Ava caught her breath as she looked at Walter, the man her parents had given her to meet. He stood up from his seat, impeccably dressed in a smart suit that showed off his athletic build, his blue eyes sparkling under the elegant lighting.

Ava’s heart fluttered as he smiled at her and helped her sit up.

“Ava, this is Walter, my son,” his mother said.

“What do you think?” whispered Hilda, Ava’s mother, noticing her daughter’s reddened cheeks.

The families sit at a large restaurant table, the air thick with apprehension and anticipation. Ava, initially reluctant to go along with the arranged meeting, finds herself unexpectedly drawn to Walter. His gentlemanly demeanor throughout the dinner and the meetings that follow only reinforces her admiration for him.

So, a few weeks later, when he got down on one knee to propose to her, she didn’t think twice about saying yes.

“I’m going to marry you!” she exclaimed as Walter slipped a diamond ring onto her finger.

The wedding was planned and, with just a few weeks to go, Ava and her friend Hillary went to a boutique to pick out a wedding dress for Ava’s big day.

They had just arrived 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 given the volume, it was impossible not to hear some words, especially when she heard Walter’s name.

“You mean Walter, the blue-eyed playboy, is getting married?” a woman whispered in disbelief.

“Apparently his parents found him a millionaire’s daughter,” another woman added.

Ava desperately wanted to continue listening, but she was interrupted by one of the attendants who approached her because 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 made the roads wet, and as she approached the mansion, she noticed a group of homeless people huddled on the side of the road, trying to stay dry.

Ava slowed her car to avoid splashing them and rolled down her window to offer them some money, but she was taken aback when she heard their conversation.

“That rich guy in the red car sprayed us with water! 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 good looks, he thinks he can get away with anything,” added a woman bitterly.

Shocked and confused, Ava rolled up her window and entered Walter’s estate, wondering if they were talking about him. She had seen his compassionate side, like his charitable works, but now she doubted it was all just a facade.

As she entered her 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 them all gone!” he yelled, his face twisted with anger.

His tone suddenly softened when he turned around and saw her.

“I don’t want to see these beggars suffering in the rain. Find them a place, now!” he ordered as he hung up.

“Ava!” He smiled and approached her. “I saw some homeless people in the rain. It broke my heart, so I was trying to find them shelter,” 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 scheduled for a week, after which Walter was to be appointed director of one of his father’s charities.

Returning home, Ava discussed all this with Hillary and came up with a plan to test Walter’s true personality.

“Why don’t we hire a private investigator?” Hillary suggested. “Isn’t that easier than hiring an actor? What if it doesn’t work out?”

“He will. People let their guard down easily around strangers, and the actor I hired is pretty good,” Ava explained.

The next day, they met at Walter’s favorite restaurant, hiding their faces under big hats.

“Aren’t you afraid Walter will get angry if he finds out?” Hillary asked cautiously.

“He won’t know if everything goes well,” Ava reassured her as she waited for Walter to arrive. She had already texted him to put her plan into action. “ Babe, can you get me a coffee from your favorite place? I’ll be waiting at your office ,” she had written. Later, she would text him to tell him she couldn’t make it because of work.

When Walter entered the cafe, Ava watched him carefully. Dressed in a white sweater and black pants, Walter drew admiring glances as he ordered. Ava’s heart swelled with pride, but she was anxious about the actor she had hired to test him.

“I hope everything goes well,” she whispered to Hillary.

As Walter waited, a disheveled man, the actor Ava had hired, approached the counter. Walter, disgusted, stepped aside to allow the man to order first.

“He’s so sweet,” 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, hiding his frustration, all because he wanted the poor, stinking man gone as quickly as possible.

The situation escalated when the man accidentally spilled coffee on Walter’s sweater. Walter’s anger flared, but he spotted someone familiar in the space and restrained himself.

“I’m sorry, sir,” the man stammered, tears streaming down his face.

Walter, who was boiling inside, forced himself to smile. “Ah, don’t worry! These are just clothes, nothing more. You can get more food at the counter, I’ll pay,” he offered, leading the man to the counter while typing vigorously on his phone, trying to send a quick message to his friend.

