Saving Vienna

Some love stories start after the "I dos." Mine is one of them.

I'm a damsel in distress — no health insurance and an upcoming surgery. Zane is my billionaire knight in a three-piece suit, with an affectionate smile and a stuttering voice. When I run out of options, he proposes a gentleman's offer, generous and beautiful, exactly like him. A marriage of convenience until my life is back to normal. Simple.

But nothing is simple about my grand wedding and designer dress. Ours is possibly the only fake wedding where every custom is followed to the word — including consummating the marriage. Zane is a husband plucked out of my dreams, determined to support me in sickness and in health.

And it's easy to forget that our marriage has a ticking clock.

To Zane, I'm the yin to his yang. The noise to his silence. The light to his darkness. But I'm temporary. He could never tie me to him permanently — the guilt of doing that to me would be bigger than any guilt he already carries. And he carries many.

"I c-cannot effing do th-that to her."