Betrothed

Episode 4

"Good afternoon, I'm Amanda Armani and this is my younger sister, May. Nice to meet you" I said, while shaking his out stretched arm. I was almost certain I saw my mother let out a happy sigh of relief that I just did excellently well in my introductions and did not "mess it up" as I was prone to. She however was not impressed at the way I maintained eye contact with him. In my defence, I aced the introduction for mom, but the eyes contact thing was to impress dad (even though I didn't know why it was that important), and I was right on both account as I saw mom scowling biting down a scowl (no matter how mad she was, she would never risk getting a wrinkle on her face, you see) and dad holding back a smirk ( he saw mom biting down the scowl, and also because he was happy I held the eye contact).

Zain didn't seem to mind at all, infact he looked impressed and I was forced to break eye contact again. Zain was certainly something but in my 10 year old brain, all boys had cooties no matter how beautiful they looked, and I wasn't about to drop that belief, that would just mean my whole life was a lie and we wouldn't want that, would we? No, we wouldn't. So I looked past the beautiful boy in front of me and focused on our parents, who for some reason looked like they had hit a jackpot and were all smiling at each other. Victor looked uninterested immediately the introductions were over and looked like he wanted to be any where but at this table on this beautiful sunny afternoon. May on the other hand looked like all she needed at the moment was a pop corn to enjoy the telenovela unfolding right in front of her. All in all, this seemed like it was going to be an interesting day. My point was further buttressed when May rang the bell in front of us, summoning the maids, we all gave her a questioning look as a maid came over to attend to her. "Can I have a bucket of Popcorn please?" she said, and in that moment I knew that no matter what happened today, this was going to be the highlight of it all. I looked around the table and the first person I saw was my mom who was fuming and this time around, the scowl was released. My dad couldn't hold back his smile, which exploded into a laugh, he was quickly joined by Mrs. Monica and her husband, Mr. Zack. Victor looked like he couldn't decide between laughing or asking for a bucket too and Zain just sat there staring at everyone like he couldn't afford to stay here for a minute more and wanted the meeting to be over already. I decided I didn't like him not just for his countenance but because he seemed like a person who couldn't take or make a joke.

*****

" Victor dear, why don't you give May a tour of the house" Mrs. Monica said, probably to get them out of the way for the meeting to actually start. Victor got up grudgingly, and May followed immediately with the saddest expression ever, probably because she knew she was about to miss one hell of a show.

"Now, I need you both to listen carefully", my mother said to Zain and I, with the most serious expression on her face. I swallowed hard, knowing that things were about to get serious. My mom continued, "when I was pregnant with you Amanda, the family company was going through a very hard time, there was a lot of downsizing, we had to let a lot of our employees go, very competent employees I might add. But all the downsizing in the world and all the finance managing and budget cuts couldn't make up for the fact that we needed help and we were going to lose our company if nothing was done about it, that's when we met Mr. Zack.

He opted to help us, he invested heavily in the company, lent us his employees for free, gave us ideas on how to grow the company and lots more. After the company picked up and flourished again, we really didn't know how to repay him so I suggested we form an alliance, I mean, we were almost like family at this point and you marrying his son seemed like a really good way to maintain and cement the friendship and really make us all a family." My mom stopped to take a breath and looked at me, probably to gauge my expression and how I was taking it all. After resting for a bit, she continued, "I really hope that you both understand the reason for this union."

I couldn't believe my ears, I was "given" in exchange for money. No matter how well she painted it, no matter how honorable she made it sound, it didn't change the fact that I was given out, even before I was born in order to pay a debt.

I was speechless. I felt a tap on my shoulder and I broke out of my trance.

"Do you have anything to say?" Mrs Victoria said, with that same smile on her face. I hated that she could still smile after everything we all just heard. I looked over at Zain and as usual he was expressionless, neutral as if he wasn't affected by this meeting, by what my had just said, about the fact that I was basically just given to him as payment for a debt. "I have nothing to say ma'am, do you have any other thing to add to what my mother just said?" I asked as calmly as I could. She looked taken aback but answered nevertheless, "My dear, I want you to understand that you were betrothed to my son to consolidate the relationship between our families, this is a huge responsibility, but give our Zain a chance, keep an open mind, okay?" Mrs. Victoria responded. "Do you have anything to say, Zain?" I asked. At the mention of his name, he looked up instantly as if he wasn't a part of the discussion since it began. "No, I don't " was his short reply, I expected nothing less.

