Chapter 2 The Marriage

• ‘Is that how marriages were supposed to happen?’
• My emerald eyes were blinded with pure confusion, pushing my wavy black hair behind as I scrutinized the embellished room.
• I laughed a little, considering it a terrible joke but when I saw my reflection in the mirror, my body trembled.
• It was no nightmare. It was reality.
• The black wedding dress dried my throat with horror in anticipation of what he possibly intended to do with a normal girl like me.
• The man known as Dimitri Boris did not see me from the perspective of a wife, rather a puppet he wanted to control.
• It was only a deal to be his fake wife, nothing more, nothing less.
• Unwillingly, here I was, dressed as a bride in the immaculate room, without my consent and no choices left.
• My heartbeats were pounding madly, my body stuck in a strange storm as my fingers twirled around my expensive dress.
• ‘Is he going to come, should I wait? Should I change-’
• The trail of my thoughts was interrupted when my phone rang and it was a black heart.
• My Secret Admirer…
• No name. No identity. Only a number saved with a black heart.
• When I saw his number today, I remembered the moment it all started...
• Exactly a year ago, it started as an anonymous online friendship which soon developed into late night calls.
• I was lonely, he was too charismatic, we swayed beautifully.
• “You know, I wonder what your name is or how you look,” I giggled.
• He chuckled back melodiously, “Give me any name you want, I can be how you want me to be, my dear,”
• “Do you not want to meet? I just want to see you,”
• “You know when you desire something from the bottom of your heart, it reaches you one way or another,”
• He took a pause, labeling my heartbeats as his as I began to imagine my future with him. That time, he was all that existed in my mind.
• “And I know one day you will find me yourself without knowing, Liliana,"
• Oh, the way he tormented me by keeping his identity unknown was exquisite.
• Meeting him, dating him officially, calling his name was my deepest longing once.
• I thought we meant to be, he was my secret admirer after all….
• But today, the number which I was supposed to imprint on my heart and consider the person behind it my world- All of it was perished.
• Everything ended.
• “Hello?”
• My weak resonance came only to be greeted by his hissing, increasing my heart rate.
• “Congratulations on your marriage, Liliana,”
• “You… knew?”
• “Of course, my love, I know everything.”
• He was absolutely enraged and why wouldn’t he be?
• After a year of our vague talks, flirting, heartfelt words over the phone and everything, here I was, being another man’s woman.
• “Although it would burn my chest each time to think you are bound to another man,”
• He chuckled dryly at first but soon it converted into a snarl, voice growing lower, huskier by each perception.
• “In his house,”
• “In his room,”
• “On his fucking bed,”
• Shutting my eyes, I whimpered, “Please, don’t say this. I had no choice,”
• In his heartbreak, I recalled the heartwarming promises he once made to me-
• ‘You are all I think about nowadays and you will be all I think about always,’
• ‘I can’t wait for the day when I will stand at the aisle and marry you,’
• ‘I promise, Liliana, I will magically appear in your life, hold your hand, and love you like no one else,’
• After all this, how could I confront him as another man’s wife?
• I never fathomed we would end in such a demeanor that everything I planned for my life would scatter in an irrecoverable way.
• “My heart is hurting, Liliana, to think the bond ‘we’ were supposed to forge, someone else did,”
• “Don’t say this, I am married now. Whatever you and I had, is ending from this moment onwards,”
• Clutching the hem of my dress, voice breaking, hoping he would understand but he was infuriated, refusing to listen.
• “Don't do this to me, Liliana, weren't we in love? Weren't we supposed to meet? Don't you want to know who I am? My name? How do I look?” With a painful tear rolling down, I lied.
• “No, not anymore,”
• “Why?!”
• “I said I am married now, you have lost all rights to call me-”
• “Who are you talking to?”
• My whole being froze when a deep, dominant resonance echoed in the air, stiffening my whole being when the man with the hint of dark, scary silver eyes entered strictly.
• My body was incapable of reacting, glancing over my shoulder at the black-haired man in a white shirt with roughly rolled sleeves and black pants.
• He looked scarier in real life.
• I lowered the phone, cutting the call immediately.
• A cigarette between his fingers, ashes falling.
• His beard and tattoos over his forearm through his ripped muscles, forging a strong presence dried my throat.
