The Marriage

Ellie's POV

The doors opened and the music started.

My father offered his arm and I took it because my legs needed something to hold onto. The aisle stretched ahead of us, lined with faces I didn't know, all watching, all waiting.

I kept my face forward.

I couldn't see the groom's face properly while we walked. My veil was covered. But I'd still see it every day of my life…

I irked.

I hated the feeling already.

I wanted my career first and then marry the one I'll fall in love with someday. Not an arranged marriage I never bargained for. But I always knew it might end up like this.

My mum always says I don't behave like a princess. Yes! I'm the only child of my parents and the only one who gets the Royalty training. It sucks! A lot of the time, I'm lonely.

The veil was taken off and we took the Vow.

I couldn't behold the face I saw. The young handsome-built man standing before me was my husband. Maybe I got lucky after all.

No, I'm not. I didn't want this. Lucky had nothing to do with this.

But we just took the Vow and have been pronounced husband and wife.

I glanced at my husband's face. But he looked away.

That's weird.

I think he was actually forced to get married too. We were forced, actually. No doubt!

Behind his face was something else. I couldn't figure it out — I just wanted the ceremony to be over.

The car door closed, and the silence started immediately.

The distance between us was deliberately maintained. And he wasn't even looking my way. Not a moment did he even glance.

I actually don't care. What was I expecting?

I watched the palace gates disappear through the window.

My whole life was back there. Everything I knew.

As an only child, I was never really free. Guards followed me everywhere. Tutors and professors came into the palace to teach me because leaving wasn't something my parents allowed easily. It took years of pleading before they let me go on a two-year program outside the palace, outside the country.

Before I left, I made promises. No trouble. No disappearing. No messing my life up. And I made them promise too. No watching, no following.

I believed them for about a week after I traveled.

But, a different face kept appearing wherever I went. Same routes. Same timing. Too consistent to be coincidence. My parents had simply swapped one set of guards for a less obvious one. They didn't deny it when I asked them. I wasn't free. I was just in a bigger cage.

And now this.

I signed.

A marriage I didn't choose, in a home I don't know, with a man who had already made it clear I wasn't wanted with his cold attitude.

I just hoped this place wasn't going to feel like another palace. Another cage with better furniture.

I couldn't bring myself to think about what came next.

The silence between us continued as we reached our destination.

What a big mansion! This place isn't like anything I imagined. They are billionaires, but this. This is exceptional. Magnificent.

We got to the house, and like every family member would welcome their new bride, nobody did. Just the male servants and maids unloading my luggage from the car.

“Come, Mrs Ellie, I'll show you to your room,” one of the maid servants said to me and I followed.

"Don't worry, I'll sort them out, thank you," I said, dismissing her.

I just wanted time alone.

Everything today happened so fast. From trying to escape, to being caught. To stand at that altar and say vows I never planned to say.

And now here I was, in my husband's house, whose family couldn't even look at my face twice. They never once introduced themselves as my in-laws at the wedding or the banquet. Not a single word.

They left immediately after. So I stayed back just long enough to greet the maids and guards farewell and make sure Cleo and her aunt were safe. They were. That was the only thing that brought me any relief today.

My dad hugged me before he left. Held me for a moment longer than usual. "Everything is for the best," he said quietly into my hair. I didn't answer. I just held on.

My mum hugged me too. Then she pulled back, looked me in the eye and said, "Be a good wife."

I didn't promise her that. How could I? I didn't even know what kind of wife I was supposed to be in a marriage I never agreed to. I didn't know what lay ahead. Not even a little.

She left. And I was alone.

I turned and looked at the room properly for the first time. It was big. Beautiful, actually. The bed was covered in roses and everything had been arranged the way you'd arrange a room for two people beginning something.

Two people who wanted to begin something.

I stood there for a moment, taking it all in.

We were not those people.

I walked to the closet room and then to the toilet.

Just then I heard footsteps. The door was opened and he walked in.

I only discovered his name when the Priest mentioned his own Vow to be taken.

He removed his suit and dropped it on the couch, settled forward and stared at me for a while.

"Are we going to share one room together?" I asked, not knowing if I wanted a positive or negative response.

"You can tell the servants to prepare another room for you if you don't want it here. I don't think I'd share one space with you," he said with the coldest tone and started walking out.

.

Gosh.

"Jayden." He stopped. "Right?" I asked.

He walked out without looking back.

I stood there for a moment, staring at the door he just walked through.

The audacity.

I turned back to the room and looked around slowly. The roses. The candles. The careful arrangement of everything.

"Well," I sat on the edge of the bed. "I'm going to stay in this room. I don't think any other room would be as beautiful and welcoming as this."

Nobody was there to hear it. I said it anyway.

This was my room. My house. My family now, whether they liked it or not. I wasn't going to shrink myself into a guest room because of a man who couldn't even look at me on our wedding day. If anyone was moving, it wasn't going to be me.

I exhaled slowly and let the silence settle around me.

Then my stomach growled.

I pressed my hand against it.

Right.

I hadn't eaten anything today.

I walked downstairs and stopped. The entire family was already seated at the dining table.

Why did nobody call me downstairs?

I hope they didn't notice as I turned back to go back to the room when I heard my name.

“Princess Ellie, come and join us, you're already here." Mr Spark, Jayden's father, called me.

I turned back and walked towards the dining area.

“Princess my Foot” A lady who I believed is Jayden's sister talked. She chuckled in the most annoying way.

“Okay, let me do the introduction. I'm sure you saw them today at the wedding and banquet. This is Joanna, your husband's sister, and this is my wife,” he smiled as he pointed to the woman at his right now, who didn't even blink at me. “You're welcome to the Spark’s family, Ellie. One of the servants would show you around tomorrow, Spend time with your husband today.” He looked at Jayden, who didn't raise his head but focused on the food he wasn't eating.

Just then he stood up and went upstairs without a word. Not a glance. Not even the pretense of acknowledgment.

I kept my eyes on my plate and told myself I didn't notice.

After dinner, I went straight to my room. My feet ached. My whole body ached. But it wasn't the kind of tiredness that sleep fixes easily, it was the kind that settles deep in your chest after a day that took too much from you.

I closed the door and leaned against it for a second, eyes shut.

One day. I survived one day.

Jayden wasn't in the room. I exhaled slowly. A relief.

I reached behind me and unzipped the gown. It had been beautiful once, hours ago, before it became the dress I wore to a wedding I never wanted. I stepped out of it and left it where it fell.

I loosened my blonde curly hair and let it pour over my shoulders. Rolled my neck. I closed my eyes for just a moment.

For the first time since this morning, I felt like Ellie. Not a princess. Not a bride. Not the girl everyone had been moving around like a piece on a board.

Just Ellie.

I gathered my things and walked to the bathroom. The marble was cold under my bare feet. The quiet felt good. I pushed the door open and stepped inside.

And then I felt it.

Warmth. Right behind me. The kind that doesn't belong to an empty room.

Every part of me went still.

I turned around slowly.

My hands flew to my mouth.

Oh no!