Saving Vienna

Some love stories start after I do, and mine is certainly one of them. Vienna I'm a damsel in distress without health insurance and an upcoming surgery. Zane is my billionaire knight in a three-piece suit, an affectionate smile, and a stuttering voice. When I run out of all options, he proposes a gentleman's offer, generous and beautiful, exactly like him. We get into a marriage of convenience until my life is back to normal. Simple. But nothing is simple in my grand wedding and designer wedding 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. Zane Vienna comes into my life by accident—literally and figuratively. When I'm taking her to the hospital, I have no idea she'll someday be sleeping in my bed and demanding sex on our wedding night. She's the yin to my yang. The noise to my silence. The light to my darkness. But she's temporary. I could never tie her to me… permanently. The guilt of doing that to her would be bigger than any guilt I have. And I have many. "I c-cannot effing do th-that to her."