Wendy and her parents were eating in an uncomfortable silence, Wendy had suspected something was wrong, they've never had breakfast in this kind of silence before
"Is there anything you aren't telling me?" Wendy asked, she took her cup of water and drank to her satisfaction while looking at them, her parents looked at themselves before looking back at their plates. Her dad cleared his throat before speaking reluctantly.
"Our company is going bankrupt" her father said
"What?!"She dropped her fork
"We borrowed a huge amount of money for a very big contract, we thought it was eventually going to be ours but it turned out opposite, and the company is going to lose a lot capital is we try to pay the debt, it might eventually bring us to our downfall" her father said in a sad tone
"I can borrow you some money and some from my company" her father cuts in
"No you can't it's a lot, but we found a solution" her father said and she listened attentively
"We have about half of the money that we can pay without it really affecting the company and my friend Paul, Aaron's father is willing to give us the other half without us paying him back" her father said and her face lit up
"Wow, that's nice!" She exclaimed
"But.." her father paused
"But what?" She asked as she looked at her mother
"You have to marry Aaron" he said
"Hell no!" She said and laughed "this is a joke right?" She asked still finding the situation funny
"No it's not" her mum finally spoke "we have been hoping you'd marry Aaron when you grow up to be a young woman, Smith family is a great and influential family and so is ours and they are willing to help us, I know you don't want that company sold or this house to repay the debt, so you have to_" Wendy cut in angrily
"I have my right as a woman to choose who I want to marry and when, you can't just tell me what to do!, I'm only twenty six" She said angrily
"You are old enough and you are making it look as if it's a big deal!" Her mother snapped.
"Yes it is a big deal" Aaron said to his parents almost shouting "why will you just make decisions without letting me know, I'm so not ready for marriage or any commitment and now I have to marry Wendy" he looked at them surprisingly as if the last word he said shocked him
"Her family is a great family, it's a great benefit for ours" his father said
"Oh, you're doing this all because of your own selfishness" his mother cuts in
"Don't talk to your father like that" she said almost shouting
"Does she even know about it?, will she even agree with it?" He asked
"It doesn't matter if she agrees, she has no choice" his mother said and he did his devilish laugh
"No, she does, she'll rather go bald than to marry me" he said as he resumed laughing
"Her parents company is going bankrupt if they don't pay their debt , and it's a very huge amount of money, we agreed to give them some if Wendy would marry you" his father said and he looked at them surprisingly
"That's selfishness, if you are willing to give them, then give, why forcing Wendy to marry me?" he said
"Aaron!" his mum shouted as he exited the house
"I'm done here" he said as he closed the door and went in search of Wendy
He got to the office and said he wanted to see Wendy urgently, when the receptionist called Wendy, she refused at first but she later said he could come in.
He opened the door of her office gently, although he could see her through it while he was coming, she looked stressed
"I'm sorry, I didn't know anything about any of this, I was just told this morning and I didn't know my father could be so selfish" he said, he opened his mouth again but he couldn't speak. She nodded her head slowly
"It's you I'm to marry right?, it's no problem" with the way she said it Aaron knew that it was a problem "I'm sure you'll use the best suit in the world and I'll use the best gown in the world and all the famous people in the world will be there for our wedding but the truth is I'm not ready to be married especially not to you but I just have to do it" she said as if I'm the verge of crying, he understood the fact that she was not ready but what was wrong in marrying him, was he that bad of a person?, he asked himself
"So you'd rather be married to Zion?" He asked softly
"You know what?" She sniffed "get out, now" she said
Aaron turned back and exited out of her office, it was now time for him to look for Aishat.
Aishat was measuring the piece of cloth in front of her when she felt that someone was staring at her, she looked up and was shocked when she saw Aaron, she told her apprentice that she had to attend to something
"You know you are not supposed to be here now" she said as she walked to Aaron
"I'm sorry for the other day" he said to her
"It's okay" she said smiling a little bit
Aaron was pained as he was about to talk, he didn't want to hurt anyone but he had to do what has to be done, he didn't want to complicate things
"We can't continue this, I'm sorry, I don't want to complicate things with you, I really like you and it was a wonderful experience with you, but I'm going through a lot now" he said hoping she will understand him
"You are joking right?" She asked as she smiled but Aaron didn't say anything
"Get out of here please" she said with one hand in her waist in one hand telling him to go.
He left her standing and when he looked back it looked like she was on the verge of crying, the two ladies have told him to get out of their sights today even though he was not the bad guy.