"Katherine!" Their father Jacob Flair shouted at her. "Do you realise that Maria is your sister?"
He was already angry at what Kathy said about Maria. Not that they didn't know the circumstances that surrounds her child and now she decided to mock her with it.
Kathy gritted her teeth, and her voice shook because she was already full of tears.
"Dad, am I not your own daughter too? Why then want to sacrifice poor me who hasn't seen anything in relationship. But Maria, who already is a wild child before now and does whatever pleases her, you want to keep. I'm the one who always have to sacrifice all for the sake of this family. I lived for eighteen years of poverty and destitution. It wasn't easy for me at all and now that I have my own career, you want to force me to marry that burnt man. I won't allow this. Not this time ” she shouted.
"I won't allow you to force her. It should be a choice not by force" Sandra Flair said in agreement with Kathy.
Sandra wasn't Maria's real mother but she's the one that gave birth to Kathy even she wasn't willing for her daughter to marry the burnt third McCarthy son.
Sandra Flair on the side also hurriedly said, "Of the truth Kathy has become famous in the business world, and she's the glory of our family. How can we sacrifice her?"
Jacob Flair looked at his wife. Not that he didn't expect her to say that. Ofcourse he did been that she always favored her daughter over all.
"Besides, we've been raising a child for twenty-three years, and she should repay us." Sandra added.
Maria was adopted been that the Flair family needed a child. Since then she's been part of the family. Sandra was the first one to tell Maria that they weren't her true parent and that was when what happened to her happened. None believed her story except her father who against all odds stood by her.
Jacob looked at Maria's room direction just to make sure she's not there listening but then he saw her standing on the stairs looking at them. This made him to gasp and feel sad. His sad face made the rest to look at the direction and they saw Maria there.
Maria's knuckles went white been that she held the rails really tight. She understood everything that was happening. She knew how her father's business has been doing lately and what he needed for it to survive. She understood that for her father to get what he wanted from the Mccarthy family, a marriage has been proposed between those two, but Kathy's mother didn't want to sacrifice her daughter but, she wanted to sacrifice her.
She took a deep breath, went downstairs, and held out her hand toward her father.
"Contract” she said softly.
Jacob was quite puzzled. She didn't know if Maria heard all they were discussing or just little so he decided to play dumb for a while.
"What contract?"
"Let me marry into the Mccarthy family instead of Kathy and let me use that to repay the nurturing grace of the Flair family" she said with a pale smile.
Jacob shook his head. " You don't have to do this Maria" he said pitifully.
" Let me. You deserve my sacrifice" Maria said. "There must have been a contract drawn right? Otherwise, if you use this nurturing grace to force me to kill people and set fires, I do the same" she said.
Jacob was stunned for a moment. Both Sandra and Kathy who was behind him were equally stunned. None knew she would agree to do such. They were still planning on how to tell Jacob to force her.
"You don't have to do this" Jacob said again.
To Maria Jacob is a good man and he's worth any sacrifice she does for him. She then looked at the paper that was lying on the table. She took it before Jacob noticed that she wants to take it. Maria took the paper and pen, signed the contract agreement in her name and then dropped it back on the table.
"Now it's all done. Debt paid."
After saying that, she went to do what she initially came downstairs for, which is to get the water and she returned upstairs.
Kathy rushed over and picked up the paper. It then was clearly stated that Maria is now married to Xavier McCarthy. This was quite unbelievable.
Kathy looked up at Maria's retreating back as she went upstairs and murmured,
"Mom, is Maria stupid? She just promised to marry that burnt man and not want her boyfriend anymore ”.
Sandra hurriedly covered Kathy's mouth and looked up in the direction of Maria being that she's afraid that Maria would repent of her action.