For the Camera.

TOBY.

"Hey dad! I was told you asked to see me and honestly, that's very surprising. Seeing that you're almost never home and never seem to care about your only child. I mean, when was the last time we saw each other this way, wasn't it when I was five or something?" I rambled off after walking into my dad's study.

Being the only heir to Daniels' conglomerates, a group that has a whole lot of other branches underneath, industries that manufacture numerous products and companies that provide various services has a lot of perks and some cons. One of the cons was that my dad was hardly ever around, he had too much on his plates to handle afterall since we also owned the best group of schools, Daniels Elementary school, Daniels College and even Daniels Private University. We even own a very popular fashion line that was under my mom's management and then lots of hotels, restaurants, modeling agencies and guest houses.

We were practically richer than the president of this country and paparazzi followed us everywhere. But despite having all of these, my dad was still very serious about me getting many degrees just like he did. He always wanted me to have all certificates, after my bachelors degree,, he threatened me with a lot of things so I could go get my masters degree too which is the one I'm at at the moment and I hated studying, it was just so irrelevant to me..

He would have probably wanted me to go even higher and have my doctorate too but no, I made him promise that Masters degree was the last bus stop. He cared so much about education and I couldn't understand why, most people go to school so as to make money after leaving school and we had that already so why the unnecessary stress for me. I didn't see the usefulness in any way.

My mom walked in at the same moment that I was about to speak again since I didn't get any response from dad. "Sweetheart, how was your night?" She asked while I pecked her cheeks.

My mom was one of the prettiest moms ever and I'm not even kidding, she is literally very beautiful. One of the reasons being the fact that she was a model in her youthful days and she still worked out to keep her body shape, she was so in love with herself that she admired herself in the mirror every ten minutes. She also loved and spoilt me a lot, I was her only child afterall.

"I don't know how it was mom, I was asleep!" I replied her with humour while she laughed.

"I don't know why I keep asking everyday despite knowing that your answer will always be the same, can't you just say it was fine like every other normal kid?" Mum asked, after taking a sip of her coffee, she was addicted to that liquid and she never allowed any of the maids to even brew it for her, she always did it herself.

I rolled my eyes, "You seem to forget that I am twenty five, I am a grown man."

"The grown man who still depends on his mum for a lot of things? Oh please, you will always be my cute baby." Mum cooed as she pinched my cheeks while I swatted her hands away.

"Ugh, can you tell your husband here to speak to me already? He's so engrossed in the darn papers!" I reported to mom who just smiled and proceeded to sit on one of the couches.

Mom and dad never really talked to each other that much, I was used to them acting that way. They were like fire and ice, they didn't like each other in any way, the only time you'll see them cuddling up to one another is when there's a camera or third party present. Other than that, they treated each other like they were invisible or something.

When Dad still didn't respond to my greetings nor say anything. I was almost loosing it, mom and I sat for over thirty minutes as we watched dad keep writing stuffs on papers in front of him. And soon enough, I lost all my patience.

"Dr Bankole Daniels!" I shouted and then he finally raised his head.

"Why do you have to scream my name like a woman?" He questioned.

"You refused to acknowledge us and we have been sitting here for over thirty minutes. Please, can we just get over with whatever it is you wanted to see me for? I have things to do."

"By things, you mean, go to parties, drink to stupor, sleep with strippers and models and then leave more scandals the next day for my PR to handle?" Dad asked with so much sarcasm lacing his voice.

"No dad, I have some classes." I defended, even though I knew that he was right.

"You must think I'm daft. You think I don't know that you don't even attend classes and even do your projects. Just because I don't say anything doesn't mean I don't know." He snapped.

"Bankole, he goes..." Mom wanted to defend but dad shunned her.

"I'm not talking to you, Clara! I'm talking to my son!" Dad snapped causing my mom to flinch while I just rolled my eyes. This was a common occurrence since I was young so I was used to it.

"Okay okay! I'm sorry! Is that what you wanted to see me for? Can I leave now?" I said and stood up to leave.

"Toby Daniels! Will you sit your ass back on that chair before I loose my temper?" Dad's voice thundered while I sat down quickly.

Dad's temper was as short as my pinky finger and wasn't one to tamper with. He got angry easily and was always so rude even to his family. He always wanted things to be done his way or you suffer consequences. I cannot count the numerous times he freezed my account, siezed my car keys and even threatened to disown me and remove my name from his empire. But I think I got his temper and rudeness though.

"So, I'm only going to tell you that you're getting married next month." Dad dropped nonchalantly.

Wait, what?

