Ava unexpectedly falls for the man her parents arranged for her to marry. But when unsettling rumors about him surface days before their wedding, she devises a test to uncover his true intentions.
Ava caught her breath as she gazed at Walter, the man her parents had arranged for her to meet. He rose from his seat, impeccably dressed in a sleek suit that showcased his athletic build, his blue eyes sparkling under the elegant lighting.
Ava’s heart fluttered as he smiled and helped her to her seat.
“Ava, meet Walter, my son,” his mother said.
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“What do you think?” whispered Ava’s mother, Hilda, noticing her daughter’s reddened cheeks.
The families sat at a grand dining table in a restaurant, the air filled with apprehension and anticipation. Ava, initially resistant to this arranged meeting, found herself unexpectedly drawn to Walter. His gentlemanly demeanor throughout the dinner and subsequent meetings only deepened her admiration for him.
So a few weeks later, when he went down on one knee and proposed, she didn’t think twice before saying yes.
“I’ll marry you!” she exclaimed as Walter slid a diamond ring onto her finger.
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The wedding was set, and with only a few weeks to go, Ava and her friend Hillary went to a boutique to pick a wedding dress for Ava’s special day.
They had just gotten there and were waiting to be attended to when they heard two women whispering in the background.
At first, Ava tried not to pay attention, but with how loud they were, it was impossible not to hear a few words, especially when she heard Walter’s name.
“You mean Walter, the blue-eyed playboy, is getting married?” one woman whispered incredulously.
“Apparently, his parents found him a millionaire’s daughter,” another woman added.
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Ava desperately wanted to continue listening but was interrupted when one of the attendants approached her since it was her turn.
“You heard those people talking in the lobby, didn’t you?” Hillary asked as they followed the attendant.
“Do you know how many Walters there are in this state?” Ava replied, dismissing the rumors. She was convinced her Walter was different.
An hour later, Ava drove to Walter’s mansion. The recent rain had left the roads wet, and as she approached his mansion, she noticed a group of homeless people huddled by the roadside, trying to keep dry.
\Ava slowed her car to avoid splashing water on them and rolled down her window to offer them some money, only to be taken aback after hearing their conversation.
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“That rich guy in the red car splashed water on us! All that money has gone to his head! And that money isn’t his, I bet! It’s his parents’!” grumbled a bearded man.
“With his handsome looks, he thinks he can do anything,” a woman added bitterly.
Shocked and confused, Ava rolled up her window and drove into Walter’s estate, wondering if they were discussing him. She had seen his compassionate side, like his charity work, but she now doubted if it was just for show.
\As she entered his house using the spare key she always had, she was stunned to hear him yelling on the phone.
“Get them out of here! I want all of them gone!” he bellowed, his face contorted with anger.
His tone suddenly softened when he turned around and spotted her.
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“I don’t want to see those beggars suffer in this rain. Find them a place, now!” he commanded, hanging up.
“Ava!” He smiled and approached her. “I saw some homeless people in the rain. It broke my heart, so I was arranging shelter for them,” he explained. Ava didn’t know what to say and nodded. Throughout the evening, she acted like everything was fine, but it wasn’t.
Their wedding was in a week, after which Walter was to be appointed as the director of one of her father’s charity organizations.
As Ava reached home, she discussed everything with Hillary and devised a plan to test Walter’s true character.
“Why not hire a private investigator?” Hillary suggested. “Isn’t that easier than hiring an actor? What if it doesn’t work?”
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“It will. People let down their guard easily around strangers, and this particular actor I hired is pretty good,” Ava explained.
The next day, they met at Walter’s favorite café, concealing their faces under big hats.
“Aren’t you worried Walter might get angry if he finds out?” Hillary asked cautiously.
“He won’t know if all goes well,” Ava reassured her, waiting for Walter’s arrival. She’d already texted him and set her plan in motion. Babe, can you get me a coffee from your favorite place? I’ll be waiting at your office, she’d written.Later, she would text him that she couldn’t make it due to some work.
As Walter entered the café, Ava watched him closely. Dressed in a white sweater and black pants, Walter attracted admiring glances as he ordered. Ava’s heart swelled with pride, but she was anxious about the actor she’d hired to test him.
