Married to Damien

Chapter 3

The drive to the location of the party was one that she felt with dread and curiosity and it was short.

When the car pulled up into a space to park and she looked around, she couldn't help but be impressed by everything.

It was a three-story building at the edge of a sparkling lake, lights decorating the whole premises and chandeliers glittering from the inside, sophisticated people walking in and out of the building, and on a huge neon banner it read, "la elites."

As she stepped out of the car, her father took her hand and smiled nervously at her,

"Walk straight and whatever you do, don't embarrass me or yourself."

" Way to go dad," she thought. Of course, he was thinking about himself again. Earlier, he had 'prepped' her about how she was to act and behave there.

"We are going to be in the company of one of the most influential and richest people in the world," he said, sipping hard on his glass of brandy, "Gold, diamond and who knows, maybe even platinum."

Jessica had taken a deep breath then. "No pressure then?"

"Oh, there is pressure Jessica." He had stared hard at her at that moment, making her even more tense than ever, "you wouldn't know who is who until you ask and you can't just ask because it'll be rude and you cannot dare to be rude—"

"I get it, No pressure!"

She shook her head slightly and brought herself to the present and responded, "Sure thing, Sir." She said coldly and started to walk towards the entrance with him leading her.

Inside was even more splendid than the exterior, and really the pressure started coming on Jessica. Compared to these people, she felt so little.

There were a lot of young ladies like herself, with even more sophisticated and sparkling dresses, and a lot of other people.

"Smile, Jess, smile." Her father said, pulling her with him. He needed this to work badly. If it didn't, the whole Greenwood family was toast.

As they walked, a few people smiled in their direction, snobby and polite smiles.

"Ezra Greenwood, good to see you." A white-bearded man said as he approached them.

"Jacob, Jacob Holden." They shook hands and the man smiled at Jessica who curtsied slightly.

"This is your other daughter?" He asked with a smile.

"Yes, Jessica." He turned to her and smiled too.

"Ah, you're even more beautiful than your sister." The man said and Jessica did not know how to respond, "And your other daughter, how is she? I remember when you brought her here."

Her father chuckled, "Oh, Astrid? She's fine. Now a member of the gold status family."

The man nodded, "yes and who knows, this one might be too."

"Or with a higher family, like yours." The men laughed and Jessica could not understand what was so funny. She had already started feeling awkward and hungry too. She was going to take herself to the buffet table over on the other side, but someone interrupted her.

"Good evening, good Sirs." The little group turned to see a blond-haired man with obviously modified features.

"Ah, Holden. Come say hi." The man said as he brought the man who seemed to be his son, closer to Jessica.

Jessica held in a chuckle. "Holden?" As in, Holden Holden? Since his last name was Holden.

"Yes, and you are?" He took her hand.

"Jessica, Jessica Greenwood." She gave an amused joke. Still thinking about the joke she made in her head.

"Well, the last time I saw you, you were yay big." Her father said with a slight hand movement, "Why don't you two get to know each other, eh?"

Jessica blinked at her dad who winked back and Holden's father nodded in agreement.

"Milady?" Holden said, already holding her hand and pulling her away.

Jessica followed, letting him guide her to a chaise lounge by the window.

"So, tell me about yourself." Holden asked, his piercing blue, contact-lensed eyes staring at her and making her feel weird.

"Um, well I was born in Michigan—"

"Michigan? Oh wow, I went there like last year and the lakes are so pretty."

"Uh, yeah I just lived there till I was two." She responded.

"When I was two I lived in Barcelona, Spain."

"Oh, uh—"

"Uh, the locals are so cool. I stayed there till I was like thirteen and then I moved to Tokyo."

Jessica stopped a waiter and grabbed a glass of some cold drink, and started to sip. "That's cool."

"Have you ever been to Tokyo?"

"Uh—"

"It's amazing, I even got a house there when I was sixteen."

She sighed internally, wow…to spend the evening with an extremely narcissistic guy with fake.. everything. How lovely.

Eventually, she just resorted to nodding, because Holden sure loved to talk about herself and she was glad because she really didn't have anything to say.

She started looking around for another guy because, if the evening ended and she still talked with this one…

She shivered inwardly. Heaven forbid that she ends up as his fiancee. Betrothed to him.

