Business Wife

MARA

"I'm sorry, Alex, but we can't be together," I said coldly to the person in front of me.

Alexander Monte is one of the hottest guys on our campus. Many girls dream of being his girlfriend, but not me.

It's not because I don't like him, but because I don't have the right to love anyone, because the only reason for my existence is my family's business.

Alex is a good guy and a good friend. But I can't lead him on. I don't have a heart that can love. I will just hurt him in the end.

I want him to stay with me as my friend, but because of what he did, I need to stay away from him, or I will just lead him on.

I'm p*ss*d because of what he did. I lost a friend AGAIN. I made it clear to all of them that they can't like me because I can't like them back. How many times do I have to keep telling them about it so that they can understand why THEY CAN'T LIKE ME?!

"Mara, why can't I love you?" he said. Sadness was evident in his voice.

"You know why," I said almost in a whisper.

"But Mara, I'm freaking rich! If you're telling me that you only exist because of business... then so be it. My family's business is a good asset to your family's business. So I don't understand why we can't be together!" he said, almost p*ss*d.

I just looked at him with no emotion and said, "My family has already chosen the guy that I will marry. And it's not you."

His forehead furrowed. "Who is he?" he whispered.

"Maru," I said.

I saw his defeated expression. Just hearing Maru's name, he already knew that he had no chance of winning.

"Sorry, Alex," I said before walking away from him.

When I reached home, I went straight to my room and lay down on my bed. I felt so drained.

I closed my eyes and just let my tears flow.

How many friends do I need to lose?! Why do they keep on liking me and breaking the rules?!

What I did to Alex was not easy.

As I said, Alex is a good friend. He's one of my closest friends. I wanted him to stay, but unfortunately, I couldn't do that.

I was 10 years old when I understood my purpose.

My dad married my mom for business. There is no love between them. I was not made out of love, but out of obligation and business. Can you imagine how painful it was for me to hear those things from the lips of my parents?! I felt so rejected and unloved.

I was also the same age when I found out the name of my future husband.

He is none other than Andrew Maru Ottave.

What a great choice! Maru's family is the richest in the Philippines. They belong to the top 10 richest families in the world.

Maru and I already knew about our future.

But we never became friends or lovers.

Both of us made no effort to get to know each other, nor did we even try to become friends.

We saw each other at school, but we never approached one another, not even just to say hi or hello.

Even when we met at some events, we never approached one another.

Just like Alex, Maru is also well known in our school. He's the hottest guy on our campus.

We both knew that we were bound to be together. That is the reason why I chose not to commit to a relationship. I didn't want to hurt anyone because I knew that I couldn't fight for that love.

But unlike me, Maru chose to follow his heart and enter a relationship.

From what I had heard, Maru had been with his girlfriend, Jana, for years now, and he seemed serious about their relationship.

I just shook my head at that thought. What will happen to them when we get married? Or is he planning to disobey his parents and fight for his love?

That's exactly the reason why I'm avoiding commitments. I don't like complications because we both know that we can't do anything about it.

Our lives are not like the dramas on television. We knew that even if we tried to fight for it, we couldn't win against our parents.

They would just make the lives of the people we love a living hell. And in the end, we would just give in to them and accept defeat.

There is only one thing I allow myself to love. And that is the business that I was made.

MARA

'So this is it?' I said to myself.

My family and I were now in a five-star hotel. Did I mention that this hotel is owned by the Ottave family and that we would be having dinner with them tonight?

I didn't need to guess the purpose of this dinner. It had been planned for a long time. But I must admit, I didn't expect it to happen this fast. It had only been a year since we graduated from college.

We were both in the adjustment period of working in our family businesses. But I heard that Maru would be promoted to General Manager of their company. I guess he adjusted so fast.

After our college graduation, we both decided to immediately start working in our respective companies. We both started in lower positions. How did I know all this? It's pretty simple. All of Maru's actions were being reported to me by my dad. He liked him a lot.

After a few minutes, Maru and his family arrived.

His mom smiled and kissed me on the cheek. His dad did t