The Accidental Wife by Sara Islam

"Emily? No, you can't be serious!" Maggie said in disbelief.

Any woman like Maggie would want a man like Julian for her daughter. He was only twenty-five years old, and he was already a millionaire. He was set to become a billionaire soon, as he was the heir to his father's empire. He had a sister who was also set to become a billionaire along with him, but she was married and had her own business since she wasn't into the family's business. Julian was eventually going to be the CEO of the biggest trade company since he would own more shares and his sister didn't want anything to do with administration. How did I know all of that? Fiona and Maggie never stopped bragging about Fiona's future. Perhaps they had jinxed it with too much babbling.

After what happened, I was certain that the distance between my family and me would only grow more. I didn't care about losing them. It wouldn't even be a loss because in order to lose something, you had to have it first, and I never had them as a family. Somebody was picking me over Fiona, which surely was unacceptable to my father and Maggie. The thing was, I didn't want to be picked over Fiona in that situation. I didn't want to get married to Julian. I just wanted to talk to Chester and explain to him the mess of a situation I found myself in.

The thing was, Julian had to get married in order to become a CEO. That was his father's condition to step down and let his son take over. My father and Julian's father had been close for a while and when my father learned that Steven was looking for a suitable bride for his son, he suggested that Julian could marry Fiona. To strengthen the deal, our fathers decided to form partnerships concerning a number of projects together, but they cost a lot, so they depended on marriage.

"But the deal concerned Fiona and Julian." My father didn't miss the chance to choose Fiona over me. I was his biological daughter. I had never done anything in my life to embarrass him. Why did he always pick her over me? I always got good grades and not once had I embarrassed him in public. What was wrong with me to make him treat me like that?

"Let me refresh your memory. The deal concerned one of your daughters and my son," Steven said. Now that was surprising. I remembered my father telling us a year ago that Steven asked for Fiona's hand in marriage for his son. So, he chose Fiona over me from the very start and provided her with a good husband from a good family. This man couldn't stoop any lower. "If you're so against the idea, we can cancel the whole arrangement, but if we do that, our deal will cease to exist."

By the look on my father's face, I knew that he would never want the deal to be over. The deal meant the world to him since it meant the growth of his empire.

"Fine. Emily can marry Julian." My father's voice was full of defeat. Something I was quite fond of.

"I don't want to marry Emily!" "I don't want to marry Julian!" Julian and I said at the same time.

say in this!" My father

need to get married to become

have a say in this!" I snapped. "Why would I marry Julian? I don't love him, and I

got up from his place and yanked me towards the backyard. "Either marry him or you'll

you

but the clothes on you." My eyes widened when he

Why couldn't I just have a normal life? I wasn't asking for much. I just wanted to be in control of

perpetrator in his eyes, and nothing was

makes you feel any better, you can get a divorce after two years," he said.

took over his features as the two

my father-no, Jeffrey Harolds-announced with so much pride

Emily could stay with us until the wedding day." I was surprised by Rose's request. Why would she

alleviate the tension in the family," Steven supported his wife's request.

father stayed silent for a while, then nodded and said, "She can

look at me, including Julian who had made a fantastic effort to ignore me.