Chapter 16
DANI
I leave early in the morning. Raquel texts me to wish me a safe journey and to tell me she’ll see me soon.
My heart sinks. Lying to her is excruciating. Hours later, my parents pick me up from the airport, accompanied by a bodyguard. I fall into their arms the second I see them, so thankful to be back in the warmth and familiarity of my home and the people I love.
The Knights are so different. Cold, and uncommunicative with each other. I’m not sure I ever want to fit into their world. But I’m helping my father, and that’s the only thing that truly matters. My decision to marry Dexter is further cemented when I see Papai again.
He looks better. His face is a little fuller, his posture stronger. My mother’s eyes shine as she clasps her hands together, her expression tender and full of love.
“Ah, minha bela…” Her voice is full of emotion. She dreams of a happy ever after. There were moments yesterday when Dexter and I were getting to know one another, when I had a glimpse of how things could be, if we allowed ourselves to be more.
I hug my parents and we hold onto each other for longer than usual before getting into the car to go home.
Then it starts, the conversation shifts quickly to my fiancée to be and the wedding.
“How is he? What’s he like?” My parents want to know everything about Dexter. I tell them what they want to hear, and I embellish the truth, cover Paul Knight’s coldness with a warmth he doesn’t have.
I don’t want my parents to worry and they will, if they know what type of family I’ll be joining. My mother can’t stop talking about the wedding, and at the same time lamenting that Paul Knight has restrained her from going full-blown on the wedding.
My father takes her hand, caresses it in his, reassures her that this is temporary, and that one day, when the real suitor comes, they’ll have a big lavish wedding. It’s their dream. My mother catches me watching, “Only if Daniela wants it,” she says quickly.
Over a home-cooked meal, I tell them more, and gloss over the truth. But the part about my date with Dexter, that part, I don’t have to fake.
Because I did feel something.
I felt like he opened up to me, and that we connected. I think I reached a part of him that he tries to keep hidden from everyone, even himself.
But as I replay that evening in my mind, I wonder if he felt a connection to me. Maybe that’s why he could talk and share in a way I never expected him to. As my mother steps away to get dessert, my father shifts closer to me and takes my hand, his grip gentle and warm. He thanks me for my sacrifice, but I shake my head. “No, Papai. It’s not a sacrifice.”
His eyes fill with sadness. “It is, filha. I shouldn’t have to ask this of you …” His voice wavers as he looks away.
“Papai, this is just an alliance.” I try to soothe his fears away. “A marriage on paper. Two strong dynasties coming together. Nothing more, and it’s only for a year. Raquel is close by, and I can go visit her. I can also come home every other month, hopefully. You will see, a year will go by so fast.”
“He’s a good man?” My father seems desperate for me to say yes.
I hesitate. “He seems nice, Papai.” After last night, it doesn’t seem so impossible. “Better than Oscar Ramos,” I add.
His lips press together, and relief floods his eyes.
I’ve decided that I won’t go shopping for my wedding dress. I’ll just browse online, because I have work to do, and tomorrow I’ll go into the office. My father is only now starting to look better, but I think he should stay at home and fully recover. I’ve been away from work, leaving suddenly without an explanation and now I have to somehow break it to my colleagues that I’ll be getting married and moving to New York.
“How are the wedding preparations going, M?e?” I ask my mother. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“It’s all being taken care of, filha. Don’t you worry. We’ve hosted parties for three hundred people here, this will be easy. Less than one hundred people.” She looks a little downcast.
“The smaller the number, the better, M?e.”
“We will put the Knights up in one of our other homes here in S?o Paulo. The wedding of course, will take place here, at the family home. Is that agreeable to you?”
I sigh. “It is. It’s fine.” I would have wanted some other place, but this isn’t about me. This is about Paul Knight’s wishes. And, I remind myself, this isn’t real. My parents exchange a look.
“It’s fine,” I say again, not wanting them to worry.
My mother studies me. “You know, it’s not impossible that you might fall in love with Dexter.”
It both amuses and irritates me that she refers to him by his name. As if she knows him well. I give a small, tight smile. “It’s not impossible,” I echo, because she so badly wants to believe it.
“You’re doing this to help the family and the business,” she continues. “It’s how it used to be in past times. Arrange marriages worked. Dexter is young and handsome. And the two of you …”
She trails off.
“M?e,” I say cautiously.
She grins. “I haven’t seen a photo of the two of you together, but … my Photoshop skills aren’t bad.”
She turns her phone toward me and shows me a wallpaper of me and Dexter Knight. It’s a picture of me with what looks like an online image of Dexter, plastered on top. It looks strange.
