1 Deception

Caleigh: This is a rewind of my present situation, I'll tell you who I am and what I do, eventually as well as the people who make up my dull life. You're welcome to treat it as a dear diary written in the form of a drama called my life.

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Darwin Mansion

I stare at the huge chandelier overhead, emitting enormous amount of heat, all subdued thanks to the air conditioning in the hall.

What a waste of energy, but then people didn't care, especially diamond mining business owners a.k.a my family.

In the process of criticizing all the unnecessary materials here and there, I catch the man I was hoping to avoid but expecting to meet. I watch as his head does the whole Twilight's moonlight honeymoon thing with the chandelier's light dancing off his peeled head. His jiggly potbelly seemed to have grown in the time I was away.

I school my features into boredom as I wait for him to reach me.

"Why are you staring at the ceiling like your grandmama?" He inquires in that wooden tone of his.

A million reasons, but I settle with, "Why do you think so?" I grit my teeth, "Dad."

He ignores my words as usual, "do you like him?" Dad asks me gesturing towards a man. I follow his line of sight.

"Dwayne?" I resist the urge to twist my face into a grimace. He was so-so. Dark-haired and dark-eyed. Really bad sense of humour.

"Yes." He replies, looking at me expectantly. I get suspicious of his motive at coming all the way to me. I knew where this was headed, but I couldn't help myself from asking, "Why do you ask?"

A humourless smile directed towards me, as if he had been expecting me to ask him that exact question, he replies, "Your engagement has been fixed with him."

"What!" And there begins my life of imprisonment yet again.

I don't like it at all, that went against my stalking nature. Okay, Dwayne was alright, maybe he even looked good but we didn't have much chemistry. Now that would make life not to mention a greater portion spent in the bedroom pretty bland.

Dad gives me a warning gaze, "Don't be rude. Go over and talk to him." I didn't want to, he wasn't even stalking material.

A familiar face pops into my mind as I feel irritation souring my mood further. My favourite subject had chewed and spat me out. I was losing my kids and I was trapped here. What could Rapunzel do without her frying pan and sidekick? So I do what as he says.

They say we have a good side and a bad side, you know the tiny devil on your left shoulder and the tiny angel on your right? Psychology calls them Id and Superego, but I'm going to stick with the rudimentary devil-angel thing. I am a disciple of the left side ninety per cent of the time.

"Dwayneeee... Hi." I chirp lamely as he picks a champagne flute from a waiter passing by.

"Hello." He greets back cordially with a lift of his lips that emphasized the vertical scar on his upper lip. I had kicked a football in his face smashing his glasses into pieces that had ended up puncturing his lips.

What's up with his odd behaviour, did dad perhaps trick me? Nevertheless, I ask what has been hovering in my mind since dad dropped the bomb, "Why do you want to marry a pig like me?" I ask the headmistress like expression never wavering from my face; I had fattened up a bit recently and I wasn't even kidding.

"Pig?" He asks staring dubiously at me. "You heard me," I repeat. A bemused grin meets my words, "I was suggested this yes..." His gaze then sinks to my lips and then dipping down. I knew where this was going... oh bother.

"... I am ready to settle down and you know how it is here."

"I almost made you blind, why would you agree to this?" I shake my fist at him, more irked by the endearment than his words.

"I like a challenge tesoro mia."

My holy socks. Mousy Dwayne has become a tiger.

Oh... I forgot to have an internal freak out while I'd been caught off guard- Everyone was turning into Favio Fitzgerald! I was tricked! There's gonna be hell to pay for this. And this was the second time, they were fixing me up with some owl whom I wasn't interested in the slightest. It's a great insult to the owl clan for comparing the likes of him to them.

My dad clinks a spoon against his champagne flute adding to my plight.

"I'm proud to announce that my daughter Caleigh Darwin..." And the spotlight finds me and I produce a smile like a willing fiancé ought to, "...is engaged to Dwayne Harley..." and blah, blah, blah... I tune out his monologue and find myself with Dwayne for the rest of the evening, talking to guests about the stock market, the weather, diamonds, finance and everything else which makes my head ache.

While this socializing is going on, I can't help but eavesdrop on other people who were talking for a change, about me; good or bad who cares:

"Didn't she run off the last time?" Comes a whisper.

"She did... do you think she'll run off again?" Another mutter.

"Who knows we just have to wait and watch." Yet another whisper.

I felt like the wicked witch of the west, truly so. I catch myself just in time as an evil laugh was about to escape me. "Just wait and watch you, dusty old mummies," I mutter under my breath as Dwayne and I receive another round of congratulations.

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