Chapter # 1

“I don’t want this, I said, I don’t want this!”

With tears glistening in my sapphire eyes, my miserable voice echoed in the room, only to receive a glare from my mother.

“Shut up, Eliana, do you have any idea what the hell are you saying!? Tomorrow is your wedding and that is final.” She growled, pushing me away.

She refused to listen as we were being forced. My ex-boyfriend, Kyle, was threatening me to marry him.

And I couldn’t… because my heart belongs to someone else.

“Please, try to understand, Mama, I can’t!”

“Why!?”

My black hair was messy, scattered over my back as I shook my head in denial, refusing to bind my life with a man I no longer loved.

It was all forced and unwanted on my side. 

I didn’t want this!

“I can’t do this, please, don’t do this to me, Mama,” 

Whispering weakly, I wiped my gleaming tears and pleaded with her yet it was unheard. My tears or anger had no effect. 

They were determined to make me marry Kyle which I didn’t want at all cost, not when my feelings for him were non-existent. 

“Dear, please try to understand, that man is threatening your father. If you don’t get married- what if he does something horrible?” 

She made a failed attempt to make me listen and obey quietly to which I scoffed, folding my arms at my chest due to stubbornness.

“I don’t care,”

“What is wrong with you? Why are you doing this?!” 

Done with my whining, she grabbed my arm, losing her patience when I persistently declined their demand of forcing me into an undesirable marriage with an unstable man.

And to worsen my state, the door knocked and the man I least wanted to see came, causing my heart to skip a beat. 

The one with ruthless silver eyes, hard features with perfectly combed pitch-black hair and beard entered dominantly.

Not bothering to look at me, he called my mother, “Mrs. Duke,”

“Ah, Denzel, thank God, you are finally here. Please, make her listen, tell her to marry Kyle quietly,” 

She smiled in relief when the only person who could make me agree came and that fact brought a tear near my eyelids.

Narrowing my blue gaze, I wanted him to look at me which he didn’t, inducing a strange ache as he approached us slowly.

“I will,”

Pulling away, I grit my teeth in frustration, not accepting this as my fate.

Especially not when the one I want was before me!

“When I have said I won’t then I won’t,” 

I declared in a hiss that made his jaw clenched, drying my throat in anticipation. 

When I announced, Mother sighed again, hoping to make me listen.

“Your father is in the hospital because of the heart attack, stop being selfish at least now and-”

Before she could use emotional attacks to force me to marry, he cut her off, raising his one hand in the air and resting the other in the pocket of his black pants.

“Mrs. Duke, calm down, I will talk to her. Please give us a few moments to be alone,”

“Okay…” 

Shaking her head in disappointment, she didn’t argue further and walked away as my body shivered when we were alone in my room.

The button of his white shirt was opened, revealing his toned chest and power with perfectly rolled sleeves. 

He had always been devilishly handsome. 

Liting up his cigarette, he rolled his eyes as if me or my feelings never mattered to him and stopped before me. 

“Hmm? What is your problem?”

Releasing the smoke I hate, his tone demanded an answer but my chest clenched when I received such coldness from his side.

“Why don’t you want to marry Kyle? He is rich, he wants you, doing everything for you. He will keep you happy. Then what seems to be the issue?” 

With a trembling posture and gaped mouth, I stared at him in disbelief as he spoke so heartlessly that my mind shut down.

With a tear coming near my eyelid, I whispered sorrowfully, praying he would understand.  

“I don’t want him, I want you, Denzel,”

…But to no avail. 

“I am thirty and you are twenty-two, you are so much younger than me, Eliana. Plus, I have never need you from a romantic perspective,”

A tear rolled down my cheek followed by a gasp of sorrow. My misery, my feelings, nothing mattered to him. It failed to reach him.

‘How could he forget the moments we spent? Our time together? Wasn’t I… precious to him?’

“Then why did you come near me?!” 

I whisper-yelled and was about to hit his chest for evoking emotion in me and now neglecting me like I never meant anything.

Grabbing my wrist harshly, he looked down at me with no emotions in those dark eyes.

“It was a mistake,”

“No…” 

Unable to bear it, a few tears powerlessly rolled down, causing him to narrow his beautiful gaze when I whimpered.

His grip became harder before releasing it as I looked down in pain. 

“Please don’t say this.” 

He could easily accept me, hold me but what chain pulled him back? I had no idea.

Or probably everything was a lie but I was too desperate to accept it. 

Still… still, I wanted him to be mine.

“Please don’t break my heart, Denzel,” 

“I am not here to hear your whining and about your needless love, Eliana.” He scowled.

Pointing his finger at me to stop expressing my true feelings for him. He had no intention of considering my emotions. 

But, why was he doing this?

Was everything a lie? 

Did those moments never mean anything?

When I released more tears, he realized his action. He curled his hand in a fist and came closer again. 

I was on the verge of sobbing, glaring at him with tears. 

“Okay, I agree, Kyle is being a jerk right now but he will keep you happy, trust me, marry him.” 

Sighing, he was about to place his hand on my shoulder to convince me but I slapped it away. 

“He will be a much better man than I will be,”

“I. Said. No,” I growled, staring dead into his eyes that flickered a malevolent as he ended up chuckling darkly.

Holding his sides, he let out a ‘tch, tch, tch,’ sound, shaking his head as I was bewildered by what happened to him. 

“You don’t understand the language of affection, do you?” 

Smirking, he turned his head away and turned back with a darker, menacing glare that startled me endlessly as he grabbed my arm harshly, making me gasp in pain.

Leaning dangerously closer to my face where our breaths almost mixed up, sending a deadly shiver down my spine.

He looked dead into my eyes and growled furiously.

“I will drag you down the aisle myself if you resisted, Eliana,”

Failing to endure this ache, I ended up crying and was about to place my hand on his chest. 

“Don’t do this to me, Denzel, please, I love you-”

“AND I FUCKING DON’T!” 

Frightening me by his yelling, he pushed me back.

Shattering my heart by his rejection as I could feel an intense pain being shot through my chest.

It felt like my soul was being suffocated with tears gleaming in my eyes but everything was destroyed.

… Because he never felt the same. 

“So you better seal those lips, do as your parents say and marry Kyle Hudson quietly,”

“No, no, no, listen-” 

Giving me one last warning, his heavy steps retreated, leaving me in my room all alone to cry until I couldn’t produce more tears.

“No..!!”

I was profoundly agonized at my fate where I was going to marry a man I don’t love, by the man I love…