Twenty two year old Chelsea may not have been Indian but her brothers and sisters and step father was. Her real father had died when she was only 2. When she was about five her mother remarried an Indian fellow called Jaldev. He had two older sons from his first marriage and treated them like royalty. He treated Chelsea like dirt and like she was a burden on her family. He brainwashed her mother, Melinda, and she didn’t pay attention. Melinda and Jaldev had 3 children together, two boys and a girl. Jaldev had always expressed his views that his children were to all have arranged marriages; except for the sons if they had found someone else they wanted to marry they might be allowed after meetings with the girl and her family.
“Chelsea, I’ve finally found someone who will marry you!” Jaldev exclaimed one day after coming home from work. Chelsea was doing her school work from college and stopped completely short. She had done everything to warn off an arranged marriage. She brought home boys and got caught with them, drank underage, smoked, went to school so she could hold off marriage for a few more years but none of it worked.
“You have got to be kidding me, I am not agreeing to an arranged marriage,” Chelsea rolled her eyes at her stepfather; he could never make her do that.
“I’ve already arranged a meeting with his family. The boys name is Samin. If he likes you, you two will be married by the end of the year.” Jaldev then walked out of her room.




~~~~~
“Chelsea, just do it. Make our family proud,” Amish, one of Jaldev’s older sons told Chelsea as they walked up to Simans parent’s house.
“No, I’m not you guys, I won’t do it, it’s not right, you should be allowed to marry who you want, hell you actually are! I’m the only one who’s not! I have no say it’s only in Samin likes me. I already don’t like him,” Chelsea whispered harshly as the family wanted for entrance to Samin’s house.




~~~~~
“I hate him mother! With every fiber of my being! I despise this man!” Chelsea screamed at Jaldev and her mother the night after meeting Samin.
“He’s an excellent man, he has a great job, great house, and great life goals,” Jaldev exclaimed, a bit insulted.
“I want to travel the world! I want to be a journalist! I want love and romance! I don’t want some hack who just wants me to have twenty kids and stay home cleaning all day! I don’t care about the money or house! I want more than that! He is a senseless demoralized man. You know what he told! He told me that I’d have to obey every order if id dint want to be punished once we were married. He said I wouldn’t be able to have an opinion. I just had to sit there like a plant! And obey like a slave!” Chelsea paced the room fuming, remembering her personal meeting with Samin. He looked older than Jaldev. He said he had wanted many children and a good wife. When she asked him what a good wife was he had responded with a silent wife who obeys every command. Chelsea was disgusted by the old pervert. She had told him her life’s ambition and he laughed at them. He said no wife of his would ever be allowed to do that. He sat there in his white suit with his dark beard needing a trim and staring disgustingly at Chelsea all night.
“You two will be married. He is even paying us a very handsome dowry! Good lord I hope a man like that will want Mikah,” Mikah was Melinda and Jaldev’s 7 year old daughter. Jaldev smiled and started talking to Melinda. “Can you believe that, he’s actually paying us for her, how wonderful, in India we would have had to spend a lot to get her married off.”
Chelsea stormed out for the room and slammed the door. She grabbed a bag and packed some of her things in there and as many clothes as she could fit. She ran out of the house and walked for miles. She finally hitched a ride and wended up two towns over. She knew this town. Her grandmother lived there, her father’s mother to be exact. She walked for a few blocks until she spotted the familiar blue house. She walked up the white porch steps and rang the doorbell. It was 11 o’clock hopefully her grandmother was still up. After a few minutes the door open and there stood Chelsea’s grandmother. She hadn’t seen her since she was 16.
“Grandma, I need help,” Chelsea hugged the old woman tightly.
“Chelsea, it’s that step father of yours isn’t it? You can stay here child, I’ll protect you,” her grandmother hugged her and brought her inside.