The-Wrong-Bride-Ares--Raven’s-story-(Maura,-Catharina)_bibis

Chapter Four
ARES
I tighten my grip on my phone and take a calming breath. “Hannah, you promised me we’d go together.
This is the third time this month you’re canceling on me at the very last second. Couldn’t you at least
have given me some adequate notice?”
The phone rustles and Hannah sighs. “I’m sorry, Ares. I really wanted to be there tonight, you
know that. I wanted to support Raven and be there with you, but I just can’t get away. I need to retake
some scenes, and it just hasn’t been going too well.”
“It’s always the same excuses, Hannah. I’m trying to be as supportive as I can be, but you’re
making it really difficult. I can’t always be the one who makes compromises.”
“I know,” she says, her voice soft. “I’ll make it up to you.”
“Is this because you don’t want to be seen or photographed with me? Hannah, we’re getting
married in a month. Don’t forget about our agreement. The moment we’re married, we’re taking our
relationship public, so what’s the harm in us being captured together tonight?”
“Ares, it isn’t that. I promise, it isn’t. I’m taking so much time off for the wedding that I just really
want to work extra hard to make up for it. I don’t want to be the reason we fall behind on schedule.”
I run a hand through my hair and look up at the ceiling. “I get it,” I tell her, defeated. I do
understand it, but I’m starting to lose hope that things will ever change. I used to think I was the
luckiest one out of my siblings. Dion never speaks to his fiancée, and my other siblings don’t even
know who they’ll be marrying yet. I was the only one that was lucky enough to fall in love with the
girl my grandmother chose for me long before we even got married.
Yet lately, this doesn’t feel like a love match anymore, and I’m not feeling very lucky. Everything
feels mechanical and forced, and the excitement we should feel regarding our upcoming wedding is
missing.
“She isn’t coming, is she?”
I look up to find one of my younger brothers, Lex, leaning in the doorway. His expression is
carefully blank, but his eyes betray his annoyance. My first instinct is to stand up for Hannah, but I
don’t have it in me today.
“Nope.”
“It’s going to be annoying for you to go without a date. You know what the women are like at these