Bride and Seek

Part One

I can't do this. I realised as I suddenly stopped moving forward as if my feet knew before I did. I'm too young, and I don't want to do this. This is my life. My wedding is supposed to be a joyous day, but I never really got a choice as to whom I was to marry, My father and Casimir had everything, every last detail planned out.

"Evelyn, keep walking." My father hissed through gritted teeth, tugging at my arm pulling me forward. My fixed smile faltered as he shot me a glare from the corner of his eye. Nodding slightly, I continued walking with shaking steps, trying to hold it together not wanting to cause a scene. Not today.

My legs were shaking; my clammy palms were gripped tightly around the beautiful bouquet of white lilies, my toes curled in the tight white shoes that I spent months picking out. My stomach churned as soon as our eyes met.

I continued moving forward.

I stepped up the three small stairs leading me to my future husband, Casimir. He was the son of one of my father's closest friends and work partners and was my best friend for years, always visiting me with fascinating tales of abroad. He's also the most conceited, narcissistic, manipulative ass I've ever met.

When I'd first met Cas, he was loving, cared about everyone and was always cracking jokes. After a while, he began changing, and now I can barely recognise the man who had made me fall in love. As soon as his hands were holding mine, I knew that I'd have to make the choice that I've been dreading for weeks now.

Here we were. Standing under a white arch, in a room full of family and friends,  here to see us get married. I had thought that as soon as I said yes that day, he had proposed to me in the park, that I would have a life filled with love and happiness. How wrong I was. In reality, by saying 'I do' today, I would just be giving up my chance at real happiness. Being forced into loving someone, I would never be able to again. Not after all the lies and secrets and heartbreak that he had caused me.

My father was our officiant, smiling at us confidingly as he spoke, "Do you, Casimir Troy Mallory, take my daughter Evelyn Beatrice Caron to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do." Casimir quickly replied to my father, keeping a straight face.

"And do you, Evelyn Beatrice Caron, take Casimir Troy Mallory to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

I froze, thinking back to the past few months of deceit and heartbreak. We were in love, or at least I was. Truly, madly, deeply in love. After he had proposed to me, I had headed home the next day to tell my parents the news, as I was about to knock on my father's office door I heard him speaking with Casimir.

"I did what you asked of me sir, Evelyn agreed to the marriage."

"Do you believe she suspects anything?" My father asked, his chair creaking.

"Not at all, she's blinded by her love."

"Very good, the wedding will take place in two weeks, and then we can be a family." My father's old chair groaned in protest as his voice began to approach the door that my ear was currently pressed up to. I tried to back away, my head was swirling with the new information, but the door opened before I had the chance to take more than two steps back. There stood Casimir, the man whom never really loved me.

"Evelyn?" He asked, not expecting to see me there. Tears were filling my eyes faster than I could wipe them away, as I tried to gather my thoughts as to what I had just heard.

"Evelyn dear, why don't you join us inside sweetheart?" My father suggested as he opened the door further. "I believe there's some explaining to do."

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I slowly walked out of his office unable to fully process what I had just heard. My father, the man who I had trusted more than anyone else in the world, was using me to get his son back... His son. My half-brother. He was trying to get me to marry my half-brother. How could he do this to me? Why would he do this to me, his daughter, his flesh and blood?

I didn't want to marry him, but I had to. For my father. For my mother.

"I-I-I..." I stammered, trying to look into my father's downcast eyes as he tried to hide his disappointment.

"I-I-I..." I tried again now looking at Casimir. He forced a tight smile locking his eyes with mine. Our guests were murmuring amongst themselves by this point; casting worried glances my way.

"I can't." I finally said, straightening my posture, confident that I was making the right decision.

"Evelyn!" My dad cried snapping his focus to me. Desperation and disgust glared back at me as I met my father's eyes.

I shook my head; my makeup began to wash away with my salty tears. "I don't love you anymore Cas. This isn't right." I wept, tears streaming down my cheeks, before turning away from both my father and Casimir. Looking at the crowd full of blurry faces, dropping my dying bouquet, I tore off the white gloves that crawled up my arms. I thrust the silver necklace and earrings that had once hung delicately from my body onto the ground before I picked up the front of my lace gown, and ran down the stairs, towards the two large wooden doors. Towards my freedom.

"Evelyn! Their frantic cries faded away as I ran until I dropped to my knees in the stilled forest away from the chapel.

"I'm only nineteen!" I wailed into my hands, as I began to feel my knees grow damp from the forest floor. I looked down to reveal my once pristine dress, now dirty and ripped. I started sobbing again; I couldn't believe what I had just done.

After calming down, and wiping away my tears, I began to realise a few things;

One, I was alone and in a forest, and it was starting to get dark.

Two, I had nothing but the dress to wear, because I wasn't about to return home.

And three; I was feeling something I hadn't felt in a long time.

I was scared.

----

So I'm back. Finally.

I've decided to take another look at this story, so I took the whole thing down, and I'm going to edit it, rewrite it and then post it for you guys.

Thank you to everyone who read the old version even though my writing was cringe-worthy.

-Megan LS