Chapter 1

On the road back from Elise Jones’ ninety-ninth failed escape.

Under the blistering sun, sand scorched the ground, dust filled the air, and Elise used a thin scarf to shield her head and face from the grit carried by the wind.

Suddenly, a weather-beaten old Jeep rolled toward them, slowing to a stop before her and the townspeople.

As the creaking window lowered, Elise saw the sharp, clean lines of a man’s profile.

His long, fiery-red hair was tied loosely at the back, with a few strands falling across his forehead.

He turned his head, revealing a face worn by the years yet still striking, carrying a refined air no one in Borderfall possessed.

He ignored the ropes binding Elise and instead held out a stack of ten-dollar bills, asking where he could find the nearest gas station.

The townspeople only spoke their local dialect and couldn’t understand his standard speech, though their eyes never left the money in his hand.

Elise’s gaze burned. She glanced past the bills to his other hand resting on the steering wheel.

Tomorrow morning, she would be forced to marry the elderly town elder, all because he wanted an heir.

There were only twenty hours left with no paths left to run.

But this man appeared.

He had a car.

He could take her away from this living nightmare.

The man couldn’t understand the townspeople’s response and was about to withdraw his hand when he heard the girl speak clearly.

“Twenty kilometers ahead, there’s a small town. Look for a yellow house. Someone there sells fuel, but it’s expensive.”

That was the first time Elise met Merrick Grant.

Watching the cloud of dust trailing behind the Jeep, she ignored the townspeople cheering over the money.

In her heart, she prayed: Don’t leave Borderfall too quickly. Please.

Inside the half-open window, Merrick cast a casual glance at the rear-view mirror, noticing the young woman staring fiercely at the direction his car was headed.

Who would’ve thought that on this barren land, where even signal didn’t exist, a rose this strong and beautiful could bloom.

What a pity…

He was already trapped in his own mire, in no state to meddle in anything more.

Nightfall came later in the Borderfall.

To return to town, one had to cross the desert. When darkness set in, shifting sands became impossible to see, and danger followed with every step.

The townspeople decided to spend the night in an abandoned, crumbling house.

They planned to continue at daybreak.

To keep Elise from escaping again, they tied her tightly to a dead tree trunk in the yard and assigned an older woman to watch her.

Since she was a bride they intended to bring back and marry off immediately, they didn’t starve her and gave her a piece of dry bread.

Elise didn’t resist. She finished every crumb, saving her strength for one last escape attempt in the middle of the night.

She glanced at the worn wristwatch strapped to her hand.

Only thirteen hours remained until the town elder’s scheduled wedding ceremony. If she didn’t run now, she would have no time left.

When night fell, snores rolled out from inside the house.

Elise opened her eyes and carefully reached behind her waist for the blade she’d hidden earlier.

She didn’t care if it cut her wrist; she sliced through the thick rope as fast as she could.

The moment she stood, the woman guarding her suddenly shifted in her sleep, making Elise’s heart seize.

Once she was sure the woman hadn’t woken, Elise darted into the night, not daring to look back.

The place where the man had asked for directions earlier lay behind her.

The small town he was headed to was more than twenty kilometers away, and the road ahead felt even more endless after she had been forced another few kilometers in the opposite direction.

Desert paths at night were brutal.

When the countdown dropped to seven hours, Elise was still in the desert. As she paused to catch her breath, faint voices drifted from far behind.

“There she is! Hurry! Get her!”

Not good.

Elise didn’t dare slow down and sprinted forward with everything she had.

She slid down sand dunes again and again, clawing her way back up each time, following the stars step by step out of the desert.

With only two hours left on the countdown, and just before the horizon began to lighten, she finally reached that yellow house.

Elise let a rare smile break across her face.

She finally made it.

The Jeep was nowhere in sight, neither in front of nor behind the row of houses.

She collapsed onto the ground, lips cracked, voice raw, the last bit of light fading from her eyes.

But moments later, she pushed herself up again, refusing to give in.

The Jeep’s windows didn’t block much sun, and there wouldn’t be much food stored inside. The man would have to restock.

Ahead lay the country’s largest stretch of uninhabited land.

Desert, snow-capped ranges, barren wilderness…

Even by car, crossing it took seven days and seven nights.

Elise bet he would spend the night here to rest.

There were no inns, only a dozen or so low, clay-walled houses.

She searched them one by one.

Finally, in the most isolated courtyard, she found the dust-covered Jeep again.

The wall wasn’t high.

Elise scaled it easily, checked her surroundings with caution, then crouched toward the room facing the Jeep’s hood.

She used her blade to pry open the lock in a swift motion.

As she pushed the door open, she tightened her grip on the blade, her heartbeat climbing into her throat.

As soon as she stepped inside, a sharp gust struck.

Elise’s hands were seized, wrenched behind her back, and her entire body was pinned against the wall by overwhelming force.

His movements were precise and trained.

She didn’t even have room or strength to struggle.

Elise hurried to speak. “Cough… I’m not here to hurt you…”

The woman’s voice sounded familiar.

Merrick flicked his lighter, and with the small spark of flame, he saw the panic in her eyes.

He frowned, recognizing her as the girl who’d worn a scarf over her face that afternoon.

Something warm slid across his palm.

He glanced down at her thin wrist trapped in his grip and noticed deep rope marks, cuts, abrasions and blood.

Merrick released her immediately and stepped back two paces.

His voice remained cold. “Why are you here?”

He didn’t believe there was any reason for them to meet again.

Dawn was approaching.

Elise’s heart pounded in panic, unsure whether this man would take her away.

He hadn’t responded to her silent plea for help during the day.

Even so, with nothing to rely on, Elise chose honesty.

“I’m begging you, take me with you.”

The memory of their first encounter flashed through her mind.

Knowing full well the trouble this girl would bring, Merrick rejected her without hesitation.

“No.” His tone carried no warmth at all.

Elise’s face turned pale as the sky outside grew lighter.

If the townspeople caught her again…

Thinking of the women who had wasted away under the town elder’s hands, Elise’s heart trembled violently.

No. She couldn’t go back.

In the face of life and death, everything else became trivial.

With her heart steeled, Elise shut her eyes and flung herself toward Merrick, stripping off her clothes in one decisive motion.

She was the most beautiful girl for as far as anyone could see.

She carried a beauty that didn’t belong to this barren land and an ambition that refused to be buried under sand.

Her mother used to say that men from beyond this place liked their women soft and delicate.

She wasn’t delicate, but she could pretend.

The moment she began undressing, Merrick had already averted his gaze, never expecting her to take it this far.

This was Elise and Merrick’s second meeting.

She clung to him like someone drowning, gripping his neck with all her strength, pressing herself tightly against the thin cotton of his T-shirt.

Tears streamed down her face.

“Please… you’re my last hope…”

His eyes flickered at her words.

He’d heard something similar once, yet he had failed to save that person.

The memory became a burden he never managed to cross.

A sudden, sharp ache struck his chest.

The hands that were supposed to push her away instead locked around her waist.

From bustling Crown City to Borderfall, he had banished himself for months.

And somehow, in this girl’s trembling hold, his restless heart found a brief moment of stillness.

He was already the disgrace of the Grant family, so he might as well let himself rot.

Feeling the heat of his palm against her waist, Elise wasn’t sure which part moved him—her words or her body.

But she knew she’d won the bet.

That day, Merrick took Elise with him, though he had no intention of touching her.