Till Bodies Do Us Part

Ava’s pov.

“Absolutely not!” I slammed the champagne flute I was holding on the marble counter, the sound was hard enough to make the silence in the penthouse crack.

My fiance Ivan Cross, did not even blink at that, which made me even angrier. He stood across the room staring at me, as his hands loosened the cufflinks on his beige suit, which probably cost more than some people's rent.

I hated everything about this alliance in the form of our wedding and yet, here we were with his cold, calculating and obnoxious personality, adding to my problems.

“What made you think you can just cancel the housing project?” I demanded as I walked closer to him.

“I postponed it.” He placed the cufflinks on the table, with an expression that I could not read on his face.

“Oh please, you fired half of the volunteers.”

“Ava, they were incompetent.”

“Those people were unpaid, Mr. Know it all.”

“Does that make them useful?”

I stared at him, caught somewhere in-between anger and pure disbelief. “Are you being serious right now?”

“Yes.” He did not even think before answering.

That was all I needed to snap. “You know what your problem is?”

Ivan sighed, making it crystal clear to me that he was exhausted. “No, but I assume her majesty is going to tell me what it is.”

“You think money fixes everything.” I told him without batting an eye.

The words that came out of his mouth next caught me off guard.

“It usually does.”

I turned away from him before I was tempted to throw the champagne bottle at his annoyingly perfect face. “Oh God!”

Ivan had postponed my housing project bid, this was going to affect many children in the charity foundation I ran.

To think that I came straight to him as soon as I landed in Texas from Mexico, was making me lose it upstairs.

The penthouse looked like a house perfect for someone with emotional constipation, someone like Ivan.

“Ava, I think you are overreacting.”

“I'm sorry for not being cold and stiff like you, but people are going to go homeless if this goes wrong.” I reached out for a chair and sat down, my head was spinning. There was no doubt it was the jet lag hitting me.

“There you go again, being all emotional about this. You are not looking at the bigger picture…..”

The sound of thunder made us pause for a second.

“What freaking bigger picture is there? You have no heart, that's all.” I drew a deep breath in, trying to calm myself.

“What good is having a heart, when you are going to end up failing?”

“I can't believe I am getting married to this.” I muttered in frustration.

“Did you say something?”

A small laugh escaped my mouth, when a thought about how messy my future was going to be crossed my mind.

“No, I just figured out why everyone is so scared of you.” This was not going to end well, but I was at the end of my wits. “You are just like your father.”

His face hardened as I noticed a change in his expression. “Don't you dare bring him up in this.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

He loosened his tie a bit aggressively. “You know that is one thing, you should not play around with.”

My voice softened a bit, as I saw him express hurt that way. “Then stop acting like him.”

His father had been worse than a tyrant, everyone in the country knew it.

“Ava, we are getting married tomorrow. All of this is unimportant.”

He looked upset when he said that, deep down I was glad he decided not to pursue the talk on his father, but that did not mean I was letting him win this.

“Did you just tag my charity foundation as unimportant? Something I built from scratch.”

“By scratch, I'm guessing you mean from your fat allowances in the trust fund your grandfather left for you as a pretty princess in your family.”

“At least, I don't spend money on things that are unnecessary.”

“Says the woman who splashed fifty thousand dollars on just one Birkin bag.”

He wasn't entirely wrong about that, but I hated him even more now. “That was just one time!”

“Listen, you might have some complaints about the way I handle things but that doesn't give you the right to nag like this. You don't see me doing the same to you, I'm way too busy for that.”

“It's simply because you have nothing to complain about.” I threw my hands in the air in anger. “I can't believe you called me a nagging woman.”

He pointed at the flowers in the kitchen. “You came into my penthouse, the place that is going to be your home soon and the first thing you did was question the flower arrangements in here. When everything was carefully and professionally arranged, by the design department. Is that something a sane woman would do?

“Who arranges peonies that way?” I retorted, not allowing him to have the last word.

“You'll have to learn to accept my authority as the man, once we get married.”

“Then you should understand the importance of your wife's views on things too.”

If it was possible, I knew we would have called the wedding off by now. But it was based on a family agreement and we were bound by it.

Outside, a storm was brewing already. Within minutes, it was raining hard against the windows on the penthouse.

“You wouldn't survive a week in my world.” The exhaustion on his face was becoming more visible.

“Baby, you can't even last a day in mine.” I said, with pure sarcasm dripping from every word.

“Your world?” Ivan let out a humorless laugh. “What's so special about that?”

“Yes, my world. Try smiling for hours at charity dinners, while your family treats you like some decorative furniture. Try dealing with the media, trying to find flaws in your appearance every single day and maybe, you should try wearing heels for fifteen good hours.”

“I would rather walk on broken glass, than do that.”

“I thought as much.”

“You wouldn't be able to run Cross Industries either.”

“I would, if you were not such a control freak.”

“If I am such a control freak, pigs will fly.”

“There.” I pointed at him. “Why do you always treat people with that condescending attitude?”

“At this point it's fair to say, you are very hard to please.”

“Do you want to know what I think about your rotten personality? You are impossible!!”

“Then I hope you don't mind hearing my assessment of your personality too, everything about you is screaming spoiled.”

“I wish you could spend a day in my shoes.” I angrily shouted at him.

“I wish you could handle my life, for one damn day.” Ivan thundered too.

My eyes turned to the windows and I saw lightning move like crazy across the sky.

The lights in the penthouse began to go off and on. “What's going on?”

For a second, the air felt heavy. It was giving that kind of quiet before an explosion.

“Ivan do you feel….” I never got to complete that sentence, because as soon as I reached out my hand to Ivan, the lights suddenly went out.