“I hope everything goes well,” she murmured to Hillary.
As Walter waited, a disheveled man, the actor Ava had hired, approached the counter. Walter was disgusted and stepped aside, allowing the man to order first.
“He’s so nice,” Ava whispered, unaware of Walter’s true intentions.
“Yeah, surprising,” Hillary said despite her doubts about Walter’s character.
Walter paid for the man’s bread and coffee, masking his frustration, all because he wanted the smelly, poor man to leave as soon as possible.
The situation escalated when the man accidentally spilled coffee on Walter’s sweater. Walter’s anger flared, but he caught a glimpse of someone familiar in the space and restrained himself.
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“I’m s-sorry, sir,” the man stammered, tears streaming down his face.
Walter, boiling inside, forced a smile. “Ah, no worries! It’s just clothes, nothing more. You can get more food at the counter; I’ll pay,” he offered, leading the man to the counter while vigorously typing on his phone, trying to send a quick message to his friend.
Ava watched from a distance and was proud of Walter’s kindness. “He’s the man I thought he was,” she said to Hillary, who wasn’t entirely convinced.
Soon, Walter stepped outside, walking side by side with the beggar, who walked beside him with a smile. They had just rounded a corner when he grabbed the man’s shirt and whispered harshly in his ears. “Say a word of this to Ava, and you’ll regret it,” he warned, tossing his hot coffee at the man before walking away.
Meanwhile, Ava dropped him the text, thinking she was a fool to doubt him. “See, I told you he’s a nice guy,” she told Hillary.
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Walter scowled as he read her message and drove home. He knew Ava suspected something. In desperation, he called Brandon, his trusted friend, for advice.
Meanwhile, Joe, the actor hired by Ava to test Walter, brushed off his coffee-soaked clothes. Feeling the soreness on his neck from Walter’s grip, he skipped contacting his client and headed home.
At Walter’s house, the atmosphere was tense. “She knows!” Walter yelled.
“Calm down. What does she know exactly?” Brandon inquired, pouring wine for his friend.
Walter explained Ava’s test and his fear of her suspicions.
“Spend more money on those charity galas she likes. There’s barely a week to the wedding, and all you have to do is persevere until then,” Brandon instructed him, and Walter listened with rapt attention.
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That night, after Ava got home, she spent hours talking to Walter on the phone, convinced that he was the only person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.
“I love you, too,” she whispered into the phone after saying her goodbyes before hanging up.
Two days before the wedding, Ava went alone to pick up her dress. Unexpectedly, a woman blocked her path. “You’re Ava, right? The one marrying Walter?” the woman asked bluntly.
“Yes, I am. I love him,” Ava replied, assuming the woman was one of Walter’s exes.
“Don’t marry him. He’s not who you think he is,” the woman warned gravely before leaving.
Ava went after her, but the woman got into her car and drove away.
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Puzzled and concerned, Ava could only wonder about the woman’s motives as she picked up her wedding dress. She decided to call Joe, the actor she had hired to test Walter, for any insights.
She had paid him for his work but hadn’t heard from him ever since his act at the cafe. She didn’t think much about it then because she was convinced Walter was really a kind and caring man. Joe didn’t answer her first calls, and when he finally did, he urgently warned her to stay away from Walter before abruptly hanging up.
Confused and alarmed, Ava pondered Joe’s reaction and decided to test Walter herself, this time without any intermediaries. She planned to disguise herself as a homeless person and approach Walter to see his true character.
Dressed in old, smelly clothes and a dirty scarf, Ava waited for Walter at a fancy restaurant where they were supposed to meet. She approached him in the parking lot, asking for help in her beggar disguise.
Remembering Brandon’s advice to maintain a good public image, Walter reluctantly gave her some money and walked away.
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Seeing his ‘kindness,’ Ava couldn’t help but feel a little guilty for not trusting him. Entering the restaurant, she instantly headed straight towards him, trying to grab his arm as she called his name.
“Wal—” she began, but the words had barely left her mouth when she felt a brutal, stinging force against her face.
Walter slapped her.
“I-I’m a woman,” Ava stuttered in shock, not knowing what else to say as she watched Walter glare at her with hostile and unfamiliar eyes.
