Married To The Wrong Castellan.

Delilah’s POV “Delilah, Baby open your eyes please.” My mother’s soft and frightened voice reached me from afar, like she was afraid that if she raised her voice I might disappear. I tried to answer her, but my mouth wouldn't move. My body felt strangely heavy, and my head throbbed with a dull, pounding ache. I tried again and this time I managed to breathe. The first thing I noticed was the floral scent of my mother’s perfume, the second was the cold beneath my cheeks and then the memories slammed in. The chapel, the empty altar, Wyatt. My eyes flew open. “Mum.” “Oh, thank God.” Her face hovered above mine, blurry at first. Her eyes were extremely red with tears running down her cheeks and her hands shook as she touched my face. I stared up at her. “wha… what happened ?” My voice barely came out, and my throat felt extremely dry. She let out a shaky breath. “You fainted.” I pushed myself up too quickly and the room spun. “Easy sweetheart, easy.” My mother caught my shoulders before I could fall back down. “For a second there you scared me.” I closed my eyes and waited for the room to stop spinning and for a second all I could hear was the ringing in my ears and my own uneven breathing. Then I remembered fully. “Wyatt.” My eyes opened wide. “He’s gone?" My mother went quiet. I looked at her, “Like… he’s really gone?” She just sat beside me on the floor and pulled me into her arms. I didn’t move, I just sat there in her arms staring at nothing. I already knew why I had fainted. Not because I hadn’t eaten , not because I was too nervous or because my dress was too tight. But because the man I was supposed to marry had vanished without a word. I could have understood if he had told me he didn’t love me anymore, it could have destroyed me, but at least I would have had an answer. Or maybe if we’d fought, if I had done something wrong or even if he had changed his mind about marrying me. But he hadn’t given me anything. No explanation, no warning, absolutely nothing. He was just gone. My eyes moved towards my dressing table, my phone was still sitting there, I tried to reach for it. “Delilah, maybe you should have some water and lie down a little,” my mother said, trying to stop me. “I need my phone, mum.” She hesitated for a moment before picking it up and handing it over. My fingers shook as I unlocked my screen. The first thing I saw was his name. Wyatt, my heart clenched. I opened our messages, the last one he’d sent this morning. “Can’t wait to see you walk down the aisle. Whatever happens today, remember, I love you, and I’ll always love you.” I stared at it. I had read those words so many times this morning. I had smiled at them, I even teased him for making me emotional before the wedding. How stupid I felt now. My thumb hovered around my screen, I wanted to call him again. Even though I knew he wouldn’t answer like the last ten times. I pressed dial anyway. The call rang three times and then went straight to voicemail. I ended the call and my throat tightened. “Why would he do this to me?” My mother didn’t answer. “There has to be a reason,” I said. “There has to be.” I tightened my grip on her hand. She looked at me. “I don’t know, baby.” That answer hurt more than I expected. Nobody knew, not my mother, not my father, not his best friend Theo, not even his own brother Richard. Nobody. Everyone had spent the entire morning trying to find Wyatt, but nobody had been able to tell me why he had left. I pulled my knee towards my chest. I could still remember exactly how the morning had started. I had been very happy, so happy that I thought nothing could touch me. My mother had been behind me, fastening the last button of my thirty-thousand -dollar wedding dress. I had looked at myself in the mirror and smiled. I was getting married to Wyatt, I was finally going to be his wife. For almost a year, people had talked about us. Before now, everyone, including our parents, had expected me to marry Richard. ‘Delilah and Richard’ was the story everyone had already written. But then I fell in love with Wyatt, the younger brother. I fell so hard that by the time I realized what was happening, there was no going back. Our families fought, people talked. Some even said I had made a mistake. But Wyatt had made me feel like I had chosen right. That morning, I believed I was about to get everything I had fought for. Then my bridesmaid Nora came into my bridal suite. She didn’t knock, she just walked in with a different face. Too serious. “Delilah.” I looked at her through the mirror. “What?” “Wyatt is gone,” she said, coming closer. “Wha—what do you mean gone?” I frowned. “His passport, his car, his clothes. Everything is gone.” She swallowed hard. I turned around, “What are you talking about? Gone to where, and why would he take his passport?” “I don’t know.” I stared at her face wondering if it was some stupid prank to try and scare me before the wedding. But Nora didn’t smile. In fact, she looked terrified. I had picked up my phone and called again and again, but it all went straight to voicemail. I remember shaking my head. “No.” “Delilah….” “No.” I snapped, I couldn’t accept it. I wouldn’t. “He wouldn’t leave me.” I said it like saying it enough times would make it true. “He wouldn’t do this.” This was Wyatt. The same Wyatt who had told me he couldn’t wait to see me walk down the aisle. The same Wyatt who had kissed my forehead last night and told me to sleep because I was going to be a nervous mess in the morning. The same Wyatt who had spent a year fighting for us. So why would he leave now? Why would he say he loved me and then disappear? Why would he make me believe I was about to become his wife if he had already decided to walk away? I had no answer. Nobody did. And eventually, I had to face the one thing I spent the entire morning refusing to believe. Wyatt really left. That was when the room started to spin and my legs gave out. I remember Nora shouting my name and my mother running fast towards me. And then everything went black. Now I was awake, in my wedding dress and still without a groom. I looked at his message one more time. ‘Whatever happens today, remember I love you, and I’ll always love you.’ I had thought those words were a promise. But they weren’t. They were a goodbye.