Marriage Merger

Chapter 40

“So, you have nothing to say about this?” she asked him, pinning him with her inquisitive blue eyes.

He merely shrugged. “What is there to say? What’s done is done, like mama said and I am in full agreement with papa. It seems like I’m the only normal child in this family,” he muttered arrogantly, with a slight smirk. With that, he exited the room and shut the door behind him. Everyone was taken aback by his crude remark.

Seeing that she was pretty much wasting her time with them, Ximena huffed irately and also took her leave. Heading down the stairs, her head was spinning with rage. Couldn’t her father see that his compulsive decisions were tearing their family apart? If she got any angry, she was bound to get an attack so she tried her best to ebb down her anger and made for the living room where she’d left Adriano, Santiago and Chelsea.

When she walked in, Adriano was the first to notice her rigid stance and heaving chest. He stood up and walked over to her. Looking down at her, he cupped her cheeks. “What happened? Why do you look like you want to murder someone?” he asked, worry riddling his voice.

“Dad is making Omar marry Andrea as soon as she turns 18,” she mumbled in disgust. It still sounded all so very foolish to her.

Santiago laughed humorlessly. “Serves him right. I bet he almost wet his pants in there with the way your dad scares the crap out of almost everyone,” he said and earned a glare from Chelsea.

“How’s lil mama holding up though. Is she good?” she asked, worried about her best friend’s little sister. “This must all be a lot to process for her.”

Ximena snuggled into the warmth of Adriano’s chest, not caring at all how clingy she must have seemed. “She’s defeated. I tried to stop it all but dad won’t budge. You know how he is. He always gets what he wants, not caring about other people’s feelings,” she grumbled.

Adriano began to rub soothing circles on her back. “Do you want to go home now?” he asked her, and she nodded.

“Yeah, let’s go. I’ve had one too many migraines tonight.”

                                        ***

Many days had passed since Andrea’s announcement. It was bizarre how their father made extracurricular efforts to keep the whole situation hush hush as he didn’t want news about the arranged marriage and love child getting out to the media. The Dos Ramos name was too precious to taint, and Omar’s family had much on the line too. Ximena still frowned upon the idea of it but she had now turned a blind eye towards it because there wasn’t much she could do anyways.

As the days dragged on, it became increasingly harder for her to keep her feelings towards Adriano at bay. The way he looked at her, smiled at her, touched her… it was just too intense for her that she was on the verge of imploding. She desperately needed to tell him how she felt and had chosen that day to finally let him know. She wasn’t sure how he was going to take it, but at least a heavy burden would be off her chest.

When he walked out of the closet looking pristine in his crisp navy-blue Armani suit, with a shite shirt, black tie and dark brown Prada dress shoes to go along with it, she couldn’t help but swoon. She was virtually in love with everything about him, inside and out. His lame jokes made her burst out in uncontrollable fits of laughter and his hopes and aspirations inspired her. What was not to love about this man? He was damn well near perfect in her eyes.

Setting down her hair brush, she turned to look at him. “I need to tell you something,” she began nervously and he made his way towards her.

He frowned at her shaky tone. “Yeah, sure. What’s up.”