My ears must have been playing some sick games on me. "What did you say?"

"What exactly did you hear?"

"How can you just tell me that I'm getting married? Just like that? Who the fuck does that?!" I snapped.

"You heard me right and I'm not going to repeat myself. You're getting married." He said again. I knew this was bound to happen at some point in time but I never thought it'd be as early as this. Daniels' family always had arranged marriage. It had been like that from generation to generation. It wasn't going to change during my own time, that I know.

"But dad, you can't just drop such a bomb on me like that! I'm just twenty five, it's not yet time! You got married when you were thirty!" I shouted.

"Do not raise your voice at me, Toby! Don't! I got married at thirty because I was never reckless, spoilt and stupid like you. Your scandals have done more harm than good to my empire, I can't keep risking it. I think you have enjoyed your youth enough."

"But you can't do this to me! It's unfair! Okay okay! Can I choose my bride then? Can I get married to Yasmin?" I asked calmly.

"Who the hell is Yasmin? Who's her father?"

"Uhm, I don't think she has one, but she's a popular actress. You should know her, Yasmin Blake." I sugarcoated knowing that dad would never let me marry a nobody.

"An actress? You must be kidding me! And then she doesn't even have a father too? Why would I allow you to marry someone with no good background? Actresses are not people we can marry, they'll never forgo their career or endure anything. We have the right to do anything we want and get anything we like in Daniels family but the only thing we do not choose by ourselves is our brides. Or do you think I chose Clara by myself? If I had the chance to choose a wife, she wouldn't even be sitting here." Dad ridiculed.

"Oh! Sorry, Mr Daniels! You think if I wasn't chosen to marry you, you would even be able to touch my finger nails?" Mum replied.

Before they started to bicker even more, I stopped it before it could go further.

"Okay, so who am I getting married to then?" I asked.

"Your childhood friend, Coker..." Dad struggled to remember her name.

"Sapphire?" I suggested.

"What? Hell No, Sapphire is too young. It's uhm... yea Ruby Coker." He said.

"Ruby?" Mum and I questioned at the same time.

"The same Ruby Coker? How on earth do you even call Ruby my childhood friend? We only hanged out because you are friends with their dad. And I clicked with Sapphire and not Ruby. Ruby was so fat, ugly and dirty. She still is." I said.

Ruby Coker was such a clingy stupid girl back then, she followed me everywhere I went. She had such a disgusting crush on me and still does. I know that because she still looks at me stupidly whenever we visited them once in a while. However, I didn't like her at all, she was ugly and didn't look anything like her younger sister, Sapphire.

I couldn't just believe that dad was choosing such an ugly bride for me.

Hell No!

"I don't care! That's your bride." Dad said finally and went back to whatever he was doing as if he didn't just drop a bomb that could ruin my entire life.

Yes, my entire life! Getting married was even an issue on its own, and getting married to Ruby Coker, that was the worst thing that'll ever happen to me.

I'm Toby Daniels, I don't even do average ladies not to talk of uglies, I do top models, actresses and the most beautiful girls all over the world. My fine reputation was going to be ruined with Ruby. She didn't even do anything to me and I just didn't like her for her looks, now that I was told that I was getting married to her, I hated her already. Ruby Coker had better be against this nonsense.

I stormed out of the lounge in anger and rushed towards one of my luxurious cars.

P.S – My cars were one of the things I loved the most in this world, they were even more precious than Yasmin. Speaking of Yasmin, I brought out my iPhone and sent her a text, "I need you right now. Can we meet?"

She replied almost immediately, "Sure, we can hook up and then we can finish what we started yesterday. I'm having a movie shoot at De Best Hotel, meet me there."

I didn't bother to reply, as I started the engine. Typical Yasmin, the only thing she ever had to offer was sex, not that I was complaining though.

I needed to get the news I had just heard off my head and Sex was a good way to.

RUBY.

"But dad, how could you do this to me? Who still does arranged marriage thingy? Why would you choose a husband for me? I don't have a problem." I shouted crying my eyes out, I probably looked like a zombie at that moment due to the fact that I had been crying endlessly after dad announced the shocking news.

"Yes, you can't just keep living ur life as such an introvert like this. Are you going to marry your books? Why can't you just understand that this is for your own good, you are getting married into the mighty Daniels' family. You should be happy!" Dad said adjusting his glasses and still focused on the paperworks on his desk.

"Happy? Did you just say happy? Do you even know Toby Daniels? He's a jerk, an arrogant womaniser, a heartbreaker, a cocky idiot, many newspapers have so many scandals of him. He's so arrogant and full of himself! And why does it have to be me? Why not Sapphire, huh?" I shouted getting more annoyed and frustrated.

