Chapter 1

The silence in the Hale estate wasn’t peaceful. It was heavy, like water filling a room, rising slowly until it pressed against your chest and made it hard to breathe.

Aria Hale woke up to that silence, just as she did every morning.

She lay still for a moment, her eyes tracing the familiar crack in the ceiling of her bedroom. The room was small, tucked away in the north wing of the house, far from the master suite and far from Cassandra’s sprawling quarters. It was perpetually cold here, the kind of chill that settled into the floorboards and seeped through the thin rug she had bought with her own pocket money three years ago.

The light filtering through the sheer curtains was gray and weak, signaling another overcast morning.

Aria pushed the duvet back. The air bit at her bare skin, raising goosebumps along her arms. She didn't shiver. She had learned a long time ago that reacting to the cold didn't make it warmer; it just made you more aware of your own discomfort.

She moved through her morning routine with the efficiency of someone who didn't want to be noticed. She showered quickly, the water lukewarm because the hot water tank always prioritized the main bathrooms first. She dressed in a simple beige knit sweater and faded jeans, clothes that allowed her to blend into the background, to become part of the furniture.

That was her role, after all. The invisible daughter. The afterthought.

Downstairs, the house was vast and impeccably decorated. Marble floors that echoed underfoot, chandeliers that cost more than most people’s homes, and portraits of ancestors who looked down with the same disdain her father wore.

Aria walked softly, her socks sliding over the polished stone. She reached the kitchen before the staff had fully set up for breakfast. She liked this time of day best, before the masks had to be put on, before the performance of being a "happy family" began.

She started the coffee machine, the hum of the grinder loud in the quiet kitchen. She set out a cup for her father, black, no sugar, and a cup for Cassandra, herbal tea with a slice of lemon. She didn't make one for herself. She would drink water.

The sound of heavy footsteps approached from the hallway.

Aria’s stomach tightened instinctively. It wasn't fear, exactly, Desmond Hale wasn’t a violent man. He didn't yell. He didn't throw things. He simply… looked through her. To him, she was a clerical error in the ledger of his life. A debit where there should have been an asset.

Desmond walked into the kitchen, already dressed in a sharp charcoal suit. He was checking emails on his phone, his brow furrowed in concentration.

"Good morning, Father," Aria said softly.

He didn't look up. He walked past her to the counter, picked up the coffee she had just poured, and took a sip.

"The car needs to be ready by eight," he said to the room, or perhaps to the coffee cup. He certainly wasn't speaking to her eyes. "I have a merger meeting at Cross Industries."

Aria stood by the island, her hands clasped behind her back. "I’ll tell the driver," she whispered.

He didn't acknowledge her. He turned and walked out of the kitchen toward his study, the click of his shoes fading away.

Aria let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. Her shoulders slumped slightly. It was foolish to expect anything else. Twenty-three years of this should have hardened her, but the small, childish part of her heart still bruises every time.

She began to arrange the fruit bowl, her fingers trembling slightly as she adjusted the grapes. Don’t be stupid, she told herself. He’s busy. He’s important. You’re just… here.

Ten minutes later, the atmosphere shifted.

If Desmond was a cold draft, Cassandra was a hurricane.

Aria heard her sister before she saw her. The rapid clicking of high heels, the rustle of expensive fabric, and the sound of her voice talking loudly into a phone.

Cassandra swept into the kitchen, a vision of golden perfection. Her blonde hair was blow-dried into sleek waves, her makeup was flawless even at this hour, and she was wearing a silk robe that shimmered under the kitchen lights. She was beautiful. Everyone said so. She was the sun around which the Hale family orbited.

"I don't care what the florist said, I want the orchids," Cassandra snapped into her phone, her eyes scanning the counter. She spotted the tea Aria had made. "No, listen to me. If they don't have white orchids, cancel the contract. I’m not paying for second best."

She hung up aggressively and tossed the phone onto the marble island. She picked up the tea, took a sip, and wrinkled her nose.

"It's cold," she said, looking at Aria for the first time.

"I made it ten minutes ago," Aria said, her voice steady but quiet. "You were upstairs."

Cassandra rolled her eyes, a gesture that was both elegant and dismissive. "Well, make another one. And put honey in it this time. My throat feels scratchy."

She didn't ask. She commanded.

Aria moved to the kettle immediately. It was easier to obey than to argue. Argument required energy, and Aria felt drained before the day had even begun.

"Did you pick up my dress from the tailor?" Cassandra asked, leaning her hip against the counter and scrolling through her phone again.

"Yes," Aria said, turning on the tap. "It's hanging in your dressing room."

"Good. Check the hem. I think the seamstress is going blind; the last time, it was crooked." Cassandra sighed, a long, dramatic sound. "God, I am so stressed. You have no idea what this is like, Aria."

Aria watched the water boil. "What is it like?"