Ava watched from afar and was proud of Walter’s kindness. “He’s the man I thought he was,” she told Hillary, who wasn’t entirely convinced.

Soon Walter was out, walking side by side with the beggar, who followed him smiling. They had just turned a corner when he grabbed the man’s shirt and whispered harshly in his ear. “Say a word of this to Ava, and you’ll regret it,” he warned, throwing his scalding coffee on the man before walking away.

Meanwhile, Ava was texting him, thinking how stupid she had been to doubt him. “See, I told you he was a good guy,” she told Hillary.

Walter scowled as he read her message and headed home. He knew Ava suspected something. In desperation, he called Brandon, his trusted friend, for advice.

Meanwhile, Joe, the actor Ava hired to test Walter, was shedding his coffee-soaked clothes. Feeling the pain in his neck from Walter’s grip, he gave up on contacting his client and went home.

The atmosphere at Walter’s is tense. “She knows!” Walter yelled.

“Calm down. What exactly does she know?” Brandon asks, pouring his friend some wine.

Walter explained Ava’s test and his fear of her suspicions.

“Spend more money on those charity galas she likes. There’s only a week left until the wedding, and all you have to do is keep going until then,” Brandon told him, and Walter listened intently.

That night, after returning home, Ava 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 goodbye before hanging up.

Two days before the wedding, Ava went alone to get her dress. Suddenly, a woman blocked her path. “Are you Ava? The one who’s going to marry Walter?” she asked bluntly.

“Yes, I’m Ava. I love her,” 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 chased after her, but the woman got into her car and drove away.

Perplexed and worried, Ava could only wonder about the woman’s motives as she retrieved her wedding dress. She decided to call Joe, the actor she had hired to test Walter, to get some information.

She had paid him for his work but hadn’t heard from him since her number at the coffee shop. She didn’t think anything of it because she was convinced that Walter was a kind and caring man. Joe didn’t answer her first calls, and when he did, he warned her to stay away from Walter before abruptly hanging up.

Confused and alarmed, Ava thinks about Joe’s reaction and decides to test Walter herself, this time without an intermediary. She plans 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 to meet. She approached him in the parking lot, asking for help under her beggar disguise.

Remembering Brandon’s advice to maintain a good public image, Walter reluctantly gave him some money and walked away.

Seeing his “kindness”, Ava couldn’t help but feel a little guilty for not trusting him. As she entered the restaurant, she instantly walked towards him, trying to grab his arm while calling 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 Walter gave her a hostile and unfamiliar look.

“You filthy witch! The only reason I didn’t slap you before is because we were in public. How dare you follow me!” Walter yelled. “You poor beggar, I hate you to no end!”

Walter had been holding back his emotions for a while, and seeing the restaurant completely empty gave him the opportunity to let off steam on the beggar woman who had DARED to almost touch him.

“I was being nice just because I’m trying to get a woman to marry me, and you think you can take advantage of that? Get out of here, or I’ll slap you again!” Walter continued to yell, and Ava could see he meant every word.

Touching his face, she felt it burn as her eyes stung with pain and the realization that Walter was nothing like the man she had fallen in love with.

As he asked security to take her out, Ava removed her disguise, revealing her true identity.

“It’s me, Ava,” she finally said, heartbroken.

The young man’s face paled. “A-Ava? How could you trick me like that? Was it a trap, a test? I thought you loved me. I thought you trusted me,” he stammered, trying to turn the situation around.

But Ava just shook her head and smiled.

“The wedding is off, loser!” she declared before walking away.

Months later, Ava’s parents arranged another wedding for her. She met Brandon, a seemingly calm and elegant man.

“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 very deceiving , Ava thought. Thanks to the private investigator Ava had hired, she knew this man was more deadly than Walter. She smiled at him, determined to teach him a lesson he would never forget.

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If you enjoyed reading this story, you might like this one about a maid who won the heart of a millionaire just days before his wedding.