Free The Mirrors of Fate by Cindi Lee

better from Halimond. It’s not some second-rate public school. They were so careless.”
    “ And soon enough I’ll remind them just how careless they’ve been,” her father began to gloat. “If they think that belligerent phone call was anything, they’ll wet their pants with the lawsuit I’ll throw at them for their incompetence. It’s just because I already have two suits in the works that I don’t have time to focus on them yet. Who allows a girl to go home and sleep after severely hitting her head? They were trying to kill her, is what.”
    “ I’m okay now, guys,” Maria tried to end it. She lingered for a moment by the counter. She knew what she needed—not rest, not to keep the bandage on any longer, but food. The injury wasn’t that bad now. It was her stomach keeping her in a sick limbo.
    “ So why are you in the kitchen?” Without needing to say a word, her father gave an acidic look, visibly reminding her of her punishment. No food more than what she was allowed. “Thought you’d come down to get something to eat?” he asked with a hard stare. “You know you’re not allowed to raid my fridge to your heart’s content. Not after what happened.”
    Maria bit down on her tongue to prevent a string of curse words coming on. “Yes, I remember,” she said with detached calm. She slowly turned around and headed for the kitchen door.
    “ Maria, wait a minute!” her mother interjected. “No more of this nonsense. You can have something to eat. Please, sit down. We’re not some immoral barbarians. This has gone on long enough.”
    Maria’s eyes darted over to her father. This was odd, very odd. Her mother’s declaration was in direct defiance of his orders, and if she knew him, he wouldn’t stand for it.
    But amazingly and miraculously, he did not react. He simply sat there looking up at her with frowned bushy eyebrows and not saying a word.
    “ What’s the catch?” Maria asked with a fake grin. “Please, do me the favor of telling me what it is.”
    “ There is no catch,” her father’s deep voice told her. But a fraction of a second of clearing his throat before he spoke again revealed he was lying. “It’s simple. You need to eat. You can’t be walking around here looking like the undead.”
    As if knowing she needed cover, tendrils of Maria’s hair fell down the corners of her head from the loose ponytail, hiding her face slightly. She distantly stared down upon a small chip in one of the perfect beige-colored square tiles of the kitchen floor. “Since...since when do you care? You just said you’d have me starve. Since when do you care if I eat or not?”
    “ Sweetie, listen—”
    “ Mom, Dad, please! Would you just tell me already? There’s something up, so just tell me.”
    A thick silence entered. Maria stood with clenched fists, mentally preparing herself to hear the worst.
    Her father delivered the condemning news. “Don’t make any plans for the thirtieth of this month. One of the suitors is coming to see you on that Saturday.”
    She covered the anguish in her voice with a venomous tone. “What the hell for?”
    “ Surprisingly,” he began delightedly, ignoring her rude tone with rare occasion, “Louie—yes, you should remember the one you slapped—well, he has agreed to come again. Thank God someone has. He is eager to see you. Mr. and Mrs. Singh will be here this time to finally meet you. I think this one may actually be the one to seal the deal.”
    Seal the deal? Was she an animal now? Didn’t they get it yet? She did not want any of them! She did not want any of this! Her eyes watered from a fiery hatred.
    “ I don’t want to see him again. I don’t like any of them.”
    “ You don’t have a choice,” her mother curtly informed her.
    But you don’t even know what he did! the agonizing thought came. And to tell them how Louie Singh had behaved with her made little sense. They’d think she was crying wolf because of how badly she’d treated the