“M?e!” I groan.
She just laughs.
“I’m going into work tomorrow.”
She frowns, not liking the sound of that. “Why?”
“I’ll come with you,” my father offers.
“No, you’re taking more time off,” I remind him. “You’re resting, Papai.”
“I’m better now.” He exhales. “I’ve been going in for a few hours a day. I can’t be seen as weak. With you marrying a Knight, I need to show strength. Be the man I used to be .”
I hate that he says that. I want him to be the big strong, giant he used to be, and I keep telling myself what I’m doing will help his road to recovery. And to believing in himself. “Papai, you don’t need to go in.”
He doesn’t like my answer. “You’re getting married soon. Why should you be going to work?”
I swallow. “I’ve been away for so long. It will just take my mind off things until…” I inhale slowly. “Until Dexter gets here.” They both nod, eyes bright and eager as they hang on to my every word, hoping I’ll say something nice about my future husband and this situation. “He’s arriving with his brothers,” I continue. “The day before the wedding. They’re only staying for two nights. They leave the day after the wedding.”
“Why the rush?” M?e exclaims.
“Business. They have a global enterprise to take care of,” my father reminds her.
“We’ll have them over for dinner as soon as they arrive,” my mother insists. “We won’t have much time to spend with them, or get to know them, reading the email your father-in-law sent.”
“The civil ceremony will be the same day?” I ask, wondering if anything has changed between the email Paul Knight sent out, and whatever discussions he and my parents have had since then.
My mother nods. “It will. Perhaps straight after the wedding ceremony. The garden will be done up. We’ll have a tent on the grounds, for the wedding reception later that evening,” my mother continues. “And that will be bigger.”
“Not that much bigger,” my father says. A worried frown creases his brow. He’s trying to toe the line, to do what Paul Knight says. My stomach feels heavy as I contemplate what a year of being in that family will do to me.
“Must we have a reception?”
“Of course, we must have a reception, filha.” My mother looks at me like I’m a child demanding the impossible. “If the wedding is small, we need a big party. We must invite those we couldn’t invite to the wedding.”
I force a smile. “Okay.”
But I don’t feel okay.
My heart races at the thought of my impending wedding day. It was hard enough putting on a show in front of Raquel. But with my parents watching? And guests? I’m not comfortable duping so many people.
“It will be fine,” my mother assures me.
“It has to be.”
One day, when this is all over, when I meet the man of my dreams, I’ll give my parents a real wedding. I’m not big on weddings myself, but I know they would want something more than what Paul Knight has orchestrated. I feel so controlled by this man already, and I hate it.
“I’ll get the coffee,” my mother says, and bustles out of the room.
“Two weeks,” my father murmurs. “He gave us two weeks.”
“Why is this happening so fast, Papai?” I need to know the reason behind this.
“It benefits both of us, Daniela.”
It feels like a boulder is resting on my chest. “Papai… is there something you’re not telling me?”
His jaw clenches, and I brace myself. “The company, filha. Things change. We could use the cash injection sooner rather than later.”
I nod. “Of course. I’ll be living there for a year.”
“I know, filha.” He looks so sad that it breaks my heart.
Why are we doing this?
Surely marrying Oscar Ramos would be easier? I wouldn’t have to move abroad, and I can handle the devil I know better than the devil I don’t.
But … Oscar Ramos. I shiver involuntarily. This is a marriage on paper, and I feel confident that Dexter won’t breach any boundaries, but I can’t say the same for Oscar.
This is better. This way. The Knight way.
“Will Paul Knight visit here often?”
“He’ll run the company remotely,” my father informs me. “He’ll have a few of his people installed here, for the duration of the year.”
I bite my lip. “That’s what I expected.” But my spirits sag already with the confirmation that he’ll mostly be in New York, and most likely a part of my life, in some way or another.
“Sleep now, filha.” My father’s voice softens. “You don’t have to go to work tomorrow. Take a day off. Prepare for your wedding, for the things you need; your wedding dress, your clothes and whatever else a bride needs.”
I already know I won’t be going anywhere. I’ll order everything online. “I’ll invite a few of my friends,” I murmur. “Most of them were international students anyway.”
“Raquel will be here, no?”
“She’s my closest childhood friend, I couldn’t possibly dream of getting married without her.” But all the same, I hate that I’m lying to her. I will need her by my side. For support, even if she doesn’t know much. My parents will have their closest friends and extended families.
And the rest?
The Knights.
This wedding is going to be so much fun.
Not.