“You know I bloody wish I was joking." My dad said this, shaking his head and staring at me pitifully.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” I frowned.
“Oh, because you think I’m joking,” he said. “Heard of Isak Santos?”
I frowned and stared at my dad as though he had just fallen from the skies. “Who’s Isak?”
“The man you’d be getting married to,” my dad said so simply that it infuriated me the most.
“For the umpteenth time, Dad, is this a joke or something?” I asked. “You know I still haven’t gotten over the disappearance of Arthur, and now you want me to get married to someone else.”
“He isn’t just someone else,” he corrected. “He’s the man that would save us from the danger looming over our heads.”
“I’m lost here." I shook my head in confusion. “What danger? What’s happening?”
He handed me a card that looked like a wedding invitation card, and slowly, I began to incline as to what it was about. Grumpily, I collected it from him. The more I swept my eyes through the paper, the more confused I was.
Just as I had predicted, it was the wedding of another distant relative in about two months. However, I still did not understand how the recent events were connected to it.
My eyes darted from my dad to my mom in anticipation of some kind of explanation. “Okay?” I waved the card in their faces. "I'm happy for the couple, but how does this relate to the "danger looming over our heads," Dad?”
"That's an invitation to your third cousin's wedding, Iris," my mother finally said. "And she is five and a half years younger than you. Do you know what else is interesting?"
I shook my head in exhaustion rather than curiosity, but my mother went on anyway. "She let her parents choose her husband for her barely a year ago, and now they are getting married."
"And you've been dating that runaway boy for how long? Five years?" My father chipped in.
"Four, Dad. For four years," I corrected while grinding my teeth.
"Same difference." He shrugged. "Where's he now, if I may ask?"
I kiss my teeth in anger. "What are you aiming at?"
"We found you someone who you'll be getting married to, Iris. We've allowed you to have your time, and you've wasted it, and now it is ours." My dad's voice was sterner. Until then, I had no idea that I had been standing the whole time. I walked to a couch and lowered myself onto it.
I chuckled nervously once I had settled in on the couch and looked to my mother for some support. "This must be some sort of joke, right, mom?" She looked away, and words would fail to express how much deeper my heart sank at the sight. "It's the fucking 21st century, for Christ sake! No one does this anymore."
"Language, Iris!" My mother shouted at me, reminding me that she wasn't as dumb as I had thought some seconds before.
"The wedding invitation card in your hand contradicts this analogy of yours, don't you think?" For some reason, my father was getting on my nerves, and I wished he'd just shut the hell up.
"I can't believe you've both been here years before I was born, and you still think like this."
"Immigrants or not, our tradition still stands, Iris," my mother countered.
While I thought that being born in the Western part of the world would save me from the stupid tradition my Asian counterparts were subjected to, my parents were making negotiations with some guy I do not know in a bid to uphold the tradition.
"And if I refuse?"
"You can't refuse, Iris. This is your only chance at making us proud, especially after you went ahead to study that stupid course of yours." My father rose from where he was seated, close to my mother.
“It's always about you and your reputation. Always about what people will think and how high shoulders are raised.”
"You've had your time, Iris."
"So, I'm getting married to Isak." I shook my head, trying to remember his last name.
“Santos,” my dad chipped in. “Isak Santos. You had better start getting used to your husband’s name. Would do you much good.”
“Would you please not call him my husband yet?” I snapped. “You want me to get married to Isak Santos so that you can both feel good about yourselves?”
“This is for your good, darling; you'll see.” I had been so focused on my dad that I didn't know she had stood up from the couch until I felt her hand on my shoulder. I shrugged it off.
“Plus," my father stressed. "He’s a sweet guy and likes you very much. Isn't that what you kids are after these days?"
“Well, I don’t like him back,” I said matter-of-factly.
“Oh well, no one needs you to like him back, sugar pie,” my dad said sarcastically. “It was you who wanted to attend one of the best colleges in the country to study a course I find very sick. I mean, who still studies journalism when there are better courses?”
I sighed. I wasn’t shocked that my dad had to state his obvious dislike for my course of study.
“Despite my dislike for your course, I still went out of my way to fund your college education,” he said. “Maybe if you had studied one of those noble courses, we'd have left you to do whatever you deemed fit.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but I stopped myself because I knew it was a lost cause, especially when my mother wasn't having my back. I agreed to meet with Isak in the hopes that I'd be able to get him to continue with the whole process.
Even though I had given up on waiting for Arthur, I didn't plan on forgetting him the way my parents were forcing me to.
****
The swiftness of the marriage ceremony made me wonder if I had a death sentence hovering over my head. It seemed like my family could not wait to send me off, and it broke my heart even more.
Isak Santos was very rich. He controlled chains of companies, so getting married to him wasn’t what I wanted; it was what my family wanted. Plus, he liked me too. Or so I thought.
According to my dad, he had liked me before I even got to know him or got married to him, so I hoped that as time passed, I would grow to love him and I would have the dream marriage that she had always dreamed about.
But what do people say about wishes being horses?
