Althea followed him out of the cafe, the little bell chiming her exit from one absurd reality into another. An autumn wind whipped down the Brooklyn street, and she shivered, pulling her thin cardigan tighter around herself.
A black Mercedes sedan glided to a silent stop at the curb. A man in a suit, Leo, got out and opened the rear passenger door.
Darion gestured for her to get in, a stiff, impersonal motion. There was no courtesy in it, only efficiency.
She ducked into the car, the scent hitting her first. It wasn't the typical new car smell. It was sterile, like a hospital, a sharp antiseptic scent layered with the faint, cold fragrance of cedar. It was the smell of a space that was aggressively, obsessively clean.
Darion entered from the other side, pressing himself against the far door, creating the maximum possible distance between them in the enclosed space. The silence that fell was heavy, suffocating. Althea clutched the strap of her canvas tote bag, her knuckles white.
The car pulled smoothly into traffic, heading for the Brooklyn Bridge and the grand, gray buildings of lower Manhattan.
A low vibration broke the quiet. Darion's personal phone. He slipped in a single wireless earbud, his voice a low, clipped command. "Speak."
Althea stared out the window, pretending not to listen, but his side of the conversation was impossible to ignore. His posture stiffened, his hand clenching into a fist on his knee.
"How much worse?" A pause. "Use whatever you have to. I don't care about the cost. Just keep him stable."
His hand on his knee was a roadmap of tension, the veins standing out in sharp relief against his skin. He ended the call without a goodbye, pulling the earbud out and letting out a slow, controlled breath. The raw, violent emotion she saw flicker in his eyes was quickly masked, locked away behind a wall of ice.
Leo, from the front seat, passed a thick file folder over his shoulder without a word.
Darion took it, his long fingers flipping it open. Althea caught a glimpse of her own face on a printed page. A full background check. Her stomach twisted. He had dissected her entire life.
His eyes scanned the pages, pausing on a section filled with newspaper clippings. The headlines were brutal, sensational. Beaumont Heiress a Fraud! The Imposter Princess Kicked to the Curb! His expression didn't change, but a shadow seemed to pass over his features.
He slid the report back into the folder and produced another document, this one freshly printed, the pages held together by a single clip. A prenuptial agreement.
The Mercedes came to a stop before the imposing stone columns of the New York City Hall.
Althea pushed the door open, her feet finding solid ground on the wide concrete steps. The air felt cooler here, the sounds of the city more muted.
Darion was beside her in an instant, holding out the prenup and a heavy, black Montblanc pen. "Sign it."
She took the papers, her hands surprisingly steady. Standing on the steps of the marriage bureau, she began to read. The legal jargon was dense, but the intent was crystal clear.
The first page, in bold, capital letters, stated that she, the wife, waived any and all claims to his assets, properties, and future earnings. She let out a short, humorless laugh. "Don't worry. I have no interest in your little investment firm."
She kept reading, her eyebrows climbing higher with each clause. There were rules for cohabitation she hadn't agreed to. No shared bathrooms. No guests without prior written consent.
Then she got to the most insane one.
The Wife shall not, under any circumstances, enter within a three-foot radius of the Husband's personal space without his express permission.
She looked up from the page, her eyes wide with disbelief. She was looking at him as if he were a specimen in a jar. "Are you serious? What is wrong with you? Do you have some kind of persecution complex?"
His face was a mask of indifference. He didn't react to her insult, didn't even blink. He simply stared back at her, his dark eyes cold and empty.
"Sign it," he said, his voice flat and final. "Or walk away."
Her jaw clenched. She thought of Arthur. She thought of the twenty-two thousand, four hundred and fifty dollars. She uncapped the pen.
Her signature was a furious, jagged slash of ink on the last page. She didn't hesitate. She didn't look back.
He took the agreement from her, his gaze sweeping over her signature. A flicker of something, maybe relief, crossed his face for a fraction of a second before vanishing.
Leo appeared at their side, holding a numbered ticket. "Sir, they're calling our number."
Darion turned without a word and started up the steps. Althea took a deep breath, the city air tasting of exhaust and regret, and followed him inside to get married.
