Number 5

Chapter 7

I just need to keep breathing otherwise that will be my hamartia. Or perhaps this accepting Grayson and this marriage shall be my fatal flaw. Seeing as I can't see (thanks to Grayson and a blindfold), I have nothing to focus on but my breathing and avoiding a neurasthenia.

After Grayson had his...meltdown, he proposed and I accepted, things moved quickly. My brand on my shoulder begin to sting but this time my strapless dress left it fully exposed to Grayson's eyes. The second it began to fade in colour, Grayson's doubt in me finally began to waver and he issued the start of our wedding to begin in the next 10 minutes.

So here I am, standing blindfolding waiting for my cue. Somewhere nearby is my dad and Ana talking but of course I can't see them.

"Dad can I please take this blindfold off yet." I whine. According to Grayson he's done this so that I'll be surprised. However I think the reason for my blinded eyes is because he doesn't want to let me see the dwelling yet; he doesn't trust me.

He shouldn't. I may have said yes but that doesn't mean I have lost the desire to leave.

"Trust me Ellie, you'll be glad you didn't." My father replies.

"Ana?" I question, resting my last hopes upon my twin.

"Sorry." She replies sheepishly. Good to know I can rely on my sister in times of need. I knot my fingers together. I think I would rather be with Grayson than just waiting here on my own.

Eugh. I'm so anxious, the company of my narcissistic match/husband to be is better than being alone. I can't quite get the image of Grayson in a tuxedo with his tousled hair out of my mind. What an earth is happening to me? I should be disgusted by his behaviour and thinking of abusive remarks for Grayson. He doesn't love me, I don't love him. I should not allow myself to be blinded by the ever so slight attraction between us.

He is still a 5.

The sound of the violins playing fills the room.

"This is it Ellie." My dad says from behind me. He fiddles to untie the knot of the blindfold and then the material comes away and I can see. My eyes absorb the beauty of the room that I'm standing in. It looks like the reception area but despite this, the little cave is still magnificent. I think it may be the enormous vases of canna lilies on decorative pedestals; they're my favourite.

"I assume the lilies are your doing?" I say to Ana as she accroaches her position in front of me, lilies in hand.

"No?" She shrugs. "I thought they were yours?" She sighs. "Elle have you had any part in designing this wedding?"

I brush off her question and she doesn't pressure me any further. My father picks up one of the bouquets thats lieing on a table and hands it to me. In the crinkled eyes of my father, I see the one thing I never expected; a tear. My father, the man renound for his apparent lack of tear ducts, has a tear droplet slowly trickling down his shaven cheek.

I smile, trying to hold in tears of my own as I lift my hand to cup his cheek and wipe the tear off with my thumb.

"I love you daddy."

"I love you too Ellie." A shost of a smile curls at the corner of his lips. "You are as beautiful as a red rose."

"And as sharp as the thorns." I finish off my dad's favourite saying with a smile.

I grip my dad's arm tightly. Can I do this? I have traditional view of one marriage for life; I'm not going to have a second chance. My dad tugs me forward and my feet slowly begin to move towards the door. The high heels my feet have been slipped into pinch my toes uncomfortably.