A Challenge To An Arranged Marriage

Don't care, please

Lisa was in deep sleep due to the events just some moments ago. She was tired; well not all because of the activity but in general of everything. A smile finds a way on her lips when her mind repeated everything. How Ian's hands perfectly fit around her waist, how rough yet gentle his touch was. Everything around him was just magical. He had made her feel something; nobody has ever even gotten close to. The feeling was so immense and overwhelming that the smile was just constant on her face. When she signed the contract she never knew what she was getting herself into but now she could surely say that she trusts him. 

'What are you doing to me, Ian?' She thought to herself before sitting up on the bed. Her happy thoughts were interrupted by the shouting voice coming from the balcony. She could recognize the voice belonging to Ian but she couldn't figure out why he was shouting. She got on her feet's and walked towards the open window to the balcony. 

"You don't understand dad. No! I can't! Not anymore. And when she knows? What about that huh? What am I even supposed to reason with her dad that all the contract was a plan, plan of us taking over her dad's company, plan of us making her fall in love with me and then getting her sign the divorce papers so that the company could get transferred to us automatically and James would experience the pain through her daughter suffering? Whatever we planned was before all of this. I know all my lovable behavior and stuff so just to earn her trust but-. No, dad! Dammit!" Ian threw the phone on the ground, with its pieces left shattering on the ground. 

'No, no, no!!' Lisa whispered to herself as hot tears starting running down her cheeks. Her legs felt loose, it was like as they have lost all their life. She felt shattered and broken. The loneliness and all the emptiness were back but this time they were double. She was betrayed. Betrayed from the man she thought she was falling in love with. All of this was a game, just a plan.

She heard steps coming towards the door where she was standing. She knew it was him. The man who fixed her and then broke her again. She made a quick run towards the bathroom where she hit the table on the way, shattering the antique piece of glass in pieces. 

'Shit,' she cursed in her breathes as the small pieces of glass stuck on her feet. All through the blurred vision and the pain in her feet she reached the room. 

"What- shit! Lisa!" She heard Ian quickly notice the chaos before making the run towards the bathroom door which she was already able to close on time. 

"Lisa! Please open the door, Lisa!! Love, please." He banged the door hard trying every soothing word for her to open the word. But nothing was working. Every word coming out of his mouth felt like other fake and hollow promise. She couldn't handle her emotions anymore; her back hit the wall as she slid down it, the tears never stopping. She wrapped her arms around herself, hugging her body and crying her gut out. 

"Why here mom? Why here? Couldn't this have happened back home, where I would at least reach you?" She cried sobbing on every word in the sentence. 

"Lisa please baby just open the door once. Listen to me, please. Please baby." Ian yelled from behind the door with a gentle knock on the door. "Love, please."

He used her as just everybody else did. The moments, the kisses, the touches, the time; everything was planned. She felt disgusted. Disgusted, of being used this way. She knew what she had to do now. She didn't care what happened to anyone. The time was right to think about her own self. She pulled out her phone from the lower's pocket before dialing the only number she knew could help her right now. 

"Hello, Lisa?! How are you darling? How is the honeymoon going?" She heard her whisper from the line. Just hearing her voice made another sob escape her lips. 

"Elena," she called rubbing off some stray tears from her cheeks "I need your help, please." She requested pushing her head back controlling her tears. 

"Lisa? Why are you crying, honey? What happened?" 

"Please, Elena, I will explain everything but for now, just help me."

"Of course darling. What is it?" She knew Elena would help her. This was what she needed. For now, she didn't want to be near him, and that's what she planned on doing.

****

"Ian you need to move" Lisa spoke, trying to pick her clothes lying on the other chair in the room. 

"Not until you give me a chance. Why are you even picking all these things up?" Ian asked confused hovering on the very chair; she was trying to get her stuff from. 

"Don't you think you have done enough? I have made enough fool myself. I don't want to be your laughing stuff for this evening." She answered moving his hands aside from one corner quickly picking up the clothes in one motion. 

"Lisa please," he said quickly holding her forearm pulling her to him. As soon as he touched her arm, she restored and moved back as if his touch burned her. Hurt flashed across his eyes as she maintained a little distance between them. 

"Listen the only th-" she cut her off immediately pushing her hand in front of him asking him to stop. 

"You know when my father asked me to marry you, how terrified I was? It was horrible, it was like he was asking me for my life instead of my values. But when I saw you on that aisle, waiting for me, smiling at me like it held so many promises, I was ready. Ready, for everything until it involved us together. The togetherness, the touches, the kisses all looked so pure, didn't they?" She asked finally grazing in his eyes. "But to think that every day, every promise, every talk and every moment was planned a trick... you know how much it hurts?" She cried as tears fell from her eyes continuously. 

"I shared my deepest memories with you. Almost everything. And now that I think, I am thankful for that 'almost'. I am so damn thankful!!" She turned her head back walking toward the bed pulling out her suitcase from the floor and placing it open there. 

"I am... why are you packing this bag?" He cut himself off walking towards her side gazing in her eyes. The hurt, pain, and guilt were clear. If any other day he would have displayed the same emotion she would have trusted him but now, everything looked like a next trap waiting for her to walk in. 

"Ian just... do me a favor. Do what you actually told me you do. Don't care, please. Or at least don't pretend to care." She whispered continuing her packing not sparing a glance at her. She fooled her own self when she thought that he would be different, he actually does care. God, how naïve has she been. 

"Lisa? You ready to go?" A familiar voice asked knocking the door.