CHAPTER ONE: Alive

Ava:

“Father, I can’t get married to Dante!” I choked out, holding back the tears threatening to spill out of my eyes.

My father shook his head, and I knew he wasn’t going to listen to whatever I wanted to say. He wasn’t even looking at me, “You don’t have a choice, Ava. The wedding must happen whether you want it or not.”

By the time he looked up, all I could see were dead, icy blue eyes. I wasn’t surprised, my father had always been cold to me. At some point I started to doubt whether I was his daughter. But I was, I knew with certainty that I was. And that was only because I had a twin sister who looked just like me, and he cherished her.

“I can’t father. Please, don’t force me into a marriage with a man I don’t want. And worse, a man that hates me. Don’t do this to me.” The tears were streaming out of my eyes now. And they wouldn’t stop no matter how many times I wiped them off. “Dante thinks I killed Ivy. And you all know I didn’t. Why would I kill my own twin sister?”

“Because you were jealous of her, Ava! Just admit it.” My father’s words turned me absolutely mute.

I had been lying in the hospital bed for so long the air around me felt stuffier with every breath that escaped my lips.

When I woke up in the hospital three days back, I couldn’t move my legs and my head felt like it was being split open. Tubes were fed into my arms, and my throat burned from intubation. My entire body felt like it had been torn apart and stitched together by someone in a hurry.

Nobody was there, probably because no one cared if I lived or died. By the time my father finally came in, he announced that my sister had passed away in the car crash. I glanced down at my hands, and all I could see was red. He said I killed my sister. He also said I should have died instead of Ivy. To make everything worse, I couldn't remember anything from that night. I couldn’t recall how my sister died. But every single time I glanced down at my hands, I saw blood.

Fingers had been pointed at me so much, that I now believed them all.

I scrubbed, rinsed, washed, But there was blood. I killed my only sister, and her blood wouldn’t wash away.

“She died on impact,” he said bitterly, pulling me back to the present. “You were the one behind the wheels, Ava. So this is all your fault, Now, don’t bother pleading, because there’s no way out of this.” He released a deep breath, looking me dead in the eyes as he added. “The wedding is in a week. It still needs to happen. Do not make me force you.”

I wanted to scream. And when I didn’t speak, he continued, “Dante’s father has already signed the final documents. The merger between our families goes through either way. We owe them one of our daughters. So, do not ruin this for me. You’ve done enough damage already.”

My body trembled with the amount of wreckage spilling through me, I wiped tears from my cheeks, struggling to kneel on the bed, “Please. Father, I can book a flight and leave. Just tell them I ran away,” I choked out breathlessly. My voice was rough and too tame to my ears.

My father’s gaze sharpened on me, “You are not running anywhere. there’s nowhere you can go to that they wouldn’t find you. So, don’t you dare make this more difficult than it already is.”

“She was supposed to marry him, not me!” I croaked out, “Dante hates me,” A shiver racked through me as I recalled the glance he spared me earlier this morning when he came to simply have a look at me. “If I marry that man he would kill me, don’t you understand?”

Father didn’t flinch. My tears didn’t faze him. My pleading didn’t reach his ears. “Be grateful you’re still useful.”

With that he stood up from the chair he had been on, and turned towards the door, backing me with his broad shoulders and tall frame. Without looking at me, he added, “They expect a wedding. And you…” He paused, and I swallowed, knowing fully well that whatever he said would seal my faith, “You owe this family for killing Ivy.

That was all he said before he left. My shoulders shook from fear and tears, I tried to cover up my whimpers by covering my mouth, but even that didn’t help.

I killed Ivy. I killed her. My sister… I was alive and the only person who had ever loved me without a condition wasn’t.

By the time the tears finally stopped streaming down my eyes, I threw the bed sheets off me and tugged the IV off my hands.

I had to run away. It was better to run than marry a man who would strangle me for killing the person he was truly in love with.

It took me ten stumbling strides to get to the door. By the time I did, I pulled down the door handle, but it wasn’t opening.

Swallowing the lump stuck to my throat, I tugged harder until I slowly realized that the door had been locked from outside.

“Open the door,” My voice was rough, “Someone, open the door!”

An hour passed and no one answered. That was when I knew there was no going back. I leaned my back on the door, and slid to the floor. My gaze fell on my hands.

Blood. Red. Blood was everywhere.

I closed my eyes, biting my lips and pinching my thighs hard so I could wake up from whatever this was.

Tears slid hot and fast down my temples, and my hands trembled as they lay useless by my sides. I couldn’t breathe at all, it felt like someone was gripping my lungs tightly.

I curled into myself on the cold hospital floor, tears soaking the thin gown clinging to my skin from sweat. I told myself this couldn’t be real, That I’d wake up soon. Ivy would be alive. My father wouldn’t look at me like a stain on his white legacy. And Dante… he wouldn’t be waiting to punish me for a crime I couldn’t even remember.

This had to be an awful bad dream. It had to be.

Except it wasn’t a dream.

And less than two weeks later, before my wounds could even heal completely, I was forced to walk down the aisle with a pearly white dress.

Ivy should have worn this. Not me.