Vivienne’s POV
I drew a steady breath before speaking, because once I said the words aloud, they would change everything. “I’ve made my decision,” I told my father quietly yet firmly. “I’m going to marry Lucian Vale.”
The sentence lingered in the air like a cold draft.
My father—Victor Ardent, master strategist, ruthless negotiator, and the man who had built the Ardent empire from nothing but ambition—stilled at the corner of his polished war table. The room smelled faintly of cedar and ink, the scent he surrounded himself with whenever he was planning something monumental. He lifted his head slowly, disbelief etched into every line of his expression.
“You can’t be serious,” he said at last, his voice low and disbelieving, as if hoping I might retract my words.
But I had never felt more certain.
Lucian Vale, heir to one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the region, had been poisoned months ago with a cocktail of illegal substances laced with an exotic botanical toxin. He had collapsed during a public marathon and had not regained consciousness since. Specialists from across the world had examined him, but none could wake him. Machines kept his body alive; rumors kept his legacy breathing.
No woman wanted to be tied to a man who might never open his eyes again. Who would? A marriage to a motionless figure—a husband who would never speak, never move, never acknowledge his wife—was a future few could accept.
And yet, I volunteered.
“The Vale family has been pressing for the ceremony,” I reminded my father, keeping my tone even. “They will not tolerate indefinite delays. You know how they operate.”
“They asked for Cassandra,” he said, rigidity returning to his posture.
“I’m aware.” I lifted my chin slightly. “But Cassandra considers it intolerable to be bound to a man with no certainty of recovery. So I am offering myself in her place.”
He drew in a sharp breath and exhaled slowly, the tension in his shoulders melting away as his practiced, calculating mind began to work. “This arrangement could benefit everyone,” he murmured, already drifting into strategy. “It would secure our partnership with the Vales. It would protect our interests along the northern trade line. I’ll begin preparations immediately. We need—”
“I want compensation,” I interrupted, my voice slicing through his planning.
He stopped mid-thought and turned to look at me fully. “What did you say?”
“You’re not asking me to do this out of affection or duty,” I said steadily. “You want to protect Cassandra. So if I am stepping into a future she refused, I expect something in return.”
His brows pulled together. “Vivienne, this isn’t the time for theatrics—”
“I want half of the entire treasury,” I said calmly. “Not the symbolic dowry. Not a token amount. Half of everything—your private vaults included.”
His jaw tightened. “That would leave me nearly bankrupt.”
“Then consider it repayment,” I answered, meeting his gaze without flinching.
He stared at me as though seeing a stranger, even though I had spent my entire life in the shadow of his mistakes, pushed aside by the daughter he openly preferred.
“And,” I added as I turned toward the door, “I want Dominic reassigned.”
His expression darkened with confusion. “Dominic?”
“My personal security officer.” The soft echo of my footsteps filled the room. “Transfer him to Cassandra’s detail. He can look after her now.”
“You’re letting him go?” he said, clearly startled. “You once told me you planned to marry him someday.”
“I have no such intention anymore,” I replied, not bothering to look back.
He didn’t stop me as I walked away.
He didn’t question me again or call out after me.
He never did—unless it benefited Cassandra.
He would give her the world. It was about time he gave me something too.
---
My mother had died because of his infidelity—because she discovered the other woman, the other household, the other daughter. The betrayal shattered her so completely that her mind crumbled long before her body gave out. I watched her slip away piece by piece, her grief devouring her until nothing remained.
I had despised him for it. I had despised them. But especially Cassandra, who basked in a life built on my mother’s ruin.
Perhaps that was why I had clung to Dominic with such desperate hope. He was the only person who made me feel protected, the only one who seemed steady in a world that had always been cruel to me.
Or so I believed.
Before everything unraveled.
---
It was nearly midnight when I arrived at my secluded home on the outskirts of the Ardent estate. Pale moonlight stretched across the gravel path, illuminating the quiet lawns and the tall trees lining the driveway. Most people preferred to live near the city center, close to the business hub and political circles.
I preferred the silence.
Distance never betrayed.
But as I approached the hallway leading to the guest rooms, I heard something—labored breathing, soft but unmistakable. A heavy rhythm. A sound that made the hairs on my arms rise.
Then came the scent—warm, intimate, impossible to mistake.
Dominic.
My pulse quickened.
The guest room door was slightly ajar. I could have kept walking. I should have. But some part of me—a part I didn’t yet recognize as a desperate fool—moved closer instead.
Through the narrow gap, I saw him.
He was sitting on the edge of the bed, shirt discarded on the floor, his skin sheened with sweat. His movements were urgent, unguarded, vulnerable in a way I had never seen from him. And in his hand… a photo.
A photograph of Cassandra.
He whispered her name in a breathless, almost reverent tone.
I felt something inside me collapse—the kind of collapse that leaves you hollow and numb. I couldn’t look away. Couldn’t breathe. Dominic, the man I had believed in for years, the man I had practically thrown myself at, the man I had chosen out of a lineup of elite officers, was unraveling before me… and none of it was for me.
He’d been the quietest one during that selection—silent, impossibly composed, and breathtakingly handsome in a way that drew attention without trying. I had tried everything to gain his interest. Every dress, every flirtation, every risky stunt. He never yielded.
I had once convinced myself it was integrity.
But it had always been indifference.
His phone buzzed.
He answered immediately.
“Yes,” he said, his voice transforming into a tone I had never heard before—confident, commanding, almost aristocratic in its authority.
I froze.
“I’ve been posing as Vivienne’s bodyguard for years,” he said, tone steady as ever. “Do you think I’d abandon the mission now? Staying near her is the only way to protect Cassandra.”
A pause.
“No, she suspects nothing. She believes she’s winning me over. Pathetic.”
A cold sensation slid down my spine.
“She is nothing compared to Cassandra,” he continued. “You know how vital Cassandra’s role is. I’m convinced she’s the one in the prophecy—the woman the seer described.”
It felt as though the ground had vanished beneath me.
“I’ll remain undercover until Cassandra realizes who I am to her,” he said. “Keep the Silvana operations running while I’m gone. Understood?”
Silvana—
A name whispered in corruption cases, an unregistered organization rumored to operate in the shadows with alarming efficiency.
Dominic… involved with them? Leading them?
My pulse hammered in my ears. I should have collapsed, screamed, cried, anything.
But instead, fueled by heartbreak and fury I had never experienced before, I pushed the door wide open.
