Chapter 1- The Runaway Groom

There was air in the room but I still felt choked up.

It wasn’t because of the corset of my wedding dress or the lace veil covering my face. It was the silence. The kind of silence that fills a church when everyone’s waiting, when every single eye is on you, and the thing you’re waiting for doesn’t come.

My groom. My fiancé. The man who promised me forever.

I was at the altar but he wasn't.

You could tell the priest became uneasy. He cleared his throat for the third time in a row, shuffling around with the bible in his hands. I could hear voices. The guests whispered. My mother held my hands to calm me down, but even she couldn’t stop the shame bleeding into my chest.

“What's going on Elena?. Why isn't he here yet?”, her smile frozen in place for the crowd. “Just nerves, that’s all. He’ll walk through that door any second,” I said.

But it had already been twenty minutes. Twenty minutes of me standing like a fool in front of the altar while the man I thought loved me disappeared.

I wanted to cry. I wanted to run out of the church in shame. But my knees were locked, and my heart was beating so fast that it's all I could hear.

Then the door creaked open.

I turned so fast my veil almost slipped off, my lungs filling with relief—

But it wasn’t him.

It wasn’t the man I was expecting. It wasn’t the man I was supposed to marry.

It was his brother.

Damian Blackwell.

The air changed, the whispers grew again, because everyone knew his face. The billionaire. The one with the empire, the money, the reputation that made people both fear and envy him. He wasn’t supposed to be here. He never went to family events, not birthdays, not holidays, not even funerals.

But there he was.

Tall. Cold. A shadow in a black suit that probably cost more than the whole wedding put together. His eyes locked on me, so sharp I swear I felt naked under them.

“Where is he? Where’s Lucas?”

Damian headed straight for me, calm, as if he was the groom. He enjoyed the attention he was getting. He stopped at the altar, next to me, and leaned in close enough and whispered in my ears. His cologne hit me first—dark, expensive, intoxicating—and then his words, low and cruel.

“He’s gone.”

I blinked at him. “What?”

“Your groom ran away,” he said, like it was the weather report. “With your best friend, if I’m not mistaken.”

My stomach dropped so violently I thought I’d throw up. I actually staggered, clutching the edge of the altar for balance. “You’re lying.”

His gaze didn’t waver. “Do I look like I’m lying?”

My best friend? My maid of honor? No. No, this is a joke.

The church erupted in gasps, people leaning toward each other, mouths covered with hands. They heard him. They all heard him.

My body became weak. My heart was beating so hard. I staggered. “No,” I whispered, shaking my head, “no, he wouldn’t—”

Damian cut me off. He held my hand. His grip was firm, and his eyes, those eyes pinned me in place.

“You want to save your reputation, Elena?” he said, his voice calm while mine trembled. “Then marry me. Right now.”

The words slammed into me. For a second I thought I misheard. “Marry… you?”

He nodded once, as if this was nothing more than business. “Yes. Unless you’d prefer to let them all gossip about how your groom abandoned you. About how you weren’t enough for him to stay.”

The whispering grew louder, circling me like wolves. I saw pity in their faces. Pity. And pity was worse than hate.

I didn't know what to do. I wanted to scream. I wanted to run out of the church barefoot. My whole body was shaking, frozen between the shame eating me alive and the trap this man was setting for me.

“I…” My voice broke. I couldn’t even think straight.

My mother was crying quietly in the front row. My father’s jaw was clenched so tight the veins in his neck bulged. Everyone was waiting to see what I’d do.

Damian leaned closer and whispered, “Say yes. Or watch everything you’ve ever cared about burn.”

And in that moment, I realized he wasn’t offering. He was giving me an ultimatum.

I shook my head, fighting tears. “Why are you doing this? Why would you—”

“Because you need saving,” he interrupted, his voice like steel. “And I’m the only one who can.”

The priest’s eyes darted between us nervously. “Should we… proceed?”

Proceed?  Like this was normal. Like brides were abandoned every day and replaced by the groom’s ruthless older brother.

“I can’t,” I whispered, staring at the floor, my hands trembling.

“You can, and you will. Or face the shame that comes after.”

I snapped my head up at him, anger finally breaking through the shock. “You can’t force me.”

His jaw flexed. “Try me.”

The audacity, the coldness in his face—it made me want to slap him. But under all the fury was something else. Something dangerous. His eyes weren’t empty. They burned. They burned with something I couldn’t understand.

The crowd was waiting. The whispers were slicing me apart. I wish I could just disappear. But with the way Damian held me I didn't think he would let me.

Just then, the words slipped out of my mouth.

“…Yes.”

It left my mouth like a death sentence.

The priest stammered through the vows. My lips moved but I barely registered what I was saying. Damian’s voice was steady, powerful, like this was the plan all along. He slid the ring onto my finger with hands that didn’t shake.

And just like that, I wasn’t Elena Carter anymore.

I was Elena Blackwell. But not with the Blackwell I wanted.

The whispers behind me erupted into chaos. My mother gasped. My father stormed out. Cameras flashed as if this was some sick reality show.

And Damian? Damian just smirked.

Like he’d won.

When the ceremony was over, I was too numb to cry. Too numb to even speak. But as Damian guided me down the aisle, his hand firm on my back, one thought kept screaming inside my skull.

What the hell had I just done?