When Arianna's older sister, Olivia, decides to run away on the day of her wedding, Arianna is forced to take her place to save her family from ruin. But her new husband is angry, heartbroken, and seems to hate her guts. The cold, elusive billionaire Zach Price has never quite struck Arianna as the kind of man she'd want to spend her entire life with. She was more than content with her sweet, thoughtful boyfriend Noah, but when circumstances force them together, Zach and Arianna's hearts get entangled in a way she never saw coming. As the couple grows closer, they must battle the demons of their past and of the lives they left behind - especially when Olivia returns and decides she wants Zach all for herself.

Content/Trigger Warning: This story contains scenes of violence and sexual abuse, and mentions abortion and miscarriage

                 Zach Price

 Arianna               

I was brushing my hair in the penthouse suite when I first heard the voices. Loud, panicked voices and the sound of people arguing. Not again, I thought to myself, rolling my eyes. People had been fighting all day over the smallest of things. The flowers, the food, the seating arrangements, the decoration, you name it and there was a problem with it. I wasn't surprised though, my mother and sister were perfectionists. I pitied the wedding planner who'd taken up such a Herculean task of satisfying not only Olivia but also my mother.

Olivia's wedding was all anybody could talk about for months, not that I was complaining. I loved weddings; there was just something about the 'till death do us part' line that got me every time. The idea of two people deciding to spend the rest of their lives together was so utterly romantic and everything about a wedding symbolized that decision for me. It had surprised me that my elder sister had agreed to the wedding after dating Zach for only two months but hey, I guess when you find the 'One' there isn't a lot left to think about.

I giggled when I thought about finding the 'One'. Hopefully I'd managed to find my soulmate too. Noah was everything I could ever ask for and more. Sweet, romantic, sensitive and compassionate, he was the ideal boyfriend and I'd fallen for him hook, line and sinker. He would be here today and the idea of seeing him in a tux made butterflies appear in the pit of my stomach. Oh I had it bad.

I got up to examine myself in the full-length mirror placed in my room, ignoring the increasingly loud voices that had started coming from the hallway. Whatever it was that was wrong now could be handled, just like it had been handled previously. Seriously, they just needed to calm down.

I twirled a strand of my curled long brown hair around my finger and fidgeted with my figure-hugging cream dress. Of course it had been selected by my sister and I wasn't one to argue; it was her wedding after all, I couldn't just go about telling her that the dress she'd picked up for me barely gave me room to breathe. I was naturally curvy and the dress did a good job of hiding that; I looked almost as thin as my sister and that made our resemblance even more prominent. Both of us had deep brown hair and the same green eyes as dark as emeralds, and both of us were cursed with the same pale skin which refused to get a shade darker. Olivia often said people would die to get such a clear, creamy skin tone but how I wished that my hours at the beach paid off.

The dress was fitted at the bust, the sweetheart neckline revealing only an appropriate amount of cleavage. A bow right underneath the bust tightened the grip on my waist and the skirt of the dress skimmed my body, hugging the area around me hips. It was hard being in it but if I do say so myself, it made me feel and look gorgeous. Olivia did inherit our mother's exquisite taste.

I was examining myself in front of the mirror for the millionth time when suddenly an assortment of people walked in, halting me in my tracks. My parents, Olivia's in-laws the Prices and her fiancé Zach, along with my Uncle Collin and Aunt Ophelia all stormed right in without as much as a knock, but the look on their faces made that thought go away immediately. Worry was etched onto their features and my mother looked pale enough to faint at any moment. Oh no, something terrible's happened, I thought to myself, dread filling my body. It was how defeated and haunted my father looked that told me that the problem was bigger than the usual wedding woes. He was never one to worry about the small things and was generally a very optimistic man; if something had managed to take a toll on him then it had to be bad.

"What is it?" I found myself asking them, my heart racing a mile a minute.

No one answered; they looked like they didn't have the courage to answer my question. I looked around at all of them, expecting someone to speak up. Mrs. Price placed a hand on her husband's arm just as he was about to say something. He looked red in the face, like he was barely controlling his fury and I shuddered at the thought of witnessing one of his famous tantrums

After what seemed like an eternity, it was my Aunt Ophelia who answered, her face contorting into a mask of pain and sorrow. Okay, now I was officially freaking out.

