Chapter 2

Celina's POV

"You have no say in this. You have to marry Jefferson Scotts," Daniel said.

"Give me one big reason to agree," I told him. I was keeping my cool and tried not to lash out at him. He is my adoptive father. In the orphanage, I longed to have someone to take me away from there. When he and his wife Lalaine took me, I thought I was the happiest person in the world. As it turned out, there's nothing to be happy about. They are the worst. At a very young age, they exploited me. They made me their maid without a salary. I had to force them to allow me to study on the condition that I'd do them a favor in return. I guess they are using it now against me.

"You owe us your diploma. We agreed that when the time comes, you would do us a favor," Daniel said. I looked at him and chuckled.

"You're doing this to me? It's the marriage we were talking about. The rest of my life. It was already hell living with you, and yet you wanted the rest of my life in a marriage that might ruin me completely." I said angrily.

Lalaine slapped me and said, "How dare you." I balled my fist to get even, but I calmed myself.

After some thought, I decided, "Fine, we'd do it in writing. You might sell me out again for the same reason in the future. "I told them and smirked. "You have to include that I have already paid off all my debts with you and that I had no more unfinished obligations towards this family. You have to include that I am now a free soul." I said and walked to the stairs, "You have to put it in writing that you will not approach me or ask anything from me in the future. When the contract is ready, you can give it to me after you've signed it." I added and went up the stairs to go to my room. I lock my bedroom door after I get in. I was so furious at them, and I wanted to yell. I never thought I would have to deal with them in this way. So, I calm myself and think. This may be even better than continuing to live with them. I just hope my husband was less evil. Of course, I am not expecting heaven with whoever he is, but I hope he is a bit human.

I am Celina Nicholson. I was an orphan until Daniel and Lalaine Nicholson adopted me from the orphanage. I thought it was the start of my good fortune, but I was wrong. They were a bad couple. No wonder they were not gifted a child of their own.

I don't remember much about my biological parents. I was too young to remember them. But I know one thing: I have a phobia of huge bodies of water. Even a pool size scares me because my parents died in the sea, drowning.

As for a sibling, I don't know either. As I've said, I was too young to remember. The rest of my childhood was in the orphanage and then in this house. Girls in the orphanage bullied me along with my friend, Xia, but I never let them feel happy about it. I always retaliate, and that ends up in my detention. That's why I wanted to leave there. They were not fair. Even if we were all orphans there, they still had their favorites.

I guess life was like that. It was unfair. No matter how hard you try, the more you dig your own grave deeper. The more you behave and try to be good, the more they step on you. I will no longer allow that to happen, and I will fight for my happiness. I promised never to be affected by those kinds of people and only to love myself. So, I agreed to this marriage if it would be my escape route from those two monsters.

A week later, I received the agreement from my adoptive parents. I checked if it was from a true attorney and made a copy—a lot of copies after I signed it. I had every detail checked and consulted by an attorney referred to me by a friend. I am not an idiot. I understand things. But there were experts on this who could explain it to me more complexly.

Now, I feel free from them. I don't know how much they got from selling me off, and I don't want to know. I don't care about them at all anymore.

Later, I am going to meet Mr. John Scott, my father-in-law-to-be. I don't know what made him choose me for his son, and I don't know how he knows me, as I have never met him.

I was informed that I would meet him at 4. I was a freelance designer, and none of those monsters knew about it. They thought I was working part-time as a crew member. I was earning for myself, and I have already saved a lot. I was saving and taking my time to escape from those two. Now that I am going to be free without getting worried, I will take this marriage thing instead.

I arrived at the café where I was supposed to meet John. I didn't expect much from him as he was a stranger. I sat at one of the available tables and waited. I didn't bother looking around because I knew John would know who I was.

Just as I thought, a minute had not passed, and yet he approached me already. "Hello, Celina." I looked at the smiling man, probably in his 50s, who was looking at me. He didn't wait for me to acknowledge him and just sat on the chair before me.

It didn't bother me; I was just confused that he looked so nice to me, and I'm not used to that. He may have been waiting for my response, as he stared back at me and said nothing.

"You must be Mr. John Scott," I said, and he smiled again.

"I'm happy that you know my name," he replied.

"Daniel and Lalaine told me," I said as I looked at him. "Why?" I asked afterward.

"What do you mean?" He asked, confused.

"Why do you want me to marry your son? Is he disabled? Impotent? Ugly? Worthless?" I asked him. He laughed at me as he shook his head.

"None of that matches my son. He was the complete opposite of everything that you said." He replied.

"Then why? I don't have any special talent, skills, or whatever to be worthy of marrying your godly son." I told him.

"I am not looking for a goddess for a daughter-in-law. I was just curious about you. That's it." He answered, which raised my brows.

"You know that I don't believe you, right?" I asked him. His smile turned into laughter. I didn't feel scared of him at all. He looks funny, and he finds me amusing.

"I don't have to worry about you after all. You are feisty and perfectly capable of taking care of yourself." He said, relieved.

"I had been doing that for the last ahm 14 years of my life. Considering I had been living with two monsters, over the years, I learned to love no one else but myself." I told him.

"Then you can perfectly handle my son. Despite your description of him being godly, he was a total jerk, not to me, but I'm sure to you. He doesn't like to get married to you, so I will have to tell you in advance that your marriage won't be heaven. But it won't be a total hell either. He never hurt women; that's what I can assure you. Physically, I mean, because I'm sure many women have cried over him emotionally." He informed me.

"Then what will happen if I marry your womanizer son?" I asked.

"You will have to live with him. We own a big company, so you will also be wealthy. You will be assigned as the company president while he is the CEO. I hope you two will work well together for the betterment of the company and the people behind it," he said. "I cannot promise you, but I will try my very best to stop him if he ever cheats on you. Though he never cheated on any of his girlfriends, he was generous to them. But, I cannot say the same to you for being his wife through an arranged marriage," he added.

"I understand."

"If there's anything that you two want to discuss, make sure you do. Although I wanted you to fulfill your duties as his wife, I know that still depends on my son."

I nodded at him and smiled. Let's say I think I now know what I am into. John stood up after a while, indicating he was leaving.

"I have arranged a date for you two later at 7 in the Clandestine Hotel and Restaurant. Please be on time; he hates lazy people." John said.

"Oh, what to do? I am sluggish." I told him, and he laughed as he left.

I watched his retreating figure and realized that he would make a model even at his age. I remember that he didn't have any snacks yet. How lousy is your daughter-in-law that she forgot to offer you something to eat? I thought.

I stayed at the café for a while as I did some sketching for my next project. All of my customers were from abroad. Some wealthy students were too lazy to do their projects and were willing to pay my fee.

I decided to stay there until 7, so I didn't need to spend money on taxi fares, and I managed to make a draft for my five projects. How convenient.

Now, it's time to face the godly womanizer.