Chapter Two

It was eleven in the morning, and Serena was still in her room.

Her Aunt knocked at the door again. "Serena, open the door. Do you think if you stay inside you'll be able to break your engagement off? Even if you are to go to hell I'll make you marry today. Come out!"

"You can let your daughter marry him instead of me. If you are so into earning money from a wealthy youngman or how about marrying him yourself?" Serena opened the door. As she said that her Aunt held Lilith, her daughter's hand and hid her behind her back.

"Don't compare yourself with my daughter. She's not as shameless as you are. My daughter never touched a single man like you slept with tons of!”

Serena raised her eyebrow. "Is it so? Why don't we have a try then? We'll know whether she is a virgin or a sl*t.” She knew how Lilith was. Pure outside bitch inside, that's what Lilith was. She also knew how to talk to people, whom to behave rude with and whom to respect. She knew how to talk to people like her Aunt, when she respected them they just hurt her more so she just changed her way instead.

As her aunt raised her hand, she walked past her whispering in her ear. "Slap me and you'll lose your money. I'll drag you to jail, saying you took my fiance's money and treated me badly. If you can imagine yourself detained in the prison then go ahead. If not then don't even dare to look me straight in the eyes." And she walked away, leaving both mother and daughter, surprised.

"Mom, she has changed a lot. Before we could easily hit her. But now, she dares to talk like a bitch." She heard Lilith say to her mother. Lilith was her mother's favourite, had tons of boyfriends but her Aunt knew her daughter as the purest soul in the world.

**

The wedding gown was still hanging in front of her, but Serena didn't want to touch it. There was not much time left for her wedding and she, the bride, was not ready yet.

Suddenly, Lilith came in and handed her the wedding dress. "Go and wear it. We don't have time to waste. Go!"

Serena looked at the wedding gown helplessly. Was there no way to stop the wedding? She was thinking...

She took it and walked past her when Lilith stopped her all of a sudden. "Oh, wait, sign it.”

It could only be a marriage certificate. She knew. She didn't want to sign it so she just ignored her cousin.

"Sign it! I don't have time to waste for you. Be faster," Lilith said arrogantly.

Getting annoyed, she signed it but she didn't check it before signing. She put the wedding gown on helplessly. Not like some prince charming would save her. She didn't have a male friend whom she was closer to. Who would stop the wedding? Only in her dream.

As she came out wearing the wedding gown, she was seated on a chair in front of the mirror. Her helpless look in the mirror could express how sad she was but what could she do?

**

"Boss, the bride will be ready in five minutes." It was his men who always surrounded him, they would protect him like his shadow. He had lots of bodyguards, wherever he would go they'd follow him according to his will but not today. It didn't seem like he had bodyguards, he was simply with another man who was his right hand, Richard.

He looked at his wristwatch. He arrived at the venue ten minutes ago in his groom's suit. Even two days ago, he didn't know he was going to get married. But now, he was going to, indeed.

**

Serena was looking at the mirror, at the end she was ready. Her Uncle walked in and looked at her. He had bad news but he didn't want to tell her. At the least she was going to get married, the man who was going to marry her promised him that he would take care of her like a princess and he would never make her sad. Though it was a replaced groom but since he managed to make everybody out there accept his proposal, everybody including her Uncle agreed to let his niece get married to him.

Serena was really looking like a princess. She walked towards her Uncle like a queen, as if she didn't care about anything. "I'm ready. Let's go—"

Her Uncle cut her in between. "Serena, I want to…"

She could tell what he was going to say and she didn't want to hear it, it was meaningless anyway. She interrupted him. "I was your daughter once. You took care of me like a princess until your… own daughter was born. I… I'm very thankful for the things you did for me. After I leave I hope you'll be as happy as your family members would be."

"Serena…"

"Let's go." She smiled looking at her Uncle. She was ready to walk down the aisle. He nodded his head. He wanted her to be happy and blessed. Let the bad news be covered under the good news.

As Serene was walking down the aisle, she didn't look at anybody around her including the groom, who was waiting at the altar. His eyes were fixed on her soon to be bride. As they stood opposite of each other Serena still had her eyes down instead of her groom.

"Do you take Serena Aldaine as your lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love…"

As the officiant asked, the groom quickly replied. "Yes, I do."

The half marriage was done and there was no way she could escape. She knew she was getting married to Mathew until she heard the officiant saying, "Do you take Denzel Anderson as your lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love…"

She herself replied ,"Yes, I do." Before she could know that her groom had been changed to a total stranger, she sent her consent. She looked at the man who was her groom. In Front of her, a Greek God was standing in the groom's suit. Those killer eyes of his as well as attractive, they had all their attention only on her. For a moment, she was standing still as she couldn't resist how handsome he was, his eyes, his face, his lips, the way he was looking at her, it was irresistible.

