I bit my lip and smiled as I waited for Jessie to open the door of our apartment. I wasn't sure if I was high on pain killers or if I was dancing on cloud nine after being asked out by the good looking doctor. Jessie put her hand in her handbag and started looking around for her keys to open the door to our apartment.

"I can't believe you went into the hospital and came out with a phone number." She laughed again and shook her head in disbelief.

You got the moves! Well, sort of, you were using an onion as a pick up line.

I could hardly believe it myself, I had only had one man give me a phone number before and that was just after high school. I had only had two boyfriends throughout my twenty-five years of life and both had ended the relationship after six months with the excuse 'You're too much for me' or 'I love you, but I don't know what to do with so much... creativity.'

"I know, and he was really cute too." I blushed as I thought about the beautiful blond man with grey eyes.

"Maybe I should go to the emergency room." She joked with me flashing me a wink as she turned the key and pushed open the door.

We stepped into the apartment, flicking on the lights only to see a dark figure quickly light up making both Jess and I scream and stubble backwards. The figure turned their attention towards us, their once dark brown hair was now greying as their age began to take its toll and their now wrinkled face scowled at the both of us.

"What is going on here? Are you two okay?" Joshua stormed into our apartment with a baseball bat in hand like our own personal knight in shining armour. He was great like that, always coming to our rescue when we needed him.

My shoulders relaxed as I breathed out a deep sigh. "Thanks Josh, but It's just the Step Monster hiding in the dark like the unwanted visitor she is."

"Sky..." Jessie whispered as she turned to look at me, her eyes full of concern.

Get your umbrellas out people, shit is going to fly.

"Skylar." The Step-Monster started, her tone serious and heavily armed with her posh, up-tight upbringing. "Send your friends away, we need to talk."

I glared at her. I don't know how my Step Mother – also referred to by her name; Charlene – and I ever got on such bad terms. She came into my life when I was about ten years old and although she wasn't keen on raising a child that wasn't hers she actually started to care for me. That all changed however as I got older, our relationship becoming what it is currently, this cowboy stand-off that we we're now in. I was pretty sure our issues were because she began to see me as more of a burden to my family since no one ever took an interest in me and after I stopped working for my father, she no longer had any use for me.

"Sky," Jessie repeated my name, catching my attention "we'll be outside if you need us." She patted my shoulder lightly before retreating through the door we had burst through only seconds ago with a very confused Joshua in tow. He had no idea who my family was or just how insane they were.

And there they stood, two foes, guns loaded at their sides and hands ready to kill.

Don't distract me now, I need my wits about me.

Wits? What wits?

Ugh. I groaned at my inner self as she left me floating in the wind, miserably alone to do battle against the Step-Monster.

"What do you want Charlene?" I rolled my eyes and walked further into the apartment, taking off my jacket and scarf as I did so.

Don't use her name! It's like Bloody Mary, you say it too many times and she'll kill you!

"How much do you love your father?" She quickly blurted out without so much as a second thought.

"That's a stupid question."

A stupid question indeed. A more thoughtful one would be how much do you love my father?

"Your father has gotten himself – and this family – into some trouble and now we are in the mist of declaring bankruptcy." She explained to my shocked expression. I didn't understand how they could be struggling like that, my father owned a large export company and a shipping yard that was always bringing in money so it was hard understand how they were going bankrupt.

"What?" I shrieked in disbelief. "How? W-what happened?"

"That isn't important." She waved off my concern as if it wasn't important.

Funny. I would have thought that was important, if you know how it happened then you can reverse it, fix it and basically do anything you want with it...

I took a deep breath. Focus Sky.

Yes, focus! Focus is good.

"He needs your help." She finally spoke again, her annoying posh voice putting extra emphasis on He and You as if I were likely to miss them.

Well, you miss a lot of things, I wouldn't put it past you.

"I don't understand." I shook my head uncomprehending her point. "What can I do?"

"We need someone in the family to..." She trailed off for a moment, her eyes flicking across the room at a frantic pace. "Acquire," She finally said "a huge amount of wealth to pull us out of the slums and save your fathers investments."

"And you have finally realised my genius?" I smiled thinking that I might yet get the credit I deserve.

Ha, genius, Yeah right.

You're not helping.

"No." She said firmly, annoyance seeping into her tone. "We need you to get married."

Crazy lady say what?

"What?" I recoiled in my confusion.

No, idiot, she was supposed to say what, not you. Ugh don't you know anything.