Dad must have been so obsessed with precious stones way back that he named his daughters after them, Ruby and Sapphire. It is unique though and always made us stand out.

"You are older than Sapphire, she's just nineteen and I can't push her into such a thing." Dad said, so calm that it annoyed me so much. He defended Sapphire all the time. It always had me wondering why she got the best treatment in the house and even everywhere, was it all about body, beauty and looks?

What about brains!!

"Oh! So now I'm the oldest! You didn't realise that when you sent Sapphire on a vacation trip to Hawaii, you didn't know this when you appointed her to represent you in Paris even though I am actually the one who should have gone to represent you there. You only remember that you have a daughter somewhere whenever it's time for a kind of sacrifice. I am just an option for you, dad, you only use me for your selfish interests!" I shouted louder at him.

"But... you like Toby. You've always liked him, it was so obvious."

I would never deny that I had a very huge crush on Toby Daniels from way back and even now, but I didn't want to spend the rest of my life with him. A stupid crush doesn't mean I'd like to live my life a misery. I never even wanted to have anything to do with him. He was always so rude, arrogant and proud. He had this mentality that the whole world revolved around him, that bastard.

I could vividly remember back then in High School, when he told the whole school that I was such a dog who wouldn't stop following him around. And Daniels academy being his father's school and one of the best rich kids school in the country worshipped the floor he walked on.

He was the most popular, influential and richest student. Everybody wanted to please and be on his good side. He practically acted like a god. I can't even begin to count all the mean things he said to me. He was always calling me fatso, ugly and so on. It wasn't my fault that I was a little bit chubby and not that much of a beauty like my sister.

"Yes! But don't act like you don't know how he always treated me! He treated me like trash even as kids! I'm sure he's even worse now! Dad, you have to cancel all these arrangements, it's not right. You can't make such decisions for me. I still have a lot of dream I'm yet to fulfill, this will cut it short. Moreover I'm still in school and I'm just twenty two." I explained trying to make dad see reasons but he was even more adamant.

"Ruby, you're getting married to Toby Daniels and that's it! Take it that way!" He snapped.

"I can't believe this! You're the worst father ever!" I shouted and ran into my room. I shut the door and started to cry again, this time more louder. I couldn't believe that he would do that to me.

"Ruby, please, just open the door, I'd like to explain things to you." I heard his voice behind my door, but I was too angry to let him in. He deserved to be locked out.

"Look, this is for the your sake, Ruby. I'm sorry you feel this way but you'll be rendering so much help both to us and yourself if you do this. You'll be in so much wealth and you'll never have to worry for a day, you know how much I want my babies to live princess lives." He said again, when he saw that I wasn't ready to open up the door and listen to him, he started to leave as I could hear his retreating steps.

I stood up to just go collapse onto my bed and cry even more, but then I stopped on hearing my Dad and his wife's loud voices. Lola had a annoyingly loud voice that irritated me to a fault coupked with the fact that she was a typical Karen.

"Why won't you just tell her that we'd all become as poor as church rats if she doesn't get married to that man? In fact, we'll probably die of hunger in a matter of months..." she started to say until dad interrupted her.

"Shush your mouth, Lola! Telling her it's for her sake is better than just outrightly telling her that she's simply a sacrificial lamb! Just calm down." He whispred loudly, obviously trying to pacify her.

"How does it matter? Why go through the hard route when the fast route is there? She's such an emotional one so she'll obviously do anything for her family. Just let her know that we are bankrupt and our only hope of survival is her darn marriage!" Lola snapped again, speaking even louder this time.

"Just... shush..." I heard my dad's faint voice say and soon, I couldn't even hear both of them anymore.

Lola had shouted so I could hear, she knew what she was doing. She knew just how to gaslight me, she knew I would start to reconsider my decisions once I heard that I was the help needed for my family, she was a manipulative snake after all. But what I would never understand is what happened to my dad.

Where did that sweet dad go to? The dad who always bought me ice cream and Teddy bears, the dad who loved to pamper me a lot, the dad who hated to see me cry. That dad who would always try to satisfy me and do what I want.

Well, this was all because he remarried, he changed ever since he said 'I do' to Lola.

TOBY.

"I'm waiting, you know. We have to get there on time!" My dad snapped from downstairs.

And where were we going?! – The Coker's house.

"Mum, I thought you somehow managed to change his mind. I don't want to get married and definitely not to fat and ugly Ruby!" I shouted at mom.

