Forced To The Altar

1 || Lemonade

They say when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, but what if lemonade wasn't really your thing?

I sure as hell know the cup that I'm being offered right now isn't.

I kicked my sister's wedding dress that I was wearing out in front of me and sighed in disdain. The dress, the decor, the date, the flowers, the location, and really all of it was nothing that I had imagined for my own wedding day.

It was all too... whimsical almost. I prefer things that scream 'power' the minute you walk in but then again this wedding was never meant to be mine.

The groom wasn't meant to be mine either.

It was all meant to be for my elder sister, Brielle. She had meticulously planned every single aspect from the scent of the venue all the way down to the honeymoon. Brielle was a planner and hated going with the flow however I suppose it never crossed her mind once that she was the bride of the wedding she was planning.

"Valerie..." My mother whispered as she wiped the tears away from her face, "You don't have to do this. You can walk away. Your father will get over it eventually."

I knew she was worried about me. Everyone was except for my father. He was just worried about his business deal falling through because his favorite daughter decided to play the role of the runaway bride this morning.

I think everyone was surprised when we woke up and Brielle was nowhere to be found. I believed Brielle and Noah to be madly in love and so it made no sense for her to just up and run on the wedding day she had spent almost a year planning.

We had searched the whole bridal section of the hotel. Going room to room, visiting the spas, pools, and every other recreational place that there was to visit but still no sign of Brielle.

We kept searching and searching until one of the hotel housekeepers rushed over to my mother and handed her a handwritten letter. That was when we realised that Brielle had no feelings for Noah and that she had truly run away.

And that is the story of how I ended up in her wedding dress on her wedding day about to be married to her groom.

"No, he won't." My brother, Everett, piped in from across the room, "You know how obsessed he is with joining his business with the Sinclairs. It's blinding him."

Everett wasn't wrong. My father always placed the needs of his business above the needs of his family.

My mother shot my brother a look.

"Vee, you don't have to do this. I know how much you despise Noah."

I snorted. Hated Noah? Absolutely not. I had had a crush on this man since who knows when. He was my first love (if not only love) and that's why I felt as though fate was twisted.

I had plunged my feelings deep down in a place where no one would find them when my father, who knew how I felt towards Noah, decided to publicly announce the engagement between my sister and Noah without a care in the world about how I felt.

All my life I had dreamed of being married to Noah Sinclair. Just not like this. Not when he was expecting Brielle to be his bride. He loved Brielle. He didn't love me and I knew it.

I had to marry him though otherwise, my father would pull funding from my new community project, and at this current moment, I needed the money. Those kids desperately relied on me.

"I'll do it," I said finally speaking.

I believe it was the first time I spoke since my father dropped the bomb on me that I would be promoted from maid of honor to bride.

"Are you sure, Vee?" My brother asked and I nodded.

"I'm sure."

I would just divorce him after a year or so.

"You know you can't divorce him, Valerie. It's in the contract. We would lose everything." My mom warned me as though she could read my mind.

"Don't we lose everything if I do not marry him then?"

"Brielle never signed it before she ran away."

"Actually, she did. That's why father is marrying Valerie off. He knows Brielle already signed the deal before she took off."

My mother gasped. Clearly, that was new information for her.

"But wouldn't the contract have said Elle's name?" My mom asked.

Everett shook his head, "It just said Ms Collins. That could be either Vee or Elle."

I sighed. Contracts and lawyers were one insane thing to deal with.

"Great, the Sinclairs really did trap us!" She sighed.

Father probably facilitated the trap I wanted to say but chose not to. My mother was oblivious to the side of my father the rest of the world saw and I didn't want to be the one to break the bad news to her.

"They did indeed," I said as I put the veil on my face and readied myself to marry the man who despised me the most in the entire world.

There was no going back.

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Perla