long, tiring day and I was feeling really hot. As soon as she saw that I have removed my shirt, she quickly closed her eyes and turned her back on me. What wrong with her? I couldn’t help but laugh, and I found her cute when she was doing what she was doing. "What are you doing? Can’t you go to the bathroom if you want to change? Are you that hot?” She paused, still covering her eyes. What's wrong with being shirtless? It's not like I removed all my clothes. "Please put your shirt on or wear something. You can’t be shirtless while you are with me in this room, it's inappropriate.” She continued and I couldn’t help but smile. This is the first time I've been told by a woman to wear something in order to not remain shirtless. They always tell me that I have a good body and that if I can stay shirtless all my life, they would be happy. But since I’m now a married man, I should listen to my wife. I quickly went to the bathroom and removed all my clothes and took a shower, after that I wore my night clothes. "I’m done you can now open your eyes ." I said when she covered her eyes again when I entered the room. She first opened her left one, then looked between her fingers. This girl, what does she think of me? When she saw that I was really telling the trut, she removed her hands from her eyes and looked at me. "Mom said she will ask one of the maids to bring you clothes to change since you didn’t bring any. Or you can wear any of my shirts” I spoke. "Thank you for letting me know. No need, I will wait for them” she said. After a while, she asked me something. “ Ethan, where will I sleep?” I pointed at the bed. “ And you, where will you sleep?” I pointed at the bed again . Her expression changed into shock. “ What?! How can we sleep on the same bed?” she asked. "What do you mean by that? Is it not necessary for us to sleep on the same bed?” I asked out of curiosity. "It is necessary, but I don’t think one of us will sleep here in this room. We can’t share the same room or bed.” She said. It seems like this girl has many problems with me. She first had a problem with me for being shirtless and now we can’t sleep together. What's wrong with that? Are we not husband and wife? Is she scared that I would do something to her without her consent? But that is ridiculous. I wouldn’t do that. "Why? It's not like you are my virgin girlfriend, you are my wife and I’m your husband. There is no need for us to sleep on separate beds or seperate rooms. Which married couple have you seen behave like that?” I asked. She looked at me and sat on the bed with her wedding gown, which looked beautiful on her like Cinderella , I can’t believe she wants us to sleep separately. Why doesn't she trust me? I don’t blame her, she doesn’t know me. “Ethan we need to talk. I don’t think there is a need to behave like we don’t know the truth. We both know that out marriage was just a business deal between our companies and our parents and that's not all. We don’t know anything about each other nor do we love each other, right?” she paused, she took a deep breath before continuing with her talks. “No, I mean we just met recently because we needed to know each other because we were going to get married. And for me, I don’t wish to pretend or hide something from you. "I never planned to get married, I just wanted to live my life, I just wanted to be free, to have freedom to do anything I want without getting anyone’s permission, where I would not be controlled by anyone or lose my freedom. "But since we are already married, I want to make this clear, I don’t want you to feel like you have to fulfil your duty as a husband to me, feel free to do anything, continue living your life like you used to before marrying me. I won’t stop you or complain about you because I don’t have the right. "Our marriage just exists in paper not to us , to us we are strangers totally strangers, that why I want you to live your life the way you want to. I don’t want to be the reason for you to stop living your life, and secondly, in my enter life, I never stayed in the same room with a man, so I hope you won’t have a problem for me to move out or you move out. I hope you will respect what I said. I just want us to treat each other as friends instead of being strangers and we can pretend to be a happy couple in front of other people who knows that we are married, that all I ask for.” She spoke. I felt my world came crashing down like a broken glass. Minutes ago, I was planning my future with her, while her telling me we don’t have to pretend like we have feelings for each other. I know she doesn’t love me , but that doesn’t mean I don’t. my hurt broke without even confusing my feelings to her , how sad. And that made me feel like I have lost something that was once dear to me. I only just nodded and left her I the room , I even told her, I will be back. When I arrived in my brother’s room, I looked around and found his photo frame that has his photo in his table that was near the bed, and I looked at it. First of all, I’m angry that he left for a business trip before my wedding, but looking at his photo, I suddenly miss him, how I wish he was her to comfort me. He is the only who understands me. I always tell hi my problems , even if I am wrong , he never judged me. And today it about my rejection, I wonder how he would feel that my own wife rejected me, after our marriage.