Chapter 1 The signed contract
As she stood before the mirror in an ill fitting wedding gown, Liora Hale studied her reflection in silence. The dress was beautiful, ivory satin embroidered with delicate silver thread but it hung awkwardly on her narrow frame because It had never been meant for her. Her lips curved into a faint, wry smile.
How fitting, she thought even on her wedding day, she was wearing someone else’s life.
The woman staring back at her looked calm, composed almost indifferent but Liora knew better. She had no illusions about what awaited her once she stepped beyond this room.
Behind her, the door opened with little ceremony. “Sign this contract.”
Liora didn’t turn as the thick document flew through the air. She reached out on instinct and caught it cleanly, the paper brushing against her fingers like something alive. Slowly, she lowered her eyes and began to read.
Words after word with detailed obligations, restrictions and conditions far more ruthless than any marriage vow. This wasn’t a union. It was an exchange. Her eyes stopped at the bottom of the final page, Dominic Blackwood.
The name was written in neat, controlled strokes, but the ink had bled faintly through the paper, as if the pen had been pressed down with unusual force, either the man had signed in pain… or in anger.
“You’ll be well taken care of as his wife,” Harold Hale said coolly behind her then after a brief pause, his tone sharpened. “But don’t misunderstand your position. You’d better behave and don’t disrespect him in any way.”
Harold continued, his voice low. “Think carefully about what will happen to your grandmother if you ruin everything.”
Her fingers tightened around the contract. So there it was the blade he always kept hidden behind his smile. It should have been Selene not her.
Selene Hale the beloved daughter, the pride of the family and the one born beneath a lucky star. Selene, who had been engaged to Dominic Blackwood in name only… but had fled the moment she learned the truth.
A dying groom, a crippled heir and a man rumored to be living on borrowed time. Why would Selene sacrifice herself when there was a spare daughter readily available?
Just hours before the wedding, Selene had disappeared without a trace. Panic had erupted within the Hale household, but it wasn’t grief that filled Harold’s eyes it was calculation. To confess the truth to the Blackwoods would have been an unforgivable insult, a humiliation they could not afford.
So Liora had been summoned and now, to protect the only person in the world who had ever truly loved her, Liora found herself dressed in a wedding gown meant for another woman and standing in as the bride of the Blackwood family’s sickly heir.
Harold liked to call it a privilege but Liora knew better. If it were truly an honor, Selene would not have run. “You’re right,” Liora said suddenly “Thank you for the reminder,” she continued lightly.
“If not for you, the small matter of my becoming the young mistress of the Blackwood family might have slipped my mind entirely.”
She turned at last, facing him. “Although,” she added, tilting her head slightly, “correct me if I’m wrong but wouldn’t my new status make it incredibly easy to punish anyone who tried to hurt me?”
The temperature in the room seemed to drop and Harold’s expression hardened, his eyes narrowing because that was no idle question. It was a warning and Liora met his gaze without flinching, her expression demure, almost innocent.
“So don’t hurt my grandmother,” she said softly. “She’s the only family I have left. If something were to happen to her…”
Her smile deepened. “I truly can’t imagine what I’d be capable of.”
“You!” Harold hissed, rage flashing across his face but before he could continue, a knock sounded at the door and a staff member entered, head bowed. “Sir, it’s time. The guests are waiting for the bride.”
Harold swallowed his fury. In an instant, the mask returned. He straightened his suit, forced a smile, and grabbed Liora’s arm with a grip that bruised.
“Don’t forget your place,” he muttered under his breath as he escorted her forward.
The doors to the ceremony hall opened. Liora stepped into the light. A hush swept through the crowd, quickly replaced by whispers sharp, curious, cruel.
“I heard he’s practically on his deathbed. This marriage is nothing but a desperate attempt to steal more years from fate.”
“The Hales? That shameless daughter of theirs? Wasn’t she chasing some man she met at a party?”
“Poor thing looks half-starved. Can she even hold up that dress?”
Each word struck, but none slowed her steps.
Her face hidden beneath the veil, Liora walked steadily down the aisle, her gaze fixed on the man waiting at the center. Dominic Blackwood sat in a wheelchair.
A dark mask covered the lower half of his face, obscuring his mouth and jaw. His posture was upright but every few seconds, his body betrayed him.
A violent cough tore from his chest with his hand clenching into a fist as he struggled to suppress it but he failed.
The sound echoed through the hall was unsettling. For a moment, Liora wondered if he would collapse before the ceremony ended..So this is my husband, she thought bleakly. I enter as a bride… and may leave as a widow.
As soon as Harold placed Liora’s hand into Dominic’s, he recoiled slightly, covering his nose with a handkerchief before retreating with indecent haste. The pastor began the vows.
“Do you agree to take this man as your husband,” he asked Liora solemnly, “for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, from this day until your last?”
Did she have a choice?
She had already signed away her freedom.
“I do.”
The question was posed to Dominic next. He coughed once, twice before finally forcing out the words. “I do.”
Relief washed over the guests when the pastor hurried to conclude. “Then I pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride.”
The words had barely left his mouth when horror dawned on his face. Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Surely this dying man could not, before anyone could intervene, Liora stepped forward.
She lifted her veil and draped it over Dominic’s head, enclosing them both in a private world of white silk and shadow.
Two become one beneath the veil. Liora reached out and removed his mask. The scars marred the lower half of his face jagged, uneven and unmistakably violent. For a moment, even she was startled but she did not recoil.
Instead, her face remained calm. “The ceremony is complete,” Liora said quietly. “The contract has been signed.”
She met his eyes. “We are husband and wife now. What you cannot do alone, I can help you with.”
For the first time, Dominic truly looked at her and without the mask, his reaction was impossible to hide, a faint frown at being denied the chance to speak… followed by something else, amusement and beneath it all was a dangerous, flickering glimmer of life.
