Olivia's pov
“You are marrying Nathan Hayes and that is final.”
My father's voice didn't have anything in it. It came out flat like my destiny had been decided already. Like he was reading me the weather forecast or something. I couldn't believe what I just heard. The words rang a loud bell in my ear. I felt dizzy for a second.
I looked up to him from where I was standing like a soldier in uniform and on duty.
"I'm sorry, what?" I said.
"Don't play dumb with me. I am not going to repeat myself, miss Olivia." He wasn't even looking at me. He was standing by his window with the Seattle skyline behind him. His office. His view with glass walls. The leather chairs cost more than my entire life spending put together. I had only ever crossed this office only when I was bringing in coffee or coming to clean it. Part of my job was cleaning his office daily. He made sure of that.
"Jessica's too young. The Hayeses won't wait.” He looked to his side and said calmly, “You'll take her place."
"NO! I WILL NEVER DO SUCH A THING!”
He turned around then. Same cold eyes he'd had my whole life. The eyes that watched me fall down the stairs when I was eight and…he just walked away like I wasn't even there. He would watch me cry of hunger and tell me to stop the noise. But my younger sister Jessica, she always got the complete opposite.
"What did you say?"
"No." My voice was shaking but it came out. "I won't do it."
He laughed loudly. His shoulders moved up and down but the sound coming from the laugh had nothing funny in it.
"What do you think this is exactly? You think you have a CHOICE? You think you have a day in this something? Look young lady. Don't piss me off. The merger is set. The agreement has been signed. YOU.ARE.MARRYING.NATHAN HAYES. Copy that?
"I'll leave," I said frantically. "I'll pack tonight. You'll never see me again. You don't want me. You don't love me as your daughter. Yall never loved me. Since you are tired of me, you don't have to trash me like that. I could just leave your lives forever." I held the chair in front of me for support. I literally was shaking all over.
"Leave with what." He started walking toward me, slow, his shoes loud on the floor. "You've got no money. That car barely starts. No friends. Nobody who'd take you in. So where exactly are you going, Olivia. Huh? His eyes widened and he gave me a questioning look."
I opened my mouth. Closed it again. The truth just sat there in my chest like a rock. He was right. He was always right about this stuff. I had nobody. I was twenty-two and I had never been anywhere or done anything or known a single person who actually cared whether I existed or not. Tears ran down my cheeks refusing to stop.
"That's what I thought." He stopped close enough that I could smell his cologne. The same cologne he'd worn my entire life. The smell I caught every time he walked past without looking at me.
"You're marrying Nathan Hayes and you'll smile the whole time. Because if you don't, I take everything. The house. Your petty job. Every cent. You'll be on the street and nobody in this family is giving you a single help. Not me. Not your mother. Not Jessica." He said firmly with a serious face.
My hands had started shaking. I pressed them flat against my legs but they wouldn't stop. They never stopped around him.
"I hate you," I said. Barely a whisper.
He smiled. The first time he'd ever smiled at me but not a kind one.
"Hate me all you want. Just marry him." He shrugged.
He walked out of the office and the door slammed behind him.
I stood there alone in his office with his view and his world and his words still hanging in the air. I felt paralyzed for a few seconds. I could move my legs or my body. It was like my head was too heavy for me to carry.
You have nothing.
No one will help you.
Just marry him.
I walked home that night because my car wouldn't start again. It was raining, and the cold went straight through my thin jacket. By the time I got to the house, I was shaking. My teeth chattered so violently I could barely control it. My fingers had gone numb and water was running off my hair down my face.
Jessica was on the white couch with her feet up and her phone in her hand. She was wearing an expensive pink cashmere sweater. Hair perfectly curled. She looked up at me and her nose wrinkled like she'd caught a bad smell.