Chapter One

"Who cares who his grandfather is…. I know, I don't. How can Grandpa make such a silly decision for me? I was a child, did he ask me if I'd want to get married to this…. this thing?" Mira seethed as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Listen Dad, you better tell the servants to send him away. I can't stand the look of this wretch soiling up the place. How can I, Mira Chen be engaged to this bottom feeder? He's not even good enough to be one of our workers. Nooo" She continued.

Mira stormed out of the living room with Vinicus there staring after her. This was a bad idea from the day it was hatched up by their grandfathers and now he was the one paying the price. 

"Mira.. my darling, princess. Come back. I'll try to fix it… I will figure something out" Mira's father followed quickly behind her. 

Vinicus was left there alone with Mira's sisters and a man he didn't even know. The guy was obviously rich as well, Vinicus didn't need anyone to tell him that the gold and diamond necklace on his neck was very real. 

"Listen here you urchin. I don't know what you've heard but there's no place for your kind as a member of this family. Old Chen was probably delusional when he made that agreement with your grandfather." Sapphira  said, looking at Vinicius with so much disdain."

"I mean who would think that Mira would get married to you?" Zaphira added supporting her twin. " I guess Grandpa's illness started much earlier than we thought…"

"Is this the man that Mira's worried about? I mean he's no competition for me at all. Has your father tried paying him off?" The young man proposed.

"The agreement can't be all that binding, I thought your father said it was more than twenty years ago. Even with an actual written contract, that's a very long time, isn't it" He continued.

"Don't bother yourself about this Luther , my dad will find a lasting solution to this fly soon enough. You should just act like he's not here, he'll be long gone soon enough". Zapphira assured him.

Vinicus sat down with his face to the ground. These people acted like he wasn't sitting right there. He never asked for this, he was sent here by his grandfather to fulfill his end of the agreement with his bosom friend Old Chen. 

The agreement was that if Vinicus married Mira then the wealth of both families would be shared between them for some generations. Although Old Chen was not this wealthy when they made that agreement…. And it was very obvious that the agreement would bring no wealth on his part, his grandfather just wanted to get rid of him. 

"I do wonder how your family home became so accessible to miscreants and charlatans. He claims to be a doctor but I don't know any doctors that look as wretched as he does?" Luther stated "I have a couple doctors on our family payroll and they definitely look a million times better than this guy right here?" 

How on earth could this guy have the audacity to come here and say that he was engaged to Mira. His own Mira who he was already engaged to… If this discussion had happened in his own home, he would have had this man beaten and then thrown out. His family could never condone such nonsense from anyone. 

Sapphira hated the fact that this situation was happening when Luther  was here, how would their family save face when he told his family that such a thing occurred while he was at their house. She was so angry that she would have kicked this dumb fool out if she could and she knew her twin sister Zapphira was feeling the same way. 

"I apologize for this inconvenience but my grandfather was the one who sent me here, he told me to make the journey here because I was already betrothed to Mira. He also said that if I arrive, Old Chen would be here to explain all the details of the agreement to your family" Vinicus said in a futile attempt to stand up for himself. 

"Will you shut the hell up? Who asked you to speak? No one cares about your grandfather, no one cares about you and no one cares about any agreement.. Old Chen is hanging on to his life by a thread. He's a vegetable, completely unconscious." Zaphira snapped.

Vinicus immediately felt sorry for Old Chen, he had grown up listening to Old Chen tell stories to him when he was sad. In his own family, he was not welcome because he wasn't as proficient in the medical field as his family was. He had failed his medical examinations more than four times now; he still hadn't passed it. 

Soon enough, his grandfather would not even agree to let him take the exam again. But he held on because he remembered the stories that Old Chen used to tell him about ancient times when nobodies were given great power. He always wished those stories to be true but growing up and enduring taunts, insults and hatred from everyone around him. 

He knew Old Chen had only told fairytales… It was his closeness with Old Chen that made his grandfather propose this agreement in the first place. To marry off his useless grandson to Old Chen since he loved him so much. Now look where it had gotten him. 

"I'd suggest you leave and never come back. Father would soon get the best lawyers to discredit that useless agreement you brought here and when he does, you'll wish you were a dog on the streets. Afterall, you already look like a dog…." Zapphira's words were no different from what he had grown up hearing from people.

But somehow they pierced deeper even though he barely knew her, the fact that such cruel people could be related to Old Chen baffled him. 

"I can't go back. I was sent here for a reason." How could he tell them that he had nowhere to go. His grandfather didn't want to see him at all and if he came back without Mira, then it would be another failure on his part. He couldn't go anywhere..

"I'm offering you a ton of money if you agree to get out of here and never come back. It's the least I can do for my soon to be in-laws, getting rid of scum like you is part of the job" Luther  said as he whipped out his checkbook. 

Why did everyone always treat him like a doormat? Was there an invisible sign on his forehead that screamed "pushover"? He couldn't stay quiet forever. He had to stand firm and speak up for himself, this was his last resort. 

"I don't want your money…"