Hidden Reasons Yet To Be Found

The next day, I woke up and decided it was a fresh start. I ain't marrying that guy, and they cannot force me. I decided to convince my grandfather since he doted on me the most. He would always criticise Luke and praise me since I am always better than Luke. He would not let his precious granddaughter get married so early. I dressed up like I did when I was younger so I could look cute in front of him; I was selling my dignity since I was dolling up for others. I usually hate dressing up in bright colours, I love grey, black, brown and white, they are neutral colours, while other colours like pink, green, etc are like an attack on my eyes.

As I walked down the stairs, I saw my cousin who was holding a file. He had a serious look on his face. "Whatcha doin Luke?". Curiosity got the best of me.

"Hm? Nothing." He looked up for a second and resumed reading the file. It was our first encounter since I came back, and I barely got a sentence out of him.

"Luke, don't make me puke", I said; this was how I would tease him, he used to get so annoyed. In school I would bully him so much but he would not do anything, people did not know he was my cousin, seeing how close I used to be with him, he stayed a bachelor till now since no girl approached him thinking he was already taken (Disgusting, I tell you). I used to love sabotaging his dates, I still remember how he used to get pissed at me when I ruined his date but he could not stay mad, I had a nerdy, innocent face back then with black glasses which was contradictory to my devil personality. I hated dressing up, not because I was a 'be yourself' type of person, I was simply too lazy.

He looked at me again and resumed reading. 'Ugh!' I scowled. I snatched the file from him and tried to read it. What was so important that he ignored me?

"Give it back Lia!", Luke immediately snatched the file from my hands, the perks of being tall- snatching things easily. Luke was around 6 feet tall and I am 2 inches shorter than him. I forgive him for snatching the file, most of the good genes went to me, poor Luke only had his height.

I successfully caught his attention, I did not expect that the file contained important information. Later I got to know it was about the investors who pulled back their funds, I wished they shared the problem with me and not exclude me. Anyway, let's talk about present events.

"You became fat, I guess the hostel treated you well," he smirked.

"Treated me well, my foot! I had to sneak out to get good food", I corrected him, unknowingly I accepted that I became fat.

"Well, it's not THAT surprising since you had a history with climbing over walls."

"You mention that incident again and I swear I will beat you", I warned him. That was my most embarrassing moment. When I was grounded by my mom because I beat up a guy in class, I jumped over the wall to escape from the mansion. At that time I did not see clearly so I did not know that there was a dog there, my mom figured I would do something like this so she arranged the dog. I almost got bit by it, I was running here and there not daring to stop. Luke saw this and did not bother to help, so after the dog was caught I beat him up too. He was shorter than me back then, so him getting beat up was not surprising. My grandpa wanted a good girl, but he got me instead. My mom found out, yet again, and I was grounded for another 2 weeks. I am strong and I am not going to be sorry for it. I can still beat up Luke if I wanted to.

"You were to be blamed yet I got grounded", I complained once again. Luke laughed heartily as he rubbed my head. I smacked his hand. "I am not a child anymore"

"No, you're not, you're all grown up now," he sighed. He was sad that I am forced to get married. Perhaps I could ask for his help. "Luke, if I refuse this marriage, will you help and support me?"

Luke froze for a second. His smile faltered. Of course it would be hard. Between the company and me, it would have been a hard decision to make. I was oblivious to the company's situation, so I ranted about how hard it was on me.

"I'm going to talk to grandpa about this matter." I said to him. He was looking distracted, which made me frown.

"Hmm. Lia, if you really do not want to marry, I will help you. I'll get married instead of you." The thing is this was not possible, Old man Wilson did not have granddaughters, only grandsons.

"Please no, I will fight my own battles, you do not need to sacrifice yourself instead of me. I will come to you only when I feel there is no other way"

I went to grandpa's room, he had a weak heart, so he had an IV connected to him. He looked weak. This made me second guess my purpose. I was getting skeptical at the thought of refusing my grandpa's request.

"Grandpa........", I said softly. He stirred awake at the sound of my voice.

"Lia, come here". His voice was weak and hoarse. I came closer to him and sat beside his bed. He took out a small toffee and placed it in my hands. "Don't share it with Luke, this is our secret." He put his finger to his lips, his indication of being silent.

I smiled when seeing the toffee in my hands. I used to love these when I was young, grandpa always used to save some of these toffees and give to me telling me to not give it to Luke. My eyes felt wet when these memories started to flood in. I held his hands and smiled at him; I let out small sniffles. It's been almost 5 years since we last met or talked to each other, I missed him so much.

He slowly sat upright, leaning against the head of the bed. He raised his hand and caressed my cheek.

"My Lia is all grown up now, you're getting married too." He gave a weak smile. I could not help but feel guilty and sad.

"Grandpa, I know you promised your friend, but do I have to marry? Can't I marry later?", I gave in, I agreed to marry grandpa's friend's grandson but not immediately.

"If Lia does not want to marry that boy, she does not have to", he said with a caring voice. At this point, I could not believe my ears. He was the only one who acknowledged my grievance. As expected of my dear grandfather.

"But papa is forcing me to-". I was cut off by his words. "That brat is always like this, forcing people to not do what they like, he even got rid of my liquor collection". He frowned, obviously dissatisfied. I chuckled at his expression. "Grandpa, it's not good for you," I chided.

"Dear, if you do not want to, do not do it. Be rebellious and fight for what you want. I want to see you married, but not at the cost of your happiness." He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. Tears started forming in my eyes. I went in for a bear hug, totally squeezing him. He rubbed my head while he held me. "What if I run away from here?"

"Then, I will recommend you someone who can help you."

"Then what about dad and mom?"

"You think I am afraid of them? They are afraid of me, do not listen to what they say, do what you like. I will always protect you,".

He loved and doted on his only granddaughter; he was sick of boys; he had two sons, one of them had another son, he would side with his only granddaughter.

"Is there no other way?", I asked, running away from home is not something I would dare to do.

"Your parents have their heart set on marrying you to that boy. I want you to marry him as well, but I won't force you." He happily blamed my parents.

I did not say anything further, but I decided that I would run away from home, not for long, only for a week or so, just so that my parents would worry and won't urge me to marry anymore.

With my mind full of thoughts as to how to pull this feat off, I did not see Luke standing in the shadows. He heard our conversation, so he directly spoke with my grandpa. "What were you thinking? Telling her to run away?!"

"Stop shouting, you brat. Let her stay away from home without anyone's help, she will learn how the world works."

"She has already done that when she was in a hostel. Are you trying to help her or try to threaten her into marriage by showing her how the real world is?"

He glanced at Luke, who was puffing with anger. "Both."

"Why did you ask uncle and aunt to let Lia marry when you are insisting Lia to run away and not marry?"

"Old man Wilson is not a bad person, he would happily invest money. This opportunity is something perfectly created, so do NOT poke your nose. I expect Lia to marry no matter what I told her now. She will not marry now, but she will soon. She thinks she cannot work after marriage, so silly."

Luke did not realise the meaning behind his grandfather's words, he was too angry to talk to him. He did not want her to marry just for saving the company; it was not fair on his part since she was forced to marry to save the company which he would run. His ego was hurt too, he needed the help of other's to save the company, no one was willing to invest so they had to resort to using such a method. If they were really so close with his grandfather why couldn't they help unconditionally? The file Luke was looking at earlier was the list of investors who backed out. He planned on convincing them himself. He planned to increase their percentage of profit, higher than the rival proposed little did he know that whatever he did will fail because of a hidden reason yet to be found.