1

Ava's POV

Since I was little, I learned one rule in our house: I didn't matter.

If Lily cried, everyone rushed to her. If I cried, Mom called me dramatic. When Lily got bad grades, Dad told her it was okay. When I ranked first, he just said, "You're the older sister. Set an example."

After a while, I stopped hoping they'd treat me differently.

I cooked when the maid was absent, drove Lily to tutoring, fixed Mom's boutique reports. None of it was my job, but saying no meant being called ungrateful.

Lily only had to smile to get whatever she wanted.

Everyone made excuses for her. Nobody ever made excuses for me.

So when Lily got engaged to Ethan Whitmore, I wasn't surprised I was the last to know. Five-star ballroom, Paris gown, huge diamond ring. I was told to wear an old dress and smile for photos.

I thought her wedding day would be the same.

I was wrong.

"Ava, I can't marry him!"

Lily's panicked voice cut through while I was fixing the train of her dress.

"What are you talking about? The ceremony starts in twenty minutes!"

"I don't love Ethan. I'm still with Jason!"

I stared at her. Jason, the same guy who broke her heart a hundred times, the same guy I had to comfort her over.

"Then you should have said something before today!"

"I can't! Dad will never forgive me!"

"And you think this is fair to Ethan?"

She grabbed my hands.

"Please, Ava. You marry him instead."

I pulled away immediately.

"Absolutely not!"

"We look alike! No one will notice under the veil!"

"You're insane! I'm not marrying a stranger because you changed your mind!"

Before she could answer, Mom and Dad burst in.

Mom hugged Lily while she cried. Dad paced, then turned to me.

"Ava, you need to help your sister."

"No. I'm not doing it."

"Our company is drowning in debt," Dad snapped. "The Whitmores are our only chance. If this wedding is canceled, we will lose everything!"

"Then tell them the truth!"

"Do you want this house seized? Do you want 200 employees jobless?"

"Why does it always have to be me?" My voice broke. "Why is it always my future that gets traded?"

Mom grabbed my shoulders. "You're stronger than Lily, honey. You can handle this."

"Stop calling me strong whenever you want me to suffer!"

Dad threatened to disown me. Mom cried and begged. Lily kept saying she'd repay me someday. I knew those promises meant nothing.

But this time, I didn't break.

"No," I said. I stepped away from the dress. "No. I'm not doing it. I won't."

The room went silent.

"Ava, if you walk out, you are no longer my daughter," Dad said low.

"Then maybe it's better that way."

I turned, hand on the door handle. I was really going to leave.

That was when Dad grabbed my wrist hard.

"You are not leaving."

"Dad, let go of me!"

"Lock the door!" he shouted at Mom.

My eyes widened. "What are you doing?"

Mom was crying but she locked the dressing room door. She called the two assistants waiting outside.

"I'm sorry, Ava. I'm so sorry," Mom kept whispering, but she still came closer with the white gown.

"No! Don't touch me! I said no!" I struggled, pushing them, but Dad held my arms behind me.

The assistants held up Lily's wedding dress.

"No! Get away from me! I don't want to wear it! Lily, say something!"

But Lily just stood there covering her mouth, crying. "Sorry... sorry..."

They forced the dress onto me. I thrashed, begged, screamed no over and over, but Dad's grip was too strong and Mom was zipping up the back while sobbing.

"Stop! Please! I don't want this! Mom!"

No one listened. No one cared that I was screaming no while outside, the wedding music had already started.

They pinned my hair while I was still sobbing. They wiped my tears and caked makeup over them. They lowered that thick veil so no one could see I was the wrong bride.

I was shaking violently.

"Please," I whispered one last time, looking at my mother. "Don't do this."

She couldn't even look at me.

"Don't embarrass the family, Ava," Dad said coldly, still holding my arm so I couldn't run. "Smile."

He literally dragged me out toward the ballroom. I wasn't walking down the aisle. I was being delivered.

Hundreds of guests watched. At the end stood Ethan Whitmore, handsome in his black suit, waiting for who he thought was Lily.

When the officiant asked if I took him, I wanted to scream no. But Dad was squeezing my arm so tight it hurt, and Mom was behind me crying.

"Yes," I whispered.