"The pressure," Cassandra said, gesturing vaguely at her own perfect body. "Father is pushing for this dinner with the Cross family to be perfect. He says it’s the most important merger of the decade. And obviously, I’m the centerpiece."

Aria’s hand paused on the handle of the kettle. The Cross family.

She knew the name, of course. Everyone in the city knew the name. Cross Industries owned half the skyline. They were industrial royalty, old money mixed with terrifying new power.

"Is... is he coming?" Aria asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Who?" Cassandra glanced up, annoyed.

"Damian Cross."

The name felt heavy on her tongue. Sharp. Dangerous.

Cassandra laughed, a tinkling, humorless sound.

"Of course he's coming. He’s the CEO. He’s the one Father is trying to impress." She checked her reflection in the dark window of the oven. "Though I hear he’s a nightmare. Cold as ice. Alfred Cross raised him to be a machine, not a man."

She turned to look at Aria, her blue eyes narrowing with critical assessment. "You’re not wearing that to dinner tonight, are you?"

Aria looked down at her beige sweater. "I… I didn't think I was invited."

"You’re not," Cassandra said simply. "But you’ll be in the house. Try not to look like a homeless person if you walk past the dining room. It reflects badly on me."

The sting was sharp, but Aria swallowed it down. She poured the hot water over the tea bag, watching the dark color bleed out.

"I’ll stay in my room," Aria promised.

"Good idea." Cassandra took the fresh cup from her hand without a thank you. "Oh, and Aria? Go to the library and organize Father’s files for the meeting. He left a mess last night and he’ll scream if he can’t find the projections."

"Okay."

Cassandra turned to leave, her silk robe fluttering behind her like a royal cape. At the doorway, she paused.

"Don't sulk, Aria. It gives you wrinkles."

Then she was gone.

Aria stood alone in the kitchen. The silence rushed back in, filling the space Cassandra had vacated. She gripped the edge of the cold marble counter, her knuckles turning white. She wasn't sulking. She wasn't angry. She was just... tired.

She cleaned the mugs. She wiped the counter. She pushed the chairs in.

Then, as instructed, she went to the library.

The library was the darkest room in the house, lined with mahogany shelves and heavy velvet drapes that blocked out the morning sun. It smelled of old paper and expensive scotch. This was Desmond’s sanctuary, and usually, Aria wasn't allowed inside unless she was cleaning or retrieving something.

She moved to the massive oak desk. Papers were scattered across the surface, blueprints, financial reports, contracts. Her father was chaotic in his genius, leaving destruction in his wake for others to tidy.

Aria began to stack the papers, aligning the edges with precision. She liked the order of it. She liked making things neat. It gave her a sense of control she didn't have anywhere else in her life.

Under a stack of quarterly reports, her hand brushed against a glossy business magazine.

It was a heavy publication, the kind printed on thick, expensive paper. It must have arrived in the morning mail.

Aria went to move it to the side, but her hand froze.

The cover was dark, almost entirely black, except for the man standing in the center of it.

Damian Cross.

She had heard the rumors. She had heard the whispers at the few galas she had been forced to attend in the background. They called him the Shark. The Prince of Silence. A man who could dismantle a company with a single signature and ruin a life without blinking.

She stared at the photo.

He was wearing a black suit, perfectly tailored, absorbing the light around him. His hair was dark, styled back from a face that was too harsh to be traditionally handsome, but too striking to look away from. His jaw was a sharp line of tension. His mouth was set in a straight, uncompromising line.

But it was his eyes that made Aria’s breath hitch in her throat.

Even in a photograph, even through the glossy sheen of the paper, they were arresting. Dark, intelligent, and utterly devoid of warmth. He wasn't looking at the camera; he was looking through it. It was a gaze that promised nothing and demanded everything.

The Future of Power, the headline read in bold white letters.

Aria ran her thumb near the edge of the page, careful not to touch his face. She felt a strange shiver crawl up her spine, a prickle of warning that had nothing to do with the temperature of the room.

He looked like a predator. He looked like a storm waiting to break.

"Damian Cross," she whispered to the empty room.

The name sounded like a secret.

She quickly closed the magazine and shoved it to the corner of the desk, burying it under a pile of invoices. Her heart was beating a little faster than usual, a nervous rhythm she couldn't explain.

She didn't know him. She would probably never meet him. He was entering her father’s world, her sister’s world, the world of gold and power and noise.

Aria belonged to the silence.

She finished organizing the desk, her hands moving mechanically, but her mind kept drifting back to those dark, empty eyes on the cover.

Tonight, that man would be in this house.

She looked toward the heavy wooden doors of the library, feeling a sudden, inexplicable urge to run, to hide, to lock the door of her tiny room and never come out.

Because for the first time in her invisible life, Aria Hale felt like something was watching her.