Chapter
One
Tatiana, age nineteen
* * *
“You’ll marry
Joni Stein. I don’t want to hear another word about it. The contract is signed, so it’s as good as cast in stone.”
My father’s dismissive wave as he indicates my time is up makes me shrivel inside. He’s already returned his attention to his laptop, my presence in his study ignored or forgotten.
Angry tears stream down my cheeks. I’m shaking with the injustice of my father’s decision and my helplessness to change that fate.
All my life, I’ve been a good, obedient daughter, always doing what I’m told and what’s expected of me. I’ve been a cum laude student with straight As in all my subjects. I sit through tedious dinners and parties I have no interest in attending without complaining, wearing the dresses my parents deem appropriate. I say please and thank you. My parents’ friends tell them how lucky they are to have had it so easy with me during my adolescent years. But if I were hoping that my exemplary behavior and hard work would make my father proud or win his approval, I was mistaken.
He looks up from his screen, irritation written all over his face. “You’re still here.”
“Father, please.” My voice cracks. “Mr. Stein is fifty years old.”
And he’s fat and ugly, not to mention vulgar. He always looks down the front of my dress or pinches my backside when my mom isn’t looking. But I don’t say that.
“Exactly.” My father stabs a few keys on his keyboard. “That’s why he has no time to waste in producing an heir.”
“But he’s married,” I exclaim.
“His wife is dying. It’s only a matter of time.” My father hits enter a couple of times and squints behind his glasses. “Just as well, seeing that the useless wretch is barren.”
“But…” I swallow through my tears. “That’s improper.”
“We agreed to wait until your twenty-first birthday. The old hag should kick the bucket by next year if not sooner, and then he’ll mourn the customary year. Nothing about that is improper. It’s all done by the book.”
“Please, Father, I beg you.”
He slams a hand on the desk, rattling his teacup and the plate with his afternoon kolaczki cookies. “Begging is beneath you. You’re a Teszner. We do not beg.”
The violence makes me jump. “I just meant?—”
“That’s enough,” he barks out. “You’ll do your duty for this family like the rest of us. Now get out of my sight.”
Blinded by my tears, I stumble from the study.
“And close the door behind you,” my father calls after me. “I’ve had enough disruptions for one day.”
Suppressing the urge to slam the door, which will only earn me a punishment, I do as my father commands.
My mother waits on the other side. “Oh, Tiana.” Her soft blue eyes are brimming with tears. “I’m so sorry.”
It takes every ounce of willpower I possess not to melt down. “Did you know?”
Averting her eyes, she nods. “For a couple of months or so. I did my best to change his mind, but he wouldn’t listen.”
She tries to hug me, but I dodge her embrace and rush across the foyer.
“Tiana,” she cries out. “Where are you going?”
Suppressing a sob, I grab my keys from the bowl on the entrance table. “I need to be alone.”
