Chapter 2 I will marry him!

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"

Ariel looked at her father with a pained expression.

"Why should I take Elvira's place in marrying the devil? I will not marry him."

"Oh my dear daughter, tell me, do you think you would have gotten the chance to marry him in your sister's stead if he's not disfigured? And besides, your sister is carrying Damien's child, so Damien wouldn't be marrying you."

Ariel felt dizzy with the news circulating around her, she swirled and fell on the floor again with her tears running like a river.

Meanwhile, Elvira's mother, Tanya Albert, hugged her daughter tightly. She kept patting her head, after her angry shout the other time she decided to say something again.

"Ariel, you must have thought so highly of yourself. Only god knows how many men you have slept with" she looked at her body disdainfully.

"I never believed you liked wild men. I have always thought you were innocent, but who would have thought that you would like to enjoy yourself with wild men? Ariel, tell me, is it my precious daughter that you want to marry a man whose servant can't even stand because of his disfigured appearance and temper?

Both mother and daughter suddenly had tears in their eyes.

Timothy Ann looked at his wife and precious daughter who were crying in each other's embrace and the anger in his heart suddenly turned to frustration as he hugged the mother and daughter.

"Honey, do you think I will allow our precious daughter to marry that crippled man? The Anderson family has promised to help us pay our debt and also cooperate with our company and now I have decided to marry Ariel off as the bride.

"I won't marry that crippled, ugly and perverted man, everyone knows about that! No woman in Oakland dares to accept the Anderson family proposal as no woman dares to get married to that man. We all know he was involved in an accident ten years ago. Besides ruining his face, the accident also changed his personality! He's a monster inside and out that his maids can't even stand him. We've both heard that he likes to torture his previous fiancee. I won't allow Myself to be married off to that monster. I have my own human rights."

Ariel Ann's voice resonated in the Ann villa.

"You have no choice, Ariel. I have said it once and I will say it again. You are the eldest daughter of Ann's family, so it's your responsibility to help us out of our trials. You must take Elvira's place and marry into the Anderson family or get ready to become homeless with your mother's ashes.

Timothy Ann commanded and threatened Ariel in a stern and cold voice as he embraced his wife and daughter, whose act could be seen through at a glance.

Ariel bit her lips and her face turned pale. the only asset she has from her mother was her ashes and to keep that she was now told to marry someone she didn't even know and the only thing about him was rumours. She looked at her father and Damien with hatred in her eyes.

"Ariel, as long as you marry Rex Anderson your mother's ashes will be kept safe here in Ann's mansion and we will stop paying for your Aunt's treatment."

Elvira crossed her arms and said in a tone of disgust,

"You can think about it, your mother's ashes will be flushed down the toilet. Don't you care about your mother's remains and your bed-ridden Aunt?"

Ring! Ring!!

"Pick it up"

Timothy Ann commanded coldly and she did.

"Hello Ariel, we are calling from the hospital are you miss Ariel Ann, a relative of Joana Emrys?

Ariel nodded, wiping a film of tears that threatened to fall from her eyes.

"Yes, I am how is she?"

"She's suffering from pre-renal azotemia. I'm sorry to say that she is in critical condition. She needs treatment now.

Something snapped in her. It was as if the strings holding her up had been cut off by the doctor's words. Her legs, which had been soft before, gave way as she collapsed to the ground and she dissolved into sobs. She knew her aunt had always been in poor health due to fire burn she had been in the hospital for almost eight years. She never expected her condition to worsen so suddenly, especially to this extent.

"Doctor, my aunt has been with you for a long time. You have to save her. Please" she said, tears streaming down her face. The doctor at the other end of the call breathed in a deep breath before he continued.

"Of course, we will try our best as it is important to treat the condition before kidney damage happens, but if there's no payment for the treatment, I'm afraid we can't proceed with the treatment.

Ariel's heart sank.

"How much would it cost?"

She hoped that it would be something she would be able to afford but knew it was all a joke as anyone with common sense would know that the Ann's would not give her the money for the treatment.

"We are estimating the cost of daily dialysis at about seventy-two thousand dollars, so the overall treatment will cost about seven hundred thousand dollars for a year.

Her mind blank out.

Where would she get that much money from? The Ann's won't spare her such.

Her hands clenched into a fist, it seemed her father was aware of her Aunt's condition and used it to force her.

The cost didn't matter. I have to save the only family member I had left.

Ariel looked at the people in the room and felt nothing for them but hatred. She said firmly but with grief, "I will marry Rex Anderson. But I want my mother's ashes and one million dollars for my Aunt's treatment in exchange."

"Deal"

Timothy Ann replied as he stood up with his beloved wife and daughter, leaving Damien with Ariel. .

"Ariel, if you want to blame someone, blame me. Scold me, beat me as you like if that will help. I have always loved your sister, but I don't know how to tell you. I don't mean to set you up. But she is pregnant; the baby is mine and she threatened to abort the baby. That's the reason why I agreed to the plan. I'm sorry Ariel."

Ariel stared at the man in front of her. She suddenly felt the Damien Ford whom she had known for ten years was different from the one she was seeing now.

Her childhood sweetheart connived with her step-sister to ruin her life and, to make it all worse; he was going to be the father of her step-sister's child.

Meanwhile, she became an item sold to the Anderson family.