Falling for the Billionaire

"Look who's here!" I announced my arrival and stepped into what I assumed was the bride's room.

However my smile wavered away as soon as I saw the sight of the room and a weeping Lindsay, my dear friend, in the middle of it.

A worried frown occupied her face when she first looked toward the direction I walked in from, but soon recovered when she realized that it was me.

"Lindsay, what's wrong?" I asked as I rushed to her. Her shoulders were shaking uncontrollably.

"I'm so glad you came," Lindsay spoke through her wobbling lips. "I really needed you."

"Tell me what the matter is." I spoke impatiently. "And why is there no one here? And where is the wedding happening?"

"In the backyard." She wobbled. "Skylar, I don't want to get married."

I was not surprised.

When she called me a couple of weeks ago saying she was going to get married to someone, I was taken aback. It came out of nowhere, and I could decipher from the tone of her voice that she wasn't happy with it.

I was aware that Lindsay's father has a better say in her matters pertaining to her personal life than she does. Everything was a matter of business to him and Lindsay has warned me several years ago that she would have to marry somebody her father chooses for her. And worst of all, that she has very little choice in the matter, if not nothing.

"I begged my father not to do this, I told him I was in love with someone else. That's why he called for the wedding early." She said, wiping her eyes with her hands. "Skylar, I don't love him. He isn't the one for me. I love someone else."

"Lindsay," I said, trying to cool her down. "If you stay here any longer, people will come looking for you. So it's better if you call your father and explain it to him before things get out of hand."

"I'm not going out there." She said, removing my hands from her shoulders. "I'm not going to get married to someone I don't love."

"I'm not asking you to get married. I'm asking you to discuss it with-"

"I'm going to run away."

My jaw almost dropped on the floor when she said that. "What?"

"I don't have a choice." She said, "Please Skylar, you need to help me."

"I can't let you make a mistake you'll regret for life." I said, trying to shake some sense into her.

"I'm not going to regret it."

"You will." I said. "Do you think running away solves the problem? It's just a temporary escape!"

"Skylar, I'm already in love with someone else. Do you think my father will listen to the end of it?

He will force my hand in marriage and Parker will gladly take it."

I sighed and shook my head. This was classic Lindsay. Always running away from problems, always taking the easier route. It was one of the things I hated about her, but she was my friend, and she didn't need a harsh reality check right now.

"What do you think I've been doing for the past month? I begged Parker too, but he was too arrogant to even consider my feelings. He wants this business deal as much as I want."

"But there are so many guests here. So many close friends and business associates of both the families are here. It's going to be humiliating once things simmer down. I urge you to handle this with more dignity."

"I don't care." She said, "Maybe my father deserves the humiliation he's going to get after I run away."

Right then, we heard footsteps trailing towards us. Lindsay widened her eyes at me, panicking. "Skylar, they're coming for me."

I reeled in a deep breath, "You should-"

"Please help me run away." She said, "Please Skylar, it's my life."

"Lindsay!" Someone knocked on the door. Thank god I locked it when I entered.

"I have to go. I have a friend waiting for me outside. Please, help me, I need to go. I swear I'll handle this mess later."

The desperation that I found in her eyes was unmatched. I never saw her like this before. In the wake of it, I realized that I was perhaps underplaying the gravity of the situation. I was only slowly grasping onto the consequences of her staying behind. I could only imagine the kind of power her father yields, and judging by her present state, I was understanding where she was coming from. If her fear is indeed justified, what kind of friend would I be if I ruined her life when I could do something about it?

"Alright," I said, defeated. "I'll cover up for you."

A relieved smile broke on her lips, but she knew that time was running short. She had to hurry, and she couldn't afford a proper farewell. "Thank you so much, Skylar. I will never forget this."

I nodded and watched her leave through the windows. I didn't know how she was going to escape from all the security. The pounding on the door grew harder as I hurried to the windows.

I was taken aback as the door blasted open. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I turned around.

My breath hitched in my throat when I looked at the man before me. The same grey eyes, but this time, they grew darker than ever.

It almost felt like a dream.

Everything that happened seven years ago just came crashing into my mind like it just happened yesterday. Just one glance at him stirred those deep buried emotions to come back to the surface. I remained rooted in my place, unmoving.

