𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐄 ~ 𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐤

Part One

"Why don't you understand I don't want to marry him?" You explained to your mother for, what felt like, a hundredth time. But, she wasn't listening to you.

"Y/N, you have to do this." She pressed, reaching out to touch you, but you moved away, getting up from the couch.

"Miss Y/L/N, you're at risk of losing your company if you refuse to do this." Your father's lawyer tried to explain, but you turned to look at him with a glare and he sat down on the chair without another word.

"I don't want to marry somebody I don't even know just for this company. If my father didn't want me to inherit it-"

"Miss Y/L/N, it will fall into wrong hands. Your cousin doesn't know what he's doing. You, on the other hand, have spent years working by your father's side-"

"Another reason he should've just let me inherit it instead of making me marry someone!" You said, grabbing the paper that was on the table and tearing it up in two pieces.

"If you let me explain this, Miss Y/L/N..." He looked down at the tore up paper, sighed then looked at your eyes."That was just a copy."

You rolled your eyes, but he continued to talk.

"I want you to know Mr. Stark agreed to do this."

"Why would he agree?"

"Because he's at risk of losing his company as well. You see, Howard Stark and your father were friends before both, Mr. Stark and you, were born. They made this deal because Howard knew you were going to inherit the company, and he believed a female couldn't lead it as well as a man could. And he couldn't have his partners looking bad, so they made this deal. Your father agreed because he had the same doubt about Mr. Stark. He agreed to it when Mr. Stark was in college because he thought his partying and his playboy life would lead both of the companies to their downfall. Mr. Stark knew about this and he couldn't marry anyone."

"So, he knew? I was the only one living in the dark?"

"It, uh... " He looked at your mother."Y-yes, it appears so."

"You knew as well?" You asked your mother, turning to look at her. She avoided your gaze, which told you everything you were supposed to know. "What else could I expect? Listen to me very carefully, I'm not going to marry this man! I couldn't care less about my father and the deals he made."

That was the conversation that led you to this moment.

You were forced to have a full wedding ceremony for the press, who were watching your every move. Of course, they didn't know it was an arranged marriage and were not supposed to find out about that.

You were sat on the bed of the hotel room where you were getting ready, staring at the wall in front of you. Your maid, the woman that raised you, was adjusting the veil on your head, looking at you with a sad face."I know it's hard, sweetheart, but you have to do this. Maybe you'll even fall in love with him."

You snapped your gaze towards her."Never. I will never fall in love with that man. I don't even know what he looks like."

She smiled sadly at you, when the door opened and your mother walked inside with a large grin on her face."Are you ready?"She looked at you and you expected at least some kind of compliment, but she said nothing. Instead, she came up towards you and made you stand up."We need to get going. You both refused to have a wedding reception, so you're supposed to make this believeable."She said.

You got up without a word and looked at her as she adjusted the veil and then your hair. "Let's go. Tony is waiting for you at the hall."

She took your hand and then pulled you along with her. You both got into the elevator down to the first floor. The whole time, you felt nothing. You felt numb.