Two- Yes or yes?

SARAH PIERCE

I fell to the ground once I entered the room. The weight in my heart was too heavy. So heavy that despite the tears itching my eyes, all I could do was stare at nothing in particular while my soul continued to be lashed by the shitty nonsense I just witnessed.

I did feel my daughter press her knees against my lap. So, I faced her despite the blankness in my eyes.

“Mummy,” she said. “What is bas…turd?”

Her question snapped some sense into me. “Huh?” I truly hope I heard her wrong.

“Bas-”

With haste, I covered her mouth and shook my head. “No, Raya.”

“Bad word, Mummy?” she muttered against my hand.

“Yes, baby.” Despite the ache in my voice, my eyes promised my daughter that she would never be called that in whatever situation. “Bad word.” That being said, I should not sit still. No, I need to do something. Like right now. “Raya.” I removed my hand. “Can you wait here for me?”

“Okay, mummy.”

After I did a quick check of the nearly empty room to confirm the lack of dangerous items, I left the door open and walked back to the living room like a soldier determined to save his battalion.

“Oh, wow. I thought I saw a ghost earlier. You are really here,” Rosaline, my elder sister, bitterly commented while my fists clenched with determination.

“I told you to stay put,” my father added.

I said nothing. I just stared at every person in that room as if sizing them up for the shit I desired to dump on them.  And when my gaze fell on Nathaniel, whose eyes looked up on cue, my soul soared with anger, and I knew I would not back down.

“Sarah,” Rosaline’s perky voice continued after she rose from her seat and adjusted the breast of her sleeveless gown, “what happened to you? Everyone thought you died.”

I paid no attention. I made sure that I was all Nathaniel was looking at. It turns out the multiple staring matches in our dating days had a purpose after all.

“Sarah!” Rosaline rushed towards me, her insane Arabian perfume filling my senses. The fakeness of her voice became vicious as she said, “You had better not be seducing my fiancé.” She grabbed my collar. “Are you insane?”

“Watch your language,” I warned. “My daughter can hear you.”

“Mr. Pierce,” Nathaniel said when he looked away from our little contest. “It seems I came at the wrong time. I am clearly interrupting something important.”

“Important?” My father laughed. “There is nothing important about this one. All she does is cause trouble for our family and breed bastards.”

“Bastards?” Nathaniel displayed an aversion to that word.

With a nervous chuckle, my father corrected himself. “Slip of the tongue. I meant… uh… children.” He cleared his throat and sat at the edge of the couch. “Let us continue our discussion, Mr. Storm. Your time is too precious, I do not want to take it for granted.”

“Bitch.” Rosaline shifted closer to whisper in my ear. “I need your shitty ass to leave. Do not ruin this for me.”

Without much deliberation, I smirked into her face and enjoyed how taken aback she was. Before she could react, my boldness grew, and I walked to where Nathaniel Storm was.

“Mr. Storm,” I said, and he faced me, his calmness still evident.

“What the hell is she doing?” Rosaline angrily asked as I sat next to the man who was still wearing the same exotic scent as years before.

With a flicker of curiosity, he asked me, “Do you need something, Miss?”

I ignored how his rich voice reminded me of the days I spent yearning for him after he disappeared without a word. Those days were the worst punishment ever. Well, it is time  to avenge the peace that was sucked out of my soul.

“Do you need something?” Nathaniel repeated.

My jaws locked, and I pushed all thoughts aside. “I hear you are going to marry my sister.”

His dark pink lips, which used to kiss every part of me, twitched. “That is the plan. Why?”

“Rosaline has a boyfriend,” I said.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Rosaline cried.

“My sister cannot marry you.” I ignored the angry reactions from my father and sister.

“So?” Nathaniel questioned. He seemed curious about where that moment was headed.

“Nathaniel Storm…” Suddenly, my hands felt sweaty. I clasped them to hide that sign of my nervousness. “Marry me.” His dark eyes, the colour of the stormy sea, narrowed as he considered my words. “Instead of Rosaline, marry me.”

“Mr. Storm.” My father laughed and hurried closer. His knees almost buckled, but he stopped before he could ridicule himself. “Sarah has never been okay in the head. She thinks every man belongs to her.”

“It is true, Nathaniel,” Rosaline feverishly added. “I don’t have a boyfriend. I broke up with him years ago. Way before I met you. You have to believe me. This bitch does nothing but lie.”

My sister’s terrible voice was laughable, but I remained focused on Nathaniel Storm, who was yet to say a word.

“Mr. Storm. Please, don’t mind Sarah.”

“Mr. Pierce, that is enough,” Nathaniel said with his left hand raised to my father’s face. “Repeat what you just said.” That intense statement was for me. “Repeat it.”

“Instead of Rosaline, marry me.” My shoulders adjusted to ooze off strong confidence. “Yes. Or yes?”

Many seconds of silence passed after my repeated statement. Within those moments, my determination fluctuated, and that was a bit difficult to conceal.

However, within all that, I urged my face to remain firm and not to twitch with weakness.

Nathaniel, after many seconds of piercing the ceiling with this thoughtful gaze, then breathed. “Yes.” Our eyes met. “Let us do that. Let us get married.”

A breath I was holding left me, and I almost turned liquid with relief. Nathaniel's acceptance was unexpected, but it relieved me so much that my desire to wreak havoc was gradually forming.

Without much fuss, I got up and found a corner to stand in. In that place, I wiped the tears that stung my eyes and listened as my father and sister became rabid with anger.

“Mr. Storm, we have an agreement!” My father hollered. “Your father and I made this arrangement years ago. How can you carelessly agree to what this lunatic says?”

Nathaniel’s solid voice replied with, “She seems sane to me.”

“That is nonsense, Nathaniel.” My father dumped his respectful tone.

“Mr. Pierce. I am also in my right mind. Her proposal was clear enough. And as you heard, I have agreed to marry her. That is enough to destroy the agreement you have with my father.”

“Nonsense! Nathaniel, this is nonsense! My daughter is the bride for you. Do you know how much she abandoned to be with you? You-”

While I inwardly scoffed at my father's attempt to portray Rosaline as a selfless person, Nathaniel interrupted his outburst. “I did not ask Rosaline to abandon whatever she left behind. I also did not ask to be involved in the ridiculous agreement between you and my father. Besides, are you truly losing anything? This woman…” His breath paused for a second. “Sarah Pierce, here is your daughter, isn't she? Why are you complaining?”

Nathaniel’s response carried so much aura that I didn't have to turn to know that his chiselled face was looking serious and that his eyes were blazing with slight annoyance.

It is certainly interesting that he still has that aura. Yet he has not acknowledged that he knows me. Heck, he even referred to me as ‘this woman’.

That freaking bastard.

Oh well…

Now that he has agreed to marry me, I can relax my anger.

Just as I have just humiliated Rosaline and my father, I will make Nathaniel face such and worse. I will make him regret walking away from me when I needed him the most.

“Nathaniel, she has a child,” Rosaline furthered the argument, her desperation hardly hidden. “How can you marry a woman who doesn't know who the father of her child is?”

I turned sharply. “Who says I do not know who Raya's father is?”

“In that case, give us a name,” my father insisted. “If you tell us his name, we will agree to this nonsense.”

While my hands clenched, my gaze turned to Nathaniel. He seemed interested in my response. Should I shock him? His reaction would certainly heal some of my pain. “Her father is…”