3. His Bride

Anton's face hardened by seeing Eizlina at his door. Turning around, he grabbed his pants from the floor.

“Leave, Riona,” he spat at his secretary, Riona, who was trying to hide her naked body under the sheets. This was not the first time he had fu#cked her, but it didn't mean he loved her or she worthed to be loved by him.

Stepping down from the bed, his secretary wore her clothes hurriedly. After that, she grasped the file she had brought here to get his signature on but ended up being on his bed.

Clutching that file, she passed Eizlina a glance, whose watery eyes were fixed at Anton. Lowering her head, she walked past Eizlina and got out of that room.

Exhaling a heavy breath, Anton finally turned around to look at Eizlina, who was still staring at him like a frozen statue.

“Why did you come here?” His question shattered her more brutally.

Instead of apologising or even attempting to explain himself, he was asking her why she was here? 

How low could someone fall?

“Eizlina….” 

“Call off this wedding,” for the very first time in her life Eizlina dared to cut his words in the middle, and this made Anton clench his fists.

He took his steps closer to her and stood right in front of her.

“Don't be such a fool, Eizlina. What you just saw, it was just the need of the moment. Nothing else. I don't feel anything for her. It was purely physical,” 

Eizlina was startled by his explanation. 

“Besides, you are going to be my wife so you….”

“So, would it have been alright for you if you would have caught me on my bed with another man a day before our wedding?” She questioned him. For the first time in her life, she questioned him and his choices.

Anton clenched his jaw.

“Stop with his melodramatic conversation, Eizlina. We have been engaged for three years now, but you know I have never forced you to satiate my physical needs, because I know you want to wait for our wedding, so if I am understanding what you need, you shouldn't be questioning my needs either,” he uttered to her in a clear tone.

Eizlina turned appalled, hearing him. Yes, he had never even tried to touch her. They both had never even shared a kiss with each other, but she used to think he was also waiting for their wedding, just like her. 

“So forget what you saw. You are going to be my wife, and that is what should be mattering to you. Nothing else,” he uttered to her.

Eizlina balled her fists. 

“I will not…..”

“Eizlina,” her mother's voice made her shut. She immediately turned around, and seeing her mother in front of her, Eizlina broke down into tears. She ran towards her mother and hugged her tightly.

Eizlina was a kind of person who didn't know how to hide her pain and emotions. She was not capable of portraying she was fine when nothing was fine around her.

Extremely worried, her mother looked at Anton, who sent Eizlina a look of disbelief.

“Tell your daughter that crying over everything won't get her anything anymore. She is not a kid anymore. She has grown up and is going to be my wife tomorrow,” Anton's cruel words brought more tears in her eyes.

“So tell her to act like a grown up woman, and let go of her childishness,” Anton spat at her mother and then walked away from there.

Gisella looked at Eizlina, who was still sobbing against her shoulder. Exhaling a sigh, she grabbed Eizlina's arm and dragged her inside a nearby room.

“What did you do, Eizlina, which has upset him so much?” Her mother's question hurt her more. She looked at her mother with her glossy eyes, who was looking at her with disappointment.

Why did everyone in her life make her feel like she was the reason behind her own pain? Why did they all make her feel like she was a disappointment?

“I don't want to marry him,” she spoke out, startling her mother.

“What? Are you even hearing yourself, Eizlina? Why….” 

“I just saw him with his secretary on his bed in an unacceptable state, mum. He didn't even try to apologise, but rather make me feel like he has to do that because of me,” she told her mother everything.

Her mother's eyes widened.

“He is behaving like he is doing a favour on me by marrying me, and if it's a favour, I don't need it. I don't want it. I will break this ….”

“Shut up and keep your voice low,” her mother gripped her arm in a violent hold. Gisella looked at her, extremely enraged.

“I told you before to get closer to him, and develop not just an emotional but physical bond with him too after your engagement, but you never listened to me, and now see…what it made him do,” her mother's words perplexed Eizlina.

She couldn't believe her ears.

“What he couldn't get from you, he decided to take it from someone else, but now drop your stupidity. Once you both get married, he will get attached to you, both emotionally and physically. It's the nature of men like him,” her mother's words angered Eizlina.

This was not acceptable in any way.

“I am not a toy, mum, whom he could use the way he wants. We both are committed to each other. Since the day I got engaged to him, I never even dared to think about any other man, so how could he do this to me? He betrayed our commitments. He cheated on…”

“Enough, Eizlina,” her mother raised her voice at her. 

“You will marry Anton, and will become Airkin Kloez's daughter-in-law tomorrow, and if you even thought about opposing it then you will find both of your parents dead in front of you,” 

Her soul went numb, processing the meaning behind the words of her mother.

