Bab 6: Something wrong and unusual

Jeanne meets the maid and driver that waiting for her. In seconds, they get into the car and went home, to the O'Dea mansion.

It was a huge, luxurious, white mansion. It has a minimalist but beautiful pool, a wide garden with few exotic plants, two garages filled with luxurious cars, and a golf field along with forest in the distance.

That lone mansion in the outskirts of the city was a dream for a man but fur Jeanne, it was a cage, a prison. A place where she gets pains and sufferings.

She has no other home so she is back here. When she set foot on this luxurious cage, the first thing she had to do was to see her parents. She had to tell them all the things she do today.

She didn't want to go but she had to.

This habit was engraved on her.

She couldn't stop it or get rid of it.

"Maiya, I want to see my parents. Go and prepare everything I need later. I want everything to be ready once I'm done with them."

The Maid nodded and said, "I understand."

They parted ways, Maiya disappeared to the other side of the mansion while Jeanne went to the third floor by taking an elevator.

A few minutes later, Jeanne stood in front of a dark brown door with a carving of gold leaf in its center. The door would take her to a room where she was mentored, trained, and tortured to become the perfect woman without flaw.

Getting into that room to meet her parents scared her. So she took a deep breath to prepare herself and to calm her chaotic mind. When she was ready, she took the key hanging from her neck. She used the key to open the door.

*Lock the door!* Her mother's voice echoed shortly after she enter the room.

Jeanne was expecting some kind of warm welcome but no, she didn't get any of it. As usual, commands were the words she got from her mother.

"Yes, mother," she said monotonously.

The girl's eyes lost their light after she locked the door. Then, like a perfect doll, she walk gracefully to the dining table where her parents were.

She sat down with straight back as she told her parents what she did today. The way she sat down didn't change in the slightest as she listened to the things her parents had said to her for the next half hour.

After she was done with her report, she listen to the corrections, scolding, and commands of her parents. He couldn't say no or deny all of that, she must accept it without question.

Then she got the news that broke her heart.

After her talk with her parents was over, after she came out of the room and lock it, Jeanne fell, sat on the floor, and then cried. She was wrecked knowing of her parents' decision. They did not change their plans to marry her to Roman even though she strongly opposed it.

"Young Miss, Mr. Irvin is waiting for you in the parlor," Maiya told her.

The maid was now standing next to Jeanne who was hugging her legs and burying her face into her knees. Of the many servants in this mansion, only Maiya was allowed by Jeanne to set foot on this third floor.

"I don't want to see anyone. Tell him I'm not well and today's meeting is postponed for tomorrow," Jeanne said in a weak voice.

Maiya said, "I understand." Then disappear into the second floor.

Sometime later, Jeanne dragged her body to her room. She cried in her bed until morning came.

The day will not wait for her grief to go away. Therefore, forced, she prepared herself to go to school.

In the car, while she was on her way to school, she thought about her parents' decision.

Marrying Roman will unite her parents' business with Vintidius Electronics.

O'Dea Central Hospital will get various types of medical equipment from that factory at low prices. Meanwhile, Vintidius Electronics will gain more influence and solid foundations in this city when they can use the name, O'Dea Central Hospital, to some extent.

Jeanne didn't want to get close to Roman.

Both her parents always praised and that made her despise him. When her parents compared Roman — whom they considered perfect — with her, the hate in her heart grew even larger.

And when her parents say that all the sufferings - which mean all of the struggles she has done to be a perfect woman - that last for a long time were only for her to be a worthy woman for Roman, for the first time in her life, her mind snapped.

Yes, she hate that perfect boy who gave her so many pains. However, after great lengths of thinking, she decided to approach him.

She didn't do this to fulfill her parents' wishes. She did it for herself. At this moment, she was so desperate to hold her broken, fragile sanity to stay intact. So, she hopes, in the pain of being with Roman, she can find the warmth she longing for, a warmth that could fix her.

A few hours later, during the lunch break, on the roof of the school, she asked Roman, "If we were on a date, what would you do?"

"I will make you a happy girl you could to be!"

The answer she got was a promise.

Jeanne was tempted. Promises are the thing she upholds besides a deal. She will have a positive impression on people who succeed in fulfilling their promises. As for the people who always break and even forget their promises, never again will she care or want to see them again.

In the end, Jeanne made a deal with Roman. They'll be dating for four days, Roman has to show his efforts to impress her, and once that's all done, she will answer their parents' plans to marry them off.

"I'm sure you'll be impressed," Roman told Jeanne with a smile before he left to prepare for their date.

Jeanne didn't know, dating Roman would only hasten her breakdown.