The Wrath of a Son-in-Law: Stand Up, Fool!

The Family

“Alyanna! What in the world were you thinking? Really, sneaking behind your bodyguards just to meet your jerk of a boyfriend in the middle of ongoing threats to our family!?” The loud booming voice of an angry man along with the loud, sharp thumping sound of the table caused everyone to jump in surprise and trembled with fear.

The Vice President stood in the middle clad in a formal black suit, seemingly about to go to his office earlier, but this certain incident caused him to immediately cancel his meetings and agenda to check his daughter. But knowing the reason why it happened made him infuriated and now, he was talking some sense to his very disobedient daughter, the one who had always given him a headache.

There were seven people in total inside the wide manor. The family of four, and three more outsiders who were supposed to listen to report about what really happened in the incident, one who was supposed to report about who were the people who tried to harm the daughter of the Vice President, and one who was already shivering because he was the one who was supposed to protect the young lady from being attacked by those men. But before they got down to that moment, they first had to watch an interaction with the family of the Vice President.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know there would be a bunch of men that would try to take me,” Alyanna replied with a frown on her face. “And this was just my first, okay second, the second time that I did that. And that ‘jerk of a boyfriend’ you are talking about is the son of one of your senators, a very handsome and rich young business-minded man-”

“I don’t care about who he is! You risked your life for him, someone a woman should not do for a woman. Do you understand me? Don’t see him again or you’ll know the extent of my power, Alyanna Klein,” the man said threateningly. His eyes were stinky, and he was definitely not happy with what happened. Everyone inside the place was scared of him, even those who were only listening from afar, and it was obvious that he was the only one who was talking, and the others were too scared to say a word for fear that they would be at the receiving end of his deathly glare.

But not Alyanna. She stood up in protest, her brows were furrowed, and she was definitely not happy with the verdict of her father. “No, dad! You don’t get to decide about my personal choices and decisions! Please, I won’t go out without bodyguards again. Just let me see him. Dad, he’s rich! He’s definitely your type for a son-in-law. Just give us a chance. We love each other. Mr. Goa had already approved our relationship and he was happy. Why can’t you do the same?”

The Vice President’s forehead was heavily creased. “Mr. Goa is an avaricious man, Alyanna. He’s just using you. He and his son. He would steal your property once they gained your trust. Why can’t you choose someone better than show-off, indolent men who only know how to flex properties and shell out money that is not from their own hard work? And mind you, did you even ask about the kind of son-in-law I want for you and for Alyssa? All those people you have been mentioning to me but have never formally introduced were nothing but scums.”

“You are being impossible, Dad! I’m done here!” Alyanna stood up abruptly with her fists closed. Her face was red in anger, if they had known better, there was already steam coming out of her nose and ears. “You seem like you would want me to become a woman going her own way! No, I wouldn’t want to be called killjoy Mrs. Grundy. I would marry anyone out there!”

“Good to hear, young lady. I have already gotten someone for you.” The Vice President said.

Alyanna stopped on her track from supposedly going to her room. Her ears perked and if she was already irritated earlier, she was definitely seething now. She slowly turned her head to look back at them. It seemed like no one in her family was aware of the decision, since they were also shocked, especially her mother. “Did you just… set me up to someone without asking for my permission? Tell me not.”

But the Vice President remained unfazed. “There’s no other way to direct your ways of rebelling against me to your men, Alyanna-”

“And that’s why you are just freely giving me away? What nonsense are you talking about, Dad!?” Alyanna shouted. She looked at her mother pleadingly, asking for her help. Her sister was just silent at the side. “Mom, tell me it’s not true”.

“This is not nonsense. This is for your own good. Your choice of men is terrible. They will not be able to save you when you’re in the situation that you were in earlier. If anything, they would just leave you. You are going to marry the man that I will choose for you, someone that I know I can be at ease with when you’re alone with him, and that would be not anyone on your long list of men, nor of your mother.”

“Greggory, at least tell us who is in your mind for our daughter to tie the knot with. You can’t decide this for yourself. I am your wife, I am also Alyanna’s parent,” the mother, Janet, said. She also stood up to make herself known as she realized that she had indeed a power as strong as the Vice President since she was the wife.

