CHAPTER FIVE
1444 Words
AVA’S POV
“We’ll begin the wedding preparations immediately.”
Grandfather’s voice carried across the room. It was not loud, not forceful, but certain. So certain that it didn’t feel like a suggestion.
It felt like a decision that had already taken root.
For a brief second, everything stood still.
Then the house erupted.
“Yes, sir,” the head housekeeper said quickly, signaling to the rest of the staff.
Within seconds, instructions began flying across the room.
“I’ll contact the planners right away.”
“We need to confirm availability— venues, designers…”
“Call all of them.”
Voices overlapped, sharp and urgent. Footsteps echoed against the marble floors as staff moved quickly in and out of the room. Phones were already ringing. Someone rushed past me with a notepad. Another followed with a tablet, listing things I couldn’t even process.
The quiet, controlled space I had grown used to… disappeared in an instant.
Replaced by movement, noise, decisions.
All of it happening so fast.
And somehow, all of it was about me.
My fingers curled slightly at my sides, my body still rooted in the same spot as if moving would make everything more real.
This… couldn’t be happening this way.
Not like this.
Not without me even understanding how I felt.
“Ava.”
Grandfather’s voice softened when he called my name.
I forced myself to look at him.
His face… was different.
There was a light in his eyes I hadn’t seen in a long time. Not since before his illness began to take pieces of him away. Not since the quiet in this house had started to feel heavy instead of peaceful.
Now, he looked… alive and hopeful.
As if this, this sudden decision was something he had been waiting for.
“I’ve delayed enough things in my life,” he said gently, his gaze steady on mine. “This is not one of them.”
My throat tightened.
I wanted to speak.
To ask him to slow down. To tell him I needed time. To understand why my heart felt like it was being pulled in two different directions at once.
But when I looked at him, at the quiet urgency beneath his calm, the words disappeared.
Because this wasn’t just a decision to him.
It was a wish.
And I had never learned how to refuse him.
So instead… I stayed silent.
And just like that, my silence was taken as agreement.
The house no longer felt like a place I belonged.
It felt like something I was being carried through.
“A custom gown would take time, should we go with a designer piece instead?”
“No, Mr. Carter would want the best. We’ll prioritize fittings.”
“The guest list, should we include international partners?”
“Of course. This is the Carter family.”
I stood there, hearing everything… and nothing at the same time.
My wedding.
They kept calling it that.
But it didn’t feel like mine.
It felt like something already decided, already shaped, something I was simply expected to step into.
“Ava, do you prefer ivory or pure white?”
I blinked, realizing someone was standing in front of me.
“I…” My voice came out softer than I intended. “I don’t know.”
“That’s alright,” the woman said quickly, smiling professionally. “We’ll prepare options.”
Options.
Choices.
Words that sounded meaningful, but felt empty.
Because none of the choices that mattered had been mine to make.
I didn’t realize when my feet started moving.
Or when the noise behind me began to fade.
Or when I found him.
Lucas stood near the window, slightly apart from everything, as if the chaos unfolding around us had nothing to do with him.
His posture was relaxed. His expression calm and untouched.
While everything inside me felt like it was shifting, uncertain, overwhelming.
He looked exactly the same.
Controlled.
Distant.
Untouchable.
For a moment, I just watched him.
Trying to understand how someone could stand in the middle of something like this and feel nothing at all.
“You’re not saying anything.”
The words left my mouth before I could stop them.
He glanced at me, his gaze steady, unreadable.
“Is there something I should say?” he asked.
I let out a quiet breath, my hands tightening slightly.
“This is happening too fast,” I said, my voice lower now, more honest. “Don’t you think so?”
His eyes lingered on me for a second longer than usual.
Then he looked away.
“It’s only fast because you’re trying to keep up with it,” he said calmly.
I frowned. “What does that mean?”
“It means,” he continued, his tone even, “this was decided the moment my grandfather spoke.”
My chest tightened.
“So that’s it?” I asked. “You’re just… accepting it?”
He looked back at me then.
Fully this time.
“I’m choosing not to fight it,” he said.
The words settled heavily between us.
“And that doesn’t bother you?” I pressed, searching his face for something…anything at all.
“No.”
The answer came too easily.
Too simply.
Like none of this mattered at all.
I swallowed, something twisting uncomfortably in my chest.
“This is your life too,” I said quietly.
“And yours,” he replied.
I let out a small, breathless laugh. “It doesn’t feel like it.”
For the first time, his gaze shifted just slightly.
“You could say no,” he said.
I shook my head immediately. “You know I can’t.”
His expression didn’t change.
“That’s the difference between us, Ava,” he said.
I stilled. “What difference?”
“I know I have a choice,” he replied. “I just chose not to use it.”
The words hit deeper than I expected.
Because I didn’t know if I even had one to begin with.
“Is everyone just going to pretend this is normal?”
The voice cut sharply through the room.
I turned instinctively.
It was Sonia.
She stood a few steps away, her usual gentle expression completely gone. Her eyes were bright, not with tears, but with something stronger.
Anger.
“You’re all acting like this is some kind of celebration,” she continued, her voice tight. “Like this makes sense.”
The room quieted slightly, attention shifting toward her.
Grandfather’s brows drew together. “Sonia…”
“No,” she cut in, shaking her head. “You don’t get to just decide something like this and expect everyone to go along with it!”
Her gaze moved and landed on me.
For a second, something cold slipped beneath her expression. Something sharp. Something I hadn’t seen before.
“They barely even know each other,” she said, her voice softer now but no less intense.
I felt my breath catch.
Lucas didn’t move.
Didn’t react.
Didn’t speak.
He just watched.
Margaret stepped forward slightly. “Sonia, that’s enough.”
But Sonia ignored her.
Her eyes shifted to Lucas now.
“You’re really okay with this?” she asked him.
The question hung in the air.
Heavy and waiting.
I found myself looking at him too.
Waiting for something.
Lucas met her gaze.
And then…
“It doesn’t matter,” he said.
Flat.
Unaffected.
Final.
Something in my chest tightened painfully.
Sonia stared at him, disbelief flashing across her face.
“Of course it matters!” she snapped. “This is your life!”
Lucas didn’t respond.
Didn’t defend himself.
Didn’t explain.
And somehow, that silence said more than any answer ever could.
“I can’t do this.”
Her voice broke, but not with weakness.
With frustration.
With something deeper.
“This is ridiculous.”
She turned abruptly, her heels striking sharply against the floor as she walked away.
“Sonia!” Margaret called after her.
But she didn’t stop.
The door slammed shut behind her.
The sound echoed through the house—
Loud.
Final.
Unignorable.
And just like that, everything slowed.
Nothing stopped, but the energy in the room changed.
The excitement dimmed and was replaced by something quieter.
Something heavier.
I stood there, my thoughts tangled, my chest tight, my emotions impossible to sort through.
This was supposed to be a beginning of something hopeful, something certain.
But all I felt was like I was being pulled into something I didn’t fully understand.
Something I couldn’t control.
Something I couldn’t stop.
And worst of all,
I didn’t even know if I wanted to.
- Writer
