Rose's POV

"Rose, come down for dinner," my mother, Oliver, called from downstairs.

"Just a minute, Mum." I applied my trademark red lipstick and started to walk downstairs.

I almost bumped into my eight-year-old brother, Stefan, on the stairs.

"Hey!" I snapped at him, and he reluctantly left the stairs.

"Don't make your sister fall, Stefan; she's just recovering," my father said as he went to sit at the table.

"Sorry," Stefan pleaded.

"Dad, after dinner, can Rose and I go play in the garden?" Stefan asked our father, winking slyly.

He knows our father wouldn't be able to resist him, and he was right.

A beautiful mansion in L.A. is where my family of four lives: my father, my mother, Stefan, and I, a nineteen-year-old girl.

"Okay, but don't stay out too long," he said, smiling at my irresistible brother.

My brother Stefan cheered happily. He has always liked our sibling bond under nature. He would run and, many times, attempt to climb the tree while I watched him like an eagle watching its child.

He hurriedly finished his dinner, and we both leaped into the woods happily. He ran as fast as he could, while I walked happily behind him.

"Rose, do you think I can ever be rich?" he asked

"You can be anything you want if you set your mind to it, little brother," I encouraged him. He sat beside me, and me who had already laid a blanket on the ground.

"I want to be rich, Rose. I want to be so rich so I can take care of us all."

"I believe in you, Stefan. I believe you can do it."

"What do you want to be, Rose, when you grow up?"

"Nothing. I want to finish my studies and marry a very rich man when I grow up, someone who will take care of me and keep maintaining my beauty."

"What!" My brother exclaimed.

"Yes. So I can be able to take care of us all."

"What if your husband is not so generous with his money, Rose? What are you going to do about that?"

"He has to be if he wants to marry a beauty like me,"

I replied as I winked at him seductively, smiling weakly at him.

"I will tell Dad about this."

"Go ahead," I replied confidently.

I began to have hiccups.

"Let me go get myself some water," I said to him as I stood up weakly.

"No! Don't, Rose. You act tough but you are not. Let me go get you some glass of water."

"No, it's fine, Stefan."

"Remember what our parents always tell us? Siblings stick together," he says as he stands up to go get some water for me.

"Thank you, brother." He ran, ignoring my appreciation.

After a few minutes, I heard his scream from the house. "Ahhh..."

I looked and began to run weakly towards that sound. "Stefan!" I know that sound is from my brother Stefan, and I was just scared.

I tried to intensify my speed. Looking inside the house with a glass only I and my family know, I saw two bodies of my parents.

My brother Stefan was held by a gangster while a prominent figure who seemed to command authority derived joy in pointing the trigger at my innocent brother while his friends laughed at my brother's plea.

I looked at my father, who was lying in his cold blood, and realized he was still twitching.

"No!" He whispered weakly when he saw me through the glass. Suddenly, the leader pulls the trigger and killed my brother.

"Noooo," I screamed as I tried to walk to the scene.

"Don't!" My dad said again weakly.

Breath begins to elude me, and in due time, I passed out.

***********

As I opened my eyes weakly, I could see my aunt Ashley right in front of me in the hospital. I must have lost consciousness after what happened.

"Aunt?" I muttered to myself, but she actually heard me.

"Rose, you are awake, thank God."

"Aunty, Stefan and my parents. They are..." I began to cry again.

"Shhhhh, come here, Rose, don't cry anymore. I'm here for you."

It's been three weeks since I lost my parents and my little brother Stefan. I got discharged from the hospital yesterday and am presently staying with my aunt.

My uncle and an unknown man suddenly came to visit today. I could see fright in his eyes, and he looks so scared and furrowed.

After talking to my aunt, she suddenly came into my room.

"Rose, your uncle Nathan needs to see you."

She told me as she stands by the door, looking at me in pity.

I walked out slowly while my aunt accompanies me to the living room.

"Have a seat," he gestures to me while I took my seat opposite my uncle; my aunt sits at the edge of the couch beside me.

"How have you been doing, you know with your family..."

"I..." I managed to open my mouth.

"It must be tough," he said, staring at me intensively, as if trying to find something.

"Uhmmmm! Rose, our family is in big trouble, and we need your help."

"What do you mean, uncle, trouble?" I said looking terrified, my eyes swollen due to tears.

"I was locked ever since your parents passed away by a very powerful man. He wants us to give him a document."

"What do you mean, uncle? Locked? Document?"

"Yes, he owns it, but we have had custody of it for years, now he wants it back. He threatens to kill every single one of us if we don't concede in giving out the documents."

"What? Which document is that?"

"Inheritance right over his parents' properties. Listen to me, Rose. I have told him the location; that's why he set me free yesterday, but in exchange, he wants us to give you to him."

"What do you mean by that, uncle? Give who to who?" I asked unsure of what he has just said.

"Rose, I understand this is hard to fathom, but he specifically ordered you to be brought in as his wife."

"How? Who is this man, and why does he want me?"

"He is Derik Lockwood, son of James Lockwood, CEO of Starprize Enterprise."

My aunt gasped, putting her hands on her mouth. I turned to look at my aunt, who seems to know the man's identity.

Everything he said sounds like him speaking a foreign language that I do not understand. I have never heard the name before, neither do I know him.

"Please help us, Rose. He is keen on killing everyone in the family if you do not marry him."

"But why... why will he want me?"

"I don't know too, Rose, I have no idea."

"No, Uncle. I'm scared," I began to cry profusely like a small child.

"No. He will take care of you and use you as his bride. He is every young lady's dream."

"I don't want to get married to someone who I do not know uncle, please do not give me away."

My aunt intervenes. "Look at me, Rose, look at me." She says as she tries to calm me down.

"You know, I would never hurt you, and I want the best for you. Just obey your uncle."

"Aunty..."

"Rose... We love you, remember?"

I stopped crying after a few minutes.

"Okay. I will do it; I will marry him." I said as I turned away my face from my uncle and looked down still sobbing.