THE VENGEANCE MARRIAGE

Lena slammed the door behind her, the anger rising too fast for her to catch. “You want me to marry a stranger? Mother really?!” she snapped, her voice shaking, but sharp enough to cut through the small and quiet living room. Her mother’s hands trembled as she slowly walked up to her. “Listen to me, Lena. I wouldn’t want this for you either but it’s the only way,” her mother said, her voice small but steady. “Our debts… I don’t even have a stable job and your father…” She trailed off, and Lena could see the fear in her eyes, the exact same fear she always had every time she woke up and realized her reality. Lena’s stomach twisted. She had fought so hard, tried so long, and now everything she had done felt meaningless. A marriage. A stranger. Her life handed over to someone she had never met, it could be some bald old man. And for what? To keep her family from falling apart. She wanted to yell, to storm out and pretend this wasn’t happening, but the image of her father lying on his creaky bed, pale and fragile, stopped her. He had always been strong, always the one holding them together, and now he needed her. They all needed her to make a choice she didn’t want to make. Lena ran a hand through her soft hair aggressively, allowing her anger grow. She had to think. Every night since the bills started piling up, she had dreamed of a solution. Nothing had worked. Loans, multiple jobs, pleading with distant relatives, they were all dead ends. This contract was apparently the only option. A strange part of her wanted to refuse. To say no and watch the consequences fall where they may. But another part, the part that loved her father more than herself, knew she could not. She had no choice – no choice at all. “It’s all so fast, I need to think about it. Give me a day,” Lena whispered, her voice quieter than she intended. Her mother nodded, relief washing over her face, but Lena barely noticed. She was thinking about the stranger she would soon marry, the man whose name she didn’t even know, and don’t care to know. A man who would probably own her life in a way she had never allowed anyone to do before. Of course contracts like these came with conditions. Her family’s bills and every debts they have ever incurred would be miraculously paid. That was the catch. She thought to herself as she strolled to her tiny room. She would not be marrying a husband—she would be marrying a solution, a lifeline for her family. And yet, imagining the man waiting for her somewhere out there, the thought made her stomach twist in ways she didn’t want to admit. She looked at the papers her mother had given her, her fingers trembling. The words that indicated the conditions – conditions that didn’t scare her as much as the unknown did. Who was he? What kind of man would agree to a marriage that meant nothing to him but everything to her family? Would he be kind? Cold? Dangerous? Lena forced herself to take a deep breath. She had made decisions before, hard ones, and she had survived. She could survive this too. For her father. For her mother. For the family that depended on her. The next day like she had promised, she agreed to sign the contract. Her mother was in between emotions – glad that their problems were slowly becoming solved, and guilty for selling daughter off to some wealthy man. In a week, they would go to court. Lena would meet the man she was marrying. She didn’t know his face, didn’t know his name, didn’t know anything beyond the power he would soon have over her life. She took one last look around the room, at the pictures of her family, at the small comforts of home she would be leaving behind. A lump formed in her throat. Her heart pounded with fear, with anger, with something she couldn’t name. The court wedding was set. And Lena Hart was about to become Lena Blackwood. Finally it’s D-Day. Lena and her mother had arrived at the court before her husband. She was on a simple peach gown and silver heels that was sent to her by her supposed husband for the wedding. The shoes were expensive, far better than anything she had every owned, but they felt like weights on her feet. As she sat at the front of the court room, waiting, her heart pounding nervously. She looked up to see her mother smiling at her, a very sad smile. She was anxious as well. The doors that lead into the room finally opened, and there he was, walking elegantly into the hall. He didn’t look like the “bald old man” Lena had feared. He walked into the room with a cold, terrifying elegance. Chiseled features, piercing eyes, a perfectly trimmed beard—he carried himself with a presence that made the room feel smaller. Was this who she was really getting married to? Her heart raced some more. She watched as his long, elegant legs moved him to the front of the hall, where she was sat. He had another man walking closely behind him. She recognized him as the man who came to confirm if she had agreed to the contract. Everything suddenly felt like a dream. Countless times she pinched her thighs hoping to wake up, but the sharp sting reminded her that it was real. Painfully and unmistakably real. The man finally made it up to them. He didn’t smile, he wasn’t frowning either, he just stared – stared at her like she was a trophy he finally got his hands on. Lena looked away awkwardly, suddenly adjusting her dress. Soon the judge walked into the court room, and in a haze, unrealistic vows were made. The judge cleared his throat. “Julian Blackwood, do you take Lena Hart to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for as long as you both shall live?” Julian’s voice was steady, even, a d controlled. “I do.” The judge turned to Lena. “Lena Hart, do you take Julian Blackwood to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for as long as you both shall live?” Lena’s lips trembled, her chest tightening. She swallowed hard. “I do.” As the words left her mouth, she felt the weight of their meaning. These were vows everyone expected, words people repeated in real weddings without thinking. But Lena knew better. Because in her own wedding, these words were empty and unrealistic. Well now she knew her husband’s name: Julian Blackwood. As they signed the final documents, Lena felt the weight of her new name: Lena Blackwood. It felt heavy. It felt wrong. She looked up and caught Julian’s gaze. He wasn’t looking at his new wife with affection. He was shooting a sharp, jagged glare at her, his jaw tight with a resentment she couldn’t understand.