Chapter 4

• "If I remember right, you told me earlier that you're nineteen already," he said to break the awkward and uncomfortable silence between us.
• With my head still facing the tinted window of his car, I slightly move my head upside down.
• I find myself glancing at him secretly as his breathing turns heavy. The impeccable silence made me notice even the sound of his gritting white teeth. The fear that I've been feeling for quite some time since we left Santiago grew bigger.
• I shuddered in my seat and gasped as he intertwined his big calloused hand with mine. I redeemed my composure and freed my hand from his grip. Endeavor smirks at my reaction.
• "There will be no proper wedding ceremony, but starting tonight, you're married to me," he said. He brought his hand back on the steering wheel and his eyes on the road after he glimpsed at me for my reaction. Hundreds of protests were left unspoken.
• Yes. This marriage is loveless. This is even weird and nothing like the arranged marriage that I have read about before, but will it be too much on his part to give me a proper wedding ceremony? I'm a hopeless romantic. It's fine; I already accept the fact that I will spend the so-called forever with this hoodlum, but the wedding?
• "Hmm?" he suddenly asked. I look at him like a lost goat in the wide dessert
• "Huh?"
• "What were you thinking, Ibixa?" I move to make myself more comfortable in my seat 'cause the air is not doing its job here. I don't know if I'm too tense, that's why I find it hard to breathe, or he's just so intense that even my organs are nervous, that's why they can't do their job properly.
• I start playing with the strap of a seatbelt in my body. I shook my head. He chuckled cutely, which caught my attention.
• "I see, so you want a wedding ceremony?" Yes! I want one. My life is so odd that I didn't get my chance for a grand debut. At first, my family insisted that I should have one, but because I was hidden, I had no friends to invite. In the end, I chose to celebrate it like my other birthday. I lost my chance for the most important day of my life as a lady that's why I was looking forward to my wedding, only to find out now that I wouldn't be able to have one, too.
• I want to curse all the Gods and Goddesses in Olympus. Why, the hell am I getting a punishment like this?
• He tsked. "I don't want to marry a kid."
• "Excuse me? I'm no longer a kid, or if you see me as one... you should have left me with my family instead."
• He bites his lip and licks it after making it redder and more ravishing to look at. "Instead of thinking about the wedding ceremony that's not gonna happen. Why don't you tell me your college plans?"
• Plans for college... college.
• "I-I will go to college?" He gives me that bored look before he pulls down the gear stick. "It's okay if you don't want to study---,"
• "Gusto ko!" I pressed my lips in a thin line. "I mean, I want to. I will go to College."
• He delved his hand inside the pocket of his faded jeans to fish out his mobile phone. I watched him silently as he dialed something on it with his free hand.
• Ender handed me his phone. "Hedero will take care of everything you'll need for enrollment. Just tell him where you want to study and what course would you like to take," he commanded.
• I look at the phone's screen and see that the man or woman named Hedero already answered his phone call.
• I gawked at him and the screen of his phone again. On the other line, I can hear a barely audible sweet voice. So, Hedero is a woman. Is she old or someone at my age?
• Every popping thought and idea makes me thrill and excited.
• "Mister Mendeleev." We both heard the woman speak again. I pressed the end call button and stared at Ender earnestly.
• His thick eyebrows furrowed. "Why?"
• "I never really thought that I'd be able to go to College."
• "Port Chester University will be a great choice if you don't have an idea where you should study. I graduate there and the owner is a family friend..." I bit my lower lip and kept my smile hidden.
• "I'll think about the course that I'll take then do my research. Hedero can help me, perhaps," I said, sounding so unsure.
• The car stops as the traffic light turns red. If I'm not mistaken, we're in Manila now. Though I wanted to ask if we're still far from where his house or condo is situated, I decided not to.
• "Of course she can and she will. You'll probably spend most of your time with her. In villa, during your school hours." Ender rested his hand on the steering wheel again and maneuvered it as the traffic light turned green.
• "Once a month, I'll give you time to wander around the city with bodyguards that I'll assign for you." My excitement for the supposedly new chapter of my life faded as I heard more of his plans.
• The audacity of me to think that I'm now in charge of my own life. His words were true, though; he'll take me in a bigger cage so I can somehow feel freedom even though I am not free. Should I be thankful?
• Our small conversation died because of it until we arrived at Mendeleev's Villa.
• As the car drives inside the villa's fancy gate, I already lost count of the men I saw wearing uniforms armed with guns and radios.
• What is this place? A military base? Does he often receive death threats? That's why he has all of these bodyguards and tight security.
• Ender... who the hell are you?