Once Upon A Lie

One

One

"You're not dating anyone." The ultimatum came from Aleksander Morozova. He was tall, with grey eyes, and jet-black hair. He was wearing a suit and smelled of cigarettes. Which meant that he'd been smoking with his friends somewhere during the anniversary party of the 25th year that their fathers had been in business together. Rodion Starkova and Eric Morozova had met in college, and had been friends ever since. Alina had grown up with Aleksander, always trailing behind him. He was eight months older than her. Which meant when she entered her freshman year at Ravka Academy, he was already a sophomore.

Class President.

Captain of the debate team.

And quarterback on the football team.

Alina, who had been sitting at her family's table, sketching looked up at him. She rolled her eyes. "What makes you think that you get any say in the matter?"

He grinned, and sat in the chair next to her. "Don't you know?"

"Know what?"

He reached out and stroked her cheek. Alina pulled away from him. Aleksander smirked. "We've got a future together, you and me. The dads hammered it all out. Prenup and everything. When you turn eighteen, you're mine."

Alina shook her head. She was fifteen, and her dad loved her. There was no way that her dad would do that. He had grown up in old Ravka, and was a bit of a traditionalist. But he did want her to be happy above all else. "You're wrong."

He chuckled. "Ask your old man, if you don't believe me. They decided that was what was best for the company. You know, since I'm going to be CEO. They want you to be protected and cared for."

Alina shook her head. "I'm never going to be yours. You're lying." She got up from her chair, and went looking for her dad. They were in a hotel ballroom filled with a lot of people and her father was talking with some of them.

He was a tall man, with blond hair, and blue eyes. He was from Ravka, and her mom was from the Shu-Han. They had met in college too. Her mom was right next to him as he chatted away with someone in a business suit.

"Daddy," Alina said.

Her father looked up at her. "Alina, my precious girl. Is everything okay?"

"Can I talk with you for a second?"

He smiled at her. "Of course, darling. Is everything alright?"

Alina pulled her father off to the side. "Aleksander just.... he just told me...."

"Told you what?" Leo Starkov searched his daughters face.

"Did you arrange a marriage for me? With him?"

Leo sighed, and stroked his beard. "He shouldn't have done that. We were planning on telling you once you turned eighteen."

"But he got to know?"

"Aleksander is going to be the CEO of The Fold once he comes of age. He has a lot of responsibility that will fall on his shoulders. He had to be prepared."

Alina glared at her father. "And I didn't? I didn't even get a say in the matter?"

"This is family, Alina. You've got to do what's best for family. You and Aleksander getting married is what's best for the family."

"How do you know?" she demanded. "What happens if I don't marry him?"

He glared at her. "A good daughter will do as her father says. If you decide not to, you will lose your inheritance and I will make sure that you never see your mother or me ever again."

Alina's fists clenched so hard that the nails were digging into her skin. Up until that moment, her father had been the person that protected her in the world. He was one of her favorite people. There was nothing that could go wrong that he wouldn't be able to fix. Except this.

In that moment, Alina hated her father. She turned to her mother, Makhi Starkov. She was a beautiful woman with delicate features and jet-black hair that was elegantly pinned up with a jade clip.

"Mama," she said, "you agree with this?"

Makhis brown eyes met her daughters. "It's what's best for the company, Alina."

It was at fourteen that Alina realized that she did not have any control over her life. For all of the luxury she had, she was trapped. She turned from her parents, and found Aleksander's heated gaze staring her down. His grey eyes trailed up and down her form in a way that left her feeling naked. She wrapped her arms around herself, then started walking away from her parents, not sure where she was going.

Someone grabbed her arm then, and she looked up to see Aleksander looking down at her. "You start the same school as me tomorrow. You'll be a freshman. I'll be a sophomore. You and me, we're going to have to make some rules if we want to survive high school together."

Alina frowned. "What kind of rules?"

He grinned, and pulled her by the arm out to the balcony of the hotel. He locked the door behind her. "We're going to be at one of the most elite prep schools in Ravka. I'm in the top three percent of my class, I'm the quarterback of the football team, Captain of the debate team, and Class President. I have a reputation to maintain and I can't keep that if some sniveling freshman is hanging all over me. So----rule number one, no one can know about us being engaged. Rule number two, no dating. Rule number three, no drinking. Rule number four, no drugs. Rule number five, if I ask you to come to me, you come."

Alina raised an eyebrow. "What are you, my sponsor?"

He laughed. "Might as well fucking be, Princess. People make poor choices when they're not sober. You're going to be my wife. I'm not going to let someone else touch you. I'm going to be the only man you ever know."

She sneered at him. "Funny, I don't see a man. I see a prat of a boy."

Aleksander laughed. "Careful, Princess. We've got our whole lives together. I can either make you have a blissfully happy one or make it be completely hellish. The choice is up to you. All you have to do is be a good little girl the next four years and we'll see what kind of husband I am."

"You're a bastard."

He winked at her. "I'm the son of one of the richest men in Ravka. I'm King of the Fucking World, Alina." Then, he kissed her on the cheek. "Be a good girl and maybe I'll even let you rule it with me."

"Fuck you."

"Planning on it."

He walked away from her, whistling. Alina went back to her family's table and tried to focus on sketching but her mind was still swarming from the hellish nightmare that had just happened. When she looked up, Aleksander was talking with a pretty girl with brown skin and jet-black hair that Alina recognized as Zoya Nazyalensky. Her father ran the second largest company in Ravka, one that she would actually inherit. She'd read about it in the papers.

Alina's stomach churned as she watched Aleksander place a hand on Zoya's shoulder, making the pretty older girl laugh. Aleksander glanced over his shoulder at her, and smirked. Fuck him, she thought venomously, FUCK HIM.

It wasn't fair.

Aleksander got to be the leader of the world, and Alina would have to sit back and play dutiful wife without even getting a say in the matter. She wanted to scream. To rage. She wanted to burn his world to the ground. Instead, she got up from her seat, and left the ballroom to find a place where she could be alone.

She sat down leaning against the wall of an empty hallway. And then she sobbed for everything that had been taken from her and would be.