ELENA The footsteps of Ava and Stacey retreated down the hall taking away the last bit of sound with them. There was deadly silence looming over us as Rylan sat pinning me down with a stare. Scary. Unnerving. Blank. "Dog shelter. She meant we are going to a dog shelter." I don't know what made me say it. No response. Nothing. Not even a muscle movement or a flicker of anything in his face. "I uhm understand if you don't like dogs or something." I blurted before deciding to shut up. Obviously he wasn't concerned about some dogs at the moment. Another long second of deafening silence passed. "What are you trying to do?" The crisp coldness of his authoritative voice slashed through the air thick with tension. "Huh?" I blinked, not really catching the meaning of his words. "Ava is referring to you as her mother. What game are you playing?" I blinked again, stupefied by his question. How were the sentences even related? "Why
RYLAN It felt weird to think of where I was standing today. In the middle of my fucking engagement party. My engagement. Even the sound of it seemed absurd. I hadn’t envisioned this day in my near or far future. Guess I had only my very dead grandfather to thank for having to marry a random woman with a great deal of attitude. Speaking of that blonde, I hadn’t failed to notice earlier how difficult it seemed for her to not stare. She had seconds later faked a look of swift disinterest but that didn't hide much. In all honesty I was affected all the same. Purely physical. But the attraction was there. There was no point in denying. My eyes strayed to the left of the hall where Elena stood socializing with people. I doubt she would remember the names of at least a quarter of them. I watched as the delicate curls framed her face. The dress fit her like a glove accentuating every fucking curve. She was a gorgeous woman, even with the fake smile she had plastered
ELENA This is it. It was finally the day I was going to get married. I was going to get into a false relationship, deceive everyone. My mind was totally messed up. My reflection in the mirror stared right back at me, looking just as confused. I was feeling a hurricane of emotions, happiness not being one of them. Pretending in front of everyone, trying not to have a breakdown and oh— actually getting married to that asshole. In short I was the happiest bride in the world! And the paparazzi were just the cherry on top of everything. The news of our engagement was the headlines on the day after the party. The day we went to shop for bridesmaids' dresses , the paparazzi were outside the shop and there were a lot of them. Rose had to call her bodyguards who escorted us to the car. And today they were going to be even more in number. "El, I don't get it. Why are you so nervous? It's not like you're marrying a stranger or a monster." Liv chuckled
ELENA This pretense was getting more than boring. I danced with Rylan, a fake sweet smile etched on my face while I imagined things like how good it was going to feel once I would get home after this was over and change into my pjs. My thoughts were interrupted when the "blonde best man" came up. "Can I steal your wife for a dance?" Rylan exhaled before nodding and walking away. "May I?" I smiled and put my hand in his and another on his shoulder. We danced to the soft flow of music, our steps in perfect sync with the beats. With the kind of grace Jayce moved, he was a much better dancer than Rylan. "We haven't officially met. I am Jayce Andrews, Rylan's best friend." Though that explained why he was the best man but it raised questions on his absence at the engagement. And why hadn’t I heard about him all these days? Then again Rylan wasn’t civil enough to sit down and have a talk about his personal life unless it favored him. Since I had moved in, we had neve
ELENA I freed my hair from the numerous hair pins and watched as the curls cascaded down my shoulders. I took one long glance at myself in the full length mirror which immediately had me thinking back to the day I had. Everything was literally perfect. Perfect venue, magnificent decor and the most beautiful wedding dress that had the most perfect fit. Every girl’s dream wedding. Except it was far from a dream. I sighed before my hands reached the zip at the back of the dress. I pulled it down only a few inches before I couldn’t. It. Was. Stuck. Damn it! No matter how much I struggled with it, it was all in vain. I closed my eyes in pure distress. Stacey wasn’t here to help me. Even Ava was at her grandfather’s place. That left me with…God! I couldn’t imagine asking Rylan to help me with this. And the stunt he had pulled earlier made the situation all the more worse. Fuck, what option did I have!? I wasted another five minutes trying before giving
RYLAN "Where are we going first?" Elena plopped down on the bed, scrolling through her phone. She had been glaringly quiet since morning. She hadn’t uttered a single word. So I figured she wasn’t going to any time soon. "We aren't going anywhere?" I spoke, imitating her tone. "So are we just gonna sit here like that?" I stopped working and looked up at her. She seemed…surprised. What exactly was she expecting? "Well that's the plan." I shrugged. She breathed out in disappointment. "You actually didn't think that this was going to be a proper honeymoon, right?" Hardly did the words leave my mouth when she snapped. “Of course not!’ I raised a mocking brow at her glare. "That doesn’t sound defensive, at all!" "I.. It's just that I can't spend a week staring at your face." She snarled at me. "Too bad. You're stuck here with me for a week." I went back to typing on my laptop. "Poor me!" I could guess her words were followed by an eye r
ELENA "She can't come." Rylan's deep voice spoke from right behind me. He glanced at me once before his eyes landed on Andrew. "You are?" Andrew shook hands with him, his confused gaze flickering between my face and Rylan's. "Rylan Parker, Elena’s husband. As I was saying, she won't come. We have plans for tomorrow.” He brought his hand to wrap it around my waist. "We have?" I raised a brow at him bringing his attention back to me. "Of course, baby." He smiled lovingly at me which combined with the nickname did something strange to my tummy. I tucked my hair behind my ear and looked at Andrew. "I'm guessing you two are on honeymoon?" His eyes went down to look at the ring on my finger as he said it. "That's right." Rylan's lines were pressed together while he was throwing him a cold glare. "Well, enjoy your stay and congratulations." Andrew smiled lightly at me. "Sure." I returned his smile. As he walked farther away, Rylan's hand l
RYLAN "Daddy." Leaving Dad's hand, Ava came running and tightly hugged my right leg. I bent down and picked her up. "My little girl missed me?" She quickly wrapped her arms around my neck and put her face on my shouldeR. "Sweetheart?" She just stuffed her face in the crook of my neck. I sighed realizing that she wasn't going to respond. Whenever I would be back after a business trip, she would always act like this, speak less and cling to me for at least a day. This was her way of expressing how much she missed me. "Aww, she missed you!" Elena smiled at her. "She did, a lot." Dad agreed before chuckling. "So did you two have a good time?" Dad stared right at me. "Yeah." My answer was stiff but I'm sure he wouldn't have expected me to gush over it even if it was my actual honeymoon. "It was beautiful. We had a great time." Elena covered up with a bright beautiful smile. She was stupid if she thought she could fool Dad into believing anything.