Then a stupid maid who was cleaning up my room chose that moment to drop one of my beautiful vases. "Are you just stupid?! Do you even know how much that costs? How would you even know when you were born and bred in poverty. Idiot! You are fired!" I snapped at the girl who was already crying and scared. She quickly ran out of the room.

Stupid maids! She knew better than to be so careless when I was boiling.

"And mom you didn't answer me!" I directed my anger back to my mom who flinched at the tone of my voice.

"Sweetheart, I tried but you know how your dad is, he never listens to me. He's even adamant on it been that girl." My mum said calmly trying to be careful not to anger me the more.

If left to mom, she'd always do what I want. She loved me so much and would always do things my way. But then she could be a devil when I wasn't involved, but she wasn't so wicked and mean like people paint her to be.

-Okay, admitted. She was always so mean to other people, especially her employees and maids so people hated her a lot but she was always loving and kind to me so to me, she'd always be the best mother ever.

My last hope right then was Ruby, I just had to hope that she threw enough tantrums against the marriage enough for them to forget about the whole arrangement, it didn't even make any sense.

While we were in the car, My dad spoke what I had been expecting from him which was why I wasn't throwing too much tantrums.

"I'll advice you to be on your best behavior when we get to your in laws' house. Don't you even dare to pull a stupid stunt!" He warned while I rolled my eyes.

"But dad, I still don't get the pact at all. They are not even that rich, are you doing this because he's your friend? I even heard that their business is typically getting ruined, they literally have nothing to offer us." I said, hoping to bring up points that would cause my dad's mind.

"I decide what is of help to us and what isn't. Do your part and leave the rest for me, although there's a major reason I can't let out to you now but this is also a way to pacify the public that have been protesting against our schools, saying we harbour criminals and bullying just because they are rich. If we show them that we are getting our one and only son married to an average girl, they'll probably see us in a better light, so yes, we are benefiting a whole lot too." Dad explained while I just kept quite since I wasn't even surprised.

Of course, it was to pacify the public as usual, everything in our family revolves around keeping our image. Soon enough, we got to the Coker's home and I wasn't really impressed about their house, it was in a good neighborhood but not a rich nor wealthy one, they were totally average.

A huge bald man who I recognized as Mr Henry Coker and a very pretty slender woman who I assumed would be Mrs Coker was standing at the entrance of the door to welcome us when we drove into their compound.

My dad greeted Mr Coker, grinning widely and the women did the same while I just watched them awkwardly.

"Toby Toby! How have you been?" Mr Coker greeted like we were best pals or something while I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and instead said a simple 'fine.'

We walked inside towards the huge dinning room and took our seats. "Sapphire! Ruby! Our guests are here!" Mrs. Coker shouted.

A young beautiful girl I recognized as Sapphire came running down the stairs carefully due to her heels. She was dressed in a pretty flowery dress and looked so cute as usual. Sapphire looked like she was in her twenties but then I knew that she was just nineteen. She had always looked older than her age.

She greeted my mom and mom was quick to respond to her greetings but even when Ruby greeted thrice, she acted like she didn't hear her and I couldn't blame her.

She was practically dressed in something that looked like a rag, a stupid baggy trousers and some faded shirt, she didn't even bother to make some effort to look good for the dinner. She looked as ugly as I remembered even though her fat now only remained at places like her hips and bust. I glared at her as she walked towards my side. It was pretty evident that even my mum was utterly disgusted at her.

I smirked knowingly and I could see the corner of Mrs Coker's lips form into a mocking smile secretly. I guess nobody liked Ruby and I was very happy about that for virtually no reason at all. Mom still didn't acknowledge her, so she just went back to her seat with a disappointed and dejected look on her face.

"Hey, Toby! You're still as fine as I can remember!" Sapphire greeted as she took a seat on my left while Jupiter sat on my right.

"I know right?" I said in a cocky manner.

"Ruby dear, your dad told me that you've come to conclusion about this, so would you like to share it with us?" My dad asked with an extremely sick sweet voice.

What was this man up to? He was hardly ever nice. Being nice doesn't just run in our family.

"Uhm, yea... I... I agreed." Ruby stuttered while I spit my wine back into the glass cup.

She agreed?! She fucking agreed?!

"Oh, I am so glad about that. The wedding will all happen so fast. And my son can't wait to make you his wife." My dad said smiling.

Indeed!

My mom was glaring at her the same way I was.

Oh, Ruby, you just made two worst enemies. I just wonder how you'll survive us.

Welcome to hell, dear wife.