Arranged

~1~

Proloog;

Everything that happened today felt wrong, the dress, the vows, the food, even the presence of my sick brother looking at me proudly felt like I had sold my life. With a sigh, I excuse myself from the table and walk to the bathroom where I take another good look at myself. Liana what are you doing? I think when I see how I look. How I ended up in this situtation I will explain to you. 

It all started months ago when in a panic I got a call from my dad that he had to take my little brother to the hospital, quickly I went to the hospital and they found out that there were some unsettled cells in his body that he was going to get chemo for, the treatments seemed to work even though he was losing his hair, Jesse himself seemed to be doing fine, so we decided to continue his treatments.

After the birth of my brother my mother unfortunately passed away, I was 16 when she died and Jesse was actually an accident that turned out to be very wanted in the end. Because of the loss of my mother I had to help my father with many things, often I had to cancel evenings with friends so that my father could work and I was at home with my brother. Now Jesse is 16 and I am 26.

Jesse has been deteriorating more and more since a few weeks and the costs for his treatments are increasing. "Maybe I can marry you off to a rich old man, one of those you can inherit all his money from." A joke my father often makes with me. Not knowing that this would then also be my future but with someone my own age.

How it all began;

 It was a cold winter evening as I was unsuspecting from work on my way to my best friend Kim's to celebrate the weekend, I was walking through the park with a bunch of flowers in my hands that I couldn't sell at work, my mind on all the events of the past few weeks, my thoughts on Jesse and the cost of his treatments, who was going to pay for that? My father had already put all his money into the chemo's he had had earlier in the year, everything seemed to be resolved until Jesse started feeling worse again a few weeks ago.

My mind not at the road I accidentally almost run into someone. "I'm sorry sir." I say as I step aside, when the man looks up I see there are tears in his eyes. "Are you okay sir?" I ask gently. The man sighs audibly and I get him my bouquet of flowers. "I think you might need these harder than I need them." Surprised, the man looks at me and accepts the flowers. "How sweet of you, you know I used to come here all the time with my wife, but now that she has passed away simple walks through the park may be one of the hardest things for me to do, but well I won't keep you up with my sob story." For a moment it looks like I can walk on but then feel guilty, it is clear the man is looking for a listening ear, I turn around again. "If you want to talk about it I can make some time for you?" The man turns around and the appreciation can be seen in his eyes. 

After hearing his story and getting a hug as a thank you I continue on my way to Kim. On the way I app her about what happened to me and that I am now really on my way to her. With an accelerated stride I walk out of the park, the man's story still fresh in my mind, I didn't even ask for his name. He looked lonely, but certainly not unkempt, I wonder who he could have been.