Sweetest Ruin: A Love Fate planned.

The Day perfect

Rafael Sinclair stood before the mirror, tuxedo immaculate, cufflinks gleaming, hair perfectly tousled.

Today was the day.

Camille Moreau would become his wife.

His grandfather would hand him the keys to the Sinclair empire.

And the reckless boy who once treated love like a game would finally become a man.

Rafael Sinclair, adjusted the cuffs of his tuxedo for the third time.

Perfect.

That was the word everyone used, perfect suit, perfect venue, perfect bride, perfect future. And for once in his life, Rafael agreed with them.

Today, he looked like the man he was expected to become. The man his grandfather believed he could be.

The man who would finally inherit the Sinclair conglomerate.

Rafael’s lips curved into a confident grin as he straightened his bow tie. Today wasn’t just about marriage…

it was about legacy. It was a day when everything he had ever wanted would finally be his.

A soft knock interrupted his thoughts.

Before he could respond, the door swung open.

“Surprise!”

Rafael turned…and froze.

“Isa?”

Isabel Vale stood in the doorway, sunlight catching the gold in her hair, a familiar smile lighting up a face and her eyes warm with laughter.

Rafael’s breath caught.

He hadn’t seen her in... what?... FOUR YEARS.

Not since Grandpa’s last birthday, when she’d sent regrets, buried in nursing exams. For a split second, time rewound. The mansion, the tuxedo, the wedding, all of it disappeared.

He crossed the room in two strides and pulled her into a tight hug.

“You came,” he said, his voice softer than he expected.

“Of course I did,” she replied, laughing as she hugged him back. “You really think I’d miss this?”

He stepped back slowly, eyes roaming over her face as though confirming she was real. They spoke often, calls, messages, late-night conversations, but seeing her like this, in flesh and breath, hit differently.

She looked… stunning.

Not in an overdone, attention-seeking way. Just effortless. Calm confidence. Quiet beauty that had deepened with time.

Rafael smiled, shaking his head.

“I swear, every time I see you, you somehow get even prettier. How you manage to always look more beautiful than I remember, I would never know.””

Isabel rolled her eyes.

“Says the guy who looks like an angel who escaped heaven just to break hearts. Or better yet, like a man who escaped straight out of a luxury magazine. Rafael, jokes apart, you look like a fallen angel.”

He laughed. “An angel, huh? I’ll take that.”

They both burst out laughing, the easy, familiar sound of two souls who’d known each other before the world got complicated.

“And she finally showed up,” he added theatrically. “The busiest doctor in the world. The one who wouldn’t trade her patients’ lives for anything.”

“Shut up, big head. First of all,” she said, pointing a finger at him, “it’s nurse, not doctor.”

“Does it matter?” he shrugged “You both deal with drugs, smell like antiseptic and survive on coffee.”

She scoffed. “You’re impossible.”

“As long as I’m your impossible, I don’t mind.” he shot back smoothly.

She shook her head, smiling despite herself.

“Will you ever change? Honestly… I never imagined I’d see this day. Mr. Casanova, finally getting married.”

Rafael rolled his eyes. “I told you I’d change when the time was right. And look… I did. I’m getting married. So admit it. You were wrong.”

She snorted, about to reply, when his phone chimed.

Rafael glanced at the screen casually still smiling.

“Are you even sure you are supposed to see the groom before the bride, you know.” he teased.

“Oh please, what bride?” she scoffed.

“You are my Rafael? You were mine before anyone else. And if I don’t give the go-ahead, you’re not going anywhere.”

“I totally believe you, Mommy,” he joked, thumb swiping open the message.

But then his smile suddenly vanished.

Isabel noticed immediately.

“Raf?” She stepped closer, concern etching her features. “What is it? Did something happen?”

He didn’t answer.

His grip on the phone tightened. His knuckles turned white.

“Rafael,” she pressed, touching his arm.

Isabel saw the switch in his expression… the blood draining from his face, the way his hands began to shake.

“Rafael? Talk to me… What is it?”

When he still didn’t respond, she reached out and snatched the phone from his hand.

Her breath caught.

On the screen was a photo of a woman standing inside an airport terminal, luggage beside her, middle finger raised boldly at the camera.

Below it, a caption burned into Isabel’s vision:

He broke my cousin’s heart for a bet.

Now watch me break him in public.

Her heart dropped.

Another image followed.

Below it, another image: Camille arm-in-arm with a girl Rafael knew too well.

**DORA.**

The girl he’d seduced on a dare. The one whose cousin now stood in his wedding dress… and vanished.

Isabel’s blood ran cold.

“Rafael…” Isabel whispered, horror dawning. “Is this..?” She slowly lifted her eyes to Rafael.

“Isn’t… isn’t that Camille Moreau? Your supposed bride?”

