I MARRIED MY ENEMY FOR REVENGE

I never expected to see Shadric Vale in my family’s living room again. Not after what happened seven years ago. Not after the way he stood in front of half the school and watched me get humiliated, as if I meant nothing to him. Yet there he was, standing beside his parents in a dark suit, calm and polished, like he had every right to walk back into my life. “Our parents want us to get married,” he said, his voice entirely even. The words slipped out of his mouth too smoothly. They lacked any sort of weight, hanging in the air as if he hadn't just rewritten the entire rhythm of my life with a single sentence. For a second, I genuinely thought my mind was playing tricks on me. Marriage? To a man like him? My hands balled into tight fists, a familiar, burning fury rushing through my veins before I could check it. But I forced my posture to remain rigid and still. I had spent years making sure I wasn't that fragile girl anymore. I was no longer the naive teenager who counted down the minutes for a text from him or the fool who swallowed his every word without a shred of doubt. That version of me had been buried a long time ago. “Avalan…” my mother murmured from my left, her tone laced with a fragile, hesitant caution. I could feel it, the heavy, suffocating pressure of everyone's expectations pinning me to the floor. My family was holding their collective breath, tracking my expression, and waiting for a reaction they could easily categorize. But they were completely in the dark. They had absolutely no idea that the innocent looking gentleman standing in front of them had once treated my heart like an absolute joke. They didn't know I still remembered the sound of people laughing while that video played. They didn't know I still remembered standing there while everyone stared at me, waiting for the ground to open beneath my feet. Slowly, I forced my chin up to meet his gaze. I took him in fully, refusing to look away. He looked older now. More Sharper and composed. But his eyes were the same, quiet, innocent, and far too steady for a man who had once ruined me. He stood there acting as if our history was a blank slate. As if he hadn't cracked something fundamental inside my soul, a wound I had spent years trying to patch together. “You want to marry me?” I asked. To my own surprise, the question came out steady, devoid of the tremors rocking my insides. He gave a single, firm nod. “Yes.” Just like that. One word. There wasn't an atom of remorse, no sign that his memory of the past held the same agonizing weight as mine. A cold, cynical smile tugged at the corner of my mouth before I could suppress it. Of course. Why am i not surprise, typical of him. My father cleared his throat, the sound slicing through the thick layer of tension that had settled over the room. “This is an incredible opportunity for everyone involved,” he stated, his voice firm and laced with a desperate kind of hope. “His family possesses an unblemished reputation. We’ve done business with them for decades.” Reputation. Respectability. Those hollow words again. A bitter laugh bubbled up in my throat, but I kept it trapped behind my teeth, swallowing it down. If my parents only knew the reality of their golden boy. If they knew what happened after that video spread through the school. If they knew how quickly my life became entertainment. I drew a sharp breath, feeling a familiar tightness seize my chest for a fleeting second. Just a second. Because I absolutely refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing me falter. Not again. I am never mapping my pain onto my face for him to witness ever again. Despite my composure, the ghosts of the past came clawing their way back. I remembered waiting outside the library for almost an hour because he had said he might stop by. I remembered pretending not to care when he walked past with another girl. Back then, even a five-minute conversation from him could make my entire day And then… the day the floor dropped out from beneath me. Looking back, I couldn't tell which moments had been real. The smiles. The conversations. The attention. Every memory felt suspicious now. But the board had changed. Tilting my head slightly, I observed him through a new lens, studying him as if he were a complete stranger passing by on the street. Maybe he expected me to throw a tantrum and reject the proposal. Maybe he thought I would run out of the room in tears, repeating the same exit I made years ago. Maybe he truly believed I was still that easily broken, fragile girl. That was his absolute first mistake. Seven years changes a person. It had certainly changed me. I let a smooth smile spread across my face. This time, it wasn't born out of anxiety, or a pathetic shred of hope, or anything resembling affection. It was a pure strategy. “Okay,” I said, letting the word drop heavily into the quiet room. The single word seemed to freeze the air, catching everyone off guard. “If a marriage is what you’re looking for…” I continued, keeping my tone perfectly conversational and completely empty of emotion, “…then I will gladly marry you.” A sharp, shocking gasp escaped my mother’s lips. My father’s shoulders dropped in visible relief, convinced that his perfectly orchestrated plan had just fallen into place without a hitch. But my new fiancé didn't look relieved. He just locked his eyes onto mine. He was watching me with an intense scrutiny now, his brow shifting slightly as if he was trying to decode a puzzle he couldn't quite solve. Good. Let him drive himself mad, trying to figure me out. Because this time around, I wasn't entering the arena as the lovesick girl who would bend to his whim. I was standing before him as an equal adversary. the one woman he was going to have to fight to survive. If he believed this arrangement was going to be a walk in the park or that he could walk into my world, pull the strings, and leave without paying a price, he was deeply mistaken. This time, I wasn't the pawn on his board. I was the one rewriting the rules of engagement. And he had absolutely no idea of just how far I was willing to go to burn his world to the ground.