Finally, after what felt like hours of talking about the most boring things possible, which included himself, Jessica realized that she needed fresh air.

"Would you excuse me, Holden?" She asked, already standing up.

"Going to the ladies' room?" He stood up too.

Jessica raised an eyebrow. If she was going to the lady's room, does that mean he'd follow her…

"Uh…I just…"

"Holdie!" A screeching female voice called and when they both looked up, a smiling girl with short platinum blonde hair, lighter than Holden's walked up to them and hugged him.

"Sasha, hi!" He smiled back and before anything else could be said or before she could somehow be drawn into the conversation, Jessica slipped away.

Immediately, she headed for the balcony. But as she went, she passed by the buffet table and not caring if anyone was looking, she filled her plate with snacks, cakes, little miniature pies and grabbed a soda, and rushed out.

The balcony was beautiful, it was dark and illuminated with a single bulb, the moon and had a romantic feel, there was also a bench with flowers entangled on it, and even with the feeling of being overwhelmed by the noise and chatter of the party and Holden, she noticed a small table with an array of delicious looking snacks. Her face brightened up and not caring if anyone saw her, she pushed the table to where she would sit and placed her plate on it, and immediately She couldn't resist and started stuffing her face with the food.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps approaching and looked up to see a tall, handsome stranger walking towards her. The balcony was dark, so she couldn't really make out his features, but she could tell he was well-dressed and carried himself with confidence.

"Mind if I join you?" the stranger asked, gesturing towards the table of snacks. At first, she didn't know if she should feel embarrassed or scared of what would happen if her father or someone who knows her father finds her this way but she was too hungry to care.

So she shrugged. "Sure, go ahead."

As the stranger grabbed a handful of snacks and popped them in his mouth, watching her eat.

"Are you going to keep looking at me like that?" She asked, already feeling self-conscious.

He chuckled, making her cheeks redden and making her think that she might know this person from somewhere but try as she might, she could not make out his face.

"Look at you like what?"

She tilted her head, chewing on the cake in her mouth, "like that, like you've never seen someone eat before."

"Well," he drawled, his voice sounding so deep that she felt it echo, "I've never seen anyone eat like that."

She frowned, "Like what? Hungry?"

"Yeah. What? Didn't have dinner before you came here?"

She shook her head, "I had to fit in the dress."

She felt his eyes scan her and honestly didn't feel creeped out when he did it, unlike what happened with Holden.

"It doesn't look tight.."

"It's not, and I tried to tell my father that but he insisted I starve myself so that I can come here and entertain the possible suitors here with my looks…" she made a funny face and gesture here, "and possibly unconscious body when I finally faint from hunger."

He laughed, the sound coming from deep in his throat like he hasn't done that in a while. "Ah, I forgot, every girl is here for the same thing to get betrothed to a higher ranking family."

Jessica shrugged.

"Wait, don't tell me you're different." She didn't say anything and took a sip of her soda.

"C'mon, I won't tell." His voice sounded teasing.

"I don't want to get married to some rich stranger play boy who can't think for himself."

The man laughed again, throwing another snack in his mouth while looking at her. She was sitting more illuminated by the moonlight so her features were visible.

"Well, you're the first." He said, "You don't even care if he's from a higher rank?" She shook her head, "Even if he's from a platinum rank family?"

She swallowed, "I don't care, my dad is the one who's more concerned about this money and family business," she flipped her hair from her shoulders, "Besides, there is no one from the Platinum rank here."

He leaned back, "How would you know?"

"Hello?? Everyone knows that if you come to this stupid party it means you want to get merged and betrothed to someone and the Platinum and maybe even the diamond rank families don't merge with anyone that's not in their rank." She shrugged, "everyone here is below that rank, I'm sure."

The man didn't say anything for a while and then, "What rank is your family?"

"Silver," she said while munching cutely on a piece of pie. Well, he thought it was cute.

"What's your name?"

Without thinking, she said, "Jessica. Jessica Greenwood." She looked at him, her green eyes squinting, "what's yours?"

"Damien."

"Fancy name, Damien." She teased, smiling. "What rank?"

He chuckled but said nothing.

