Married To His Enemy

ARIA At 10:40 on the night before my wedding, the rain had turned to ice, and I was driving home across the Old Iron Bridge. I glanced at my wedding dress lying across the back seat in a long white bag. Tomorrow at eleven, I would walk down the aisle and become Mrs. Julian Hale. Just thinking it made me smile so wide that my cheeks hurt. 'Mrs. Aria Hale,' I thought, giddy as a teenage girl. 'Tomorrow, I finally have a family of my own.' I was singing along to a love song on the radio, badly, when my phone buzzed. Bianca's sweet voice filled the car. "Sis, did you leave the dress shop yet?" Bianca Lane had been my best friend since we were six. I smiled and turned the wipers higher. "I'm on the bridge now." Her voice turned soft and serious. "Drive slow, sis. Hold the wheel with both hands. I don't want Julian to become a widower before he even becomes a husband." I laughed. "Sis! That's a terrible thing to say the night before my wedding!” She laughed with me, a little too quickly. "I know. I just worry about you. Sleep well, bride." The call ended. Suddenly, a pair of headlights came up fast behind me. It was too bright and too close. 'What is his problem?' I thought. All of a sudden, the car behind me slammed into my back bumper and my car slid across the ice. ‘What the heck?’ I stamped on the brake, but the wheels only spun. I tried to drive the steering wheel but the car swung up beside me and rammed my door. “Help!” I screamed but my car already went off the bridge and hit the river nose first. Black water burst through the vents and climbed to my chest. It was so cold it burned like fire. Quickly, I tore off my seatbelt and threw my whole body against the door. 'Please, God,' I prayed. ‘I still want to get married tomorrow. I want to have kids…’ But the door didn't move and the water closed over my face. Suddenly, out of nowhere, something struck the window. The glass exploded, and a hand found my wrist. It was strong and warm in all that cold. A man pulled me through the broken window and up into the freezing night air. I choked on river water, and I was too weak to swim. I thought I was going to sink again but the man’s strong arm locked around my waist. Then he spoke close to my ear, low and fierce. "Don't let go of my hand." His hands locked with mine and he brought me to the shore. I held on as long as I could, but then everything went black. --- At ten past two in the morning, I woke in a narrow bed to City Hospital to warmth, a beeping machine, and stitches above my left eyebrow. I have nothing with me. Even my right ear was bare and my father's pearl earring was gone. 'Who pulled me out?' I wondered. Suddenly, footsteps stopped outside my half-open door. Julian spoke in a furious whisper. "Are you insane, Bianca? You hired a driver?" Bianca answered sharply, with no sweetness at all. "I told him to scare Aria, but he went too far. That's not my fault." My blood turned to ice. ‘This is Bianca’s plan? But why?’ As if she heard my thoughts, Bianca spoke again, and her voice cracked. "I couldn't stand it, Julian! Tomorrow you’re going to kiss her in front of the whole city, and I'm supposed to hold her flowers and smile?" Julian's voice softened, the way I thought it only softened for me. "Babe. Hey. Come here." There was silence. Then a soft, wet sound I knew far too well. A kiss. My heart cracked in two. 'Babe…' I thought, trembling. 'My fiancé of two years and my best friend of eighteen.' Julian pulled back first. "Please understand me. If she dies before the wedding, I get nothing. Her father's will says the shares unlock only when she marries, and her husband controls her vote. If she dies single, everything goes to her grandmother." Bianca's voice turned soft and cold. "Fine. Marry her tomorrow. Then wait a few months. A bad fall down the stairs. Too many sleeping pills. And after that, you're a rich, heartbroken widower. And you're finally mine." Under the blanket, my nails dug into my palms until they hurt. I wanted to tear open that door and scream their names down the hallway. 'And then what?' a cold voice asked inside me. 'You have no proof. They'll say you hit your head. They'll lock you away and try again.' Suddenly, the door creaked open and I immediately closed my eyes. ‘I will just let them keep their sweet and harmless doll… for now.’ Julian sat on my bed and took my hand. Meanwhile, Bianca hurried to my other side with wet, worried eyes. Julian's voice was gentle as he spoke. "Baby? Can you hear me?" I let my eyes flutter open and smiled weakly. "Julian? A car hit me…” He kissed my knuckles. "I know. A drunk driver. Don't think about it. The doctor says you can leave in the morning for the wedding. Baby, three hundred guests are coming. We won't let one bad driver ruin our wedding, will we?" Bianca squeezed my other hand. Everything in me wanted to rip it away, but I let her hold it. I smiled my softest smile. "No. Of course not." Julian bent and kissed my forehead. His lips were warm, but I felt nothing but cold. He smiled down at me, golden and perfect. "Rest, baby. Tomorrow you become my wife." I smiled back. 'No, Julian,' I thought, cold and certain. 'Tomorrow I become ‘someone's’ wife.' --- At eleven o'clock the next morning, the organ of St. Agnes Church began to play, and three hundred people rose to their feet. I stepped onto the red carpet in white silk and a bouquet of white roses. Makeup hid my stitches, but nothing hid the bruises across my ribs. At the altar, Julian waited in a light gray suit and a pale blue tie, the exact blue of his lying eyes. Behind him stood Bianca, in the pink silk dress I had sketched for her myself. Julian mouthed three words. 'You look beautiful.' And I gave him my sweetest smile. 'Enjoy the last ten steps you'll ever own me,' I thought. I looked toward the front row and saw the only man I wanted to see today. Damien Cross. My pulse jumped and I silently pleaded, 'Please be as cold as everyone says.' I had spent the whole night on my plan. If I married someone else today, my shares would unlock, and Julian would get nothing. I needed a man Julian couldn't buy, scare, or charm. Only one name on the guest list fit. The man I was looking at. Damien Cross. He was Hale Group's biggest rival. The city's most famous bachelor, the cold, handsome man every magazine chased and half the women in the city pretended not to stare at. He was sitting alone at the end of the row, tall and broad-shouldered in a black suit with no tie. Everyone else was smiling except him. His gray eyes were cold as winter, and they stayed on me, steady and dark, as if I were the only person in the church. His gaze dropped to my stitches, and his jaw went hard. 'You don't know me,' I told him silently. 'But you're the only door left.' I stopped walking and the organ stumbled into silence. Julian tilted his head, still smiling. "Aria? Baby, the altar is this way." I opened my fingers, and the white bouquet fell to the carpet. Petals scattered like snow. I turned to the guests, my heart pounding, and my voice rang clear through the stone church. "I'm sorry to everyone who came today. I will not marry Julian Hale." Gasps filled the pews. Someone dropped a phone. Somewhere in the second row, a cane tapped the floor twice. 'There's no going back now,' I thought. I walked across the aisle, my silk dress whispering over the petals, and stopped in front of Damien Cross. Up close, he smelled of cedar and cold air, and his eyes held a darker ring near the center, like storm clouds. My hands were shaking, but I hid them in my dress and lifted my chin. I held his gaze and said it loud enough for the whole church to hear. "Marry me instead, Mr. Cross."