Chapter 2

Yawing tiredly and stretching her body on her bed, emerald noticed her phone buzzing, she had put it on silent earlier; ignoring the pounding headache, she slide to answer the call, then notices it was a private number, “who uses private number these days” she said irritably loud.

“Hello! hello!Emerald said casually on her phone, instantly she heard a deep calm voice “be ready at five emerald”, before she could ask who she was speaking with, the line went off dryly.

“what the heck was that?, could have been a wrong number, ohh no! he mentioned my name; people actually be crazy in this city, hmm I think i'm gonna wait till five to see what happens.

Just then, a loud bang comes to her door while thrusting it open, “oh hi Sophie, you let yourself in,so you know this is my bedroom you can’t just come in whenever you feel like”, emerald said, looking at her sister, feeling quite pissed about her action.

“Sissy, this is barely a bedroom it’s more like a closet, I could lecture you on what a bedroom looks like but that’s not why am here, heard you’ll be going for your dress fitting today, I knew you wanted Alessandro for his money, if not why would you be okay with this sham of a marriage”.

Staring confusingly at her sister, emerald recalls the phone conversation “oh that’s what it was all about” taking a deep breath she calmly walked towards her sister saying, “if it was truly my will to marry Alessandro, do you think I would be locked up”;

“You know what I don’t care, you always get the good ones! I won’t let that happen again”; her eyes darken as she looked at emerald, “If you continue with this, I will make you regret marrying him” Emerald looked shockingly at sophie wondering where it was coming from, she knew her sister disliked her but not to this extent; She watched as Sophie disappears from her room banging the door shut in the process.

Walking through the compacted hallway, her hands could touch them if she were to spread them out sideways, they were rich but she wondered were all the money went to, it was definitely not applying to her or her mother, she always saw brand new shoes and purses in designer boxes whenever Sophie left her room slightly open, she had no problem with all of the good things her sister got but why her dad never got her anything is where she was angered.

Emerald wanted to talk to her father about going back to work, she was tired of staying in the house all day.

“Dad I want to talk to you about something important” said emerald in a low tone, she could hear the fear from her voice, knocking gently on her father’s fading brown door, she went on and on, kept ponding hardly on the door, soon her knuckles started to hurt from the amount of pain, she started to wonder if her father was really inside but where could he have gone this early; suddenly she heard footsteps sound coming from behind her, “why are you standing there gawking emerald?, don’t you have a wedding to prepare yourself for” Albert asked irritably, emerald heard the voice, knowing it was her fathers, she felt the irritation from his tone.

“Dad, I wanted to ask you if I can go to work today. I am tired of sitting around, doing nothing” said Emerald plainly.

Albert stared at her in disbelief “believe me, if I could you wouldn’t be here, but now it’s out of my control, your only job is to take care of your body and paint yourself up, you just have to look beautiful enough till your wedding day, if you love your office work so much why don’t you think about the future of the company and be a good little bride for Alessandro; you can take it up with him when you get married” Albert blabby spat.

Staring at her father in disapproval and total disgust she felt tears prickly down her face, wanting to get out of the environment cause she felt suffocated, she ran towards her room,

“And again get ready at 5!, for your dress fitting”

She heard her father say loudly and she wanted to make this day go wrong in so many ways but she knew she wasn’t brave enough to take the chance; she still recalls on her 19th birthday, she came back home from college and father slapped the daylight out of her for asking for a cake to celebrate, his reasons been that she didn’t deserve a cake and even if she did, why would he waste such money on her, as if the money he spends on her tuition was not enough meanwhile, she goes to a public university but she never heard him blab a word about Sophie’s private university’s fees.

Emerald layed on her bed watching Gilmore Girls, a series on her Netflix,her comfort movie. It was all she could do, she was so spaced out till her stomach rumbled out of hunger.

“Oh I’ve got to eat something, snacking all day is getting me hungry and weak”, matching out her room to the kitchen wanting to make a little lunch, she opens up the cabinet door and finds nothing but a bag of rice, some ingredients, instant noodles and a pack of spaghetti; relieved to see something she could make. Looking for some tomato paste she opened up the cabinet door under the kitchen sink and sighted a few bottles of vodka, mentally exhausted she closed it back, she knew her dad was a drunk but never imagined he would make it this open.

Lighting the fire to boil the only thing she loved to eat ‘spaghetti’, although she was the first child and all her place was never in a kitchen, she couldn’t handle it until she went to college, having a roommate who knew almost everything about cooking and food she learnt from her , sincerely speaking the only thing she perfected in was how to make spaghetti only because it was her favorite. Now she thinks about it, it’s been a long time since she heard from her and she missed her roomie greatly.