Feather After // Chapter 65 // Love

Aria's POV 

I didn't want to know anymore, who got who pregnant. In the process of trying to know everything I almost forgot how hurtful it must have been for other people. Seeing Ignatius cry like that made my heart stop, I felt so bad for him. I had never seen him cry before but when I saw him today, I realized how broken he was from the inside.

Although he tried to be the bad boy that he was, he couldn't help but feel hurt and unhappy because of the whole situation. With all these talks that people told me, he didn't even know what happened that night, but he said that he was sure that he was not the one because of whom the whole mishap happened.

I sighed and I walked inside, I knew Gemma, grandma, and granddad would have had been looking at the whole conversation, maybe that's why he didn't call me back.

I told him it was okay and I had made him leave, for I wasn't sure if I was supposed to introduce him to them considering they were here for the marriage and he wasn't the guy I was supposed to marry.

While walking inside, I couldn't help but think about the whole wedding, which was nothing but a big scam. They wanted my presence there; they wanted me to say I do, nothing more and nothing less was expected from me. And I wasn't sure how ready I was for it.

Mum said that the whole wedding was planned, that the wedding cake and the food for the wedding were already ordered, the venue was decided, it was in a church where everyone from my mum's side had their weddings.

As my wedding to Zachariah was in two days, mother was always out, working with the caterer, the decorators, but I knew one thing, the whole wedding was pastel themed, if it was for me, I would have chosen a combination of white and light purple. But I kept my input to me because I knew; she wouldn't have liked what I wanted.

As for the guest list, all of the Royal Society members were invited. Grandma, Grand-dad and Gemma were here too. I didn't know about Zachariah's family. But I remember he told me once, that he had an extended family but I wasn't sure who was going to be attending the wedding from his side of the family.

I had even heard that the priest who was going to marry me and Zachariah was the same priest who had married my mother and my father. I had no attachments to it and I wasn't even sure if I was insensitive to feel so. I looked at the skyline; it was all pink and purple now. Wishing for not marrying Zachariah was like hoping for the horizons, depressing and disappointing. So I let it be. I did prepare myself to answer grand ma's question because I knew she wasn't going to let all of that pass away.

As I stepped inside, I was greeted by warm hugs and sloppy kisses. Gemma even whispered in my ears to tell me what the hell was happening because one thing was sure, she had seen past all the happiness and things my mother was trying to fake.

Nobody had dared to wish me a congratulatory wish in front of my grandparents because they were not happy with the decisions of me, but indirectly they were not happy with my mom's decisions.

"I don't understand why you are doing this but this is not right, Aria, you're too young for this," my grandma told me, while her fragile hands held mine, and her eyes tore down to look in my soul. I smiled weakly because I didn't trust myself. I didn't know what I would have said to her so I kept quiet hoping that I wouldn't cry. I just nodded at her and went to my room.

I hated to lie to them but I couldn't even tell them what kind of daughter in law they had. Nanna once told me that the mother had proudly bragged that her in-laws trusted her more than they trusted their own son. I knew I was going to get married anyway, so I didn't tell them because I didn't want their trust to be broken.

"Why are you going to this?" Gemma burst into my room and looked around, although I had shown her the room through face time it didn't stop her from looking here and there, "you were never into this! What happened suddenly? I know you don't like him!"

I loved the way she said that we had pretty much grown together. Every summer vacations, she and I used to spend the days in grand ma's garden running after butterflies and plating small plants. I remember once we tried to jump into a puddle because we thought that it was a pool. In our defence, we were just two years old and every place where water was collected was the pool for us.

I looked at her and smiled, I wanted to tell her because somewhere I thought I owed to our friendship and even sisterhood but somewhere I didn't even want to know how she would have reacted, I didn't want her to know what was going around here, I didn't want her to be that helpless person who couldn't help me but at the same time couldn't tell anyone about it.

"Well, I have been put into an arranged marriage," I told her. She first looked at me as if I was joking and when I just shrugged she opened her mouth and closed it again. She opened her mouth again and then closed it again.

"But she-she she wouldn't let you do that! It's-it's of my god, the boy is not of your choice, and she messaged us saying that you are very happy with the whole arrangement," she put her hands on her head and took a deep breath.