“You stinking witch! The only reason I didn’t slap you before was that we were in public. How dare you follow me!” Walter yelled. “You poverty-stricken set of beggars, I hate your kind the most!”
Walter had been holding in his emotions for a while, and seeing the utterly empty restaurant felt like a grand opportunity to take out his emotions on the beggar who DARED to almost touch him.
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“I’ve been going around with a kind look just because I’m trying to get a woman to marry me, and you think you can take advantage of that? Get out, or I’ll slap you again!” Walter continued yelling, and Ava could tell that he meant every word.
Touching her face, she felt it burn as her eyes stung from both the pain and the realization that Walter was nothing like the man she fell in love with.
As he demanded security to remove her, Ava removed her disguise, revealing her true identity.
“It’s me, Ava,” she finally said, her heart breaking.
His face turned pale. “A-Ava? How could you deceive me like this? Was this all a trap, a test? I thought you loved me. I thought you trusted me,” he stammered, trying to turn things around.
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But Ava just shook her head and smirked.
“The wedding is off, loser!” she declared before leaving.
Months later, Ava’s parents arranged another match for her. She met Brandon, a seemingly calm and gentlemanly figure.
“My name is Brandon. I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about me!” He greeted her with a charming smile.
I guess looks can be highly deceiving, Ava thought. Through the private investigator Ava had hired, she knew this man was more deadly than Walter. She smiled at him, deciding to teach him a lesson he’d never forget.
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We settled into a house that had previously been owned by a man who had passed away, and a dog visited us daily. One day, I decided to follow it
When Maggie moves into a new house with her son, Ethan, and husband, Kyle, she is more than ready for a new start. Her son needed fresh scenery and a new school, and Maggie just wanted him to be happy. But one day, a husky wanders into their yard, eating their food and growing close to Ethan. Soon after, the husky leads Maggie and Ethan into the woods, ready to show them something devastating…
When we moved into our new house, I had a good feeling. It was a new chapter in our lives, and I was more than ready for it. Kyle, my husband, and I were excited to give our son, Ethan, a fresh start. He had recently gone through a bullying experience at school, and we all wanted to just put it behind us.
The house had belonged to an older man named Christopher, who’d passed away recently. His daughter, a woman in her forties, sold it to us, telling us that it was too painful to keep and that she hadn’t even lived in it since her father’s death.
“There’s too many memories in there, you know?” she told me when we first met to walk through the house. “And I don’t want it to get into the wrong hands. I want it to be a home to a family who will love it as much as my family did.”
“I know exactly what you mean, Tracy,” I said reassuringly. “We’ll make this house into our forever home.”
We were eager to settle in, but from the first day, something strange happened. Every morning, a husky would show up at our front door. He was an old dog, with graying fur and piercing blue eyes that seemed to look right through you.
The sweet boy didn’t bark or make a fuss. He would just sit there, waiting. Of course, we gave him some food and water, figuring that he belonged to a neighbor. After eating, he’d wander off like it was routine.
“Do you think his owners just don’t feed him enough, Mom?” Ethan asked one day when we were at the grocery store getting our weekly groceries and food for the husky, too.
“I don’t know, E,” I said. “Maybe the old man who lived in our house fed him, so it’s part of his routine?”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Ethan said, adding some dog treats to our cart.
At first, we didn’t think much of it. Kyle and I wanted to get Ethan a dog; we just wanted to wait until he was settled down at his new school first.
But then, he came the next day. And the day after that. Always at the same time, always sitting patiently by the porch.
It felt like the husky wasn’t just any stray. He acted like he belonged here. Like we were just temporary guests in his home. It was strange, but we didn’t think much of it.
Ethan was over the moon. And I knew that my son was slowly falling in love with the husky. He spent as much time as he could running around with the dog, tossing sticks for him, or sitting on the porch, talking to him like they’d known each other forever.
I would watch from the kitchen window, smiling at the way Ethan had immediately bonded with this mysterious dog.
It was exactly what Ethan needed after everything he had been through at his old school.
One morning, while petting him, Ethan’s fingers traced the dog’s collar.
“Mom, there’s a name here!” he called out.
I came over and knelt down next to the dog, brushing away some of the fur covering the worn leather collar on him. The name was barely visible, but there it was:
Christopher Jr.
