Throwaway because its embarrassing and I don't want my family finding this. Also all this happened between January and March.
I (20F) am an only child. I have been friends with my friend, who we will call Ren (22M), for 2 years. Ren and I met because our parents do business together and we would attend a lot of events together. We're around the same age and while we are both wanting to be a part of the family business, our parents don't really trust us with the day to day yet. I know that our parents had been talking about a potential merger at some point but I don't know where they were with all that. Like I said, I've known Ren for two years and at first we mainly just would see each other at events but over the last year, Ren has been wanting to spend more time with me outside of those dinners and parties. He's a really sweet guy, very thoughtful, and charming and we usually had a lot of fun together. To be clear, I didn't have feelings for Ren at all, and he was always very respectful but I could tell he was into me.
For some added background, I went to college for a year after graduating high school but had a lot of trouble due to some personal issues which I've worked to address over the last year or so and I've been looking at going back to school next year. My college is in another state so I was in the process of finding an apartment and had narrowed it down to a few places in my budget. I was hanging out with Ren one night, just watching a movie at my place. I was excited about some of the places that I was looking at because they look really nice and are close to campus. When I showed Ren the places, I expected him to be excited with me but he got kind of quiet. I didn't think much of it, I know he has made some comments in passing about me not needing to go back to school and that my parents have enough money that I don't really need it but I always told him that I wanted to do it for myself. He would usually just brush it off so thats what I thought was going on here. We finished our movie and he left a bit earlier than normal but I just thought he didn't like the idea of me moving out of state because he'd miss me. The whole situation got even more confusing when I got a text from my mom later that week asking me why I was looking at apartments in another state. I reminded her that I took a defered enrollment but that I wanted to go back to college next year. I asked her how she found out and she told me that Ren had told his dad and that she had heard from him. I asked what the big deal was because I wanted to get my degree and it hadn't been an issue before. She told me that she didn't want to deal with it right now and that she was too busy worrying about the merger. I didn't see how that was relevant but just ignored her.
Now this is where things went bad I think. Last month, I had scheduled a couple of unit tours for the places I was thinking about moving and I flew out to see the units in person. I found one that I really liked, it had a good view and the building had good amenities, indoor pool, gym, a nice coffee place that would deliver to your unit. I told the property manager I was interested and she drew up a lease to start in July so I could get moved in before classes start. I signed the lease and put the deposit and first months rent on my card. I was super excited and posted a pic on instagram from the coffee place with a caption about being excited about my next chapter then I flew home. When I got back to my place, my mom was waiting for me. She told me that I had ruined everything and I was shocked. I asked her what she was talking about and she said that Ren had told his dad about the post on instagram and they were calling off the merger. I asked why he'd do that over me getting an apartment and she said it was because I had shown that I didn't respect their arrangement. I then asked what arrangement. Thats when she told me. Apparently, part of the merger included an arranged marriage between myself and Ren. I was floored. I asked how she could have planned an arranged marriage and just not told me. I asked her how she expected me to just agree to that if it was thrown on me out of the blue. She reminded me that her marriage with my dad was arranged and it was just how the family had always done it but she knew I'd be stubborn about it because I never understood how the world works. I told her that she still needed to tell me and that it was ridiculous to expect me to just go along with it. I told her I wasn't interested in marriage right now and that I was trying to focus on my life and my school and she said it didn't matter what I wanted. I asked her to leave and I've barely spoken with her since. Ren also stopped talking to me which sucks but it seems like he knew about the arrangement and I was the only one who was out of the loop. So yeah, one of my best friends was supposed to marry me without my knowledge and my parents set it up. My trust is still working at this point but I don't know if my parents can cut me off or not. Its never something I had to worry about until now. Everything sucks and I don't know how my mom could do this to me. Hopefully I can still go to college next year. I made some good friends last year especially with one friend, Jan. I'm considering going back early because Jan has a spare room but I don't know if that would make my parents even more mad than they already are.
TL;DR My parents hid an arranged marriage from me and now their business is messed up and they aren't talking to me.