Everyone applauded. My father smiled with relief. My mother hugged Lily near the side entrance, who was already in normal clothes.

Nobody cared that I had just lost my future.

Ethan's house in the Hamptons was beautiful, overlooking the dark ocean. Yet it felt like a prison.

He led me to the master bedroom and closed the door.

"You can remove your veil now."

I lifted it slowly. His whole face changed.

"Who the hell are you?"

"I'm Ava Sterling. Lily's older sister."

"Where is Lily?"

"She ran away with her boyfriend. My parents forced me into this dress. I said no, I screamed no, but they forced me."

He stared, then let out a bitter laugh. He walked straight to the bar cart and poured a whiskey. His hand was tight around the glass.

"Of course she ran."

"You knew?"

"Didn't your parents tell you?" he said. "Lily and I have been talking for eight months. Every night. Video calls. Texts. At first I didn't want this arranged bullshit either. But she was different. She was funny. She actually listened. I..."

He stopped himself and drank.

"I told my mother I would try. For her. I thought she felt the same. I thought we had an understanding that we would at least face this together. Turns out I was the only idiot who took it seriously."

My chest tightened. Oh. He didn't just know her. He liked her. Maybe he was even in love with her. No wonder he looked so destroyed.

"So the Sterlings scammed the Whitmores," he said coldly.

"I refused! They locked the door and forced this dress on me!"

"You still walked down the aisle. You still said yes."

"Because my father was holding my arm! If I made a scene, your family would sue mine!"

His expression turned to ice. "Get out of my sight."

I slammed the guest room door. I thought we would hate each other for three days and then divorce.

Until midnight.

I couldn't sleep and went downstairs for water. I found Ethan in the living room. The bottle was half empty. He was on a call, his voice low and wrecked.

"Yes, Mom. Yes, the wedding went fine. No, you cannot post the photos yet. Yes, I know the press is camped outside."

He hung up when he saw me, his eyes bloodshot.

"The press," he said, his words slurred. "Your father invited every media outlet in New York. We're trending number one. If the housekeeper tells my mother we are sleeping in separate rooms, my family will know by tomorrow. Your father will go to jail for fraud. Publicly."

He rubbed his temples, looking completely exhausted.

"I told my mother I didn't want a stranger. Then Lily came along and I thought maybe this one I can choose. Maybe this one actually chose me back."

"What do you want then?" I asked quietly.

He looked through me. "We pretend. Three days. Until the investment papers are legally binding. After that, we annul. It's the only way neither family gets destroyed."

"Okay. Three days."

That night, we lay as far apart as possible. Around 2 AM, he got up and went to the balcony.

"My whole life I was just a pawn," he whispered to the dark ocean. His voice was shaking, something he would never show sober. "For once I thought I got to choose my own wife. I chose her."

"I know how that feels," I whispered.

He turned and looked at me, really looked at me without disgust.

"You screamed no, didn't you? In that dressing room."

"Yes."

For a second, we just stared at each other. Two people who both said no and were ignored.

He sat on the edge of the bed, far from me. Then, hesitantly, he wiped a tear from my cheek. His hand was shaking from alcohol.

"I don't want to be alone tonight," he whispered. It wasn't seductive. It was lonely. "Do you?"

I shook my head.

He leaned in slowly, giving me every chance to push him away. I didn't. Because for the first time today, someone was asking for my permission, not forcing me.

We kissed. It was slow, sad, and desperate. Not out of love. Not out of hate. Out of mutual loneliness. Two people who had been abandoned on the same day found a temporary shelter in each other. It was his way of venting all the anger and humiliation of being left at the altar.

But just when I thought maybe this terrible day could have one soft moment, his body went heavy. The alcohol finally pulled him under. His defenses collapsed completely.

He nuzzled into my neck and murmured in his sleep, his voice soft, broken, like a boy who just got dumped.

"Lily, you said you wouldn't run. You promised."

My whole body froze.

"I'm Ava," I whispered, my voice shaking. "Not Lily."

He didn't hear me. He was already asleep, holding me tight while dreaming about the woman he had spent eight months falling for.

I stared at the ceiling, tears falling silently.

I was Ava Sterling, Ethan Whitmore's legal wife on paper.

But even when he finally chose to hold someone, he was still holding her.

Even that night, I was still the woman nobody chose.