3
Arjen
This was not what I had envisioned for my wedding day. I had racked my brain for days, attempting to figure out how I would punish my brother and my fiancée.
After spending a few weeks under my brother’s protection, my beautiful innocent-looking bride-to-be, Desiree Evans, had slept with him. Khane, the one person I had believed would never betray me, had willingly participated in the betrayal.
Sure, I was using Desiree and our marriage was nothing more than an arrangement, but the betrayal had still delivered an impacting blow to the bond I had with my brother, as well as my ego. This situation had knocked me off the high horse I had gotten used to riding.
Marrying Desiree would have been the ultimate punishment for her betraying me. Now that I was standing here in front of her and the pastor, I was having serious second thoughts.
The volume of sadness she gave off while standing in front of me spoke to my compassion. Each tear I watched slip down her cheek was a telling sign of how much she cared for my brother.
I had seen the way they looked at each other, and although I didn’t believe it at first, the most skeptical mind could see that they shared a strong connection. They had betrayed me, so why was I the one standing here, ignoring the pastor while I contemplated one of the noblest gestures to ever run through my mind.
Because you love your brother more than you care about getting revenge.Because you know that Desiree actually cares about him too. Because other than you, Khane has never had anyone else that cared about him.
I lifted my hand, stopping the pastor while he was asking me, for the third time, if I would take Desiree as my wife. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t marry her, knowing it would only leave us all in a raw state of bitterness and pain.
After scaring the guests by stopping the pastor in the middle of my ceremony, I stepped down from the stage, plucked Khane from the audience, and pulled him up on stage with me. Based on the tension in his posture and his pinched brow, he had no idea what I was about to do.
Mecca
The four-inch heels I wore worked overtime to keep up with my quick stride to the stage when it appeared Arjen Vallin was about to do some shady shit and embarrass my cousin.
Desiree had cheated on him with his brother. So, the fuck, what? It wasn’t like they were in love and getting married for any respectable reason. We were all using each other.
We were all raised in a world where illegal was the norm, and wrong was right. This shit was about business, a shady ass arrangement brokered by men devious enough to use humans as bargaining chips.
“I can’t marry this woman,” Arjen stated.
At that statement, the gasps of the crowd sounded like a bunch of pissed off cats as the guests sat frozen in awe, some with their mouths wide open. Hands went over chests, and some whispered behind their fingers to the person next to them.
“Pastor, I can’t marry this woman because I’ve realized that I love someone else more than I care about her.”
As soon as I made it to the foot of the steps that would take me up on the stage, Arjen started up again.
“This person that I love. I care about their feelings more than my own. Therefore, Pastor, I can’t marry this beautiful woman because I can’t bear to break my brother’s heart.”
Those words stopped me dead in my amped-up tracks. Was Arjen about to do what I thought he was about to do? Once he had Khane facing Desiree, and their eyes met, I could almost feel the love the two had for each other.
Arjen turned, addressing the group with his lingering gaze before speaking. “Pastor, if you could start the ceremony over. I would like to give this man to this woman.”
Arjen Vallin was making one of the noblest gestures I had ever bore witness to. Instead of marrying my cousin, he was deciding to let his brother marry her. It was obvious to anyone with working eyes that the two were in love with each other.
However, there was a serious question blaring in my mind. Wasn’t something voted on by the syndicate final? Would there be consequences of Arjen not marrying Desiree? He either knew what loopholes to pull out or had enough high-up friends that he could get away with skirting their decisions.
His decision meant that I no longer had a fiancé, but as long as my cousin was happy, I didn’t care. The smile on her face, the joyful tears that slid down her cheeks as the pastor completed their marriage ceremony, was all I needed to see.
I returned to my seat and stood in place, genuinely happy that someone had received joy from this day. Outside of rumors, I hardly knew Khane, but I was confident he would lay down his life for my cousin.
I texted Patrena an update on the unexpected turn of events of Desiree’s wedding, knowing she would be jumping to know the details. It broke her heart to miss Desiree’s wedding, but she’d had an emergency with a domestic abuse case she was working.
While reading Patrena’s reply, I glanced up in time to catch Arjen making his approach. He was attractive enough to make me look his tall frame up and down a few times, but he wasn’t my type.
There was no need for him to attempt to smooth things over with me if that was his reason for approaching. I didn’t care that my fiancé had married my cousin, because I was down for anything that made her that happy.
Arjen planted himself in the spot next to me and just stood there while his fresh scent called my attention as much as his demanding aura did. I found it difficult to concentrate on my cousin and not him as he closed the already tight space between us.