I stared at the news show on TV and listened to the reporter speak about her recent findings somewhere in Pakistan, and I couldn’t help but wallow in self-pity at how I had abandoned all my goals and dreams of acing and making it big as a journalist because of my family and this godforsaken sham of a marriage.As I continued to listen, nostalgia hit me hard, and I was plunged into deep misery as I reminisced on how much I must have lost. It had been barely two years since we got married, and it already seemed like there was some sort of invisible hand grappling at my neck and snuffing the life out of me.You know, I initially thought having separate rooms as a couple was a bad idea when we first got married. I only needed less than six months to realize that it was one of the best decisions I have been forced to make. I couldn’t imagine how I’d have protected myself from Isak whenever he got home wasted and horny, or times when he was in his right senses but wanted to flex his muscles
I punched hurriedly into my phone as the taxi driver held my gaze in the rearview mirror. After scrolling through my phone for a few seconds, I snapped my fingers and nodded.“DoubleTree by Hilton, please." I smiled at him.He nodded and sped into the street.Sighing, I leaned into my seat. I couldn’t help but wonder if I had done the right thing. But if there was anything I knew, it was the fact that I had had enough of living with Isak.The more I lived with him, the more I wished for the world to end. And since the world was not ending anytime soon, it was better if I ended what was left of the sham.For a while, I worried about how disappointed my parents would be, and I feared that my father might disown me if and when he found out what his only child had done. But it was either them or me, and it was glaring who I chose.As the taxi sped on, it felt as though a large part of my worries were also speeding away (even though I knew my problems still existed).The envelope I handed
As we drove back to our base in Liverpool, I couldn’t help but notice the intermittent skipping of my heartbeats when I glanced at Ian. I knew it was unhealthy to get involved with anyone when I was still legally married to Isak, but it felt good to feel those butterflies again like I used to with Arthur. Something about Ian had me drawn to him even though I didn’t want to. He was the complete opposite of Isak—soft-spoken, kind, courteous, and younger—and it was something that I considered before getting involved with anyone. And it was the reason I had loved and enjoyed his company all through my week-long stay at the resort. I was beginning to miss him the night before since we were slated to leave the next day. My lips broke into a smile when he was there at the parking lot, ready to chauffeur me back to Liverpool, even though he looked like he could afford to fly anywhere. I had chipped it into a couple of our conversations about how much I loved road trips, and he had thought t
The door casually opened with the third knock, with Ian standing and holding the doorknob. I had tried talking him into holding a weapon in case he needed it, so he actually had one right now hidden in his trousers. My kitchen knife.I waited for the danger, ready to act out in any way that I could, but then, as soon as the door was open, Ian suddenly paused. I watched him suddenly spread a smile at whoever was at the door, shake their hands, and extend the door much wider for them to come in.Raising a curious brow, I adjusted from my defensive position and slowly came out into view as the footsteps made it in, and instantly, I made a pause. Then my curiosity went higher.The cops?How are they here?I had dialed Ian, not them, hadn't I?"I called 911 on my way," Ian explained just then, as if reading my thoughts as he slammed the door shut after they were all in. There were about five officers. Four males and a blonde female cop. "I figured you obviously meant to call the cops when
The door to my room banged shut, and in the next minute, I was down on the floor, squatting against the door with my feet on the cold tiled floor and my hands hugging tightly around my knees.All of those things had just ended a few minutes ago, and I just needed time to think right now.All I felt was weak. And tired. And disappointed.I was so disappointed in how things were turning out.This was not the plan at all when I left Isak's house and bought this apartment.I had planned to stay here and remain hidden for as long as it'd take until he finally agreed to sign the divorce papers.How did he find me so easily?Why was Isak constantly such a thorn in my life, even in the process of trying to finally be free from him?Just to confirm everything I already knew, I slid out my phone and opened up the pictures once again, and it all came back into view on the screen, as clear as the moment it had occurred. His retreating figure. His clothes. His car and plate number. Everything.It
That night, Ian had to go back first to his place to freshen up, which was a lot easier since, luckily, he had come in the morning with his car.Before leaving back to his place, he had helped me set up a new alarm system in my apartment and put other possible things that could come in handy together if there was any emergency while he was gone.It didn't take long, however, before his car arrived back in my driveway. I knew he had done it all as soon as possible to be back because he had only been gone for barely an hour when the drive from his place to mine took about thirty minutes to and fro, like he had mentioned before.Not thinking of how much speed he must have added to be back before anything happened over here, I tied up my bathrobe and moved quickly to answer the doorbell.I only just made it out of the shower, thinking I'd have the time to maybe prepare some snacks for us before he got back, but here he was, already back when I had barely made it out of the shower."Ian?"
"Are you okay? Be calm. We're safe."It was Ian speaking. His hands were rubbing firmly over mine in my panic attack as he hurriedly started the car with his other hand while I watched through my ragged breathing as the men from the fire service continued to arrive in their trucks, trying to put out the fire from the house.It felt like a dream.Like a goddamn hallucination.All that reflected in my eyes from my new apartment was now a tall fire. Razing down every single thing all up to the roof.Soon, I found myself whimpering, and then, as soon as Ian's car swerved and finally started to move out of the driveway, I burst into tears.Ian tried his hardest to keep me calm, rubbing consistently over my hands until his car was finally out on the road, leaving it all behind with each distance covered.My apartment.The entire last of my savings was used to purchase that house for my escape.Everything gone.Razed down to the ground.I really couldn't control my cries at this point, and I
I was busy.I had been bent over the same mahogany table for the last hour, looking over the email responses from my lawyer for the millionth time. At the same time, I had my copy of the divorce papers spread over the shiny wood surface in front of me, and at the same time, my left thumb kept busy with declining each of my parents’ calls that kept coming in over and over again.There was no reason to talk to them right now.They had done this to me.Even if they were calling because they had probably heard about the fire, I still didn't wish to speak or say anything to them.There was even a higher possibility that their call wasn't anything about the fire outbreak at my house because I bet Isak wouldn't just go and let them know that their daughter's apartment got razed down when she was in it.It was better now that Isak had no idea where I had gone.He wouldn't go tell my parents about the fire because then he wouldn't be able to say where exactly I was at the moment if my parents