Before I could even say anything, grandma stepped into the room. "I knew something was wrong, this little bitch," Gemma and I looked at each other and the looked at grandma, I had never heard grandma curse before. "What haven't you heard someone curse before? I knew something was wrong Abigail, I knew that! I'll have to talk to her. She is crossing her limits now."

"Grandma," I looked at her. She had started to walk out of the room but turned around, I wanted her to know everything before she tried to do anything, "mom and father are broke, they do not have any money left. This is the contract after which they'll get money to you know, live a better life."

Nanna and grandma both raised their eyebrows at me before I knew what was happening, grandma went ahead and closed the door. Then she and Nanna sat on the bed and Gemma and I sat on the rug.

"Aria, see the only problem is that whatever that is happening right now is wrong, what is happening right now shouldn't be that way it is, you're too young for this," she said and Nanna nodded.

"I didn't say anything to your mama because I don't have any right, I'm not the legal guardian and if I said anything, they would have easily fired me as they fired him and I couldn't bare with the idea of you being alone on this gigantic house. I once even thought of it as a bad thing, but I can't you know, I can't think of you living here with those pout like pig girl," she said and she rolled her eyes again.

"Your mother was not like she is right now, she has gone crazy! She was such a nice woman, she was such a sweetheart but now, I'm scared of what is going inside her brains. She is gone crazy!" Grandma exclaimed and Nanna just nodded. These two women had teamed up against mum.

"Why is she doing it anyway? What is going on?" Grandma asked Nanna and then Nanna filled her with all the details that she was missing. Nanna just talked and grandma and Gemma just listened to her.

"Can't we do anything about it? Anything, we could try and talk to your father? Or maybe you could just run away!" Grandma suggested, and I saw her eyes shimmer with mischief. Great, that is what I wanted.

"There is no point in discussing this all, I'm going to marry Zachariah on Sunday and there is no way you can stop me. I can't leave them alone now!" I looked at Nanna and then at Grandma, "I can't leave them when they need me, maybe he and I can get a divorce later on, nobody said this is permanent, it not even like I'm dying to marry him, it's hurting me so much that I can't be with the guy I'm in love-" I put my palms on my mouth, why did I say that? Oh my god, it wasn't supposed to be this way. I didn't understand why I did.

My grandma's eyes just enlarged like two big sausages. She then rolled her eyes at me, Gemma even seemed very taken aback with my little confession a few minutes ago. She gulped and then smirked. God help me. While Nanna was on another level, she just rolled her eyes and then smirked at me.

I narrowed my eyes at her and she just smirked even more, "what do you think, I didn't know? I know what you are about to say now! Little girl, you can't-fool me," she almost sounded evil but she was also very proud of herself and she continued, "What did you think? I didn't know when you were not going to school? Manchurian and I were one step ahead all the time," and she smiled again.

"Well, girl did you get your flirt on?" My grandma asked, and I laughed at her. They were all on another level.

"I don't know what to say, it just happened, it wasn't like I wanted to feel what I felt or you know it just happened and I don't know why it did. I'm going crazy myself. I don't know what to do! It's like I don't even understand what I want. And the greatest problem is that I don't even know if he feels the same way about me!"

"Girl you're in love!" Gemma poked my sides and I shot up. They all giggled and I sat down again making sure that I was far away from her.

"So what do you want to do? What do you feel like doing?" Nanna asked again, "I never thought that you would fall in love with a Hudson considering our history with them."

"I'll tell you one thing Aria; you won't be able to get a divorce anytime soon. In our family," she looked at Nanna and continued, "nobody gets a divorce, so if you plan on marrying your fiancé on Sunday, you might as well know this, you won't get a chance to file a divorce against him. These marriages, you know the marriage with terms and conditions, that's the problem with them. They have no end."

"I understand, and sometimes I don't understand what your parents did to deserve a daughter like you, but it's not good. Please don't do what they are trying to make you do. Love is a very beautiful feeling, being in love and being married to the person you're in love with is even better, it makes you feel like you're floating in clouds even if you're walking on a rail full of burning coal, please don't do it."

I looked at her and I nodded at both of them, I didn't want to disapprove with her but there was no way I was going to let my parents do this alone. Whatever was going to happen, Zachariah and I were getting married on Sunday.

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Q. If your mother's tongue is not English, can you make a playlist of ten songs in your language for Feather After? If yes, let me know and send me a private message.