“And you will be responsible for it. We have given our entire life to make you the daughter-in-law of the Kloez, so you will do whatever I want you to do, and if not….” Her mother's grip tightened around her arm.

“You can break this wedding but at the cost of losing your parents,” Gisella growled at her, and then let go of her arm with a push.

She went completely numb.

“Now go, and continue the preparations of your wedding,” hearing those words of her mother, Eizlina clenched her dress.

Walking past her mother, she ran out of that room while shedding her tears silently.

How could her own mother do this to her?

How could her own mother not see her pain?

As soon as she stormed out of that room, Eizlina got bumped against a burly man, who was dressed up in the uniform of the decorating staff. He was holding a glass jar in his hands but the moment she bumped against him, it fell from his hands and shattered into multiple pieces. 

But Eizlina didn't care. She didn't even bother to look at the face of that man, which was covered with a mask.

Desperate to run away from all of this, she just stormed away from there.

Turning around, that masked man looked in her direction. His piercing silver eyes watched her running away from him again, just like last night.

A devious smirk formed on his face.

She loved fleeing away from him, like a little dove, but this running would end tomorrow at her altar where he was going to trap this dove of his in that eternal cage of destruction.

…………….

“You are looking gorgeous, Ms. Witler,” the make-up artist complimented Eizlina after getting her completely ready for the wedding.

Like a numbed mannequin, her eyes continued to gaze at her own reflection in the mirror. She finally became the bride, but of a man whom she would never be able to love after knowing what was her worth in his life.

“Is she ready?” Gisella stepped inside the room. She noticed Eizlina's blank face which anybody could easily understand.

“You can leave now. Thank you,” Gisella said to the makeup artist, who left her room.

“I am warning you, Eizlina. Why are you not understanding that we are doing everything for your own good?” Her mother said to her, but no word came out of her mouth. She remained completely silent.

“You won't be called as the daughter of this place’s servants, but you will become its owner, so don't ruin it. It's for your own good, my child. Believe me, Lina,” her mother tried to make her understand, but Eizlina remained completely quiet, so exhaling a heavy breath, her mother grabbed Eizlina's wedding gown’s veil and covered her face with it.

“By your will or against it, you are going to get married today and that's final,” her mother said to her, angrily, but still no word came out of Eizlina's mouth.

Yes, she was going to get married today, but she was not going to become the wife of Anton Kloez.

…………

The huge door of the manor opened, breaking the only barrier between the bride and her wedding altar. A bride, burning in pain, and an altar, which was waiting for her destruction.

Eizlina felt nothing. It was like every emotion inside her head died completely, and now it was a walk for her to her own demolition.

Her eyes remained downcasted under her veil. She didn't even try to take her head upward to look at her groom, because it throbbed her soul to know she was getting married to a man like him, whom she would never be able to even accept, let alone love.

“Let's go,” her father uttered to her. Keeping her eyes grounded, she started walking on that aisle of ruination, and continued to get closer to her altar.

Eizlina stepped up on the altar, and stood in front of Anton. For once, she didn't even try to take her eyes up to look at him.

“Do you, Mr. Anton Kloez, take Ms. Eizlina Witler as your lawfully wedded wife and promise to hold onto her forever?” The priest’s words finally brought tears to the corner of her eyes.

Forever? How would she be able to survive this forever of destruction? 

“I do,” 

She clenched her palms, hearing Anton's voice.

“Do you, Ms. Eizlina Witner, take Mr. Anton Kloez as your lawfully wedded husband and promise to hold onto him forever?”

A deadly silence prevailed after the priest asked that question to her. Her mouth remained sealed completely. The guests and other people started whispering, whereas Anton curled his fists.

Tightly squeezing her glossy eyes, she finally opened her mouth slowly.

“I……”

A thundering noise of a blast echoed against the invisible walls of the air, freezing every person in horror.

Screams of dread started resonating.

Eizlina finally took her head upward and turned it around to look at what had just happened. She found that deadly fire burning her aisle, which widened her watery eyes in shock, but the moment her gaze fell on the other end of her aisle, her soul went numb by seeing that man standing there.

His nefarious grey eyes were fixed at her, making her immediately understand who he was.

It was him. That man from last night.

“I am here to marry and take my bride with me,” his huskily dark voice reverberated, while his diabolic gaze remained attached with hers.

A tear slipped down from her eyes. His bride?

She was his bride? How?

What was happening here? And most importantly, who was he?

But little did Eizlina know how painful this unnamed man was going to turn her life by making her fall for him.