She walked to Alyanna and protectively wrapped her arms around her. To say that there was ongoing favoritism in the household was an obvious statement. Maybe it was because Alyanna was the eldest daughter, the first who was born and the first who received fondness, that was why the mother was drawn to her most. On the other hand, Alyssa, the youngest daughter, was the father’s favorite. She was a goody-two-shoes, always listened to her parents, was an achiever, basically the complete opposite of Alyanna, and followed the steps of her father, which made her instantly the favorite of her father.

“You pamper your daughter too much, Janet. Would you let her do that stunt over and over again? Until when are you going to do that? When it’s too late and she’s dead? Think over what things you have to tolerate and the things that should not be,” The Vice President scolded his wife. Everyone could see how embarrassed the woman was as she looked around and her face became red when everyone was looking at her.

She glared at her husband, feeling ashamed. “You don't get to teach me what I will do to my daughter. You were never present, it isn’t my fault if your daughter was seeking another man’s presence that you failed to give, Greg. You are not a perfect father, either. Don’t act mighty now. You are only thinking of Alyssa, you are forgetting that you have another daughter, her liberty is the only thing that you can give her but you are stealing it away from her as well.”

Everyone was silent and the tension between the family had grown more intense as they looked at each other and threw shades at each other through glares and silent blaming on whose fault was what happened. Until the Vice President spoke, “I am doing my best to protect this family, but you keep underappreciating what I’m doing. My decision is final, Janet. I will have your daughter tie the knot with someone I know. He will protect her, either he will willingly do so or he has no choice but to do it.”

“Tell us who you have in mind so I can check what kind of family he had. I don’t want just anybody getting through this family,” Jante said firmly. But her daughter’s tight grip on her arm was enough for her to tell that whoever was in their mind, she did not approve of the idea. She whispered to Alyanna, “You can’t do anything about this now, Yanna. I have told you a lot of times to take care of yourselves while sneaking out, pay for the consequences.”

“I will handle that. You have already met him, Alyanna. He didn’t come from a huge family, actually, he had nothing. But that only makes him an easy pawn. I don't mean you should be loving him, Alyanna, all I want is the best for you and to protect you from the ongoing threat around our family. Treat this as a break from all your past nonsensicality, you can still do whatever you want, but with your future husband.”

Alyanna creased her forehead. A certain part in her father’s sentence was making her confused. “I can still do whatever I want?” She still wanted her freedom, and if she could still do what she wanted, there might be no problem with the setup. That was, after all, what she wanted to remain with her. She would not be able to live longer without getting stressed if she would live under the surveillance of someone else.

The Vice President nodded. “Except for gathering and meeting men. I do not want to be dubbed as having a cheater daughter. You can have your own fun. You can also use the card I have for you. That would be your fund and so would your husband. You have to give him everything. But if I heard something from him, I would immediately take it back. Do you understand?”

“And what if I did not agree with this utter stupidity? What if I do not want to marry him? What would you do?” Alyanna challenged. She knew better than to oppose her father. She knew already about the answer to this question, but she was just trying to confirm to what extent she would do if she opposed. She badly wanted to oppose it. She was still young, she had a lot of men to play with at that age. She wanted to get married, but not this young, and especially not to someone she didn’t know nor someone she had no feelings for.

“You will just be here, grounded, work and home will be your only routine, and twenty-four-hour surveillance with a hidden camera will be everywhere you go. You know I can do that. Your freedom will be taken away from you, you can’t go to parties, can’t meet your friends, can’t go on vacation, and most of all, your phone will be barred from your possession. And if possible, you can also just be in this house until I tell you that you are free.”

Alyanna shuddered. “That’s too much, dad!” Her forehead was creased, and her hold on her mother was tight enough to hurt her. Her mother started whispering calming words to her, telling her that she had no other choice but to follow if she still wanted to live like before. It was, of course, already obvious which choice she had to choose. “Who will be the person I will marry? I swear if it was just some man from the lower class, I would not hesitate in making his life a living hell.”

“I don’t expect you to, but try to be nice. I have already sent people to call him. He’ll be here anytime soon. As I said, you have already met him, and you owe your life to him because you may be dead now or suffering at the hands of those men if not for him.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Alyanna uttered in disbelief, an idea had struck her mind with that description. The goosebump that she felt was immense and the disgust that was already exuding within her was strong. “No way. There’s no way that it’s that garbage man, dad.”

But her father didn’t answer, and another figure emerged from the door. The garbage man in mention.