Chapter 9

You know the feeling you stand on the middle of the classroom with each and every child's eye on you and the teacher is looking at you or more like glaring at you with a stern look demanding for answers that she had asked and even if you know the answers you just can't open your damn mouth because you're just too nervous to even take a breath. The situation was what I was experiencing, as every reporter kept on bombarding me with questions and all I did was sit there with a stoic expression but deep down crumbling down into pieces as my eyes fell on the damn ring on my finger.

"Ms. Alvis, how do you feel getting engaged to Mr. Devlin?" I heard a Journalist.

Fucked up!

"Ms. Alvis?"

I felt a pinch on my knee and looked at my side to find my father giving me an eye.

"Great!" I replied to the journalist and the other one questioned "When is the wedding?"

The day I die!

"Soon!" I replied and glanced back at the ring on my finger that sat like a bug on a flower petal. Like a nasty bug affecting the beauty of a flower which makes you feel to pick up a twig and smack it away from the petal. It was what I was feeling. I wanted to break the finger that had the ring o and throw it away, so that no other can put a ring on it ever.

"Mr. Devlin, have you already decided the wedding destination?"

"No, not yet. We will inform when we set the date and the destination," replied Mr. Aaron instead of Keith and I looked towards him to find him fixing his sleeves of his suit looking more involved in that work than on his surroundings. I saw the ring that I had put on his finger, it was a platinum ring which had small gemstones attached on its shank and no doubt, the ring itself screamed wealth. Because, even if it was small and simple looking, still anyone could tell it was very costly and personally customised.

"Ms. Alvin can we have a photo of you with Mr. Devlin?" a cameraman asked and all I did was clench my jaw.

No! I don't want!

"Of course!" I replied smiling and got off my seat and waited for Keith to come over. He looked up at me and though not interested came forward as he put his arm over my shoulder which caught me off guard and I looked at him, upset with his action.

"What do you think you're doing?" I whisper yelled at him but smiled nevertheless at the camera.

"Ending what you've started," he replied and I put my hand over his and pinched it hard. I was sure, I heard him wincing but he controlled himself as he smiled a little covering his hurt expression and we gave some poses to the cameraman and waited impatiently for them to end the damn photo session.

"Thank you," I said once it was over and before anyone could ask me for more favours, I made my way out of the hall and directly towards my car wanting to get away. As I was the first one to get away, thankfully no reporters or cameraman or my supposed to be family members followed me. I didn't even realise that I was crying and tears continuously flowed down my eyes as I wiped it away aggressively obviously quite upset with the events that happened and not to mention Keith, I couldn't forget what I had found about him. He was no more a mysterious man to me, because I had known his truth and doubted whether he was a human being.

Still, the fact that I have unfolded his truth wasn't that hurting to me than the fact that I was forced to marry a guy whom I didn't want by none other than my own father. It was very disturbing and to top of that he was continuously lying me over and over, as he had told me that today was the day when the announcement was the only thing that was going to be done but instead he had forced me to be officially engaged to Keith and it was what made me even more distress over the subject. What next? A surprise wedding?

Judging from the ongoing events, I was sure that they had this idea of a 'Surprise wedding' in their mind too. They would pop out before you one day and tell you 'Surprise! It's your wedding, today!' with a smiley face as if were nothing.

But most importantly, how could my father do this to me?

My own father....

He is so blind for money and power that he has forgotten about his only daughter. My vision were blurred and I felt my head throbbing but still I picked up my dress and sprung towards my car.

"Fine! If he can't see my pain then I will make him see it," I cried out as I made up my mind to do something which grab his attention towards me and know what I could do if I was put in such stressful situation. I knew what I was going to do was wrong but yet I made up my mind and let the filthy thoughts fill up.

"Vienna!" I heard someone calling me and I saw a reflection of the person on a nearby car's windshield to find the person none other than Keith.

"What do you want?" I yelled at him as tears streamed down my face. I looked back at him and saw him staring right into my eyes and then he grabbed his hair looking at stressful as I was.

