When William Edwards proposed, Adera thought her dreams had finally come true. After years of living in the shadow of her twin sister, she was going to have something uniquely hers. But the night before her wedding, Adera discovered her fiancƩ entangled with her twin, professing his love and plans to abandon her. Heartbroken and bitter, Adera drowned her sorrows at a club and woke up in a stranger's bed on what was supposed to be her wedding day. Now, her scandalous photos are all over the internet, and her ex-fiancƩ is preparing to marry her sister. Desperate and humiliated, Adera stands on a bridge, contemplating ending her life. Just then, a Rolls Royce pulls up, and a handsome stranger with mesmerizing emerald eyes steps out. "I know you think your life is over, but I need a bride for my wedding today," the deep baritone had her mind spiralling for a second until she processed his outrageous request. "Have you lost your mind?" She snapped. "You must be the only man in town who doesn't know about my reputation as a whore. Are you trying to mock me?" Although he felt a strange ache in his heart for her, desperation won over. "Darling, I do not care about your reputation. I just need you to get in a white dress and pretend to love me. I'm ready to pay any amount you want." Can Adera take a leap of faith with this mysterious man? Will pretending to love him offer her a chance at redemption, or plunge her into even deeper scandal? Could there possibly be secrets behind those captivating emerald eyes?
Chapter 1 1
/-Adera-/
I was bubbling with excitement. In a few hours, I was going to wed the love of my life.
It was a dream come true for me. An opportunity to finally be useful as my mother put it. She made sure to sink it into my head at every given opportunity that if I messed up this privilege, I would be completely discarded.
But none of that mattered to me.
William Edwards was my childhood dream. The boy who stole my heart in middle school. Everyone expected he would go for Sarah, the outgoing and dazzling twin.
I couldn't blame them. Even I thought the same until he confessed his feelings for me in high school. It still felt like yesterday.
The excitement, the butterflies, and the beauty of that moment will always remain imprinted in my mind.
Many said he would leave me. That a man as gorgeous and influential as Williams Edwards couldn't be with someone as average as me. Even Sarah was confident she could take him from me if she put in the slightest effort.
It was the typical high school jock and weirdo love story but in all that, William never made me feel less of myself.
He protected the little self-esteem I had left from being treated like my sister's vomit and it made me fall so hard for him.
Maybe too hard.
Fast forward to five years, here I was right here, dressed in a beautiful plain dress, enjoying my bachelorette party.
Sarah made sure to invite all her friends since I was antisocial. I could only boast of one friend, Rosa and she wasn't a fan of Williams.
In her words, he was too good to be true.
"Enjoying your night?"
Speak of the devil!
I turned to her with a grin, "of course. The crowd is crazy. I didn't think Sarah had so many friends."
"Exactly what I thought. If I didn't know better, I'd think it was her bachelorette party," Rosa huffed.
I snorted. She despised Sarah almost as much as she hated William.
"Where is your groom, anyways?" She asked me.
"Partying with his friends," I shrugged, refilling my glass.
"What do you mean by partying with his friends? You are supposed to be with him, making the most of your last night as singles," she stated.
My expression morphed into that of disbelief.
"Haven't you heard it is bad luck to see the groom before your wedding?"
She flicked my forehead and a wince escaped my lips.
"That's for being silly. You saw him this morning, didn't you? Doesn't that count as bad luck? Go find your man before these single women trap him in their nests. I don't trust these delinquents your sister shipped in," Rosa said.
An amused smile played on my lips, "shipped in?"
"You know what I mean. Just find him."
"Yes ma'am," I bowed before leaving with my glass of wine. I went to the room where he was supposed to lodge with his friends.
"Sorry to interrupt your fun, gentlemen but I was hoping to steal my fiance for a couple of minutes," I bashfully muttered as all eyes settled on me.
"He's not with you?" Came an immediate response.
"We haven't seen him for almost an hour now. We thought he sneaked off to be with you."
"No... he's not with me," my voice grew smaller. "Thank you," I forced a smile and shut the door.
The strange pounding of my heart was difficult to comprehend but one thing was sure. I had to find him soon.
I proceeded to check all the spare rooms but they were either emptied or occupied by horny people.
For some reason, I couldn't shake off the gut feeling that something terrible was about to happen. Something that I wouldn't be able to recover from.
The hotel was very so searching was hectic. Thankfully, William had the whole hotel booked for the weekend so I didn't have to worry about walking into a stranger's room.
I decided to check the master suite where we lodged earlier this morning. I opened it and stepped in.
It was then the moans filtered into my ears. My heart must have skipped about three beats.
"Fuck... you're so good... harder... harder please..." my sister's breathy voice formed a pool of dread in my stomach.
I didn't want to overthink things. There was a huge possibility that I was wrong.
"God, you feel better than I remember..." That was when my heart stopped completely. It was Williams.
My boyfriend of five years was fucking my twin sister! Is that why he never attempted to touch me? Why he insisted we wait until marriage? Because he was sleeping with my sister?
I couldn't bring myself to move from where I stood as they panted.
"You know, I can't wait to see the shock on her face when you present me as your bride," Sarah's hazy voice sent a stab to my heart.
"I can't wait too. These past five years have been the most miserable years of my life. Pretending to be the perfect gentleman just so I can get her to fall hard for me. I never thought double dating could be so draining. Spending the day with her and the nights with you," he drawled lazily like he wasn't shattering my heart to pieces.
"But the nights were your favorites and by tomorrow, I will officially be yours all day!" She giggled.
"I must give it to you. You are indeed a brilliant mastermind. Imagine her showing up to an empty church with that annoying friend of hers while we are on a yacht somewhere, enjoying our wedding..."
I couldn't take it anymore. It felt like the air was knocked out of my lungs. I hurried out of the room, running down the hall as the tears blinded my vision.
What did I ever do to any of them? All I did was love them wholeheartedly but what did I get in return?
I wiped my eyes furiously as I descended the stairs. Rosa had been right all along! Williams was too good to be true.
How could I have been so stupid? How could I not tell that he was using me to plot the most humiliating scene in history? How the hell did I miss the sneaky glances, the inside jokes?
Right from when he said, he couldn't introduce me to his family because they were having a feud, I should have known.
I didn't realize when I crossed the street to the nearby bar but all I wanted to do was numb the pain in my heart.
"Five shots of your strongest combo," I slammed all the cash in my wallet on the table.
A worried expression crossed his face but he didn't dare question me. He simply prepared my order while I cursed myself for being a fool.
Once the tray was dropped in front of me, I gulped everything, one after the other.
"Five extra shots!" I called.
"Ma'am, I think..."
"Are you deaf?" I snapped. "I said five extra shots!" I was starting to feel lightheaded and that was just what I wanted.
My order arrived and just like the previous ones, I didn't hold back.
Soon, I found myself staggering into their club. The loud music started making sense to me and my body moved in rhythm.
Just like that, I completely lost track of what happened until the sun hit my face the next day.
A groan escaped my lips as I rolled. My body stiffened as I collided with another body.
My eyes flew open at once and I came face to face with a strange face.
Oh God! What have I done?
Chapter 1 1
06/08/2024
Chapter 2 2
06/08/2024
Chapter 3 3
06/08/2024
Chapter 4 4
06/08/2024