The wind on the terrace was biting, whipping strands of hair across Elara's face. Julian sat in the wheelchair, his back to the party, the light from the chandeliers casting long shadows across the stone floor.
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a silver case. He extracted a cigarette and lit it with a gold lighter. The flame illuminated his face-hard, unyielding.
He took a drag, the embers glowing red. He exhaled a plume of smoke that drifted toward Elara.
"Go back inside," he said, not looking at her. "Tell your parents I'm not interested. Tell them I smelled the poverty on you and it made me sick."
Elara didn't move. She watched the smoke curl into the night.
"Are you deaf as well as mute?" Julian snapped, spinning the chair around to face her. His aggression was practiced, a shield designed to repel.
Elara reached into her pocket. She didn't pull out a phone or a notepad. She simply spoke. Her voice was raspy from disuse, but steady.
"Five A.M."
Julian froze. The cigarette burned unheeded in his fingers.
"I accessed the Thorne Estate security feeds through a backdoor in the perimeter server," Elara continued, her voice clinical. "Yesterday morning. You run the private trail behind the mausoleum. Seven-minute mile pace."
The silence that followed was heavy, suffocating. Julian's eyes narrowed into slits. The mask of the broken invalid dissolved. In its place was a predator who had been cornered.
"You're hallucinating," he said softly.
"Your left foot strikes the ground harder than your right," Elara said, ignoring his denial. "You favor the left knee. Old injury? Maybe. But the muscle development in your quadriceps is symmetrical. You aren't paralyzed."
Julian didn't stand. He knew better. Instead, he rolled the chair forward with sudden, terrifying speed, pinning Elara against the stone railing. The footrests slammed into her shins. He leaned forward, invading her space, his voice dropping to a lethal whisper.
"Do you have a death wish?" he hissed. "Who are you working for?"
Elara didn't pull away. She winced at the pain in her shins but held his gaze. "I need a way out of that house. You need a cover."
Julian stared at her. He searched her face for a wire, for deception. He saw only a desperate, cold intelligence.
"Explain," he commanded.
"My family wants to sell me to you to secure a deal. They think I'm a mute idiot who will sit in the corner while you rot," Elara said. "If you reject me, they'll send Tiffany. Or someone else. Someone who talks. Someone who will notice that you don't need that chair."
Julian's grip on the armrests loosened slightly. He was listening.
"Why are you faking?" she asked.
"That's none of your business," he snarled.
"Thorne Corporation board restructuring," Elara guessed. "If you're incapacitated, the vultures come out. You're waiting for them to show their hands before you strike."
A slow, dark smile spread across Julian's face. It didn't reach his eyes, but it was there. He sat back in his chair and adjusted his cufflinks.
"You're smarter than you look," he said. "Which isn't saying much, given the dress."
"Marry me," Elara said. "I'll play the role. The silent, terrified wife. I won't get in your way. In exchange, I get the Thorne name. I get protection. And when you're done with your game, we divorce. I take half the settlement money and disappear."
Julian took another drag of his cigarette. He looked at the party inside-Richard Vance laughing, Victoria holding court.
"A contract," Julian said. "One year. You live in my house. You see nothing. You say nothing."
"Deal," Elara said.
"And if you betray me," Julian added, his voice dropping to a murmur that made the hair on Elara's arms stand up, "I will ensure you never speak again. Permanently."
"If I betray you," Elara replied, "you won't have to. I'll do it myself."
The glass door opened. Richard poked his head out, his face flushed with wine.
"Everything alright out here?"
Julian dropped the cigarette and crushed it under the wheel of his chair. His face went slack, his shoulders slumped. He looked up at Richard with dead, glassy eyes.
"She's quiet," Julian mumbled. "I like quiet."
Elara looked down at her shoes, shrinking into herself.
"We have a deal," Julian said.
