The rain hadn't stopped for days. The sky was a bruised gray, weeping endlessly as if the heavens themselves mourned the decision I was about to make.
I stepped into the Blackthorn tower forty-five floors of glass and steel arrogance each floor colder than the one below it. Security didn't bother stopping me. They'd been waiting.
I was dressed in black.
A man with the sharp cheekbones of a fallen angel waited by the elevator. He didn't speak. Just nodded once, then stepped in beside me like a silent executioner escorting the condemned.
Forty-five floors up.
Each floor crawled under my skin like spiders.
The elevator opened directly into his office.
And there he was.
Ares Blackthorn.
The monster behind my family's ruin.
The devil whose lips once kissed mine under cherry blossoms, years ago.
The boy who used to love me.
Now the man who promised to destroy me.
He sat behind a desk made of black marble, polished to a mirror. He didn't look up. He didn't need to. His presence already devoured the air.
I stood there like I wasn't breaking inside. Like I didn't want to claw my skin open and scream until it stopped hurting.
Ares finally lifted his eyes.
Gray. Like steel. Like winter.
Unforgiving. Unapologetic. Unyielding.
> "You came," he said, voice low and smooth like a gun's slide before the bullet fires.
"I didn't think you'd sacrifice your pride so easily, Eden."
My name in his mouth felt like poison
"I came for my brother," I replied, jaw clenched. "You said you'd release him if I"
> "Married me."
He leaned back, spreading his arms like a king on a throne.
"I did. And I always keep my promises."
A file slid across the desk.
A contract.
Thick pages, legal bindings, and at the end
One blank signature line.
"Sign it," he said, "and I'll transfer your brother's medical records to a private hospital. The best care. Around the clock. No more government-run scraps. He'll live."
I didn't move.
Not yet.
Instead, I asked the question that burned through every cell in my body.
"Why me?"
Ares stared at me for a long moment. The kind of stare that could undress your soul and find everything you wanted to keep hidden.
Then he smiled.
Just…hungry.
"Because you were mine once. And I want to see how much I have to break you to own you again."
My breath caught. Rage battled helplessness in my throat.
I hated him.
I loved him.
I hated that I still remembered what his fingers felt like on my skin.
I picked up the pen.
My hand trembled.
I signed.
Eden Vale.
The name that once made people whisper in envy now sealed my fate in silence.
Ares stood. Walked around the desk. His scent hit me firen dark woods, smoke, and something dangerous.
He stopped in front of me. Close. Too close.
He reached out, and I flinched. He only brushed my jaw with his fingers, eyes scanning mine like he was trying to decide.
"You'll move into my penthouse tonight. You'll wear my ring. You'll smile in public. In private…"
His hand dropped. His voice turned razor-sharp.
"You'll be whatever I want you to be. Are we clear, husband?"
The ring was cold metal and chained promises.
I nodded once.
But inside, something shifted.
He thought I was his.