Chapter 2 - Sold me

The paper was still in Mira’s hands. She could not let it go.

Her eyes kept checking over the words again and again.

Name, date, signature.

She glared so hard at the paper, hoping the words would suddenly change into something else. Something that made sense.

But they did not, rather; a chilling feeling

settled inside her chest.

Heavy, painful.

So many questions kept running through her mind.

She had never seen this man before today, or ever agreed to marry anyone.

So how was her name on this paper?

“Mother.”

Her voice came out sharp and hard.

She slowly looked away from the paper and turned to face her mother.

Her mother was still kneeling on the floor, but now Mira understood something.

She was not kneeling because she was afraid, rather; it looked more like a performance. She was acting.

“Tell me what he means,” Mira said as she stepped closer. “Tell me this is fake. Tell me this marriage is not real.”

Her mother slowly looked at her, no panic or shame.

Then she looked at Mira the same way someone looks at a noisy child causing trouble in public.

Tired, and annoyed.

“Mira, behave yourself,” her mother said coldly. “Just do what he says.”

Mira could not believe it.

“Behave?”

“Stop acting like a child,” her mother replied calmly. “You are old enough to get married. We did you a favour.”

The word hit Mira like a slap.

“A favour?” she repeated slowly. “You call this a favour?”

“You were going to marry someone someday anyway”

“I never agreed to this!” Mira shouted.

Her voice echoed around the room.

But her mother did not move.

Did not even blink.

“You did not need to agree,” she said simply. “We already made the decision for you.”

Mira stared at her mother in shock.

“We raised you,” her mother continued.

“We fed you. Bought clothes for you. Still training you in school. Did you think all that would be free forever? ”

The room became silent.

Mira opened her mouth to speak. But no words came out.

Then her mother delivered the final blow.

“So this is your little way of paying us back.”

Every single bone in her felt betrayed.

Mira stared at her mother as if she no longer recognized her.

“Payment?” she whispered. Tears filled her eyes again.

“You call this payment?” Her voice broke

loudly.

“You sold me to a stranger!”

Her shaky finger pointed toward Alessandro.

“A man I know nothing about!”

Her breathing became ragged.

“A kidnapper!”

The hall became still.

One of the guards near the door shifted uncomfortably.

But Alessandro remained calm. Only his jaw tightened slightly.

Mira noticed the change.

Good. Let him feel offended. Let him feel angry, anything worse than what she is feeling right now.

But instead, he simply watched her quietly.

Something broke quietly inside her.

Not sadness. Something colder.

Like a painful truth she had always known deep inside but refused to acknowledge, I am finally standing right in front of her.

Slowly, she turned to her stepfather.

He was still kneeling on the marble floor.

Still unable to look at her.

“And you?” she asked quietly. “Say something.”

He finally lifted his head a little.

“Mira” he started weakly.

“Don’t,” she warned.

But he continued anyway.

“Daddy, lost money,” he admitted quietly. “At the casino. Again.”

He swallowed hard before speaking again.

“I owed people money. A lot of money. I thought I could win it back if I kept playing. I thought one more game would fix everything. But, I lost.”

Mira stared at him. Her heart felt numb.

“So you used me,” she said softly.

He did not answer.

And that silence answered everything.

“You put me on a table like gambling money,” she whispered. “Like a card. Like a game chip.”

His head dropped lower.

“What gave you the right?” Her voice shook now. “You never loved me. You never even tried to pretend. So what made you think you could choose my future? My marriage? My life?”

She stepped closer to him, gripping the paper tightly.

“You are a chronic gambler,” she said bitterly. “And a coward. You signed my life away like I was property!”

The last word bounced across the room.

Nobody moved.

Mira turned towards him.

Alessandro had not moved from where he sat. His arms rested calmly by his sides. His eyes stayed on her face, watching her quietly.

That calmness made her even angrier.

“And you?” she snapped, pointing at him.

“You accepted this?”

She stepped toward him.

“You could not come to me yourself? Could you not ask me like a normal man to sign something? You had to use them?”

She pointed frustratingly at him.

“If you are so powerful, then why do all this secretly? Why not come to me yourself?”

For the first time, something changed slightly in his expression.

Not anger, as if he finds the show interesting.

Like she had surprised him.

“You did come to me,” he said quietly.

Mira frowned and confusedly asked,

“What?”

“You signed it yourself,” he said.

A broken laugh escaped her lips.

“That’s a lie.”

“Ask them.”

The confidence in his voice made her stomach twist painfully.

Slowly, she looked at her mother.

Her mother met her eyes without remorse.

“Do you remember the documents I gave you a few weeks ago?” her mother asked.

“The papers about your biological father’s house?”

Mira was confused at the moment.

Her mother continued speaking.

“I told you we were renting the property and needed your signature.”

Suddenly, the memory returned clearly.

The kitchen table

Her mother pushed a file towards her while speaking quietly to the phone.

Mira had been in a hurry for school, as she was already running late and barely had time to read it.

Her hands suddenly became cold.

“That wasn’t”

“That was the marriage certificate,” her mother interrupted. “I changed the top page to make it look like a property agreement. You signed it without reading it properly. That is not my fault.”

Mira froze.

The room suddenly felt smaller. Harder to breathe.

The memory became sharper.The pen in her hand.

Her mother was smiling while watching her sign.

“Good girl,” her mother had said that morning.

Mira’s fingers loosened around the paper.

And here she was asking herself questions.

How did they copy my signature?

How did they forge it so perfectly?

But now she knows the truth.

Nobody forged anything. She had signed it herself.

She had signed away her own life without any warning

This is the result of her carelessness.

Her throat tightened painfully.

Slowly, she looked down again at the signature.

Her real signature. Not fake. And beneath it, her stepfather’s signature as witness.

Everything had been planned carefully.

Her family had already decided to sell her.

“So…”

Her voice broke.

She swallowed and tried again.

“So you sold me?”

She looked at her mother. Then her stepfather.

Then finally Alessandro.

He stood there silently, watching her coldly, with unreadable hazel eyes.

A tear rolled down her smooth cheek.

She did not care to wipe it away.

“You didn’t just marry me out,” she whispered again. “You sold me to save yourself.”