My body shook from where it hurts. Hospitals make you feel like you're on pause like—hooked up to wires, wrapped in gauze, lying in a bed that smells like bleach and pity. The moment I opened my eyes that morning, I remembered everything.
Dustin’s office.
Bianca’s smug smile.
The bouquet hitting the floor.
Then the horn, the flash of headlights—
And finally, the silence.
That kind of betrayal doesn’t just break your heart. It dissolves your dignity. I’d built my life around being put together. The polished daughter. The quiet achiever. The loyal girlfriend. All that cracked in one afternoon.
I was still staring at the ceiling when the door creaked open. I turned my head slowly. Expecting Andrew but it wasn’t my brother. It was him—the man I’m going to wed with.
Charismatic. Hot. Intimidating. Dressed in black from head to toe. Hair tousled like he hadn’t bothered to fix it. And eyes—sharp, silver-gray, and unsettlingly steady—that made me forget to breathe.
“You’re Heleina,” he said flatly, his voice deep, quiet, and utterly unimpressed.
I straightened in bed, ignoring the pain in my ribs. “And you must be the favor I—”
“Silas Provetsky,” he cut in in a stern voice.
He didn’t fidget. Didn’t glance at his phone. Just stood there with the unsettling calm of someone used to walking into rooms filled with tension and walking out the same way he came in—untouched.
“I thought you’d be older,” I said.
“I thought you’d be smarter.”
“Excuse me?”
“Marrying someone out of spite?” He raised a brow. “Sounds like a long, expensive way to prove you weren’t the boring girlfriend.”
I stiffened. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“I know enough,” he said, eyes dropping to the bruises peeking out from my hospital gown. “Andrew filled me in.”
“Of course he did.”
I studied him, the sharp angles of his face, the way he refused to meet my gaze for too long. He was guarded. Closed-off. But not indifferent. His eyes kept flicking to my wrist, wrapped tight in gauze. To the IV in my arm. To the bruise blooming across my collarbone. He noticed everything. Even when he pretended not to care.
“And you said yes?” I asked, voice tight.
“I said I’d talk.”
“Right,” I muttered. “Talk to the girl with the wrecked pride and a concussion. What a dream proposal.”
He didn’t even smile. Just looked at me like I was a folder to be read, filed, and forgotten.
“You want a name,” he said. “I have one.”
“And you want…?”
He tilted his head. “Nothing.”
I stared at him. “No agenda? No clause in fine print? No bitter ex or revenge fantasy of your own?”
“I told you already. Don’t make me repeat myself.”
His presence made me nervous, but it also intrigued me. Silas was ice in human form—but not the kind that melted. I could see it in the way he stood—tense but effortless. Like a man who loved to court danger.
“What’s your story?” I asked quietly.
He looked away, jaw tightening. “Not relevant.”
“Everything’s relevant,” I said. “Especially if I’m going to sign your last name like it’s a damn armor.”
He didn’t speak for a long moment. Then finally—“Let’s get something straight. I don’t lie. I don’t cheat. And I don’t promote love.”
“Why?” I asked, voice soft.
He turned back to me, and something flickered in those storm-gray eyes. Just a flash.
“Because people who love me end up broken.”
I swallowed hard. And there it was—the shadow. His wounded soul seeped through me. I should’ve pulled away. But I leaned forward instead.
“Good,” I whispered. “Because I’m already broken. Now I just want to make sure Dustin regrets leaving me this way.”
Silas gave a short nod. “It’s a deal, then.”
He walked toward the door. Something tugged at me before he left. Maybe it was curiosity. Or the fact that for the first time since Dustin, someone saw me without flinching.
“Wait,” I said.
He paused. I didn’t know what I wanted to say. I just knew I wasn’t ready for him to go.
“You don’t have to pretend,” I said quietly. “You came here because Andrew asked. But you stayed longer than two minutes. That means something.”
He didn’t turn around. But I noticed his hand tighten slightly on the doorknob.
Then he said, “You should rest. I’ll have the paperwork sent tomorrow.”
I lay back against the pillows, staring at the ceiling again. Only this time, it didn’t feel so cold. So suffocating. Something about him stayed with me. Something dangerous yet calming.
Strange but I want to feel it more. I squeezed my eyes shut and then—
The door slammed open. Andrew rushed in, face tight. I jolted and scooted on the bed.
“You have to see this, Heleina.”
“What—what is it?”
He pulled out his phone and shoved it in front of me. The screen showed Bianca—on live. Drunk. Screaming her heart out at a party held at the Green Mansion—my parent’s hotel.
‘…And Heleina? She’s not even sick, okay? She threw herself in front of a car to get attention. Dustin was going to leave her anyway—she knew it! She just can’t stand being second best.’
Silas scoffed and then looked at me. “You just went viral for the wrong reason, Heleina.”
He saw me at my lowest point as a woman...
Yet he still chose to stay and stand as my groom.
