Chapter Nine

"Do you Mr Logan Jack take Miss Maya Ethan to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, till death do you both part?" the priest asked Logan after the faced each other. Deep down, Maya wished he would just change his mind and say no or all this dramatic things that happen in movies would happen when someone would just get up and shout 'I object', that would be her greatest joy she imagined. But on the contrary to what she imagined Logan said "I do" staring at her right into the eyes, in a way to mock her. There was a little cheer in the crowd, " who on earth are all this people?" she angrily murmured to herself, she could only recognize a few but majority, nope, she has no idea about that them. Some journalist were there probably waiting to take pictures.

Then the priest turned to Maya "Do you Miss Maya Ethan take Mr Logan Jack to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health till death do you both part?" the priest asked her, then she felt her heart beating fast with fear. " Can I really marry this man? can I really learn to love him? can I really live with him? can I cherish him till I die? will he ever really change? will I just forever be a miserable woman? all this thoughts were going through her mind when she heard Logan call her between gritted teeth in a low voice, that was when she realized she has taken so much time in answering the question that everyone was beginning to whisper. She took a look at Logan and he had this cold expression in his eyes that says... " I dare you to just embarrass me here and you won't hear the end of me" and that got her scared. Her whole family's future depends on her so she had to do the needful.

" I... do" she said in a low voice.

" please speak out my daughter " the priest urged her to speak out as her voice was so low, she took a deep breath and looked through her veil into Logan's glaring eyes.

" I do " she said louder this time and the whispering died down. Logan's eyes still remained cold and daring " someday, I will definitely learn how to read this man" she thought as they exchanged rings.

" I now pronounce you both husband and wife, you may now kiss the bride." The priest declared and suddenly she felt her heart beat began to race faster as Logan took a step closer.

" What is he trying to do? Is he really going to kiss me? No... that can't happen! I can't share my intimacy with him, I don't even know this man! " she soliloquized as Logan came much closer and gently unveiled her. She couldn't help but stare at him, she doesn't want to, cause she was dead scared. As he drew his face closer she became more scared, she could feel her palm more sweaty, her heart felt like it would explode from beating so fast. He drew closer and closer and slowly she found herself gently shutting her eyes to accept everything but instead of a cold lips on hers, she felt a warm lips on her cheeks which surprised her and as he drew away, she gently opened her eyes and felt a shameful wave of disappointment wash over her. " Why didn't he kiss me? he should have kissed me to show that he has won but no he didn't, I don't understand him but... but I guess I should be happy nothing happened between us " she whispered to herself.

Wow! I'm married! she just realized that as everyone cheered for them and pictures were taken. Logan still didn't smile while she at least tried to smile.

******

Logan dragged her by the arm into a room upstairs in the reception venue. The reception hall was downstairs while they were upstairs. " Ouch, you are hurting my arm!" She exclaimed at him as he dragged her in, then finally shut the door behind them. He finally let go of her arm.

" What was that?" he asked her

" What was what? " she asked him back not knowing what he was talking about.

" What was that little drama show you put on in side the church earlier... did you really intend to embarrass me?" He asked as he put his hands in his pockets. He remained calm as he asked but Maya could see the anger in his cold blooded eyes.

"Embarrass you? Logan if I really had intended on doing that, you wouldn't have seen me at the church... " She told him as he immediately grabbed her arm where it hurts her " Don't try to play games with me Maya! I can play a very good game with your family as well so be a good wife like you should always be, behave! " he told her between gritted teeth before he let her arm go. She hated him the more that minute, she thought she will eventually start loving him but what he just displayed made her hate him the more, most especially whenever her family is being mentioned.

" How can someone be so insensitive? how can he play with the lives of people? how can he play with something that their lives depends on? She angrily asked.

" Take care of yourself before you come down" he ordered her before he turned and left. She swallowed the lump of tears in her throat.

" My name is Maya and this man will never pull me down this way. I will not cry because of him, I will fight and show him that if he is strong and mean well I am tough. He won't pull me down that easily" she comforted herself. As he ordered, she took care of her face, practiced her smile before she took in a deep breath. As she took a step forward the door opened.

" Here you are sis! I've been looking all over for you, why are you here? Anyway never mind, let's go downstairs. Everyone is waiting to see the new Mrs Logan Jack" Anna said all at once as she giggled, smiled and dragged her sis along with her.