Chapter 10: Chapter 10
The drive to the church was a tense one that seemed much longer than usual because of the reason they were headed there. Carol sat stiffly in the backseat with her mother, while her father sat in the front seat beside their remaining driver. They had had to send the other two drivers away more than four months back. It was now everything made sense to Carol. Her parents were in serious debt. Looking at them, however, especially her mother, one would never guess. She was always clad in the latest, most expensive, and most fashionable clothes there were. Carol guessed that every single dime that they managed to get went to supporting her mother's ridiculously expensive sense of fashion. How dumb and stupid. She was not surprised, though because her mother had always had her father by the balls and it was only whatever she wanted that they did.
It did not bode down well at all with Carol that they had to resort to using her as a sort of payment for their debt, sacrificing her chance of ever being happy the way they were doing. She did not think she could ever be happy being the wife of that snob that she had known for all of what? Thirty seconds? However, she could not let those bastards kill her uncle for something that he did not know about. Besides, even if they killed her uncle, she had no doubt that they would follow through on their threat to kill off the rest of their family. She only hoped that Mr. James would keep to his word and would help pay off her dad's debt.
Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw her mother check her wristwatch for the umpteenth time since they got into the car. She kept doing that as though checking her watch will make the time pass slower, and for some reason, this annoyed Carol to no end.
'We're more than fifteen minutes late. Dear God! I just hope they'll wait for us." Belinda fretted, smoothing down her dress with her hands, even though the dress was already perfectly smooth and well-ironed without any wrinkles.
"We're almost there, dear." Donald soothed from the passenger's side, throwing her a reassuring look over his shoulder. He avoided Carol's gaze, as he had been doing all morning, and she felt a little pity for him, but whatever pity she felt for him was drowned out by the great anger she felt toward him and her mother.
"Yeah. We're almost at the slaughterhouse where I'm going to be sold like a slave to the highest bidder." She muttered under her breath, but she was sure her parents heard it because her father coughed gently in embarrassment and her mother looked out the window.
In no time, they were at the church, where everyone was waiting for them to show up. Carol got out of the car on shaky legs, feeling for all the world like a sheep being led to the slaughter. This was in no way the way she had ever imagined her wedding would be like and it all felt so surreal. She kept looking around, wishing that it was all a bad dream from which she would soon wake up, but it was all real, and it was happening. Mr. James met them outside the church, his round, normally pleasant face firmly set in a deep frown. Carol took one look at him and shuddered. Even with the frown on his face, one would never guess the things this man was capable of by merely looking at him.
"People are already talking. You're late." He said without preamble, looking Carol up and down. The expression on his face said that he did not like what he saw one bit. It was very clear that he would have preferred to have Victoria, who was more beautiful, was tall, and was outgoing...until she got angry, that is. Carol looked away, hating the blush that stained her face at the rude way this man was staring at her.
"That dress would have looked better on Victoria, but I guess it would have to do. Now, I didn't tell my nephew about the change of plans. Let's just hope that he would not balk when he notices that she's not Victoria." He said, and walked away, dismissing them. Carol wished that she could give the man a piece of her mind, but that was out of the question, so she just walked on with her parents, hoping and praying that the groom would not make a scene when he found out that she was not Victoria. That would be too embarrassing for words.
The rest of the time passed away in a blur, with Carol hardly aware of what was going on. It felt as though she were in a trance. The ceremony was a very short one. Sebastian was already standing at the altar with his groomsman, a guy whom Carol did not know. She saw the exact moment he noticed that she was not his supposed bride to be. She was still walking toward him then, but she had to commend him for his extreme self-control. The only outward sign he showed was a slight widening of his eyes and the confused frown which creased his perfect brow, and then his facial expression was back to the bored look that she had come to associate it with.
The pastor must have been informed of the change of plans because when he joined them together, he used her name in place of Victoria's, a confused look on his face, no doubt because of how strange the whole thing seemed. Sebastian said his vows, then Carol said hers in a dazed voice, and the crowd at the church erupted in a thunderous cheer, most of them oblivious of what had transpired behind the scenes. Carol kept her gaze carefully away from that of people so that she would not see what they those who knew that Victoria was the one who was supposed to be wedding thought. Soon, it was time for the reception, and Carol was bundled into a flashy car with her new husband, who still had not said a word to her since they got married almost an hour ago.
The interior of the spacious car was quite beautiful and as soon as they were seated and the car started moving, Sebastian loosened his tie and gave a sigh of relief or tiredness...she couldn't tell which. Carol, who was feeling really uncomfortable and embarrassed, opened her mouth to speak, but he beat her to it.
"Well, my uncle certainly has a weird way of doing things."
"What on earth do you mean by that?" Carol wanted to ask but didn't. He seemed to be talking to himself, not to her, although she couldn't be sure. She sighed inwardly. This marriage was going to be something else, considering that she was married to a billionaire snob when she did not even have $5000 to her name.
"Hi." She said instead and then slammed her mouth shut, her face turning pink, especially when Sebastian raised an eyebrow at her and shook his head.