The King’s Chosen Bride

Family Issues

As a top-tier licensed freelance journalist and a foreign correspondent in the United States, Catherine spends most of her time working hard. She has worked with and published for numerous amount of top media outlets as a freelancer including The Daily Mail, New York Times, The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, and lots more.

And these days, she only came back home to Australia on major holidays like Christmas, New Year, Thanksgiving, Easter, and spring break or whenever she misses her 17 years old younger brother, Austin.

She was more focused on her studies and promising career and knew she was extremely productive, unlike most young ladies who were from highborn families across the country. She really should stop thinking about the past now and just move on. Catherine took a deep breath, trying to shake off the hurtful memories of her past as she stared blankly at the wall. It was a struggle to forget, but she knew she had to move on from those two devils, who were now engaged.

She couldn't believe that they had the audacity to get engaged after what they did to her, but she refused to let them have any power over her emotions. She was better than that. It was time for her to focus on her own life and her happiness. She had worked hard to get where she was, and she wasn't going to let anyone take that away from her.

She turned her attention to Zowie, who had now fallen asleep beside her. Catherine gently stroked the fur on the back of her cat, feeling comforted by the rhythmic rise and fall of Zowie's breathing. Four years ago, she’d found this little fluffy cat crying helplessly for its momma at the park. Catherine decided to take it home and the rest was history. She named the cat Zowie after her old childhood dog who was poisoned to death by non-other than Evelyn and her other step sisters, Jessica, Winona, and her cousin, Sheila. Catherine got into a fistfight with them afterward but she was outnumbered and severely beaten.

When the elders of their family summoned the girls to explain the situation, they accused her poor dog of always causing chaos and destroying the girls' room cabinet. Meanwhile, the real culprit was Sheila’s troublesome pet Chihuahua. It was all a setup by Evelyn and Winona to get rid of the one thing that was precious to her after her mum died. She was only 11 years old back then and her mum had gifted her the dog on her birthday, barely a month before she passed away in a terrible Thanksgiving day accident.

Every time she was bullied by her wicked step-siblings or cousins, Catherine always found comfort with her little Zowie and then she eventually lost it as well. Her family, the Jones Clan, was ranked 16th in the hierarchy of the richest and most powerful Kindred families in Australia. Their home was occupied by almost 6 generations of Jones blood. All her grandparents, great-grandparents, uncles, aunties, cousins, nieces, nephews, and parents all leave in the same huge villa, as per the tradition of Kindred clans.

It was all so suffocating for Catherine and that’s why at the age of 16, she decided to study abroad in America as an excuse to only come back home whenever she wanted. It wasn’t that hard for her to achieve a scholarship to study in the US due to her brilliance.

However, her problems were far from over. Even though she already bagged the scholarship, there were still tons of things she needed to pay for on her own as well as her feeding expenses. Back then, when she first arrived to start school at NYU, she struggled to eat even 2 square meals a day despite being from a rich family.

It was all thanks to her own Father, Magnus Jones who convinced the elders of the Jones Family not to give her a dime because she refused to study in Australia like his other children and even ran off on her own to the USA. Off course, that happened because he was manipulated by her stepmother, Elissa who hated the fact that Catherine was going away and her daughters would no longer have someone to bully each day.

Despite her two best friends, Vanessa and Steven trying their best to support her, she still encountered difficulties. If it wasn’t for her father’s younger cousin, Desmond who started secretly sending her some money, Catherine would have dropped out at the beginning. Uncle Desmond was very close friends with her late mum and was keen on not abandoning her. He loved and treated her like the daughter he never had. He only had 2 sons with his wife Nora, who sought of despised Catherine and once accused her of milking off her husband.

She hated leaving in the Jones villa as she felt as if everyone was always out to get her, especially since her mum was gone and no longer there to protect and defend her. After all, people will always want to pick on the weak ones who were defenseless to feed their egos. It was tough living in a house like that and sometimes she felt guilty for leaving her younger brother behind when she moved to study in the US. The only thing that comforted her conscience was the fact that Austin was treated much better by her father’s wives and no one would hurt him. Her older step-brothers are also very kind to him and treat him well.

She felt bitter about how she was treated back home especially when she was younger and that was one of the reasons she kept thriving to be a strong independent woman. She didn’t want to stay in that villa attending tea parties with the other young ladies almost every afternoon, she had boundaries to break and milestones to achieve.

Catherine's thoughts were interrupted by another phone call and she groaned, knowing fully well that it was Steven calling again. She picked it up anyway, "Hello bestie, what’s up?"

“Hey b***h, you got tired of ignoring my calls right? How are you feeling now anyway? You still up for Rockville tonight?" Steven asked in his usual cheerful tone.

Catherine rolled her eyes, "Steven, I already told your blockhead via text that I can't make it. I'm not feeling well. Besides, I have to work tomorrow."

"Come on, Cat, you've been cooped up between only your room and workplaces for months now. You need to have some fun and meet new people here before leaving for work in the US again. You might even find a hot guy who will help you forget about that jerk Tristan," Steven said, trying to persuade her.

"I don't need a guy to help me forget about that fool. And I don't want to go to a noisy club filled with drunk people. Sorry, Steven," Catherine replied firmly.

Steven sighed, he knew it was no use trying to persuade her otherwise as it seems like her mind was already made up. "Okay, I understand. But promise me you'll come out with me next time, okay?"

Catherine smiled, "I promise, honey. Thanks for understanding."