"Honey, we found this in your sister's room," she said, holding up a piece of writing paper. I walked towards her, my legs shaking as I did so and grabbed it from her. On it, in my sister's perfect handwriting, were the words:

I'm sorry but I can't do this. I can't go through with this wedding, I don't love him. Please try to understand that I'm doing this for the both of us. I'm going away and I'm not sure if I ever plan on coming back. Don't try to find me and please don't hate me.

A gasp left my lips as I held the note in my trembling hands. This could not be happening, it had to be some kind of a sick joke that everyone was playing on me. My eyes searched their faces for any sign of contradiction but there was none. Everyone was just as shocked as I was and just as hurt. However, one face confirmed the horrifying fact

Zach. He looked so broken, so dejected and crushed that I felt my heart ache for him. His shoulders were slumped in defeat, his entire body tensed and stiffened and his fists clenched. That however wasn't the worst part, the worst part was how he was trying to be strong and not give away the amount of pain he felt but I could see it. His eyes told a story of their own and there was nothing false in that story. How could Olivia have done this to him?

"Ari we know that this must be so difficult for you but the fact is that we have a wedding to go to in less than four hours with over three thousand people arriving."

I looked at my aunt like she had lost her mind. What wedding? The bride had run away, she had made a terrible mess and had left us all to deal with the frightening consequences that were surely to follow. There wasn't going to be a wedding anymore, how could there be?

As if reading my mind, my father spoke up, his voice completely lacking the confidence I normally associated with it. "We can't cancel the wedding sweetheart. It'll ruin us, all of us. If a wedding doesn't take place today not only will we be utterly humiliated but we could stand to lose everything," he choked out and I stared at him stupidly not knowing where this was headed.

My mother, someone who would never allow herself to be humbled by anyone, looked at me then, pleading with me with her eyes.

"We need your help Ari. You're the only one who can save this family now."

Approximately four hours later I was taken into the church followed closely by my mother, my aunt and the few cousins who had been told the truth. A long veil covered my face and the corset I wore under the dress molded my shape to fit into the dress. My sister's wedding dress.

The music began to play and I fixed my gaze firmly to the ground, begging myself to not let any tears escape. My father linked his arm with mine as everyone else left the room.

"Ari, honey you have no idea what this means to us," he whispered in my ear and I nodded my head slightly, not trusting myself to speak.

It was to the beat of the traditional wedding march that I walked towards the altar, my father gripping my arm tightly, comforting me but all the while suffocating me. He let go of me when we reached where Zach and his best man stood and after completing his duty of giving me away, he left me alone to take the biggest step in my life

The vows were said, the lies concealed as I took Zach Price to be my husband, for better or for worse. My actions were mechanical, my tone robotic. I had always dreamt of the day I would get married but now I knew better. Those dreams hadn't been dreams to begin with; they had been signs of the nightmare to come.

One sentence, I whispered one sentence as the priest pronounced us husband and wife, hoping the words would somehow reach him.

"I love you Noah, please forgive me."

Fifty times. That was the number of times Noah had called me in the past hour and also the number of times I had hit the red button and cancelled his calls. A part of me was dying as I did this to him but an even larger part was already dead inside of me. A kind of numbness had crept all over me and as a result of that, I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. The shock had been so great that it had rendered me incapable of behaving the way a normal person would under the circumstances.

I leant my head against the car window, pressing my forehead against the cool glass to provide a reprieve to my burning forehead. I was ill, a temperature of about 102 degrees and it was a miracle that I had still managed to maintain some level of consciousness. I couldn't tell him, I couldn't even look at him without wanting to wrench my own heart out. What had happened? How had this day gone from being so perfect to becoming the biggest nightmare of my life?

I, Arianna Bell, was married to Zach Price, the Zach Price who was supposed to marry my sister a few hours ago. The thought made me want to hurl and the one thing I wanted more than anything else was for someone to wake me up. Any moment now, Olivia would come yelling for me in my room, shaking me so that I'd wake up and make her her favourite chocolate chip pancakes.

It didn't happen, she didn't come and no one woke me up. Olivia had abandoned me, left me to the worst of fates and here I was in a car, married to the man who was supposed to be her husband. I couldn't even dare move my face towards him, in fear of the amount of hate that I might see in his eyes. I had willingly sacrificed my happiness for my family's sake but Zach? Zach had been forced to do so; I had heard the arguments, his parents trying to reason with him. In the end his father had resorted to threatening to disinherit him. I didn't even need to look at him to know how much he resented me.

