The Wife He Swore To Destroy

The first thing he did after saying I do was to annoyingly let go of my hand.

Like touching me burned his hand.

The altar was silent except for the echo of the priest's final blessing and the soft click of cameras taking pictures, I hadn't been told about. I stood there in a white dress, borrowed, didn't fit, staring at the man who was now my husband, and his back turned towards me, walking away.

"Mr. Blackwood," the priest called anxiously. "You may kiss the bride." pointing to me.

Adrian Blackwood reluctantly turned slowly.

He looked at me with eyes full of hatred and questions. They were the eyes of a man looking for answers.

"I won't, if I were you," he said to me.

The words felt like a blow to my face.

A few people gasped.

I felt all of them looking at me, wondering what sort of a woman would marry a billionaire who stares at her with eyes of hatred.

Adrian leaned in, just enough for only me to hear.

"This marriage is a transaction, a contract I paid you for" he said. "Don't mistake it for mercy."

Then he turned back to the priest. " I am done here."

And just like that, my supposed wedding ended. Without a kiss.

After two hours, I sat alone in the back seat of his car, words going on in my mind, holding my phone like it was a lifeline, as the traffic in Melrose Avenue road crawled around us. My reflection looked back at me in the tinted glass, eyes too big for my petite face.

Adrian sat opposite me, scrolling through his tab as if I didn't exist. His tuxedo was perfect for his sculpted muscular body. His posture was firm. He did not look bothered even by the fact that he had just married someone he clearly hates.

I cleared my throat, "My mother..."

"She'll get the surgery," he cut in without looking up. "The best doctors. The best hospital."

Relief flooded me so fast my chest burned.

"Thank you," I said faintly.

He finally looked at me then.

And whatever warmth I had expected, whatever human virtue, I didn't find any.

"You weren't thankful when you betrayed my family," he said.

My heart stopped.

"I didn't..."

"Don't," he snapped. "Don't lie. I know exactly who you are, Lina."

Hearing my name from his mouth felt wrong. Too intimate. Too sharp.

"Whatever you think I did," I said, my voice trembling despite all my effort to sound calm, "but I swear to you, I have never betrayed you or your family, I didn't do such a thing."

He laughed.

He didn't believe a word I mentioned.

"You disappeared the same week my father was arrested," he said coldly. "The same week our company lost everything. And now you show up years later, desperate and broke, asking for help."

My fingers curled into the fabric of my borrowed, saggy looking dress. "That's a coincidence."

"There