The woman he was supposed to marry in less than an hour.

Rafael stared straight ahead, his face drained of all color, his mind spinning into nothingness.

Before either of them could speak, a voice called from outside the room.

“Rafael, it’s almost time. Come out already.”

Isabel panicked.

“Oh my God,” she whispered. “This is bad. This is really bad. I warned you, didn’t I? I constantly warned you about your style of living... see now? Oh my goodness! What do we do now? Rafael, say something. The guests are here. The press. Grandpa… oh my God… he came all the way from the hospital just for this! He can’t take the shock!”

Her voice broke.

That was what snapped him.

Rafael turned to her sharply, fear blazing through his eyes for the first time in years. He saw it then… not the wedding, not the scandal… but his grandfather’s frail body, supported by hope and pride alone.

The shock would destroy him.

“I won’t let this kill him,” Rafael said hoarsely. “I can’t.”

He grabbed Isabel’s hands, desperation pouring into his grip.

“Isa,” he said urgently. “You promised me something once. You promised you’d always be there for me. That you’d never leave me stranded… no matter what.”

Her heart pounded. “Y-yes… but—”

“Today is that day,” he said, voice trembling. “The day you can’t leave me… stranded”

She frowned. “Rafael… I don’t understand. What are you saying?”

He gripped her shoulders, gaze burning into hers.

“You’ll be my bride.”

The words fell like thunder.

Isabel’s breath left her lungs.

“What…?”

“You’ll marry me,” he said, frantic now.

“Just for today. Just to get through this. We'll come up with something later… please, Isa. You’re the only one who can save him. Save me.”

The words hung between them... absurd, impossible, terrifying.

Isabel stared at him, heart hammering.

Because this wasn’t just any request.

This was Rafael.

The boy she had grown up with. The boy whose life had been intertwined with hers since tragedy had torn both their worlds apart.

Because their story wasn’t just childhood friendship.

It wasn’t just stolen glances or late-night calls.

It began in fire.

In loss.

In a crash that took everything… and left only two broken children clinging to each other in the dark.

And now, years later, fate was asking her to step into the wreckage again.

Before Isabel could answer, before she could even breathe properly…

The past came rushing back.

Okay...

You might want to brace yourself.

Because their story didn’t start beautifully.

It started with TRAGEDY.

Sunlight dappled through the oak trees of the Sinclair estate, painting gold on green grass.

Two children ran barefoot across the lawn... laughing, chasing, tumbling into each other like puppies.

Isabel Vale, eleven, with wild curls and scraped knees, shrieked as Rafael Sinclair, fourteen, snatched her hat and dashed ahead, grinning over his shoulder.

She chased him past rose bushes, around the fountain, until he tripped, on purpose, and they collapsed in a heap, breathless, giggling.

“Give it back!” she demanded, swatting at his arm.

“Make me,” he teased, holding the hat just out of reach.

An elderly gardener paused, rake in hand, watching them with a soft smile. “Those two,” he murmured to no one. “Like sunlight and shadow, always together.”

They were.

For two years, since the accident that took everything, they’d been each other’s world. Shared meals. Shared nightmares. Shared silence when the grief was too heavy to name. Rafael’s grandfather, Elias Sinclair, had taken Isabel in without question.

“You saved my grandson's life,” he’d told her the first night, voice thick. “Now you've become mine too.”

And so they grew... not as orphans, but as siblings. As best friends. As two halves of a whole neither knew they were missing.

Until the day Aunt Thelma arrived.

She stepped from her black limo in a cream linen suit, heels clicking on the stone path. Her eyes swept the garden, then landed on Isabel.

For a long moment, she simply stared.

Then she turned to Elias, voice low but urgent. “That beautiful girl… is the girl you mentioned?”

Elias nodded.

Thelma’s expression softened. “She’s beautiful. Bright-eyed. And look how she is with Rafael, they’re adorable.”

She stepped closer, pleading now. “Uncle, let me take her. I’ve no children of my own. I’ll give her everything, education, stability, love. I swear it on my life. She won’t want for anything.”

Elias hesitated. Looked at the children, Rafael now braiding daisies into Isabel’s hair, both of them humming a tune only they knew.

Finally, he sighed. “If she agrees… and if you promise she’ll always be welcome here.”

Thelma kissed his cheek. “Always.”

Minutes later, Thelma held Isabel’s hand, leading her toward the car.

Isabel didn’t resist. But she couldn’t stop looking back.

Rafael stood frozen by the fountain, eyes wide, lower lip trembling. He didn’t cry. Not yet. But his chest heaved like he was holding his breath.

Isabel’s tears fell freely.

She raised a small hand. He mirrored it.

The car door closed.

As the engine roared to life, Rafael broke, running after the car, bare feet slapping pavement, shouting her name.

But the car sped away.

And just like that, their world split in two.