The car came to a halt outside a huge mansion, the Price Mansion to be exact. I had been here a couple of times with my family but never had the place looked so daunting, so intimidating. It was engulfed in darkness and as I peered out of the car window, I realized that this was the welcome that was specifically intended for me. Had the day gone as planned and Olivia had arrived instead of me, there would have been lights galore, celebration and an air of festivity. I on the other hand brought with me gloom and perpetual doom. The gates opened to let the car in and I could feel the stare of the watchman following my face as the car slowly made its way inside. No sooner had we stopped that Zach sprang from his seat, getting out and slamming the car door behind him.

A migraine made its way to my head that coupled with my burning fever didn't really help my condition. I tried to move but my body felt too weak to even be able to move a single muscle. The driver had noticed my predicament and opened my door with a concerned expression on his face.

"Are you alright Miss?"

I shook my head, a sharp pain shooting through it as I did so. I gripped my temple and laid my head back on the seat. Everything was starting to spin around me, my eyes beginning to water. I distinctly heard the driver call for someone before it all faded to black.

\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*

"Will she be fine?" he asked and even in the state of near unconsciousness that I was in, I scoffed. He didn't care, the carefree tone of his voice made that obvious. He'd left me in the car and now was putting on act for God knows who.

"Well I've written down the required medicines and a nurse will arrive shortly to stay with her as you requested. I'm sure that when she wakes up, the temperature will be considerably lower. There's no need to worry, Mr. Price."

A doctor, I assumed and tuned them out. Couldn't he just let me be? I'd prefer to be in this state forever than to wake up and have to face reality. A reality in which I was Zach's wife, a reality in which my sister had left me to be fed to the sharks, a reality in which my parents literally sacrificed me on the altar. Worst of all, a reality in which there was no Noah.

A pain shot through my chest at the thought of his name. Noah, Noah, Noah. Would he ever find out about what happened to me? What would he think? Would he hate me? I loved him so much, could he be able to see that? The questions made my head hurt and I felt the migraine come back with a vengeance. My head felt like it was being crushed with the weight of a thousand boulders and I couldn't hold it in any longer. A low scream left my mouth and immediately I felt someone rush into the room.

Zach hovered above me protectively and I shivered inwardly at the size of him. He towered above me as I lay on the bed, his features masked by the lack of light in the room. I couldn't see the expression on his face; was he angry, annoyed, worried?

"What's wrong Arianna?" he asked softly and knelt beside the bed. He was near enough for me to smell his cologne, an expensive one at that. Noah didn't smell like that, not like rich people. He had his own wonderfully warm scent. I quickly pushed the thought out of my head.

"My head..." I managed to choke out in between the spasms of pain that were now rocking my entire body.

"Here, take this. The doctor said it'd

make the pain go away."

Zach made me sit upright and noticed how disabled the pain had made me. He made me open my mouth and placed some pills inside it and then placed a glass of water near my mouth, forcing me to drink. The simple act of kindness was all it took for my inner guilt to come back and haunt me.

Voluntarily or not, I had taken a place in Zach's life that was never meant for me. I had invaded his world without permission and he had to bear the brunt of that. My sister, my own flesh and blood had ruined his life because of her selfishness. He did not deserve what he'd gotten.

After laying me down carefully on the bed Zach walked out of the room, switching off the bedside lamp as he left. The last thought that crossed my mind before the sleeping pills began to take effect was how unusual it was for someone to be so fond of the dark. Not a single light illuminated his way as he walked out so easily into the darkness. Is that how he perceived his life to be now? Full of darkness, was there no room for light in his life anymore?

I woke up with a start, my breathing considerably heavy and my eyes puffy. Had I cried myself to sleep again? Apparently I had. Mostly I tried not to sleep at all; the less I slept the fewer nightmares I had. It would be the same thing time and time again. Walls closing in on me, a window on the other side of which Noah stood, smiling at me. I tried to break the barrier between us but time would always run out, the walls would always close in on me and I'd wake up screaming for release.

I wondered if Zach heard the screaming, if it had any effect on him. Since the day the doctor came to see me Zach and I had not met. I was glad for once that in the huge house, two people could live together without having to see each other. He lived on the first floor and my room was on the upper one. It was convenient for both of us since Zach could come and go as he pleased and I could enjoy the solitude. The only people I ever met were members of the staff, women who'd come to clean and the butler who'd come to serve me food. I hated being waited upon but something in me never allowed me to leave the confines of my room. The house wasn't mine, I didn't belong here. I had no right to walk around the place like I owned it.

