Is that the kind of man you want to give me away to? Will your mind truly be at peace? If that's the case, then I don’t think you even deserve to be called my father."
He stopped in his tracks then, and turned around to face me.
We glared at each other.
“I will not marry Fabio, Papa,” I declared. “And there’s nothing you can do about it. Unless you plan to drag me kicking and screaming down the aisle. And even if you do that, are you going to force me to agree to the vows? Remember that old saying Nonna loves to repeat. ‘You can take a horse to the bank, but you can’t force it to drink water.’ Unless of course, you intend to kill me and marry him to my dead body. If that works for you, then go right ahead.”
He walked back to me.
My heart jumped into my throat at the fury in his eyes.
I saw it coming but it happened so fast I couldn’t dodge it in time. His hand flew backwards, then forwards, and struck my cheek with such a violent force, I lost my balance as my body tilted backwards. My hand shot out towards the table with the hope of breaking my fall by catching the edge. I caught it, but the table turned over with me. I landed on the floor on my ass, the table nearly hitting me on the head. I looked up at him in shock. He had never hit me before, but I had never disobeyed him before either.
“You dare threaten me?” he fumed.
My cheek felt as if it was on fire and my eyes stung with hurt, but I refused to let him see he had wounded me. I maintained the adamant look on my face. “My condition is one year,” I told him. “Give me one year and afterwards, I’ll do whatever you want. I know that being born into this family automatically takes away the privileges of a normal life, but this much I demand. You will otherwise get no cooperation from me.”
He looked as if he wanted to kill me, but saying nothing … he stormed away.
A taxi took me away from home. I was unsure of where to tell the driver to take me. He didn’t mind. He’d seen the house and knew I’d be good for the money. Soon we passed by the Alamo Draft house movie theater downtown, and I told him to stop.
A few minutes later, I stood staring unseeingly at the row of posters advertising the films that were showing. I walked up to the ticket booth and bought a ticket. I had no idea what the movie was about, nor did I care but it promised gun fights and explosions, and those were the only things I could currently stomach.
Taking my bucket of popcorn and soda with me, I headed into the darkened theater to watch the movie. Halfway down the aisle, I suddenly stopped, and turned around. I found myself running out of the room into the corridor and towards the Ladies room. I ran into a stall, locked the door behind me, and started bawling my eyes out. Some kind soul knocked on the door to ask if I was okay and I told her to fuck off. I was that furious with my life.
How could my father expect me to marry a man like Fabio when he could see I hated the man?
Eventually, the sobs stopped, so I unlocked the door and went out. Only one woman was in there and she gave a funny look. And not surprising I looked a mess. I washed my face and stood up straight. The cry had been just what I needed. I gazed at my reddened, swollen eyes in the mirror’s reflection. “This is your one life, Sienna,” I said to my reflection. “Somehow, someway you will sort it out.”
Then I forced a smile to my face, and left the cinema, my head held high. No way would I marry Fabio. I would find a way out, one way or another.
I returned home to find the entire house in a massive uproar. The guards’ faces showed relief.
“Come with me. Your family is waiting for you,” one of the maids said running up to me.
“What’s up?” I asked, as I followed her.
She opened the door of the Japanese room where my family were gathered, and silently backed away. My mother rushed up to me and crushed me