"Ethan." I croaked, frozen.

It was seven years ago that I last saw the former love of my life. Ethan. He was my first love, of course. And also my only love.

"Skylar?" His otherwise warm eyes, that had always reminded me of how much he loved me, had turned intolerably dark. Visibly paled, he breathed out in disbelief. "What the hell are you doing here?"

When we had first split, we were just seventeen. Since we were relatively younger, I had imagined that it wouldn't be as tough to move on from him. We loved each other despite the rivalry between him and my brother. I loved him so much that even now, seven years after my heartbreak, I couldn't manage to lose my heart to another man.

And I also couldn't forgive him for doing what he did. I didn't find it within myself to have the heart to let go of everything he did.

"What the hell are you even doing here instead of my fiancé?" He asked, his voice recuperating from the shock that he received upon laying his eyes on me.

"Lindsay.." I stammered. Where did all the vocabulary inside of my head vanish? "She ran away."

It felt so ridiculous to even talk about it. Why was I here in the first place? Why was I being questioned on someone else's behalf? Why did his looks seem so accusing?

"She ran away?" He widened his eyes at me, his jaw ticking. He approached me in hasty steps and came close enough for me to listen to him whisper in a dangerous tone. "What the hell do

you mean by she ran away? We're supposed to get married in fifteen minutes."

"Why are you asking me?" I said, raising my voice at him . "Shouldn't you be asking yourself how you failed to understand that she never wanted this marriage?"

"Her father made a deal with me in return for marrying his daughter off. She knew it and I thought she was on board."

"She obviously wasn't. And neither of you understood her." I defended her. It was perhaps not the concern or love that I had for Lindsay that had me fighting for her. It was probably the urge to contradict him that was making me oppose him in everything he said.

"Why the hell are you even here?" He asked me. "Did you know I was getting married?"

"I would have never stepped in a mile radius if I knew you were the one who she was getting married to." I spat on his face.

His face grew grim and I could sense him heating up. It took all of my energy to sustain my cool and talk to him like a civil person.

"You shouldn't have helped her run away," he said. "You put me in deep trouble."

"I don't care about it, you aren't exactly a man without a tainted name in public." I said.

"This is not the time for me to fight with you," he said. "I'm going to send my men to fetch Lindsay."

"You won't find her." I said to him, "I think you can never make it back with her even if you use every power within your reach to bring her back."

The look on his face was murderous and I had to step back instinctively. I never saw him this pissed and angry. Back when I knew him, he had his anger in control. He never let it on me in a way that would scare me. But I always heard how things changed him through the years.

I remembered my friends telling me how he turned into a ruthless businessman that sees nothing but profit in everything. And that when he was angry, he was uncontrollable.

"Every time you came into my life, you absolutely wrecked me, Skylar." He said. "You ruined everything that I had seven years ago. You ruined the little good inside of me, the part I preserved for someone I love and now you came back to ruin the only piece of hope I was clinging onto. You are at the verge of ruining my career with your stupid revenge plan on getting back at me for what I did to you years ago."

"This is not revenge." I stated. "I would never waste a penny on you or on something that isn't valuable to me."

Hurt flashed across his eyes before he masked it quickly. "What a foolish woman you grew to be."

"You left your impact on me before leaving."

He tightened his jaw. "You certainly should be worried about the consequences of ruining my marriage."

"I'm glad I stopped a friend from ruining her life."

"Skylar, I cannot afford to have this right now. I have the most important businessmen waiting for me to get married at the altar. And if the news of the bride running away breaks out, my life will be ruined."

"Are you listening to yourself?" I asked, "How can this be just about business for you?"

"It's not just business for me, Skylar. It's my entire career." He said, "Everything I've built so far."

"And why should a marriage decide it?"

He sighed, "You won't understand. You're relatively new to this business, you'll soon realize how the world works. It's a complex mess and I don't have the time to explain it to you."

"Well, what do you want me to do?" I asked, incredulously.

He heaved yet another sigh through his nose and looked at me with a frown. I realized that he wasn't particularly going to enjoy what he was going to suggest next but also that it was necessary for him.

"I want you to be my substitute bride."

