Chapter 2 Wedding contract

The next day, Carmen had finally established a better way to escape without being found. It was risky but she didn't want to waste her life because she wanted to save a company that wasn't even hers. She could be considered selfish but she told herself that if everyone had put themselves in her place, her father would never have accepted this proposition of an investment in exchange for marriage. She hadn't taken much but only when she wanted to leave through the window, the door to her room opened and she saw her father.

When the latter saw what she was about to do, a nameless darkness covered her eyes and she already knew what awaited her.

"The only reason I'm not going to punish you is simply because you're no longer my responsibility and your husband will be happy to correct you. It's time to get married. You will sign your marriage contract in my office."

Just a marriage contract, just that and nothing else. All hope vanished and she followed him. No amount of resistance was going to help him. When she arrived in front of her father's office, the door of which was ajar, she saw a tall man in a suit. She couldn't hope it was him because her husband was disabled.

"Hello miss, I am Mr. Félix Alvarez's lawyer, I am handling the marriage procedure requested by Mr. Hugo Lutero."

She didn't even know who her husband was and no one told her precisely. She took the marriage contract and looked at it distressedly. Every second that passed, she hoped that her father would tell her that she did not have to sign, but the look in his eyes made it clear to her that her investment depended on his signature.

"Can I take some time to read?"

"My investment is not going to wait. Your reading, you put it aside and you put your signature on this paper and now!" Shouted Javier.

She took a pen and signed with a trembling hand. It looked more like a grimace than a signature, but that detail wasn't important to anyone. She had just sealed her fate with that of a man who she didn't even know what he looked like.

"Congratulations miss! I must take you now to your husband."

"But..." She began before being interrupted by her father.

"You are a married woman now and your place is with your husband, my dear daughter. Good luck for the future!"

Just like that, with the snap of a finger she was no longer part of her family. It was the nightmare she never expected. Her stepmother and half-sister looked at her with smiles of joy, happy to have certainly gotten rid of her.

"Please hurry, Mrs. Alvarez."

She walked quickly so as not to waste time with the lawyer who certainly had things to do. As she got into the car and left her father's property, a solitary tear rolled down her cheek. This was the end and she didn't even know what world she was walking into.

As the car finally passed through the great city of Madrid, she was captivated by the beauty of this city. Since her birth, she had never left Seville. She could admire as much as she wanted but her ideas could not be diverted from what awaited her.

"Little reminders; he can be cold, distant and even sometimes verbally aggressive, so you have to find the best way to understand him and always stay on good terms with him."

A verbally aggressive person could end up physically attacking and they had no strength to defend themselves. The fear grew more and more within her as she imagined what she was getting herself into.

" How old is he?"

"You still have a copy of your marriage contract with you, you can look at it."

She knew it well but she would have liked him to tell her so she wouldn't find out herself. She began to leaf through the marriage contract and at each page, she swallowed with difficulty. Felix Alvarez, aged thirty-two, was in a traffic accident three years ago and many people believe he is dead. He cannot make any physical effort and cannot see. He has become allergic to human presence and yet doctors think that this is what will help him get better, which is why he should get married.

She was just medicine for a person who no longer wanted to remain among the living. It was all insane.

"I would like to erase my signature from this document, please."

"It's already too late, miss."

No turning back, so that's what it meant. No way to separate from this man if he didn't decide it as he had decided for marriage. To hell with his father and his business.

When the car stopped at the bottom of a building, she got out and found that it was a very modest place. After all, her husband was a poor man who couldn't even work to feed himself.

"Let's go!"

She nodded and followed him inside the building. There wasn't even an elevator and the stairs were endless. It was a real punishment for her on top of the weight of the marriage. She was about to have a panic attack when the lawyer rang the doorbell and she realized that they had arrived at the door that would soon be hers. She wondered who was going to open the door since it was said he couldn't stand on his legs. When she heard the sound of a key in the lock, her head began to spin uncontrollably and she fainted.