CHAPTER ONE
Two weeks earlier Alina had married Aidan Blackwood, her dream man who had no interest in her.
She could remember how he made everyone wait for him. Well, she didn't expect much.
He's not someone who wants marriage. She'd known him since she could remember and every time she spent time with him goosebumps would circle her.
Was it even worth the suffering of being with someone who doesn't love her?
He would never see her as a bride.
She just wished for one thing and that was for Aidan to cherish and love her.
The vows they changed in the aisle were nothing but just some air utterance.
It has been two weeks of loneliness, Alina would most time stare at the stars on the balcony with teary eyes.
There was no one to comfort her, none to talk to her through the dark days.
Aidan had distanced himself more and more. Creating the boundary between them. A heavy sigh escapes her lips.
A peep from her phone made her jolt, she picked it up from the table beside her and there sat a message from Jake which states….
"I'm at your gate" Alina's eyes twinged.
She immediately rushed outside and there he was standing.
The night lay soft and dim over the driveway, the mansion's lanterns throwing pale gold onto polished stone. Alina stood on the lowest step, laughing breathless at something Jake had said, the kind of laugh that belonged to a younger self, unmarked by fear. He was only there for a moment, he said, to drop off an assignment she'd forgotten.
Alina was indeed grateful that Jake could take his time to return her note.
She smiled at him.
Aidan had been watching from the shadow of the portico, and when he stepped out the air changed. He did not walk. He moved like a thing with a single, terrible purpose.
"Alina." His voice cut across the night so sharply she flinched.
She turned, startled. "A…Aidan? I…"
He didn't let her finish. He saw the way she had looked at Jake, the ease of her laughter, and something in him snapped clean in two.
Aidan angrily shoved her to his side, shutting Alina up as she tried to explain.
"Get away." Aidan's order sent Jake to leave the two of them alone on the wet stones after one last glance at Alina who had tears built up in her eyes.
Jake knew he wouldn't win a battle he couldn't finish, everyone knows that Aidan is a psychopath.
"Aidan, please," Alina trembled. "He's a friend. You know Jake…"
"You think I don't know?" Aidan's palm landed on her arm like a strike. He hauled her toward the door. "How long, Alina? How long have you been laughing with other men under my roof?"
"No…no, it's not like that. Please, listen to me." Her voice trembled.
Her fingers found his sleeve as if anchoring herself could steady the world.
He shoved her inside. The front hall swallowed the sound of the rain. The door slammed like a verdict.
"Aidan, please" she begged as his hands closed on her. "Please, I didn't…don't… I swear, I didn't do anything…"
"What were you trying to do ah?" Aidan yelled at her. His eyes held so much anger.
"Do you know that this could bring humiliation, what would people say, that the girl I married is cheating!"
Alina shook her head, the tears never stopped falling.
"Aidan…please…"
He didn't listen. He shoved her against the bed, Alina panicked more as he climbed onto the bed and tore off her clothes.
He had ignored pleas completely, acting like a complete nutcase.
Unbothered by the small, painful sound she made. When she tried to push him away he tightened his grip and pressed himself between her and his shaft going into her without a warning, Alina screamed at the excruciating pain in her body.
Her legs spread out, for Aidan's devious act.
She just couldn't grasp why he was doing this to her.
Her fingers clawed at his, bruising his bare back.
Her pleas grew louder, rawer, shredding the quiet of the house.
"Stop! Aidan…please stop! You're hurting me…please…" Her words choked between sobs.
For a terrifying, breathless moment he only answered with his own breath, hot, ragged, furious. Then his hands moved with a force that left no room for consent, he forced himself on her. She fought, claws at his chest, nails dragging through fabric, each "No!" a small broken thing that ricocheted off his anger.
"Please…please…no…Aidan…please don't…I c…can't breathe"
Her voice broke. The hallway filled with the sounds of her pleading and the hard thud of the bed that squeaked. He covered her mouth for a second to stifle the cries.
The pressure only made her struggle harder. She felt later she would never quite find the shape of that moment except in flashes of trembling and the metallic taste of panic.
When it ended, she was left gasping on the bed, clothes askew, hands pressed to her stomach as if to hold herself together.
Alina tossed in the bed with the rapid pains that left her to die.
She had never thought Aidan would do such a thing.
How didn't she see that dark side of him?
The demon who would do anything and go scot free.
Alina with all her little strength that was left in her, stood up and put on a white T-shirt that was on the ground.
Her legs were giving up on her, the tears, sadness, anger, and guilt all centered her all at once.
Alina clutched her stomach, feeling the excruciating pain that almost made her faint.
The rain began to fall, slow and cold.
Alina ran through the dark streets barefoot, her tears mixing with the raindrops, her breath ragged. Each step sent pain through her, but she didn't stop.
She just couldn't.
Her thoughts were a blur.
Why? How could he?
The man she had once admired, trusted like family, had broken something inside her that could never be fixed.
By the time she reached her parents' house, her T-shirt was soaked, and her hair clung to her face. She hesitated at the front door, her trembling fingers hovering over the handle.
Inside, voices echoed, raised, sharp, filled with tension.
Her father's voice boomed first. "You knew about it, didn't you, Grace? You knew about him!"
Her mother's voice followed, cracking with guilt. "I did it for her safety! You know what Mr. Blackwood is capable of!"
Alina froze.
Mr. Blackwood?
She pressed closer to the door, her heart pounding.
Her father's voice lowered, heavy with anger. "You made her marry Aidan because of that man's threats? You promised him our daughter in exchange for our lives?"
Grace's sobs filled the hall. "It wasn't supposed to go this far. He said if we didn't agree, he would destroy everything, the company, our name, our family."
Alina's stomach twisted. Her parent,
Her marriage
It had all been built on lies.
She could swear that she had asked herself countless times why the sudden marriage to Aidan.
Why would her parents make a quick decision without talking to her first?
A cold numbness began to spread through her chest.
Alina stayed rooted on the ground the more she heard words she shouldn't have heard.
"We've to protect Caslista's child at all costs, she gave Alina to us to care for her" Alina staggered, unable to process the words that her parents kept sprouting.
"You do know that Mr Blackwood killed her mother and we can't risk that, we can't risk Alina's child"
Alina shook her head, tears stained her face.
She couldn't understand what she was hearing, Mr Blackwood
Her mother….
Are they not her real parents?
What was happening, why was her head spinning, she was tongue-tied.
Devastated, frustrated, rage, sadness,
Different emotions echoed in Alina.
She turned to leave, desperate to breathe, to escape and that's when it happened.
A blinding flash.
A deafening roar.
The entire building erupted into flames.
The force threw Alina backward, her body crashing onto the wet ground. She screamed, the heat searing her skin as smoke swallowed the night.
Through the haze, she saw them, her parents, falling, trapped beneath the collapsing ceiling. Their cries were swallowed by the fire.
"Mother! Father!" she screamed, crawling toward the door. But the explosion had taken everything.
Then silence…
The world dimmed, her vision blurred, and the last thing she saw before everything went black was a shadowed figure moving toward her, someone pulling her away from the flames.