Dashed hope

There was a resounding slap after slap. Ariel was slapped hard by her father.

“You unfilial child, where have you been all night, knee” thud! She knelt on the cold tile.

“To atone for your sin, you will have to marry Rex Anderson.”

Ariel's body shook violently when she heard her father saying she would have to marry

Rex Anderson.

“What? You mean I am going to marry that crippled and disfigured shit of a man? Dad, you must be kidding me, right? I won’t marry that thing ever, not in this life.”

Pa!

She got slapped again by the person she called her father.

Right there in the living room the person she called her sweetheart of ten years sat down there alongside her sister and stepmother.

Her stepmother shouted angrily and the shout almost removed the roofing of the house. “Whore, you still know how to come home?”

Ariel was startled. She knew there was only one person that treated her right and that was Damien.

“Damien, why are you not saying anything? You promised to marry me, right? Tell them I won’t marry that man.

Damien, please tell them we love each other” no matter what she said, the man just kept quiet staring at her like some, strangers.

“Did you also want them to marry me off? Damien say something.”

She had hoped that one day she would marry her childhood sweetheart and start a family with him so that she would no longer be looked down upon.

Damien smiled evilly and that sent chills down Ariel's spine.

“You want me to marry you after spending the night with some wild man. You are dirty”.

Ariel staggered backward when she heard that she had spent the night with a wild man.

Was the man not Damien?

“Damien, what the hell are you saying? We were together last night.”

She looked at the man with the hope that he would say she was with him, but unfortunately the words she had expected to hear did not come.

As Damien looked at her like some dirty piece of shit

“Ariel, I wasn’t the man with you last night”. Such news was a blow to her as she directly fell on the ground.

What did she just hear? She was violated by another man. She was still trying to process what she had just heard when Damien spoke up again.

“So tell me, Ariel, who would marry him, you must have thought too highly of yourself to think I would really love someone like you? Oh, Ariel baby, you see I would have married him in your stead, but you see the fact that he agrees to the marriage between Ann and Anderson shows he is not gay, so you see I can’t marry him in your stead.”

“No Damien”, Ariel struggled to grab Damien’s arms and anxiously said “Damien, it’s me Ariel. You said you loved me and would marry me…" before she could finish her sentence,

Damien Ford pushed her away. Ariel staggered a little before she stabilized herself.

“Ariel, can you be less shameless? I don’t love you. The only person I love is Elvira Ann.

After he finished speaking, he moved closer to Elvira and kissed her.

“You must be tired; you haven’t had anything to eat since last night”

“Yes love”

Ariel watched as the two of them talked and acted sweetly.

“Damien”

Ariel called out to him weakly.

Her father’s eyes turned red in anger. He hated this child very much. She reminded him of that woman and that pissed him off.

“Ariel, the Anderson's are the richest and most powerful family in Oakland, so many women would have been lining up at the Anderson doorstep day in day out if Rex Anderson had not been disfigured"

There was a resounding slap after slap. Ariel was slapped hard by her father.

“You unfilial child, where have you been all night, knee” thud! She knelt on the cold tile.

“To atone for your sin, you will have to marry Rex Anderson.”

Ariel's body shook violently when she heard her father saying she would have to marry

Rex Anderson.

“What? You mean I am going to marry that crippled and disfigured shit of a man? Dad, you must be kidding me, right? I won’t marry that thing ever, not in this life.”

Pa!

She got slapped again by the person she called her father.

Right there in the living room the person she called her sweetheart of ten years sat down there alongside her sister and stepmother.

Her stepmother shouted angrily and the shout almost removed the roofing of the house. “Whore, you still know how to come home?”

Ariel was startled. She knew there was only one person that treated her right and that was Damien.

“Damien, why are you not saying anything? You promised to marry me, right? Tell them I won’t marry that man.

Damien, please tell them we love each other” no matter what she said, the man just kept quiet staring at her like some, strangers.

“Did you also want them to marry me off? Damien say something.”

She had hoped that one day she would marry her childhood sweetheart and start a family with him so that she would no longer be looked down upon.

There was a resounding slap after slap. Ariel was slapped hard by her father.

“You unfilial child, where have you been all night, knee” thud! She knelt on the cold tile.

“To atone for your sin, you will have to marry Rex Anderson.”

Ariel's body shook violently when she heard her father saying she would have to marry

Rex Anderson.