I am to marry the enemy?!

"Hold on, the Kellingtons?!!!!!!" Crystal cries in horror, jumping up from her chair like it was lit on fire.

Although Crystal had not physically met any member of the Kellingtons family, she had heard enough to know her parents were most likely high right now.

Even the mere mention of the Kellingtons would previously send her father into an outrage, how could he want her to marry into their family now? And again she wondered, to whom?!

The Kellingtons were a bit larger in number than the Pembrokes. They had two sons and one daughter and headed a multibillion-dollar corporation.

Similarly, Richard Kellington was also involved in politics, just like Ryan. The reason he devoted both time and money to it, when he had a lot of money to spare, remained a mystery to the world.

The two men had been at war long before Crystal's birth, so she found it hard to believe that not only was her father forcing her into what looks like an arranged marriage, it was also to a Kellington.

"As outrageous as it sounds, sweetheart, yes, to those bloody Kellington!." Ryan spits out bitterly.

"I am to marry the enemy?"

Crystal questions but gets no response from either of her parents.

"I don't understand, make me understand, Dad, please," Crystal pleads, almost in tears.

This can't be how her life plays out, married off without her gaining her freedom, pushing her career, or falling in love like a normal person. Was it too much to ask that one thing happens normally in her life? And worst of all, like her father had said, she was getting married to 'a bloody Kellington.'

"Sit down honey, I'll explain everything," Ryan says defeatedly.

For the next few minutes, Crystal listens in full panic to the reason her life was turning into shambles.

Apparently when her father, Ryan was a lot younger than he was now, probably around Crystal's present age. He, like every other growing man, wanted to make a name for himself outside his family's wealth and had decided to go into politics.

Despite having an influential father who could easily help him, he sort help from Wesley Kellington, his own father's friendly rival at the time. Friendly rival meaning they weren't at each other's throats but struggled over one contract or the other once in a while.

Wesley Kellington had willingly agreed to endorse Ryan and bring him under his wing because he could tell from the very moment Ryan barged into his office unannounced that his ambition would help him travel to great heights.

But as every endorsement, it came with a price, a betrothal between Ryan's first daughter and his first grandson.

That was hardly a problem for the naïve Ryan. He himself was already being cajoled into an arranged marriage so why would his daughter have a problem with that. After all, making alliances and entering into marriage were seen as the best tools for continuous success.

Even to this moment, Ryan wasn't sure he would have regretted signing the contract that day if Wesley Kellington hadn't added the last detail of the contract which ripped him off and was the main reason, he completely hated those sneaky Kellingtons.

The detail was straight to the point and very deadly. If Ryan decides to break the contract for whatever reason, seventy-five percent of the Pembrokes current fortune would automatically belong to the Kellingtons industries.

"What?! That doesn't make any sense!" Crystal exclaims, even though she isn't fully knowledgeable about her family's finances.

"You don't think I know that now?!" Ryan responds rhetorically, clearly annoyed. Crystal can tell he is more annoyed at himself than at her.

"If you knew he was ripping you off, why did you sign it?" Crystal asks, confused.

"Because I was an idiot, a novice in the business, and he knew that. A huge part of me resents him, but another part of me respects that man. He saw an opportunity and went for it like a true businessman," Ryan admits, rubbing his hair in defeat.

"I'm happy you've come to terms with it, dad," Crystal says sarcastically. "But sadly, I haven't!" She finishes, even more panicked now. Her father had the best lawyers; surely he could sneak his way out of this one.

"There's no way around it, Crystal. I've tried," Ryan says, as though reading her mind.

"Why me?" A tear easily falls from her eyes without her knowledge. "Why did it have to be me?"

"It wasn't originally meant to be you, Crystal. It was meant to be Ash…" Aubrey, who had been silent for some time, finally butts in but chokes on her attempt to mention her daughter's name. It's been over twenty-four years, but it still hurts like it was yesterday.

"So it was meant to be Ashley?" Crystal thinks to herself. It didn't matter to her who it was originally meant to be. It isn't fair to her, and it wouldn't have been fair to her sister either. She wasn't going to succumb to the crazy idea no matter what her parents told her.

"I am not getting married to a stranger I know nothing about. A stranger who doesn't know anything about me either." Crystal states, breaking the dense silence that had crept up after the mention of Ashley.

"You're not a stranger to Orion sweetheart. He has known that you would be his wife from age six and has prepared for it. He knows everything about you." Ryan replies. As though that fact only was miraculously going to change his daughter's mind.

Crystal had been about to ask what exactly Orion knew about her but she wasn't sure she was ready to know that yet.

"Why was he informed so early and I wasn't?"

"Because the contract stated that he was to marry our first daughter, your father and I couldn't bring ourselves to admit that our darling Ashley was gone and wouldn't have been found at this time." Aubrey swoops in, squeezing her husband's hands more tightly to calm herself down.

"And now?" Crystal questions. She knew deep down that it was a cruel thing to make her parents indirectly admit that they've lost faith in finding their daughter but she couldn't stop the words before it slipped out.

"And now that we have no choice, you have to marry Orion Kellington today." Her father says with finality as though there wasn't room for further arguments.

"And if I refuse?" Crystal fires, shooting daggers at her father.