Chapter 2

The first time I saw Elias was at a party my family threw.

Tall and striking, he looked like he'd stepped straight out of a classical portrait.

That night, he turned more than a few heads among the young women in the room.

I was one of them.

I just had better luck than the rest.

The bond between the Bennett and Voss families went back generations.

The older generation wanted us to marry to preserve that bond.

I started turning up everywhere he was.

He loved horseback riding, so I pushed myself to learn. I took fall after fall, bruising myself all over, just so I could ride beside him.

When he went to a party, I'd put on the most beautiful dress I owned and go with him. I'd drink in his place and handle the small talk, all for one extra second of his attention.

The day I learned we were to be married, I was too excited to sleep.

I thought he'd finally seen how hard I'd tried and how good I'd been to him. I thought I finally had some small place in his heart.

But I was wrong.

He only wanted to marry the Bennett family's eldest daughter.

Whether that was me or not made no difference.

I asked him once, carefully, what he thought of me.

He said I was smart and capable and worthy of being the Voss family's Donna.

I asked what he thought of me as a person, without the title.

For once, he looked blank, as if the question had never crossed his mind.

After a long pause, he said, "You're fine," and nothing more.

That was all.

Nothing he said suggested he loved me back.

For a while after the wedding, there was something almost tender between us.

Back then I at least got a hug before bed and could ask for a kiss before he left in the morning.

A third of his free time was mine.

But then Silas was born and everything between us changed completely.

Most of my time went to the baby.

Elias walked in on him screaming once, frowned, walked out, and never set foot in the nursery alone again.

I tried to get him to spend time with Silas, and he said the crying was too loud and put him in a bad mood.

When I wanted him to hold me at night the way he used to, he pushed me away and told me to focus on raising the heir instead of being childish.

Bit by bit, the warmth faded and the distance between us grew.

He said the same things to me over and over.

"The heir is what matters. Raise Silas well and that's enough."

"The Voss family's Donna can't be this soft."

"I don't have time. Take care of the boy yourself."

The title of Donna kept me bound to him even as he grew more and more distant.

I struggled against that chain for eight years.

I thought it would break someday.

But it never did.

He kept moving farther away, and I was still stuck in place.

Before I married him, I was the Bennett family's eldest daughter, with real power in the family.

Nobody ever dared underestimate me. Even when I sat across a negotiating table from Elias, nobody questioned whether I belonged there.

Then Silas was born, a baby who cried at everything and would only sleep in my arms.

Most of my time went to him, and nobody thought twice about it.

I no longer recognized some of the rising figures Elias mentioned.

While I was still trying to place a name, Silas would start crying.

Elias would frown and wait for me to deal with it.

All I could do was go back to the nursery, sing to him, and wipe away my own tears once he was asleep.