I shook my head trying to get my attention back on Charlene's words. 'We need you to get married'. Were they mentally insane or just tragically deranged?

You're calling them insane and deranged? Well that's a first.

"Seriously Skylar. Focus." She scolded me – just like she used too. "By God, your lack of attention is less than a baby's."

"I get it." I waved her off and put my hand on the back of the dining room chair and lowered myself into it as I freely quaked at her. "When you say married you mean..."

"I mean married Skylar, is there more than one kind?"

Well let's evaluate that for a second....

I would rather not.

No, give it chance. There is the traditional Marriage but the term marriage is simply to bond something together right? So that could be anything really....

Please stop.

"You want to arrange my marriage?" I tried to clarify.

To some poor unfortunate soul. Can you imagine what you would do to the man? I mean five minutes in a room with a man and you break bones, give him third degree burns and walk into doors – and that was only today's encounters!

"Arranged is such a harsh term. Think of it as a blind date where we fully expect you to marry the man." She tried to soften the blow by rephrasing her words.

"So a blind marriage?" I simplified.

"Those are your words not mine." She rose her eyebrows and looked down at her nails.

Cleaver bitch, making Sky say it while you just infer it.

"No." I said straight out. I wasn't marrying a man I hadn't meet before and I sure as hell wasn't going to do it just so my selfish step mother could keep her furs.

"Excuse me?"

Your excused, now get out.

"You heard me. No." I repeated, a little more forcefully this time. "We don't live in the stone ages and I will not have you bully me into marrying someone I have never meet."

"Don't think of it that way." She continued. "Think of it as your security and freedom...."

I interrupted her. "Are being taken away from me?"

"No." She dragged out her words, annoyed because of my interruption.

No? okay how about... being thrown in a blender and shredded beyond recognition?

"Well, I think that is what you meant to say." I smiled sweetly at her. "Now get out." I took two steps toward the door but was stopped by her stern voice.

"Get out of the apartment Jessie owns? Do you even help her with the rent?" I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I do pay rent, just not as much as I should be and most of my money just pays for the food bill each week.

"Get. Out." I had enough.

"Skylar please." She said tiredly with a blank expression. "If you marry a nice, rich man with a wealthy family, our family is saved, your father will not lose everything and you have security and freedom to do..." she paused, "Whatever it is you do all day."

I take it back, she is the insane one.

"So, you want me to walk around the streets and pretend to be a gold digger?"

Get your hooker heels out girl! We're going to strut!

"No Digging necessary," She beamed at me with so much excitement I almost gagged. "I have found a suitable match willing to make such a connection."

I wouldn't trust her to pick out a goldfish, let alone a man!

I was surprised beyond belief. Who the hell does she think she is coming here and asking this of me, whilst already going behind my back to pick out a man for me to marry? "What the hell?!"

Quick grab the mop and hit over the head. If we kill her now, no one will ever know!

"Shush." She tried to quieten me down. "Do you want to help your father or not?"

One second thoughts just get a hot pan, that way it will be more painful for the old bitch.

"Can I at least have some time to think about this? Possibly even meet this guy first." I wasn't going to marry a man I have never meet before, that much I knew. But, maybe if I got to know him first, then possibly I may go through with it. After all you can always divorce.

"No honey, we don't need him complaining about that mind of yours before we get his money."

"Hey!" I tried to defend myself.

Excuse me bitch but I am nowhere near as much of a problem then your face is at the moment.

"It's the truth, I swore to you when you were a little girl that I would never lie to you, remember."

I rolled my eyes and nodded my head. I was thirteen and my mother had just died, everyone tried to keep me away from everything that was happening around me. They lied to me and my own uncle even tried to convince me that she was still alive and just didn't want me anymore – they thought this would be the best way to keep me at my father's house – but Charlene had been the one to tell me the truth, her words "I will never lied to you" were the one promise she has never broken regardless of how cruel the truth was. Thanks to her I found out my mother died and that Santa Clause didn't exist all in the same day.

"Yes I remember."

"Good, we are going to attend a function at the Lustrous later this week," She informed me. "Think about it and dress up nicely, I want your answer by then."

She readjusted her jacket and hair before flicking her hair back over her shoulder. I rolled my eyes and opened the door for her walk through but as I pulled the heavy door open Jessie and Joshua fell forward on their faces – clearly they had been ease dropping against the door.

Charlene sighed deeply and stepped over my roommate and neighbour before she looked back at me with stern eyes. "Oh and Sky," she paused. "It better be a yes."