I knew it wasn’t going to be a love letter, but my heart fluttered in my chest as I tore it open anyway. Inside was a simple printed pamphlet. I scanned it quickly. A private hospital, which just happened to have the best heart specialist in the country working there.
And a handwritten note.
You have five minutes to get downstairs. Otherwise, all of this can change.
I swallowed the bitter lump in my throat. The threat was pretty clear. If I didn’t marry him, then any hope of my sister getting care in that swanky hospital was gone.
She wouldn’t survive without that kind of care. Scrumpling the note in my hand, I tossed it onto the vanity and walked towards the door on high heels that were already pinching my feet.
I ignored the pain in my feet and the fact that I couldn’t breathe in the tight dress and just concentrated on one thing.
Walking down the stairs with my head held high to marry a man I didn’t know, so I could save my sister’s life.
Chapter Seven
Alexei
I didn’t look at her walking towards me down the aisle. I only knew she had arrived because a murmur went up from the crowd.
They sounded impressed, and a chill ran up my spine. A small voice urged me to turn around and watch her as she walked towards me. It would be the proper thing to do. Not that anything about this situation was proper.
I was marrying a woman I didn’t know and didn’t even really want to know. Sighing heavily, I set my shoulders and stared stonily ahead. There was only one reason I was doing this, and he was sitting in his wheelchair at the front of the crowd. His carer sat next to him. This would make Nikolai happy, and he deserved that.
The air around me moved, swelling around me and filling my lungs with a sweet vanilla chocolate scent that tickled my senses.
I turned towards her. My eyes scanned the dress, and then I lifted the veil that covered her face. No wonder the crowd had murmured in approval. The dress was perfect for her, molding to the curves of her body that her usual boxy clothes hid.
She looked like a goddess in all that white silk and satin.
Smoothly, I lifted the veil from her face, and the illusion shattered.It wasn’t that she didn’t look beautiful, the make-up artists had done an amazing job, but her eyes were red-rimmed and swimming with tears.
“Hi.” Her lips trembled up into a smile that I hardly saw.
I couldn’t tear my gaze away from her eyes. Why the hell was she crying? No one was forcing her to do this, and she most definitely got the better deal out of it.
It was me who should be crying and snivelling. I was the one being lumbered with her after all. I was the one who had to shoulder the financial burden of not just keeping her but her sister as well.
If anyone should be crying, it should be me. “Why are you crying?” I hissed under my breath.
“I’m not crying,” she countered back, but a single tear fell down her cheek. Reaching out, I caught it with my fingertips. To anyone who was watching, it would have looked sweet.
It wasn’t sweet.
My lips thinned into a sneer. “Stop it right now.”
“I’m not crying, it’s just—” her eyes darted to the side. “There’s not one person here I know.”
“So?” What the hell was she talking about now? “Everyone here is someone important.”
“To you,” she muttered. “I would have liked some of my family and friends to be invited as well.”
I stared at her in silence. My lips thinned as I mulled over her words, but she spoke again before I could.
“It doesn’t matter, I guess. Shall we get this over and done with?”
“I guess we should,” I snapped right back.
It was crazy to me that we were going through this. Neither one of us wanted to be here. We were doing it out of duty, but I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. Whether this was a sham marriage or not, it was going to be a binding one. Maybe I should have made more of an effort to invite some of her people.