I had no reason to cast myself another look in the mirror, but I did it anyway. And as I lingered there for a while, the reflection of my figure faded into thin air and instead, images from my life began to play before my eyes.

If this was the universe that planned my life, then it did a bloody great job.

When I was young, so young to even remember my age, I lost my family in a separation my parents had. While the divorce built a permanent gap between my parents, it also separated my twin, Nick and me, who had to live with either of the parents. While I stayed behind with my mom, Nick chose my dad.

With passing years, our frequent visits came down as did our daily calls. Misunderstandings grew to a point where complete ignorance of each other seemed like a better option. We only met after my mother eloped with one of her lovers leaving me alone for my father to take in.

I moved to LA to be with my brother and father, in other words, the only family I had left. Things eventually started to get better between us and we finally were leading a comfortable life with each other. That was when I fell in love with Ethan Parker.

He was rude, notorious and also the biggest rival of my brother. His friends and my friends never got along. They had their rivalry going on since the longest time I could ever think of. Things turned different when we started off our relationship and soon enough, my friends fell in love with his, and I, with him.

When things turned great for all of us, and when everyone was ready to let go of their rivalry, something so terrible had to happen that separated Ethan and me forever. The gap that formed between us was so huge that we hadn't met each other until now.

I masked my face with the veil before Ethan could notice my tears. I knew for certain that nothing could change his mind. He absolutely hated me. Which led me to believe that, maybe, it wouldn't matter to him if he called the wedding off, and perhaps, he was doing this because he had found an excuse to hurt me.

Of course, he would never agree to that.

"Are you done?"

I nodded in response. And there he stood in all his glory with not even a worried crease disturbing the calm aura around him. His nonchalance almost created a ripple of frustration within me.

I couldn't help but remind myself why I had ever agreed to marry him. The words he used to instigate me into marrying him still sounded so fresh in my mind. How he had reminded me that if the word gets around that I had a part to play with Lindsay's elopement, nobody would want to work with me.

Luke, Lindsay's father, was a brutal man. I was aware of his wicked ways and his merciless treatment of those that opposed him. My word or Ethan's would hold no weightage against his power as I was but a mere budding artist. I could lose everything I'd tried to build on my own in a span of a day.

"And even if Luke were to excuse you, the word would go around and no production house would want to work with you," Ethan told me.

"And how will marrying you help that?"

"Because then, you won't be Skylar Summers who helped her friend elope but Skylar Summers, Ethan Parker's high school girlfriend, who married him after being together for seven years."

My jaw dropped, "That's the image you're going to paint in others' heads?"

"What's there to lose?" He said, "It's going to save both of our asses. I cannot afford this PR nightmare, and neither can you. My company is in shambles right now. We've been trying to protect that secret but we can only do it for so long. Once more investors start withdrawing their support, I'll be left with nothing. I need this marriage."

"Ethan!" I cried, "Do you realize what this means? We split seven years ago for a reason. Can we afford to have this marriage? I'm not ready for a marriage right now, much less with you!"

"You think I want this?" He questioned calmly. "I have no choice. I am forced to make this decision, and I assure you, I dissent this more than you do."

"What is Nick going to say about all of this?" I mumbled to myself in agony. "And dad. Oh, God! It's going to break his heart."

"They will understand." He said, "If you speak to them, they will understand. It'll take time, but they'll come around. The world won't. Your career and mine won't."

I released a sigh of frustration. I hated that he had an answer for every qualm I had, and although they were logical, I still didn't like them.

"What if we can't make it work?" I asked, "This isn't how people get married. So many marriages fail despite the couple being in love-"

"Who said anything about making this work?" He frowned as though I had introduced an entirely foreign issue to our current conversation, which I later realised that I had. "This is a marriage of convenience. When we reach a point where we can't stand each other anymore, we take a divorce and go separate ways."

I was well aware of him and how he worked. I knew that he meant every single word he said and that he wouldn't hesitate before making it all come true.

But the question was, did I have the power to fight back? No. I knew all too well that I stood no chance against him in this battle. He rendered me powerless and I knew that I was utterly helpless right then. I simply had no choice but to obey him.

He was capable of putting me in a mess that I could never come out of. He was also capable of ruining the career I had always dreamt of having.

Refusing this fake marriage didn't seem worth the risks that came with it.