How fast was I willing to run? Even as my wedding dress held me back and my feet bare leaving it to step into muddy waters and icy ground, what was the reason for my actions? Why am I running away you might ask.

I could return back and complete the wedding despite everything, marry him and get the job done but why do I already feel guilty about it even as the first step was yet to be done.

Trust me, I didn't know anything that my family was planning until today. I also wasn't intrigued when I first met him, my soon to be husband on a Monday morning this week.

I had just woken up after a late night party with my friends and had snuck into the house through my window, little did I know that by the time I shall arise my so wonderful life will change drastically.

We were rich and still are only that we've dropped in rank and we are still hanging on but we are able to afford our weekly vacation trip, so yes! We are rich, or so I thought we were until today.

I wasn't in the least surprised when I saw a man speaking to my father at the living room, it wasn't new to me that daddy loves doing business early and that too in the house, I didn't see the man's face he was speaking to and didn't care to as long as it smelt like business I know well not to step into such territories.

I left there to get some water to wake my pounding head, last night party had taken a whole lot from me. I could hear my dad pour out all of his jokes and not once did the man he was with utter a single laughter as each time there was this awful silence.

That was the beginning of my dislike towards him.

I didn't know at that time my dad was signing me off into a deal worth billions of dollars indirectly in a way, I held it up that it was business and now I am stuck into a situation I couldn't get myself out from. Assuming I had stopped to greet my dad and him that morning then I would've understood that I was to marry him.

I got stopped in my tracks when I was about to make a successful escape, the headlight of the car before me had hurt my eye as I tried to shield my face from it before it finally got turned off. It was my chance to run now before the driver would step down and catch up with me even then I couldn't even run any longer as my feet hurt terribly which prompted me to give up.

My sister, Amelia, stepped out of the car and ran towards me before I could reconsider my choice of not running away again.

Seeing her return home yesterday had made me exceptionally happy, she was the one who convinced me yesterday that I should marry him that it will only be for a year, I thought of it as absurd being that there wasn't a proper explanation as to why it was necessary for me to be married to him.

Whereas I had agreed after hearing that dad needed this to recover most of his business that was pushed down by the recession that had pressed the entire country down. No one had forced me into a wedding gown that I did myself but when I heard dad speaking to Amelia about the actual reason he is marrying me off I just couldn't help but hate him.

I was a pawn to be used. Dad main plan was to marry me to him and get his business up and running, not only that he wanted to divorce me after six months so that I could get half of his properties after showing the court his infidelity. The entire details are pretty vague.

"Pearl... We need to go back, we are keeping the guest waiting" Amelia said as she walked towards me which I took a step back and back again each time she moved closer.

"Then you all should tell them to leave and that there won't be a wedding, how can you all dare to use me like this? Marry me off and get me divorced in six months.... You expect me to be a divorcee at my age.... So you and dad had planned this all along and yesterday you came into my room and acted like you knew nothing just so you could convince me with your lies, you and dad to get the hell! I freaking hate you guys now"

*Smack* a sharp pain was felt on my cheeks as Amelia's hand attacked it.

"For how long are you going to keep being selfish and immature, you are twenty six years for goodness sake and you are yet to put your life together, all these years I have been the one who has to clean up my elder sister's mess just because she is immature" Amelia took quick pause before she started highlighting my failures, "You refused to go to business school and so I went, you refused to work at Dad's company so I did, you decided that your monthly allowance be increased even as you still spend the entire thing in a week and not once were you concerned about how dad got that money just so he could please you"

She didn't stop there as she kept on saying, "You are just like the prodigal son, while I do all the work you come back and take all of the blessings and dad's love as well, so why can't you do the same for dad. Stop being selfish and fucking prove your worth as his child! It's just six months and whatever is going on between you two will be over so tell me why you can't just put up with it" Amelia yelled at my face before turning to scream out all of her anguish.

I didn't know I was a let down to my family and made Amelia carry my burden, there were more ways that I was indeed selfish and I could account for it but in this case I still wanted to be selfish.

"I still am not doing it, am sorry....." I said in a low voice hoping she would understand.

"If you are sorry then you would go ahead with the wedding, if not get ready to live the life of a pauper, wash your clothes, dishes, enjoy not being able to go to expensive spas and shopping malls, worst of all you should also get ready to work" Amelia listed out my worst nightmare so as to convince me and I had to admit that it was working as I asked.

"Is it really that bad? Dad's company...."

"You can't start to imagine, we let off half of our staffs last month and plan on letting go again this month, it was this reason dad decided to collaborate with TMZ holdings. Pearl please just do it for dad's sake"

That slap she'd given me and her mentioning all of the times I had chickened out in all situations, I use that period to think about doing what they wanted.... getting married, but then a thought came into my head as I remembered my boyfriend of which we decided to take a break, what would he think when he find me married just when we are about to get back together.

"Pearl... Speak up, we've got no time left" she said as she begged me to give an answer. I was cut in between, I knew she wasn't telling me everything and that there was a lot that was been hidden away from me but based on what she'd said I had to agree and go on with it for my dad sake.

"I'll do it" I said it begrudgingly before walking over to her car.

Amelia drove back to the venue where the guest had been kept waiting because of some mishaps in the bride's room, even the procession had begun and the groom was waiting alongside the priest.

Believe me I was scared, scared to take that leap, for all we know if I eventually do it I will say goodbye to my marriageless

not a word

life forever and that wasn't what I wanted but any which way I now stand before him with a bouquet of flowers in my hands ready to do what I dreaded most doing.

He of all person didn't even care to look at and compliment me of how I looked in the wedding gown like how most grooms in the movies do with their brides. Well if he wouldn't then I will.... Pearl Walsh, you look great in that wedding dress.

"Shall we begin" The priest said as he started the joining in matrimony ceremony. I listened not to what the priest had said as my focus was on him, studying and trying to read his mind, there wasn't much to read as he didn't bother to show any sign of emotion that I could link with something.

Before the priest had asked us to recite our vows to each other, I had taken out the time to look at the guest in the room and found out they were all my relatives and that there was no unfamiliar faces there. What kind of wedding was this that even the groom's parents had refused to show up?