"Vienna listen to me," he took a few steps towards me but I dashed towards my car ignoring him. He kept on calling my name but I chose to ignore him as I ran across the parking lot and got inside my car wiping the tears away from my face as I put the key in ignition and with determination put my foot on acceleration. I was so done.

"Vienna!" I heard him and saw him running after my car in the rear view mirror but before he could reach up, I sped up and took my car toward the driveway. He was calling my name and I watched as I lost his sight as he gave up running obviously tired. My eyes fell on the mirror before me and I saw my face. Sad, painful, grief filled face. I felt as if I was betrayed. And the fact that my appearance was being ignored, intentionally, made me lose hope.

All of a sudden I saw a bridge It was what I needed. A stranded place and where I couldn't hurt anyone. And at the end, it was how I was doing it, intentionally and with all my conscience. I was conscious and I was determined, it was why I sped up at the very end wanting to crash my car on the bridge. It was what I wanted, to make my father believe on what I was capable of. Enough of everyone ruling my life and telling me what to do and what not to do.

My phone rung and I looked at the caller Id to find none other than my father.

"Great timing dad," I spoke up through gritted teeth as I picked the call and put it on speaker.

"My little bug, where are you," came his reply and all i did was laugh at the name that he just called me.

"Somewhere far," I replied as I was about to disconnect the call but stopped when he spoke up "Look! I know I lied to you, but I had no choice. I knew you would never agree to this, it is why my little rabbit, I lied about it. But trust your dad, it will be alright. I know, you are not happy with this but what I am doing is for your future, my love,"

"My future or yours?" I asked long realising his acts.

"You just don't understand," he sighed loud enough to be heard and then continued "Trust me, one day you will be the one who will come to me and tell me that what I did was correct. They are good people and I know they are going to cherish you as much as I did, my love" he said and that made me laugh with bitterness.

"One day? I don't really believe that dad! And cherish?Are you sure? Because you can't really cherish a person who is no there," I replied with sadness.

"What do you mean? Where are you?" his voice almost immediately had a weight in it as I heard him asking me about me. "Tell me! I will come there to pick you up!"

"I am very far away, dad. Ver far away. I don't think that you could ever reach up to me on time," I smiled at my own words when the bridge came on sight.

"Don't play riddle games with Vienna. Tell me your locati-"

"Bye dad!" I replied aj=nd hung up on him.

It was decided. I took it as my fate. So, it was how I was going to go. Memories of me being with dad flashed through my mind as I thought about my childhood when he would take me out to park and to the swing, let me have ice creams and sing lullabies to me. I couldn't believe that he was the same person who used to love me and asked nothing in return. My father had hurt me the most. I had thought anyone in this world could hurt me, but not my father. He was supposed to be my guardian angel and my hero, but boy was I wrong.

In the end, he took me as his steps to be rich and powerful. I was nothing but a pawn to his stairs to wealth. In the end, he used his own daughter to put on the last step as a height to reach his ambitions. I was so done...

I closed my eyes and put my foot on the acceleration speeding up and not caring what was going to happen. I was shivering and scared but I couldn't stop myself even if deep down I wanted to... stop.

My eyes opened almost immediately when I saw the parapet of the bridge was just mere inches away from my car and as I was ready to hit it hard all of a sudden something flashed right next to me and even before I could scream, I felt something on my hand and I looked towards my right to find Keith. He had his hand over the steering wheel, and before my car could have the crash, he turned it towards the other side and saving us in the last minute.

I was in shock.

I was in shock because soon I realised, what the hell I was going to do with my life and also for the fact that he appeared again out of nowhere. As the car came to a halt, I sat paralysed on my spot with my heart racing against my chest and eyes wide open. My hands were tightly holding the steering wheel and I heard a loud bang as he got out from his side and slammed the door and walked towards mine. His eyes glaring at mine, when he walked from the front side of the car and came towards my side.

Before he could speak I regained my consciousness as I looked up at him through the window.

"What the fuck do you think you were doing?"

"What the fuck are you?"

We yelled at each other at the same time.