"C'mon, it doesn't matter if you're lower. Nothing really matters, all this rank stuff is bullshit."

"Wowww" he laughed hard, using his hand to clean something from the side of her mouth, sliding his long fingers down her cheek and she laughed as well, blushing but before she could ask again, a deep and obviously upset voice pierced through the darkness, calling her name.

"Jessica!"

She immediately dropped the snack in her hand and turned around, cleaning her lips immediately. "D..dad?" She stood up.

"Get here, right now!"

She immediately stood up and rushed to her father, without turning back. Ezra was very upset and scolded her in a low tone.

"What were you doing there when all the men were out here?!"

"I got hungry."

"Hungry?? So you left Holden because—"

"No, no Holden he got with another girl.."

"What?!"

She shook her head, "I mean, some girl named Sasha started talking to him and just whisked him away. That wasn't entirely the truth though…

His brows furrowed deeper as he pulled her with him, "Sasha Grey? You let someone from the Grey family, a silver like us, take Holden from you??"

In her defense, she didn't know and in her defense, she didn't even care!

"One thing, Jessica. You couldn't do one thing and the party is almost over and you literally hid from every other guy, in there stuffing your face—"

"Not all, I was with a guy back there." She saw his face lit up.

"Who? What rank??"

"Well…I didn't get his rank because I left before I could ask..you called me."

He took a deep breath and left her there, going to search the balcony again, and came back looking annoyed, "No one's there."

Jessica shrugged, "I guess he left."

"For your sake, girl.." he said through gritted teeth, "Someone better have seen this pretty face and come knocking at my door tomorrow morning for your hand." He said angrily, making Jessica shiver.

They remained at the party for another hour before they finally left. Ezra made his disappointment known every minute he could.

"Your sister was not like this, why didn't you try to emulate her??"

Sigh. Jessica couldn't wait to get home.

After a shower and a quick breakfast, the next morning, Jessica sat on her bed, phone in hand, as she recounted her night at the elite party to Astrid.

"So, there was this guy there named Holden," Jessica said, rolling her eyes. "He was so full of himself."

Astrid laughed. "Ugh, those types are the worst. Did you meet anyone else?"

Jessica hesitated for a moment. "Well, there was this stranger I talked to on the balcony. He was really nice, but I forgot to ask his name."

Astrid teased her. "Wow, Jess. You're really making an impression on these guys. Can't even remember their names."

Jessica groaned. "Thanks, Astrid. You're so helpful."

Astrid laughed again. "I'm just kidding. You know I love you."

As they continued to chat, Jessica heard a knock on her bedroom door. "Hold on, Astrid. Someone's at the door." It was a maid that came to tell her that she had a visitor downstairs.

She hung up the phone and made her way downstairs, seeing her father coming to reach for the door too, confusion on his face.

As she stepped forward and opened the front door, she gasped in horror, her eyes scanning the person at the door who in turn smiled at her.

"Nice shorts," he gestured at her shorts, "I saw the SUV parked outside. Y'know, I could sue you for that."

It was the guy from the other day!

"You.." she frowned, "what are you doing here?? And how did you know my house?"

"Greenwood residence, right?" He smiled walking towards her and taking a step inside, "I came to see you."

Before Jessica could say a word, a gasp could be heard from her father and she saw him step forward and shake the man.

"Mr. Quiyn, a pleasure…" he shook excitedly.

Huh? Quiyn? Wait, but the only Quiyn she knew was the one from the Platinum rank family. She gasped, was this man…

"The pleasure is all mine, Mr Greenwood." He smiled, looking at Jessica's horror-stricken face. Did he come to really sue her? Oh, no…no, no!

"I came for Jessica here." He walked towards her.

Wait, how did he…"how'd you know my name?"

He tilted his head slightly, smiling, "You told me, yesterday."

Her brows furrowed and he continued, "Y'know when we talked by the balcony as you stuffed your face with food."

What??! This guy was…no way.

"You were talking with Damien Quiyn last night? From the Platinum rank family??" Her father exclaimed in a hushed voice that was heard by all. He couldn't believe it…his daughter hit the jackpot!

Jessica was so shocked that the only thing she could say was, "What…what are you doing here?"

"I am here to ask for your hand in marriage."