Chapter 3

“What did you say?”

Were her ears deceiving her? Oh, her ears were definitely deceiving her. Fiancé?

No way. She wasn’t thinking about marriage. Even if she was, she assumed it would be with somebody she knows and loves. And she hasn’t been lucky in the love department so any romantic entanglements were off the charts. That said, how could she possibly have a fiancé when she wasn’t ready to get married? Who the hell was Tristan Aguilar? So many questions were spamming through her head. She even had Alma read out the content of the card three more times to be certain it was what she heard that was indeed written.

Cool as a cucumber, Veronica waved off Alma who hurried out of the room, not before laying the flowers in the arms of Lara who wanted nothing more than to toss them in the trash can. It seemed like her mother had finally found her words as she spoke in that annoyingly commanding and condescending tone that made Lara want to disown her.

“Larissa,” she started. “You’re twenty-seven years old. In a few months, you’ll clock twenty-eight. If that statement isn’t already clear to you by now, it means that you are not getting any younger. Malena, your sister, is thirty-one with two kids. She’s happy. And that’s because I pushed her to find the right man when she was twenty-five. . .”

Lara’s throat was tightening, her jaws were flexing, her chest was heaving, and her breath was flying off the rails. If looks could kill, Veronica would be six feet under the ground by now.“

“In your case, I don’t believe you are capable of making good decisions. And I don’t want a child of mine to end up as a pathetic wife. For these reasons, I have carefully scouted and singled out a man of great nobility: Tristan Aguilar. You will go on a date with him, fall in love with him, and eventually, get married to him.”

Lara scoffed. What kind of a woman did she get for a mother? This was unbelievable. Even to her father who watched his wife — soon ex-wife — with an open mouth. Forty years together and the woman still knew how to surprise the shit out of him. What more for her daughter who dashed out of the house when she turned eighteen?

Oh, she was way beyond mad.

“Marriage?” She scoffed again. Not at the thought of getting married —that was something to scoff about. But Lara scoffed at the audacity of her mother to set her up with a man she didn’t know and even go as far as concluding spoken marital rights when she hadn’t given her consent. Who the hell did she think she was, she thought. A reasonable mother would never do that to her child. Never! “You have got some balls, mother—”

“Larissa!” Veronica slammed her fist on the table. “Watch. Your. Tongue!”

“Or what?” She retorted. “What are you going to do? Drag me down the aisle? Chain me to the altar? You are a joke! And if you think for one second that I would go on a date with some man named Tristan Aguilar who has no decency to even court a woman before agreeing to marry her then you must be dreaming.”

She began to walk out of the dining hall but her mother’s sharp-witted, sharp-tongued words brought her to a halt.

“If you want to live under this roof, you would do as I say.”

Lara whirled around with her usual large brown eyes narrowed into slits. “That’s what you’re threatening me with? I’ll leave your goddamn house if that’s what it takes.”

“You would do no such thing, Larissa. What you must do is get yourself a nice dress and go on that date with Tristan Aguilar on Saturday. Can’t you see it, you dumb child? I am only helping you.” Veronica almost cried out in exasperation. “You are not a teenager anymore. Start acting like an adult!”

“I am an adult! I am twenty-seven years old for crying out loud. When will you ever realize that and stop seeking to control my life? You think you’re helping me? By getting me fired from work and getting me kicked out of my apartment?” When she saw her mother’s reaction, she laughed. “Oh, you think I wouldn’t find out? I know your handiwork when I see it. Everything has your goddamn name written on it. How are you helping your child by rendering her jobless and homeless—”

“You have a home.”

“A house with a woman like you is no home. You don’t care about anyone but yourself. It’s appalling mother. You have five children! How can you manage to still be so self-centered!?” “Larissa, you are biting more than you can chew.” Veronica was beginning to feel the surge of anger. “You are a disrespectful, spoiled child. And if I don’t hold your hand now, you will fall. You will not be a disgrace to the Martinez name.”

Her eyes blazed with fury, raw and volatile, one dared not exploit. All her claws, sharp and ready to inflict twice the pain she was feeling were out. Her veins were throbbing and her entire being was expanding with rage. But her mother wasn’t quite done.

“You disappoint me, Larissa. So if you can’t make the right decisions in life. I will make that for you.”

“You are a bitch, you know that!”

“Larissa!” This time it was her father that called.

“No wonder Dad wants a divorce. You are unbearable. How he managed to put up with your self-indulgent, narcissistic, and egotistical self for more than one year will forever remain a mystery to me. You think you are so high and mighty you can control everyone and anyone around you? Well, Veronica, jokes on you this time. I am never going out with Tristan Aguilar!”

With that, she turned on her heel and stomped out of the dining hall.