When Different Worlds Collide ✔️

Your place- Kat's POV

Kat's POV-

I breathed out heavily as the plane was getting closer. Closer to home. Closer to my real home, the one that I'd never get to go to ever again. Closer to him.

Just as I thought those thoughts, the ring that I had been given the night before weighed heavily on my wedding band finger. It felt almost like it was cutting off my circulation though it fit perfectly. It felt wrong. It was wrong because it was the wrong man.

I hadn't even been able to speak the word yes when Matthew so unexpectedly proposed to me in front of everyone that was on the same beach watching the sunset around us. I simply bit my tongue until I tasted blood and then barely nodded my head. I hadn't wanted to agree to marry the awful man, but I was obligated to. I had agreed to it.

It had been a beautiful and picturesque proposal. Cliché, but beautiful, nonetheless. Had the man known anything about me, he would have known that I wasn't impressed by the expensive wine, giant diamond engagement ring, or the attention that we had received from everyone that clapped for us as I nodded my head out of coercion. I would have rather had a more intimate moment with things that I truly liked. However, that being said, I would have preferred a different man to ask me for my hand all together. As it was, I was obviously not getting what I wanted out of anything anyways. The perfect proposal didn't matter when it wasn't the perfect man.

Luckily, I wasn't turning eighteen until June fifth, so we had to wait until the summer to have a wedding. That was fortunate because I was sure that my father would send me into the shark infested waters right away if he could. He would have me married before even finishing high school. It was already bad enough that I was engaged and still in high school.

"When we land, you will come to my office with us," my father told me firmly as he made his way to the back of the plane to his luxurious seat where Matthew and his parents were sitting with him.

"I accept your offer," Jake, who was sitting next to me, whispered to me.

"Really?" I asked slowly. "What's changed your mind?"

"This," he said as he gestured to my hand with the ring on it. "I really thought that they would wait at least a little bit. I mean, you're only seventeen!"

"Yes..." I agreed. "They want me tied down though. I am a wild card, after all."

"I don't know if I can handle something like this with your poise and grace. I'll take whatever help you'll offer me," he said firmly.

"Good," I nodded. "I wouldn't wish this upon anyone, and I'll help you get out of it. You deserve to be happy, Jake."

"So do you, Kat. So do you," he told me gently.

----

"I tried to get you into the private school that Matt goes to," my father informed me bluntly when I took a seat in the chair next to Matt's.

"What? No! I've gone my whole high school career at my school. I don't want to change schools!" I argued as I stared heatedly at my father from my spot from the other side of his desk.

"Well, you got exactly what you wanted then," my father said begrudgingly. "No private school will take you in the middle of your last semester of high school unless I pay an absolutely outrageous amount. I do not think your education is worth as much as they want for it."

"Okay, so then-"

"Fortunately, your low-class public school is more than happy to oblige me in anything that I request as long as throw a little donation their way," he said in an almost evil sort of voice.

I said nothing and continued looking at him. I didn't know if I even wanted to know what the man had planned.

"They agreed to let Matthew into your little school," he finally elaborated.

"Not only did they let me in," Matt told me with a smirk. "They agreed to give us the same schedules."

Dozens of things crossed my mind. If we're being honest, at least half of those things were ways to commit suicide. I knew that it seemed a bit dramatic, but I already couldn't stand him. Now, I was going to have to spend my whole damn day with him.

I was going to have to play this charade forever. It was finally donning on me how absolutely long forever can be. When you're with the right person, it could be almost like a blink of an eye. However, with someone like Matthew... That was a whole different story.

"I don't need a damn babysitter," I said harshly.

"We'll agree to disagree," my father brushed off my outrage like it was a little piece of lint.

"No, we most certainly will not just-"

There was some sort of look that was exchanged between Matt and my father. I barely caught it in my haste to defend myself. It was a heavy look. One that clearly meant something between both men.

It, however, meant nothing to me. Therefore, I was continuing on with my bitter defense of myself. I didn't like them thinking of me as if I was a lowly child or something.

Suddenly, Matthew grabbed my face in his hand and gripped my cheeks and jaws so tightly in his one single large hand that I was forced to stop speaking. I stared at him in disgust as he compressed my face so tightly that I felt like little finger-shaped bruises were forming on my jaw line.

"That is enough, Katherine," Matt's voice said harshly as he squeezed just a bit tighter then released my face. "Your father and I have decided that-"

"Since when do you two make my decisions? And-"

"Since you've proven that you cannot make your own correctly," my father's commanding voice cut through the air thickly. "Now, you'll do well to mind your future husband and your father. I'm not above teaching you still, Katherine. Matthew isn't either. After all, he is going to be the one that has to put up with you for the rest of your life. I'm sure there are some obvious behavior modifications that need to take place. Your mother and I obviously dropped the ball severely in raising you. Not to mention, your boytoy's family's new house. I wouldn't want to have to buy back out from underneath them... It would leave them homeless and all."

I stared at the two monsters before me. I hadn't thought that it was going to be fun being married to Matt and playing trophy wife, but I hadn't expected it to be this difficult this soon. We had been engaged for a day, and they were already acting like that...

It was going to be a long ass life if that was the way it was going to continue to go. A long ass life that I did not want. A long ass life that I was sure would kill me before I was able to live it out.

Still, even as my father and Matt continued to try to map out whatever insignificant details of my life that were left to be controlled, I couldn't help but to think of Erik. How was Erik going to react to seeing Matt and I together at school? How was I going to react when I saw him once again?

"Alright, that's it for tonight. Matt, son, tomorrow I'll start teaching you the ropes after school. I'll have a car take the two of you home. I'll be here working for a while," my father told us after a long while.

As I got up, Matt came to put an arm around me. I quickly jerked away.

Matt gripped my shoulder heavily and jerked me to him. "Oh, my fiancée..." he hissed at me. "Remember what you are, Katherine. Remember your place. You chose this."