SHADOWED DECEPTION

Married To My Ex-Fiancé's Silent Uncle

Ming Yue

Twenty minutes before the "Wedding of the Century" at The Plaza, I stood outside the Presidential Suite in a fifty-thousand-dollar Vera Wang gown. I was the girl from a West Virginia trailer park about to marry Hugh Maxwell, the golden heir to a billion-dollar defense empire. I pushed the door open only to find Hugh pinned against the bed with my own stepsister, Floy. She was wearing my bridal diamond necklace, and the sounds of their laughter scraped against my eardrums like sandpaper. I didn't scream; I listened as Hugh grunted that once the wedding was over and the trust fund unlocked, he'd dump "that hillbilly trash" on a bus back to the mountains. They weren't just cheating; they were planning to steal my family's land deeds and leave me with nothing. When I set off the sprinklers and exposed their naked bodies to the paparazzi, the Maxwell family didn't apologize. They called me a "greedy peasant" and threatened to ruin my life unless I signed a new deal to save their crashing stock. I realized then that I was never a bride to them. I was a transaction, a rounding error in a ledger to be used and discarded. They thought my poverty made me weak and my silence made me a victim. "If we don't have a marriage certificate by midnight, the bank freezes thirty percent of our liquidity," their lawyer warned. So, I gave them exactly what they wanted. I used a loophole in their hundred-year-old family covenant and married the only other direct heir available. I didn't marry Hugh. I walked into the ICU and married his uncle, Fleet Maxwell-the legendary war hero who had been in a vegetative state for months. Now, I am the matriarch of the Maxwell dynasty. I've suspended Hugh's executive powers, exiled my mother-in-law to the Swiss Alps, and taken control of the family vault. They think I'm just a gold-digger waiting for a "corpse" to die so I can collect a fifty-million-dollar widow's payout. But last night, as I lay beside my comatose husband, the man they called a vegetable gripped my hand back.

Modern Scheming Contract marriage Billionaires CEO Flash Marriage Revenge Age Gap

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"Run Melonie," my mother's friend, Evy, screamed out, causing me to jump in fear.

I stood there frozen, scared to move. My face crumpled like a piece of paper, my eyes welled up in tears as I stumbled backward, as if punched in the gut.

I stared at my mother, Maela, who was swallowed in sweats, fighting off some unexpected, scary animals.

"Melonie, you need to leave, run and hide. I promise to explain everything to you...RUN," my mother, Maela, screamed.

It was my eighteenth birthday; I had just returned from my party only to meet them fighting monsters.

"Is that a werewolf?" I thought to myself, shivering in fear.

The fight was toxic, and I felt like that thing was aiming at me for a reason.

Having no choice other than to flee from the scene, I dashed out of the house at full speed.

"What were they?" I murmured, frightened.

Hurrying back to my birthday party, I looked around for my best friend, Arlo, when I got hit by a young man, more like he was trying to pass through me but couldn't.

"Strange things are happening today," I muttered, frightened.

He stared at me curiously before looking away.

My best friend, Arlo, came closer, elbowing me back into reality.

"I heard you were looking for me," he blurted out.

"Yes, I am, I'm scared," I declared, clutching at his arm.

"Scared...why? It's your party, Melonie," Arlo stated, laughing sarcastically.

"I'm serious you idiot," I yelled out with seriousness.

"Alright...what's up," he calmly asked.

"Look at that guy and his friends," I blurted out.

"What guy?" Arlo asked in confusion.

"Those men standing right there," I insisted.

"I don't see men standing in the direction you are pointing at," Arlo screamed in frustration.

"What do you freaking mean you can't see anyone," I yelled back with intense frustration.

"Are you calling me crazy? Focus and look closely," I added.

"And when do I need to focus before I see something? I don't see anyone in that damn direction you are pointing at!" Arlo retorted with raised eyebrows.

"That's strange," I cried out, marching towards the strange man who kept staring back at me in the middle of his friends.

"What are you?" I blurted out, fearlessly.

"You can see us?" He asked to be certain.

"That's such a stupid question, I just spoke to you," I retorted.

"Why can't my friend see you?" I asked again.

"Simply put; we are from a different world," he responded.

"A different world? That's something only you should care about. What the hell are you doing at my birthday party?" I scolded in fury.

"I'm sorry, but the different world is now something you should care about," he replied with a smirk.

"I don't like you," I stated, shaking my head vigorously.

"That's not something we care about in our world. And guess what?" He announced.

"What?" I asked, anticipating.

"We are here for you. Seize her," he blurted out.

Immediately, rough hands bound my wrist, rendering me helpless. The feeling of being completely at the mercy of my captors was a crushing weight, threatening to consume me whole.

It was like a vise, squeezing the life out of me as I struggled to break free.

"I know what you are thinking, but we are not your enemy. We are here to make sure you are safe. you can call me Arwan," he explained.

"Don't you think telling me what is going on is more trustworthy than holding me down like a criminal?" I asked in anger.

"Melonie, your new age activated something in our world, like in other realms. You are a very powerful tool, and as we speak, things from different realms are searching for you," Arwan declared.

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