*****

I could see the hurt in her eyes, I knew exactly what she was thinking, because I was thinking exactly that. It was absolutely wrong to give up a whole human being all in the name of repaying a debt, her mother painted a pretty picture of togetherness and family, and my mother backed her up, but the point we all knew was that she was used to pay up the debt, the debt too big to be repaid with money was paid with a human being. She called my name, and my heart leapt, but when I looked into her eyes, I could feel the hurt, the anger and the tears she was trying so hard to choke down. She was just 10, she wasn't supposed to be choking down her emotions yet, that was what adults did, I didn't want her to live like that, but I couldn't help her, at least not now, not until the next 13 years.

I was still deep in my thoughts when I heard a chair been pulled back, I looked up and saw Amanda getting up. "I need to use the restroom", I heard her whisper. I equally made an excuse to leave the table and immediately followed after Amanda.

I was genuinely shocked by the story her mother just told us about the reason behind our future union, but I couldn't show it, I wanted to be strong for her. I saw her walk into the main building and she looked visibly confused as to where the restroom was, there were no maids around either. She angrily walked off, probably deciding to find it herself. As she stalked off in the wrong direction I heard her sniffling, signaling she was crying, good, I didn't want her to stifle her emotions like I did. If she felt like crying, then by all means, she should cry, if we were in talking terms, I would have even advised her to scream, saying that at this stage of our non-existent relationship would probably make me look crazy and judging by the way she looked at me, I was sure I wasn't her most favorite person in the world.

"You're going the wrong way", I finally said, while it was fun watching her wandering around the whole house been utterly clueless, she was crying and needed privacy. She turned around, looking startled. Immediately she saw me, she started wiping her tears. "I know where the restroom is, I was just giving myself a tour", she lied. "okay", I said and turned to walk away. "Stop", she shouted,"I'm tired of exploring, please show me the restroom". "But I thought you said you knew where it was", I replied. "I lied, I thought that was obvious " she scowled. I called a maid over and asked her to lead Amanda to the restroom "You're ugly when you scowl", I said and walked away.

*****

"I'm glad we had this meeting, see you later". My dad said as he shook hands with Mr. Zack and Mrs. Monica. My mom did the same. May and Victor had already joined us in the garden to say the final goodbye. All in all, I'd say today was an interesting one. Shocking, but interesting.

Zain and I wouldn't be seeing each other until the next 7 years, If today's meeting was like this, I wonder how the next one would be.

I held May's hand as we walked to our car and I refused to look at Zain. I couldn't believe he called me ugly, was I really ugly? Great, I was ending the day with self esteem issues too, just great. It would certainly take more than 7 years to get over this experience but I'd take what I could get. All in all, I had 13 years to end this "engagement" and so help me, that was exactly what I was going to do.

"You're not smiling Amyy, what's wrong? Was it that bad?" May asked as we walked to the car. I signalled to her to shut her mouth till we got home. She got the message because she immediately stopped talking and began humming to an imaginary beat.

Immediately we got home, May dragged me to my room, locked the door, sat on my birthday and started staring at me.

"What?" I asked. "Givemethegistttt", she said in one breath. "Calm down Chipmunk, I didn't get that, speak slowly and intentionally" I teased her. "Come onnnn, you know what I'm talking about, give. Me. The. Gist" she said. "Weren't you listening in on the conversation?" I asked, knowing that that was what she usually did especially when it was a gossip she was highly invested in, just like this one. "I wanted to, but then Victor suggested we play pranks on the maids, and you know one thing I can't resist as much as gossip is pranks" she replied. "No wonder we couldn't find the maids" I thought out loud."We?" May asked. "Yeah, Zain and I" I replied. "Why were you looking for the maids…" she paused for a dramatic gasp "WITH ZAIN" She screamed. "Geez shut it. I wanted to use the rest room and I couldn't find it, Zain happened to be with me, that's all. And besides, he called me ugly" I said, getting extremely annoyed at the memory. I still couldn't believe he called me ugly. I know I wasn't any Beyoncé but I wasn't anything like Anne Hathaway looked in "The Witches". "He whatttt?" May screamed, again. "if I'm going to continue this story, you're going to have to stop screaming" I scolded, I was already fuming cos I had to recount the day's experience but May screaming over and over again was really making me feel worse. She apologized and asked me to continue. "Yh, he said I looked ugly when I scowl, then he walked away" I said, now fully seething. "Amyy, he said 'when you scowl', I don't think he actually meant you look ugly- ugly, just when you scowl. Come on, I've always told you, No real lady should ever scowl. Do you want wrinkles?" She asked while giggling. I could not help but laugh along. May was a ball of sunshine, whenever I was going through a rough patch or just plain sad, she was always delighted to help, sometimes she helped just by been childish and acting her age, other times she acteds like mom and told me to "man up".

"Amanda" my parents called. I didn't want to talk to them at the moment so I grabbed May and we both lay down on my bed and pretended to be asleep. Of course I knew they would figure out the lie immediately but at least they would leave me alone till tomorrow morning.