Closing her eyes, she bit her lips and turned her face to the guests. She couldn't believe it. Nobody was shocked, nobody was concerned. She looked at her Aunt and Uncle. Even they were smiling. Nobody seemed to care about it? Only her. What should she do? What the heck was happening? She couldn't figure it out.

She looked at her groom again, who was he? Where was her groom who was going to marry her? Where was Mathew! She was not seeing a dream, right? But the groom had his eyes fixed on her.

Her groom was looking at her but those unreadable brown eyes and as if they could possess you, she couldn't get what he was upto. As she was less crazy, the officiant promoted the ring bearer to present the rings to make her go insane.

Suddenly, she got something in her head. When the officiant was addressing them as the new couple, emphasizing the significance of the responsibilities or marriage and vows in which they were to take, she was so immersed in her thoughts that she didn't even hear what he said. And that's how she didn't know whom she was getting married to.

"With this ring, I thee wed…" Denzel held her hand and took the ring to put it on her finger but she tried pulling her hand away. She gritted her teeth and pulled her hand when Denzel didn't let her go. He had a blank expression when he put the ring on her finger.

"Huh?" She looked at her finger, he really put it on her finger. She looked at him angrily. But now, it was her turn. She bit her lips and started thinking of a way to do something. She took the ring but instead of putting it on his finger she kept it in her hand and curled her hand into a fist. She was challenging him. "Where is Mathew? I don't want to marry a stranger. Who are you?"

"Wanna leave then?" Denzel said in a low voice.

"Yes," she replied.

"Your groom has something important to do. That's why he told me to take care of this marriage. If you don't create a problem and let all the things be done peacefully then he'll come to see you." When he said it she stepped backward.

"No groom will be such a stupid. He had been waiting to marry me, why should I believe a stranger like you? Is there proof you are not lying?"

"Proof? You can look at everybody down there. If there would be something wrong then would they still stand there and let us get married?"

Right, she also thought of it. She turned her face to her Uncle. Though he didn't protect her from her evil Aunt, if there was something fishy he would surely stop the wedding.

She blinked once. "Is he ok?"

"Yes, he is." Hearing him, she took a deep breath and put the ring on his finger.

"I now pronounce you: Husband and wife!" As the pronouncement of their marriage was done. She started getting nervous. Soon that moment was coming, was he going to kiss her?

The most anticipated moment of the whole ceremony finally came when the officiant said, "You may now kiss the bride."

She swallowed hard, looking at Denzel nervously. She bit her lips and looked down, she had a different feeling but what was it called she didn't know nor she wanted to know.

He stepped forward and pulled her closer by her waist, making her more nervous. She looked at him when she was shy.

"Close your eyes," he said in a low voice.

Within a second, she closed her eyes and he kissed her on her cheeks, making her astonished. In a surprise she opened her eyes just to find him to look at her. Everybody clapped, but she wanted to hide underground. Getting married to a stranger was not enough and now people were clapping as if they were a real newlywed couple.

Everybody gave their blessings to the new couple. For her, it was something temporary but that doesn't mean it was the same for Denzel too.

As the party started after the recessional, she was looking for a chance to talk to him. She was not even sure what was happening. Everything seemed to be well-arranged. She didn't even know most of the people in the party. As she saw Denzel was done talking on the call with someone she walked towards him.

"Mr. I have something to say," she said casually.

"Go ahead."

"I—" She was interrupted as one of Denzel's friends came to congratulate them.

"Congratulations, bro." And then there came a lot of guests. One by one they congratulated them, and she was waiting for her time.

"Your wife is so beautiful." She heard someone saying it to him. As she turned to that direction where he was she saw him smiling but then his smile faded away. It was kind of a mystery. She could feel something was different about him.

"I want to talk to you." She finally got a chance to talk to him when he was free at the after party. As he nodded his head she shot. "Right now, I've so many questions to ask you but I'll go with the important ones for now. So, after this party ends you are going to let me meet with Mathew and you are going to go your own way. I don't understand since you are the replaced groom what are these guests doing here? And I saw all of them are your people, they think it's your real wedding… Is there a fake wedding?" As he interrupted her with such a question she smiled forcibly. "Of course, there is. For instance, our wedding. It's fake…"

When she said 'fake' his eyes darkened, growing anger as if he was going to eat her up in rage. She was startled by his reaction.

"Don't dare to say it again. You may enjoy the party now. I've an important call to make, we'll talk later," he said in a cold tone and walked away, leaving her speechless. The way he was looking at her really made her scared for a moment. She could only see him walking away from her but didn't dare to talk back or to stop him…