The Engagement Date
Ava's pov
Ava's phone buzzed again, and her chest tightened as if someone had pressed on it. She stared at the screen. Sebastian. Her heart sank.
"Hello?" she asked, trying to steady her voice, though it trembled anyway.
"Are you sitting?" His voice was smooth, calm, and infuriatingly commanding all at once.
"Yes… I'm sitting," she whispered.
"Good," he said, and for a moment, the air on the other end seemed to thicken, heavy with certainty. "The engagement is in two days. I want you to invite your parents."
Two days. The words slammed into her chest like a freight train. She hadn't even considered how she would break the news to her parents, let alone what they would say. Two days was… absurd.
"Two days?" she asked, panic rising. "Sebastian… that's too soon! We… we can't just—"
"We can't just what?" His voice sharpened slightly, and Ava flinched. "Act like friends? We're not friends, Ava. I'm the man you're going to marry. That should be clear. Time is a luxury my life doesn't allow. And you—you'll get used to moving at my pace."
Ava ran her hands through her hair, trying to calm herself. "Moving at your pace? Sebastian… my parents… they don't even know you. How am I supposed to tell them to accept this? Two days… two days isn't enough!"
"Trust me, Ava. I've taken care of everything," he said, calm as ever. "Your debts are cleared. You'll walk into this engagement without anything hanging over you. That should make things easier, not harder."
Her stomach dropped. "You… cleared our debts? But… they don't even know you! They're going to hate me when they find out. They'll think I'm betraying them."
He leaned back slightly in his chair, voice soft but firm. "Then they'll have a choice: accept the reality or get out of the way. I don't make promises I can't enforce, Ava. You just need to focus on showing up."
Ava exhaled shakily. Two days. An engagement. Her parents didn't know him. They only knew that some stranger had cleared their debts. And in their eyes, that might be betrayal enough to disown her.
"And don't act like we're… friends," she said, her voice shaking as her panic bubbled to the surface. "I don't want us pretending like we're equals! We're… different. This is huge, Sebastian! I can't just go along with it like it's nothing!"
His voice softened slightly, but there was no losing the authority beneath it. "I don't want you to blindly follow. I want you to trust me. That's different."
Ava pressed her hand against her mouth, trying to quiet the rapid thumping of her heart. He made it impossible to think clearly, his words both soothing and terrifying at the same time. Two days… just forty-eight hours. Could she really handle that?
Later, Ava sat on her bed, her hands trembling as she dialed her parents' number. Every ring felt like a hammer pounding in her skull.
"Mom? Dad?" she began, her voice quivering despite her efforts. "I… I have something to tell you. I… I'm engaged. To Sebastian. The… the engagement is in two days."
Silence. And then her mother's sharp, incredulous voice: "Excuse me? Two… days?"
"Yes, Mom," Ava said quickly, trying to sound calm. "I know it's sudden, but… he cleared all our debts. Everything is… handled. You don't have to worry about money anymore."
Her father's voice rang out, icy and hard. "Debts cleared? By who? I don't care about the debts! Ava, do you even know this man? Do you even know anything about him?"
"I… I don't know much," she admitted, her voice trembling. "But… I trust him. Please… just hear him out. That's all I'm asking."
Her mother's voice shook with fury. "Hear him out? Ava… no! We don't know him! Who clears debts for people we don't know? This isn't right. You… you could be making a huge mistake!"
"I… I just…" Ava's throat tightened. "I didn't choose the timing. I didn't choose how fast… but please… just try to understand. He's serious."
"Serious?" her father snapped. "You're talking about a stranger paying off our debts! Ava, I cannot—"
Her mother cut in, trembling with anger. "You have betrayed us! You're engaged to a man we don't know, in two days, and you expect us to accept it because he paid some money?"
Ava's hands shook so badly she almost dropped the phone. "Mom… Dad… please…"
The line went dead. Her heart sank. Two days. The engagement. Her parents didn't just disapprove—they had effectively disowned her.
Ava sat in stunned silence, staring at her phone. She hugged her knees, trying to quiet the panic racing through her veins. Two days. And then she would stand before him, engaged, under pressure she couldn't even name.
She tried to calm herself. Breathe, Ava. Just… breathe. But her thoughts refused to settle. How will I face him? What if I embarrass myself? What if my parents never forgive me?
She paced the room, hands pressed to her temples. Every scenario played in her head: her parents refusing to show up, whispering behind her back, warning her of a stranger who had swooped in and taken control of her life.
Her phone buzzed again. It was Sebastian. She considered ignoring it, but curiosity—and fear—won.
"Hello?"
"I trust you've called your parents," he said, his voice smooth, perfectly measured.
"I… I did," she admitted, biting her lip. "And… they're furious. They… they hung up on me. Sebastian… they disowned me, or at least they feel like it."
A pause. His calm, controlled silence made her nervous. Then he spoke, soft but deliberate: "They'll come. Don't worry. They always do. You just need to focus on one thing: being ready."
Ava's throat went dry. "Ready? I… I don't know if I can be ready in two days!"
"You will be," he said, as if stating a fact. "I've arranged everything. You just need to show up. Everything else is taken care of."
The rest of the day passed in a blur. Ava barely ate. She barely slept. She tried on every outfit she owned, none of them feeling right. Every time she looked in the mirror, she saw a girl on the edge of a cliff, unsure if she would survive the fall.
Her phone buzzed constantly with Sebastian's messages: reminders, instructions, details of the ceremony he had already meticulously arranged. He didn't explain. He didn't ask if she agreed. He just stated things, and she had to follow.
Ava's mind spun. Two days. Her parents hated the man she was about to marry. She didn't know him fully. And yet, somewhere beneath the fear, a strange curiosity—and fear-driven respect—growing. Who was this man who could make her world spin like this with just a few words?
Meanwhile, across town, Sebastian's world moved with precision. Phones buzzed, emails pinged, messages were dispatched. Everything moved exactly as he wanted. He didn't need to raise his voice. He didn't need to make threats. People obeyed him without question.
Ava had no idea. She didn't know about the power he commanded, the lives he could influence, or the world he controlled. All she knew was that he was… different. Powerful. In control. She couldn't even begin to understand it.
He smirked at a message from his office manager confirming the transfer for Ava's parents had cleared. "Good," he muttered. "Everything is ready."
Two days. Forty-eight hours. That was all the time Ava had before her life would change forever.
Ava sat on her bed long into the night, staring at her phone. She tried to plan, to imagine what she would say, how she would act, how she could survive this sudden, chaotic, terrifying engagement. But the more she thought, the less she understood.
And in the quiet darkness, she realized something terrifying: there was no turning back. She had no one but him. And that… that might not even be enough.