Lustrous

Chapter 3: The Proposition of an Arrangement

"How much do you love your father?" She quickly blurted out without so much as a second thought.

"That's a stupid question."

A stupid question indeed. A more thoughtful one would be how much do you love my father?

"Your father has gotten himself – and this family – into some trouble and now we are in the mist of declaring bankruptcy." She explained to my shocked expression. I didn't understand how they could be struggling like that, my father owned a large export company and a shipping yard that was always bringing in money so it was hard understand how they were going bankrupt.

"What?" I shrieked in disbelief. "How? W-what happened?"

"That isn't important." She waved off my concern as if it wasn't important.

Funny. I would have thought that was important, if you know how it happened then you can reverse it, fix it and basically do anything you want with it...

I took a deep breath. Focus Sky.

Yes, focus! Focus is good.

"He needs your help." She finally spoke again, her annoying posh voice putting extra emphasis on He and You as if I were likely to miss them.

Well, you miss a lot of things, I wouldn't put it past you.

"I don't understand." I shook my head uncomprehending her point. "What can I do?"

"We need someone in the family to..." She trailed off for a moment, her eyes flicking across the room at a frantic pace. "Acquire," She finally said "a huge amount of wealth to pull us out of the slums and save your fathers investments."

"And you have finally realised my genius?" I smiled thinking that I might yet get the credit I deserve.

Ha, genius, Yeah right.

You're not helping.

"No." She said firmly, annoyance seeping into her tone. "We need you to get married."

Crazy lady say what?

"What?" I recoiled in my confusion.

No, idiot, she was supposed to say what, not you. Ugh don't you know anything.

I shook my head trying to get my attention back on Charlene's words. 'We need you to get married'. Were they mentally insane or just tragically deranged?

You're calling them insane and deranged? Well that's a first.

"Seriously Skylar. Focus." She scolded me – just like she used too. "By God, your lack of attention is less than a baby's."

"I get it." I waved her off and put my hand on the back of the dining room chair and lowered myself into it as I freely quaked at her. "When you say married you mean..."

"I mean married Skylar, is there more than one kind?"

Well let's evaluate that for a second....

I would rather not.

No, give it chance. There is the traditional Marriage but the term marriage is simply to bond something together right? So that could be anything really....

Please stop.

"You want to arrange my marriage?" I tried to clarify.

To some poor unfortunate soul. Can you imagine what you would do to the man? I mean five minutes in a room with a man and you break bones, give him third degree burns and walk into doors – and that was only today's encounters!