My heart skipped a beat.
Was it just a coincidence?
Christopher, just like the man who had owned our house? Could this husky have been his dog? The thought sent a chill down my spine. Tracy hadn’t mentioned anything about a dog.
“Do you think he’s been coming here because it used to be his home?” Ethan asked, looking up at me with wide eyes.
I shrugged, feeling a little unsettled.
“Maybe, sweetheart. But it’s hard to say.”
At the same time, it felt like the husky wasn’t just any stray. He acted like he belonged here. Like we were just temporary guests in his home. It was strange, but we didn’t think much of it.
Later that day, after Christopher Jr. had eaten, he began to act strange.
He whined softly, pacing back and forth near the edge of the yard, his eyes darting toward the woods. He had never done that before. But now, it was almost like he was asking us to follow him.
The dog stopped and stared straight ahead, and that’s when I saw it.
“Mom, I think he wants us to go with him!” Ethan said excitedly, already pulling on his jacket.
I hesitated.
“Darling, I’m not sure that’s a good idea…”
“Come on, Mom!” Ethan said. “We’ve got to see where he’s going and what’s going on. We’ll take our phones and I’ll text Dad so that he knows. Please?”
I didn’t want to do it, but I was curious. There was something about the dog’s urgency that made me think that this was more than just a random walk in the woods.
So, we followed.
The husky led the way, glancing back at us every so often to make sure we were still there. The air was crisp, and the woods were quiet, except for the occasional snap of a twig under our boots.
“You’re still sure about this?” I asked Ethan.
“Yes!” he said excitedly. “Dad has our location, don’t worry, Mom.”
We walked for about twenty minutes, deeper and deeper into the forest. Deeper than I’d ever been before. I was just about to suggest turning back when the husky stopped abruptly at a small clearing.
The dog stopped and stared straight ahead, and that’s when I saw it.
There was a pregnant fox, trapped in a hunter’s snare, barely moving at all.
“Oh my God,” I whispered, rushing toward the fox.
She was weak, her breathing shallow, her fur matted with dirt. The trap had dug into her leg, and she was trembling with pain.
“Mom, we’ve got to help her!” Ethan said, his voice shaking. “Look at her, she’s hurt!”
“I know, I know,” I said, my hands fumbling to free her from the cruel trap. The husky stood close, whining softly as if he understood the fox’s pain.
After what felt like an eternity, I managed to loosen the trap. The fox didn’t move at first. She just lay there, panting heavily.
“We have to get her to the vet immediately, E,” I said, pulling out my phone to call Kyle.
When Kyle arrived, we gently wrapped the fox in a blanket that he brought and rushed her to the nearest vet clinic. The husky, of course, came with us.
It felt like he wasn’t going to leave the fox, not after all of this.
The vet said that the fox needed surgery, and we waited nervously in the small, sterile room. Ethan was quiet, sitting next to the husky, his hands resting on the dog’s thick fur.
“You think she’ll make it, Mom?” Ethan asked.
“I hope so, honey,” I said, squeezing his shoulder. “She’s tough. And we did everything we could.”
The surgery was successful, but when the fox woke up, she was howling, her cries echoing through the clinic.
The vet couldn’t calm her down, and neither could Kyle. But when I walked into the room, she stopped. Her eyes locked onto mine, and she let out one last soft whimper before falling silent.
“It’s like she knows you helped her,” the vet said.
We went back for her two days later, and brought her home. We set her up in a small den in the garage where she could rest and recover. CJ, the husky, as Ethan had taken to calling him, stayed with Vixen the fox the entire time.
A few days later, she gave birth to four tiny kits. It was truly the most amazing thing I’d ever seen. And she let me be a part of it.
“She only lets us near her babies,” Ethan told me one day when we went to check on Vixen and the babies. “She trusts us.”
I nodded and smiled.
“And the dog too,” I added. “Little CJ seems to be right at home with us.”
When the babies were old enough, Kyle and I knew it was time to let them go. We built a proper den for them back in the forest and watched as Vixen disappeared into it with her babies.
Now, every weekend, Ethan, CJ, and I walk to the forest to visit them. The fox always comes out to greet us, her kits trailing behind her, just as curious as ever.
What would you have done?
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