The Alpha Don’s Fake Bride

Even though we were twins, Daria and I had always been complete opposites. Where I was brash, rowdy, and rebellious, my sister was quiet, demure, and obedient, everything a perfect society girl was meant to be. My parents’ favourite child. If anyone ever had to bet on which of us would go missing, all bets would’ve been on me. Never on Daria. She wasn’t reckless. She didn’t disappear on impulse. Which meant only one thing: whatever had happened to her had been bad enough to force her hand. The shock hit first—sharp and disorienting—followed immediately by a tight, clawing fear that wrapped itself around my ribs. I knew what kind of people my parents were, after all, I’d experienced the height of their cruelty myself. “Missing?” I repeated, my voice betraying my emotions. “How does someone like Daria just go missing?” My father didn’t reply, his face hard as ever, but in his eyes churned a storm of warring emotions and one of them was guilt. I knew the level of surveillance my sis

Things moved very quickly after that. The wedding was quite literally the next evening, so we had to move fast. I was bundled up and taken to my parents’ house that night and they assured me they’d handle my lease and my job. Not like I’d need either after a year married to Damian, if their promises of security and wealth were true. I let myself daydream about what I’d do with all that money and freedom. I’d move out of that apartment, somewhere remote and away from the messiness of the city. A home with a toilet that flushed immediately and floors that didn’t creak. I’d build myself a nice library. I’d get a couch that wasn’t stolen from an alley next to an old furniture store. I’d pick out wallpaper because I liked it, not because it was on sale. I imagined all of this to avoid imagining what the next year would entail. My parents filled me in on what exactly they’d agreed to with Damian. The marriage was purely political, of course, and like all political or business arrangemen