The Wife He Swore To Destroy

The first thing he did after saying I do was to annoyingly let go of my hand.

Like touching me burned his hand.

The altar was silent except for the echo of the priest's final blessing and the soft click of cameras taking pictures, I hadn't been told about. I stood there in a white dress, borrowed, didn't fit, staring at the man who was now my husband, and his back turned towards me, walking away.

"Mr. Blackwood," the priest called anxiously. "You may kiss the bride." pointing to me.

Adrian Blackwood reluctantly turned slowly.

He looked at me with eyes full of hatred and questions. They were the eyes of a man looking for answers.

"I won't, if I were you," he said to me.

The words felt like a blow to my face.

A few people gasped.

I felt all of them looking at me, wondering what sort of a woman would marry a billionaire who stares at her with eyes of hatred.

Adrian leaned in, just enough for only me to hear.

"This marriage is a transaction, a contract I paid you for" he said. "Don't mistake it for mercy."

Then he turned back to the priest. " I am done here."

And just like that, my supposed wedding ended. Without a kiss.

After two hours, I sat alone in the back seat of his car, words going on in my mind, holding my phone like it was a lifeline, as the traffic in Melrose Avenue road crawled around us. My reflection looked back at me in the tinted glass, eyes too big for my petite face.

Adrian sat opposite me, scrolling through his tab as if I didn't exist. His tuxedo was perfect for his sculpted muscular body. His posture was firm. He did not look bothered even by the fact that he had just married someone he clearly hates.

I cleared my throat, "My mother..."

"She'll get the surgery," he cut in without looking up. "The best doctors. The best hospital."

Relief flooded me so fast my chest burned.

"Thank you," I said faintly.

He finally looked at me then.

And whatever warmth I had expected, whatever human virtue, I didn't find any.

"You weren't thankful when you betrayed my family," he said.

My heart stopped.

"I didn't..."

"Don't," he snapped. "Don't lie. I know exactly who you are, Lina."

Hearing my name from his mouth felt wrong. Too intimate. Too sharp.

"Whatever you think I did," I said, my voice trembling despite all my effort to sound calm, "but I swear to you, I have never betrayed you or your family, I didn't do such a thing."

He laughed.

He didn't believe a word I mentioned.

"You disappeared the same week my father was arrested," he said coldly. "The same week our company lost everything. And now you show up years later, desperate and broke, asking for help."

My fingers curled into the fabric of my borrowed, saggy looking dress. "That's a coincidence."

"There are no coincidences," Adrian replied. "There are only liars and victims."

The car stopped.

We had arrived at his mansion, massive iron gates, high walls, a place that screamed, money, power. A place I would now call home.

A prison dressed as luxury.

He stepped out first. When I hesitated, he turned back, his face hard.

"You wanted this marriage," he said. "You wanted my name. My money. My protection."

He leaned to me until his face was just inches away from my face.

"What you would never get from me," he continued, "is my heart and my forgiveness."

The bedroom was big.

A king sized bed was in the center of the bedroom. Perfect. Cold. Soft.

Adrian threw his jacket over a chair. "You'll sleep on that side," he said, pointing to the far edge. "We will not share a bed. We will not share a life. You will smile in public and stay out of my way in private."

"And if I don't?" I asked quietly.

He paused.

Then he turned to me, eyes darkening. "Then I will make sure that I put you to shame and put you where you belong."

The door banged loudly behind him as he walked out of the room.

I sat on the bed, my knees gave out.

This was it.

I traded my freedom for my mother's life.

Tears tried to flow out from my eyes, but I refused to let them fall, at least not yet. Crying would not change anything. Crying would not save her.

Still, my chest was pounding with a question I couldn't silence.

What did he think I did?

Later at night, long after the mansion went quiet and dark. I lay awake looking at the ceiling. Somewhere down the hall, I heard Adrian's footsteps, slow and deliberate.

He stopped outside the bedroom door.

For one forsaken moment, I thought he might come in.

Instead, his voice seeped through the door, low and controlled.

"You should know something, Lina."

I held my breath.

"I married you to keep you where I can see you," he said. "Because if I ever find proof that you destroyed my family..."

The pause was sickening , deadly.

"I will destroy you right back."

His footsteps faded through the darkness.

I rotated to my side, pressing my face into the soft pillow to suppress the sob that finally escaped.

He despises me.

But the truth, the real truth, was worse.

Because I had no concept who framed me.

And whoever did was close enough to him that he trusted them with everything.

As Lina lay in the dark, replaying Adrian's threat in her mind, her phone buzzed softly on the nightstand.

She hesitated... then reached for it.

One new message.

From an unknown number.

"You should never have married him."

"He can't protect you now."

Her breath caught.

A second message appeared.

"He doesn't know who you really are."

And then, from across the hall, a door creaked open.

Footsteps stopped right outside her bedroom.

Slow.

Deliberate.

Waiting.