Chapter 1 Wedding bells

Amelia

I kept gushing over the photos my sister, Trisha was sending to me from Instagram as ideas for my upcoming wedding. It wasn't just any kind of wedding. This was a wedding that would be on the tabloid and get people talking for weeks.

"Oh, Amy, I wish I was in your shoes!" Trisha gushed as we drooled over some couple of wedding gowns I would have to choose from.

Like she really does wish. Being middle class and dating a man from the upper class is a hot seat to be on.

"I love the gown with the diamond stones at the neck."

She huffed, "white wedding gowns are so overrated, Amelia. Is the world going to fall if you wear black for your wedding?"

I cracked into laughter. "People do wear other colours but black is a no no."

"And why's that?" She asked, her face squeezing into a frown from the screen.

"It's bad luck!" I said in an obvious tone.

"Then I would be the one to break it. It's high time for the rules of a century to get broken.

"Good luck with that." I yawned and stretched my legs out on the couch before dropping my body into a sleeping position.

"You're tired?"

"Of course I am."

Even though there's a wedding planner making lots of arrangements, it's still draining to be in the spotlight. A middle class entrepreneur, getting married to one of the most eligible billionaire bachelors in the city. It was just too much. One second, we were hiding our relationship and dating in secret and the next second, our secret was blown over after Dave proposed to me. I turned from being a miss nobody to being famous overnight. And the fun part of it all, the sales in my beauty store have skyrocketed in the past few months. Who doesn't want to shop at Dave Anderson's girlfriend's store?

"Alright billionaire bride, I'm going to leave you to rest now." Trisha said and ended our facetime.

I yawned again and rolled to the other side of my large couch.

As a kid, I fantasized about the Cinderella stories, the knight in shiny armour coming to save the damsel in distress, the prince getting married to the middle class girl and it's absurd or rather a twist of fate that it's all happening now.

Sometimes, I pinch myself so hard to check if it's a dream but it's not. While my childhood fantasy came true, it didn't come without its own baggage of getting swapped into a billionaire's world.

Dave and I met in Harvard. While he got in through his family's connection, I read for fifty hours a week to get a scholarship into the Ivy league school. We never spoke to each other and I tried myself to stay away from the super rich folks in class till we got paired up in a class project. Things blossomed from there till we began seeing each other secretly.

He was the best thing that had ever happened to me till he proposed and I was introduced to his parents. The hate and, "you're not our class" game began. I had put up with his mother's attitude for a long time and I can't believe we are now going to get married. It didn't mean it was the end of my battles but it showed I had scored more points though.

A small smile lingered on my lips as I slowly drifted to sleep thinking of walking down the aisle while Dave stood at the...

The loud blaring of my phone ringtone brought me out of my reverie. I groaned and grabbed it without checking the caller.

"Amy, there's trouble in paradise."

Trisha's voice came on the line and every trace of sleep disappeared from my eyes.

"What's wrong?" I asked as I sat up.

"I don't know how to tell you this, Amelia. I'm also trying to get over the shock. Promise you won't have a panic attack." She spoke so fast and I had trouble with hearing all she was saying.

"Calm down, Trish." I tried, even when my heartbeat had begun to skyrocket.

"Okay, I can't tell you directly but I want you to pick up your phone..."

"Okay?"

"Is it in your hands?" I frowned, then picked up my phone that was lying carelessly on the couch beside me.

"Go to 'New York Bells' page on Instagram..."

My hands fiddled with my phone, heart in my mouth as I opened the most popular social media page on popular wedding updates. What in God's name is going on?

"Are... you... there?" Her voice was already shaking, making me feel worse.

I opened the page and a picture on their story caught my eyes. A man that looked very much like my groom was kissing...

"Trisha?"

"You've seen it?"

She could detect from the way my voice wavered.

"What's going... on?" I asked slowly as my eyes got teary. I looked again carefully and sure enough, Dave was in a suit, kissing a woman in a white dress who was not me. Our wedding is next week and not today.

"I'm so sorry, Sis. What this looks like is that Dave has gotten wedded to another woman."

Tears fell freely from my eyes and my heart ached. It was as though someone was poking a knife into my heart.

No, no, no, no, NO! This can't be. Dave can't do that to me.

"This better be a joke, Trisha." I said as I wiped my eyes clean.

I went through other posts on their page and as I suspected, their wedding was all over. This was the most anticipated wedding in the city and it was supposed to be with me, not a blonde fake Barbie.

Dave Gilbert jilts his poor Cinderella bride, Amelia Blake, for an actress and daughter of a business mogul.

What in God's name did I just read? I checked all over, and most posts had similar headlines.

I sucked in a breath and put down my phone. How did all of this happen? I even spoke to Dave last night. Wait, there was a way he sounded but I dismissed it as wedding jitters.

Trisha kept yelling my name from her end so I picked up my phone again then wiped some angry tears away.

"What?"

"Come on, you'll be fine. I'm coming over right away and we will figure this all out."

"No, I don't want to see you. I'm going to storm that wedding."

"Amelia, don't think of doing anything stu..."

I ended the call and went to the bedroom in search of what to wear.