Despite the truly horrible decision that he had made by getting into business with a loan shark, Peter Jones was not an idiot. At the time he had just thought that he would be helping out his sister. He had even borrowed a small amount of money that he had known that the two of them would be able to pay back should things go sideways.
But madam Mo had set him up. She had changed the rules of the game and forced him to play. Not only had she forced him to play, the old woman had also dragged his sister into things. After his failed attempt to convince madam Mo to let go of his sister( he had the bruises on his face to show just how much madam Mo had disagreed with that suggestion).
Peter had been wrecking his brains trying to come up with a way out. He had seriously been thinking about going to the police and offering himself up is an informant. His terms would not have been for his own protection. But for Ariel to be given a shot at life. She had not done anything, and he would not just sit around and watch her pay for a mistake that he'd made.
But his sister...his older sister... always trying to protect him, had clearly gone out and made deals of her own. The moment she'd said that she was engaged to someone. Peter had felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. His heart suddenly going a mile a minute. Then she had dropped the bombshell. She was engaged to Tristan Asher. The richest man in the city.
Peter had no idea how she had pulled it off but one thing was very clear to him. He had never heard his sister mention the rich man. Now out of nowhere they were getting married. He had only been gone a couple of weeks. Even if his sister had somehow managed to meet the man during that period of time. It was all too suspicious. But then, just as Peter was trying to wrap his head around it. Ariel hit him with yet another bombshell.
"We are getting married at the end of the month," And that cemented things in Peter's head.
"Are you selling yourself to Tristan Asher in order to pay off The debt that I got us into?" Repeating the question had been its own kind of torture, but Peter had forced himself to rasp the words.
Now their tiny living room, was completely silent. There was movement as Ariel put her pizza away. Peter pushed his to the side as well. The food no longer looking as appetizing as it had when he had first dug into it. "Peter..." Ariel began, in the soothing tone he had not heard from her since he was a little boy who still cried over scraped knees.
"No. Do not lie to me on this Ariel. Have I messed up so bad that you have sold yourself to the highest bidder?" His sister reared back as though struck and it was an awful, awful sight that had Peter blinking back tears. His throat feeling as though it were closing up. Oh my goodness, she had! She'd sold herself to a rich man in order to save him. What had he done? What had he done? What had he done? He didn't realise that he had his hand buried in his hair, and was pulling at the strands until he felt Ariel's gentle hand settle over the back of his palm.
"Hey, hey, Peter, there's no need for that. That's not why I'm marrying him. I love him,"
What?! That broke through Peter's meltdown with a quickness. Letting go of his hair, he stared at his sister with wide eyes.
"Ariel, you have literally just met him. Have you lost your mind?" Ariel gave him a small smile. "Peter, Mum and Dad had known each other for a month before they tied the knot, and they were the happiest couple I've ever known," "What happened for them when they saw each other and just knew that this is it. That's what happened for me and Tristan," The mention of their parents' whirlwind romance broke through all of the panic and guilt that Peter had been feeling. He looked at his sister, trying desperately to spot any hints of a lie. But all she did was continue to smile at him. Their parents had had a love at first sight type of situation. Peter had never liked it whenever people who had not heard the story kept questioning and questioning clearly in disbelief. So despite the fact that it made him uneasy.
He bit his tongue and held back the flood of questions that he wanted to ask. He pushed down all of the doubt in him and buried it deep, deep, deep... where he would not be tempted to say something ill-advised. His sister told him that she was happy that she was with Tristan, because all it had taken for her to know he was the one was a single look. Getting to his feet, he turned to Ariel, and tried his best to give her a smile.
"This is a lot. I need a moment to process. But if you are happy, then I'm happy for you," With that, he turned and made his way to his bedroom. Once there, Peter tried his best to shut down all of the doubt in his soul. Ariel said it was a love marriage. So it had to be a love marriage.