Chapter 1

The Night Everything Broke

Serena's POV

I rushed through the penthouse, the sound of my heels echoing on the marble floor.

Tonight marked three years together, and I had replayed this moment in my mind so often that it felt real. I could already picture his smile, his laughter when he saw what I had planned.

​Inside the bag lay a velvet box containing two bracelets, our initials linked in gold, just like us

I knocked on the front door. "Damien, I'm here. Happy anniversary!" But only silence greeted me.

Frowning, I knocked again, my calls going to voicemail. Maybe he was surprising me, I thought, forcing a smile.

The doorknob turned easily, but the apartment felt eerily quiet. "Damien?" I called, my voice trembling. Just then, a soft moan came from his bedroom, sending my heart racing.

I flung the door open and stopped dead, my breath hitched.

There was Damien, naked in bed with my stepsister, Lila, the sight hit me like a physical blow, turning my world upside down in a single second.

Lila's fear vanished, replaced by a nasty grin. She stopped hiding and rested her head on Damien's chest. They both looked right through me, acting as if I weren't even standing there.

"Serena," he said calmly, as if I had interrupted one of his business calls. "Don't make this dramatic."

Dramatic!!!

"We've been unhappy for a while," he continued. "You were always in the way. Lila understands what it means to be a wife. I stayed because you made things convenient."

Each word cut deep.

"I'm tired of pretending," he finished. "It's over."

I couldn't breathe.

"Please don't blame me," she added, with a fake innocent look, "I never meant for you to find out like this."

Her gaze sharpened.

"But it's your fault, you should have stopped clinging to him."

The box slipped from my fingers and hit the floor.

Three years of us were all gone to waste.

I wanted to scream, I wanted to destroy something, but I turned and walked away.

The freezing night air seared my lungs as I sprinted home, I burst through the front door and bolted straight for my room.

I scrambled into the bathroom and threw myself under the spray, scrubbing until my skin burned. I was desperate to wash away the humiliation and the scent of betrayal.

Finally, I wore my nightgown and collapsed on my bed.

A knock followed soon after.

"Miss Serena," the maid said gently from the doorway, "your parents want to see you."

I let out a huge sigh and stood up to go and listen to what they had to say.

In the living room, my father and stepmother sat side by side, faces hard as stone.

Lila sat beside them, wearing a mask of practiced composure and wide-eyed innocence.

"Serena," my stepmother said, folding her hands. "It is time we were honest. Lila is the better match for Damien."

My chest tightened.

"You all knew?" My voice shook. "And you let this happen?"

My father cleared his throat. He did not deny it.

"That is not why you are here."

A sudden cold spread through me.

"The family needs stability," he said smoothly. "The Crowe family will help us, but only if their son marries one of our daughters."

My heart sank.

"That will be you."

So that was it.

Damien was not the only thing they were willing to trade.

"If you refuse," my father added calmly as he stood, "prepare to face the consequences."

"What consequences?" I asked.

"That is not up for discussion," my stepmother snapped. "You have to understand that this family will not protect you anymore."

Silence closed in.

I straightened my back.

"Then I refuse."

My stepmother scoffed. "You are foolish."

"No," I said quietly. "I choose myself."

I walked away to my room, feeling angry and sad.

I thought betrayal was the worst thing that night would bring, but I was wrong.

It was a marriage I never chose.

Ethan's POV

"You are thirty-two."

My father's reminder of my age could be heard by everyone in the dining room.

Even my steak had grown cold under the weight of his lecture.

"So?" I tried to reply calmly.

"So you are not married," he said. "No wife, no heir, no stability, nothing!"

I raised my gaze.

"What I have," I said evenly, "is a company expanding globally, contracts to close and acquisitions to finalize, I do not chase romance to satisfy your schedule."

His lips curved in a humorless smile.

"You have reasons to do all that because it's the company I gave you."

I set my cutlery down.

"It was not a gift," I said. "You abandoned it because you saw no potential, I took it and turned it into a global empire,"

"And it exists because I allowed it to," he replied.

I leaned back. "This is control."

"That is why I made it easier," he said. "You will get married."

My spine stiffened.

"No."

"You will," he said without pause. "An arranged marriage to one of the Hale family's daughters."

Anger surged through me.

"You decided this without my consent?" I snapped. "You do not control my life."

"I do not need permission."

I stood, palms pressing into the table. "Grandfather never forced you."

His eyes darkened.

"I knew when to marry," he said flatly.

"You were four when I turned thirty."

The words struck harder than expected.

"So this was planned," I said.

"This is legacy. Stability."

"I refuse," I said coldly. "I will not marry a stranger because it fits your plan."

Silence fell.

Then his voice hardened.

"If you refuse, you lose the company."

My jaw clenched.

"The board stands with me," he added. "Your authority exists because I gave it to you."

Rage burned in my chest.

"You have controlled my life since childhood," I said tightly. "Even now…."

"I thought we agreed on a peaceful breakfast," my mother said, her voice strained. "Please stop."

Too late.

I dropped my cutlery. The sound echoed.

"I will not be forced," I said. "Not into marriage. Not into obedience."

I turned and walked out.

Cold air hit as I stepped outside. One of my guards opened the car door.

I got in without speaking.

As the house shrank behind me, my hands clenched.

A woman I did not know.

A marriage used as leverage.

My father thought this would break me but it drew the first line of war.