15 Engagement

This big change began when Romel, Lidya's father, reached out to Aji and Ningrum, Ardy's mother and father. Once Aji and Ningrum were beside Romel, Romel began her speech. "You see, in this series of events for my beloved mama's birthday, I'm going to insert a piece of good news from my family that we'd like to share with everyone here."

Romel paused his words for a moment and then he said, "My wife and I and Mr. Aji and his wife have agreed a long time ago to continue our decades-long friendship with the union of our children."

"What?" Lidya gasped. Lidya remembered that a long time ago, Romel and Esy had told her several times that Lidya had been matched since childhood with the son of Romel and Esy's best friend but, that was all Romel and Esy had told Lidya, Lidya didn't know the full details and Lidya didn't want to know.

Lidya had already refused when her parents told her about it. Lidya thought the arranged marriage was just a joke or Lidya thought the arranged marriage was not going ahead because there were no further words from Romel and Esy.

But, it turned out that after a long time the news about Lidya's matchmaking disappeared, suddenly the news about the matchmaking was heard again and unmitigatedly, the news about the matchmaking was immediately announced in front of many guests without consulting Lidya first.

And what was even more shocking for Lidya was the fact that the match for Lidya, which Romel and Esy had been buzzing about for a long time and which Romel and Esy had kept secret from Lidya for a long time, turned out to be the most annoying guy in Lidya's eyes, namely Ardy.

Lidya's shock becomes even more, considering the fact that this announcement, occurred when Lidya had just officially dated Ken, a charming cleaning service that Lidya had long liked.

This made Lidya's heart rebel. She had long been unhappy with this arranged marriage, especially after she found out who her soul mate was. Now, she is even more unhappy because her soul mate turns out to be a sickeningly arrogant man.

Lidya's heart rebelled even more at the fact that she had found the man she had been looking for in Ken. Although Ken is only a cleaning service, but, for Lidya, Ken is much better than the arrogant Ardy.

At this moment, Lidya couldn't help but stare at Ardy who was standing on the left wing. Ardy seemed to be smiling at her. A winning smile as if Lidya was an item and Ardy had managed to win it in an auction.

That was what Lidya currently saw in Ardy's gaze and Lidya was so disgusted by Ardy's gaze that she couldn't help herself, she immediately shouted, "NO!"

Romel immediately glared at Lidya after Lidya shouted this because to Romel, Lidya's shout had an insulting connotation towards Ardy, Aji and Ningrum. "Shut up, Lidya! Don't embarrass yourself!"

Then Romel looked at Aji and Ningrum and said, "Lidya actually agreed to this arranged marriage a long time ago. It's just that she hasn't been told yet, so, understand if she's a bit shocked. Ehehe."

"That's okay, Mr. Romel. The important thing is, Lidya knows about this now and I'm preparing Ardy to lead our company, so it's better for him to get married so that he'll be more stable when he becomes my successor later."

"Hahaha. Listen, Lidya. Apparently your future husband is going to be the big boss in our office. So, you..."

"I don't care!" Lidya quickly grabbed Ken's hand to lead him out of the house.

Ken obeyed Lidya's invitation. He immediately followed Lidya who looked very sad.

"My father lied. I never agreed to this arranged marriage that he arranged a long time ago, in fact I strongly opposed this arranged marriage from the beginning and forever. Especially because I have to match with that arrogant man like Ardy, huh!"

Ken nodded. He was tongue-tied. He still didn't have a solution that he could tell Lidya, so he could only remain silent.

Ken patted Lidya's back to comfort her because he couldn't say anything to comfort her.

Although Ken was saddened by Romel's announcement, Ken was happy to see the sad expression on Lidya's face, because it meant that Lidya really didn't want this arranged marriage.

Ken was happy in his sadness, because with Lidya's sadness, it meant that Lidya really loved Ken, just like Ken loved Lidya.

"Take your hands off my fiancée." There was someone's voice behind Ken, so both Ken and Lidya immediately turned their bodies backwards to look for the origin of the voice.

It turned out to be Ardy, who was accompanied by his two loyal followers, Alex and Heri.

Ken hadn't seen Haras since earlier because it seemed that after being thrown into the ditch by Ken, Haras seemed to go straight home and not come back.

"Take your hands off my fiancé!" Ardy repeated his words because Ken didn't lower his hand from Lidya's back.

"I'm not your fiancée!" snapped Lidya. "And I'm not willing to be your fiancée."

"Our parents have already fixed our engagement. Even now, they are looking for an auspicious day for our wedding." Ardy smiled triumphantly.

"That's not going to happen. I don't agree and no one can force me to marry you!" Lidya insisted.

"Including your parents?"

"Yes, including them. I am their child but they have no right to force their will. This is my life, I will live it, I will choose my life partner, not them! And I prefer to be with Ken." Lidya emphasized again.

Lidya's words were very sweet to Ken's ears, so he immediately looked lovingly at Lidya. Ken felt like he was flying into the clouds with Lidya's words.

"Unless you don't want to marry me," Lidya said as she continued to stare at Ken.

"You are the only woman I wish to marry." Ken looked at Lidya. Two hearts united, four hands grasped each other intimately as if the world belonged to both of them. The two of them gazed at each other until they forgot about Ardy.

Ardy was so angered by this intimacy displayed by Lidya and Ken in front of his eyes that Ardy said, "poor thing, this is your last meeting because starting tomorrow, I'm firing Ken from the office."

"YOU DON'T WANT TO!" snapped Lidya who was worried about Ken's fate.

"I am, really. But I love you very much, Lidya."

"I don't!" Lidya sneered.

"Let's bet tomorrow over Lidya. The fight between the two of us tomorrow is the decider. If I win, break off your engagement with Lidya. If I lose, I'm willing to be fired and no longer see Lidya. How about it?"