• The man with a superior aura entered, his slicked hair scattered slightly, enhancing his refined features.
• My shoulders tense when he closed the door as the ‘clicking’ sound of the door being locked frightened me.
• I couldn’t reply when the sound of his footsteps approached, sending an unnerving sensation to my core.
• Lowering my gaze, I responded gently, painfully.
• “...A nobody,”
• “Good,”
• He seemed pleased with my response.
• Stopping before me, his hands in his pockets, completing his assertive presence as he arched an eyebrow handsomely.
• His very existence dripped grace, hard and eye-catching features, certainly way out of my league and to think I was his bride, unsettled me.
• My heart rate augmented when he observed me closely with a long hum, checking me out with close attention.
• “Hmmm,”
• His one hand holding the cigarette as his other hand took a strand of my hair between his fingers, caressing them.
• Scanning me from inch to inch in order to please his inscrutable eyes. The reek of smoke disgusted me so I held my breath back.
• “Same to same, these eyes, features, exactly like My Emerald except she had a mole,”
• Stopping, his index fingers pointed on my left jaw.
• “Right here,”
• “I will make it with makeup,” I replied softly.
• I didn’t know why but in his presence, my body was becoming weaker, my voice growing softer.
• Fear, probably.
• Holding my chin, a shiver went down my spine as his fingers grazed me freely.
• Moving his thumb tenderly over my jawline but I could feel a dark intention crawling under my skin, I could feel his viciousness when he pressed his thumb over my bottom lip, parting it.
• “And these hair were short,”
• “I-I won’t cut my hair,”
• “Hmm?”
• Taking a moment, probably to allow me to change my words. He gave me a chance to redeem myself for the next five seconds.
• As a failed stern attempt since I loved my hair, I shook my head in denial and when I didn’t listen, he held my jaw in a forceful grip, eradicating the gap between our faces.
• Gasping at the harsh yank, he was right before my face, boring his demands into my green orbs, not used to disobedience.
• “Do you think you are in any position to disobey me, woman?”
• Glaring, he pointed the cigarette at me, earning a shriek from me, afraid he might not scorch me with it.
• “I-I am sorry,” I whispered fretfully, trembling when his fingers gripped me harshly.
• “Let me make this clear tonight,”
• A tear sprang to my eyes, lips parting with dismal when he blended his breath with mine, making me quiver at his unshakable dominance.
• “I only married you for my purpose and long as you are bound to me, you ‘will’ follow every fucking world I say,”
• Followed by that enunciation, making my purpose transparent as he growled before pushing me back on the bed, holding his head high, uncaring of my weakened state.
• Clutching the sheets weakly, a tear of defeat rolling down my cheek, I was realizing that telltales were true, his eyes were emotionless, nothing mattered to that man.
• “Is…”
• A tear powerlessly rolled down, cursing my father who threw me into this baseless bond yet I dared to spare a glance at him only to find no place in those eyes.
• “Is this marriage, everything, a joke to you?”
• “This is only a charade, you are here to replace Emerald, to fool the world only.”
• He replied heartlessly, taking a long inhale from his cigarette before blowing it on my face, probably to piss me off more.
• Coughing, I waved my hand, tears forming a screen to be stuck in his marriage with no escape anymore.
• Closing my eyes in defeat, in this very moment, I knew I held no value.
• I was only a pawn of the sick game he was planning.
• Giving me a warning stare, he spoke strictly, to ensure I would engrave those words into my mind like a reminder.
• “Never forget your position, don’t even think about telling anyone anything or doing that could displease me, do you understand?”
• Sniffling to suppress my wail collected around my throat, I nodded, breathing heavily through my nostrils to not shatter before him.
• He hissed, “Don't just nod, I need a verbal response,”
• “Y-Yes…Sir, I understand,”
• “Good girl.”
• Pleased when I gave up, left with no other choice but to carry the weight of this marriage, as if that was what he wanted- My defeat.
• He smirked, tracing his index finger on the side of my face that made me flinch, shutting my eyes to resist the sensation of his fingers moving across.
• After sucking his indulgence from my submission, he stepped back.
• Observing me for the last time, declaring the fate I mindlessly choose, having not a slightest fathom what dark world I was thrown into.
• “Welcome to my world, Liliana Boris,”