I pulled the robe around myself, seeing as how I was shivering in my silk nightgown. My things had been sent from the house and I'd had quite the breakdown the day they arrived. My clothes, shoes, books, old photographs, all of it came to me perfectly packed in boxes. I laughed bitterly to myself as I remembered the fact that they hadn't sent a single thing which could possibly relate to Noah. The gifts he'd given me, a framed photograph, the occasional teddy bear, some jewellery, none of it was there. My mother must've thought that it was for the better, to not have any reminders of the past in my new life. If only she knew that my new life was more like purgatory, maybe then she'd have taken pity on me and sent me the things which reminded me of the one good memory that I could associate with my old life.

I walked up to the balcony that was attached to my room and took in the fresh morning air. It was around six in the morning and the time by which I was usually awake. Mist drowned everything in it and made my surroundings look cold and dreary, almost lifeless. Every day I woke up to hope that something would change about the place, that something miraculous would happen and I'd finally learn to accept the place as my new home, but it didn't. The Price mansion stood looking as formidable and grim as ever and as something that I'd never accept and nor would it accept me. It was loyal to its owner after all.

The sound of tyres screeching made me jolt and I looked down to see Zach's Ferrari racing inside the gates. Wait, had he been out all night? I gazed at the red vehicle, waiting for its owner to emerge, so imagine my surprise when the first person to come out of the car was wearing high heels.

My heart stopped. My first thought? Maybe Olivia had come back, maybe he'd found her. Maybe just maybe my life could be saved. The person who came out however was blonde and wearing clothes that even my sister would shy away from. Zach came out and walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her neck. There was a slight clumsiness to his walk, a tell-tale sign of him being drunk. I gulped as the two continued to have an intense make-out session in the foyer. I waited for the pain to come but it didn't, I felt nothing. He could do whatever he wanted, I didn't care. I tore my eyes away from the two and headed to the bathroom to take a shower.

Two hours later as I was randomly changing the channels on TV, I heard the sound of something shattering from outside. The help wouldn't come till about nine so there was only one person or rather two that could be here and I started panicking, realizing that I didn't want to see either.

The sounds continued to come, loud sounds of things being thrown on the ground, of objects being violently broken and that's when I realized that it was enough. With a determined look on my face I left the safety of my room, only to find the living room in complete and utter apocalyptic condition. Everything had been turned inside out and everything which could potentially be destroyed had been reduced to pieces. Lamps were broken, vases shattered, paintings strewn across the floor and cushions ripped open. In the middle of it all stood Zach, looking absolutely murderous and when his eyes found me, his rage if it was possible increased tenfold.

To be completely honest, I was terrified. He looked so angry, so furious that it automatically sent a chill down my spine. I began to walk away from him, retreating carefully so as to not attract attention but I wasn't careful enough. Zach caught up to me before I could make it back to my room, grabbing my arm and pushing me against the wall. I felt sickened as I smelled the alcohol in his breath, his grey eyes boring into mine. I cowered against his touch, his grip on my arm never losing its firmness.

"Zach," I whispered, hoping he'd catch the pleading in my voice.

"Shut up! Shut the hell up," he all but yelled at me and I instinctively closed my eyes, terrified of what was going to come now. Would he hit me? Did he hate me so much?

"You ruined everything," he growled, running his free hand through his hair.

I looked at him questioningly, tears stinging my eyes as I fought to hold it all together. I'd been dreading this moment, waiting for him to break and blame me for ruining his life. I wanted to tell him that this was as hard for me as it was for him but I doubt he cared. The alcohol in his system had taken away his rationality and there was nothing I could do to make him see sense.

"I couldn't be with that girl I brought home! I couldn't touch her without the guilt eating at me. You did this to me," he spat and I was left speechless.

He pushed himself off of me and struggled to walk straight; he was about to fall when I quickly ran and caught him, his weight crushing me. He muttered a few more incoherent things, things I knew were directed to hurt me. I tried my best to support his weight and struggled greatly to get him to my room, which was closest to where we were. I managed to get him on the bed, laying him down more roughly than I intended. I took off his shoes and placed a blanket on him.

I stared at the sleeping form of my husband and hard as I tried I couldn't find it in myself to be angry at him. He wasn't at fault; what he'd been subjected to was not what he'd earned. He hated me, I knew that and I was far from loving him but there was something I needed to do, something which would heal his heart.