River-rose thinks what her and her high school sweetheart has is love, but when she's told she needs to marry a complete stranger all of that changes.
Hayze is only 24 and owns his own thriving architectural business. After a business problem, his...
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There were two weeks leading up until the wedding and most of the details were sorted by both River and Hayze's mothers, most of which River knew nothing about.
Hayze and his father apparently had been covering most of the expenses. Hayze had told River that when she had finally found a dress that she liked, he'd send some money over for her to purchase it.
River felt slightly left out because the only thing she had to do was search for a dress. She decided that she would secretly go shopping for a ring for Hayze, even though she didn't truly know him. She didn't even know his ring size but she was determined to do something. She would find a way.
Hayze had not made any further contact with her after telling her that he'd pay for her wedding dress over the phone. She didn't even have his number. He had gotten in touch with her through her fathers phone. It bothered her slightly that they were getting married but he hadn't even bothered to get to know her.
She hadn't seen or heard from him in almost three weeks. And she should have been happy because he was giving her more time to spend with Nico. But she was a little upset. She didn't want to be getting married as strangers. She wanted to know at least a little about the mysterious man she was marrying.
River suddenly felt very alone. As she thought over the facts that her parents were always working or preparing for the wedding, she didn't have any friends to talk to and she couldn't even talk to Nico about her situation the lonliness settled into her mind.
There were nights where she cried herself to sleep quietly with a pillow to her mouth so no one would hear. Then, she'd cry harder when she realized there was no one around to hear her; to comfort her even.
On other days, she just told herself to suck it up and go on with her life. She wanted to act like she wasn't getting married in two weeks.
At school, teachers had confronted her about one their 'favorite students' not focusing well. They asked things like if there was something going on at home that she wanted to talk about and she'd just shake her head 'no' and then she'd slip away. Really, she should have taken the chance to go the councilors but on the other hand she didn't want to go around spreading her business, so she kept her mouth shut. But keeping quiet was one of things she shouldn't have done. It was a bad habit now and it came so easy to her. Being silent wouldn't keep her out of trouble. Not in the future anyway.
When the time came for River to go shopping, her mom and Kacie accompanied her to the shopping plaza.
River said she didn't want her dress to be super expensive even though Hayze himself had said that there was no price limit as long as she got the dress she liked.
River only wanted a pretty yet simple dress. She didn't want it to be expensive, especially because she was only going to wear this dress once.
After about an hour and twenty minutes of shopping, River found a beautiful, fairly priced dress. It had a lace, off the shoulder neckline with lace sleeves. It also had a silky wrap around the waist and then it flared out elegantly toward her hips.
