The Malevolence of a Woman Wronged (PREQUEL)

Chapter 15- Quiet Wishes

--Angelina POV--

I never thought that I'd be walking down the aisle for the second time in my life, but yet here we are as I find myself doing the same thing, but with a different purpose.

Last time I walked down the aisle was to a man whom I'd believed would make me the happiest person alive, and for a time, he had succeeded in doing just that. But this time I walked down the aisle to get my revenge on that same man.

Never again will I allow for myself to be so emotionally vulnerable in the hands of a man, and that's why I made a promise to myself as I clutched onto the simple bouquet in my hands.

God, if you can hear me, please grant me the wish to harden my heart, don't let me fall in love with a person ever again.

For a moment, I squeezed my eyes, and tightened my chest as I begged, before opening them again, and almost came to a halt as I caught sight of the woman that was sat on one of the rows of chairs in the church.

It wasn't hard to miss her as there was only a handful of people in the room anyway, but that wasn't my point. My point is, what in the world is she doing here? She wasn't even there for my first marriage which was a 'real' one at the time.

I gave my mother an odd look as she replied with a glistening smile of her own as I walked passed her, and towards Lucian who waited for me. A Korean man stood beside him with a small smile on his face, dressed in a black tux with a familiar face.

Ah, right, Park... I forgot the rest of his Korean name, but he liked to go by Reid when abroad. He was, if I remember correctly, the owner of P.K. Law firm, voted the number 1 law firm in the world. But now isn't the time for this.

"You look beautiful," Lucian spoke as he stepped forward, taking my hand as he helped me up onto the elevated platform.

"You don't need to repeat yourself; you'll make me shy," I jokingly whispered back as he looked forward to where the priest stood, lips trembling as he struggled to hide his smile.

"Shh, no one's supposed to know that I already saw you," He leaned in to me to whisper back.

"Right, apologies," I chuckled, rolling my eyes as the old man began to speak.

And with each tick of the clock, moments drifted away as I came closer to my goal. 

Love is no longer something I yearn for in life, it's simply a hindrance that I will do well to live without. I kept repeating that to myself as the priest continued to talk.

And I will keep repeating it to myself until the day I die.

"Do you, Lucian Von Vandenburg, take Angelina Russo to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

He looked at me, and with one firm nod, he spoke his answer.

"I do,"

There has only ever been one man that has loved me in this life.

"And do you, Angelina Russo, take Lucian Von Vandenburg to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

And that man was none other than my father.

Unlike Lucian, this was my second time speaking these same words. There was a light pressure to my words as I spoke, but that was simply the weight of my plans moving into action weighing themselves down on my shoulders, nothing more.

"I do,"

My father is all I needed in life. But he's gone, and I'll have to keep moving forward alone.

But even in this moment, in this fake marriage of mine that will move forward, I look towards the small audience that sat in the rows of chairs, and imagined my father to be sat right at the front, directly in my line of vision.