Married to the Man Who Destroyed My Family

The next morning, my phone buzzed like it was possessed.Messages. Missed calls. Notifications from people I barely recognized—or people I had once trusted. I ignored them all. My thumbs hovered over the screen, but I couldn’t bring myself to open any. I didn’t have the energy. I didn’t even have the will.Then came a knock at the door. Sharp. Insistent.I froze. Who could it be? No one came to see me anymore—not since my father’s name hit the headlines. Not since he…I shook my head and tried to push the thought away.The envelope waiting on the mat was pristine, white, and terrifyingly official. A golden seal stamped on the front gleamed in the morning light like a warning. I tore it open. Inside, a single card:“The wedding is tomorrow. 6 PM. St. Augustine Chapel. Vale Holdings will cover everything. Attendance is mandatory.”Mandatory.The word lodged in my chest like a knife. My pulse spiked.Tomorrow. The wedding.I sank onto the edge of my bed, head in my hands. I had no dress.

The car ride back to Vale Tower was silent, but the silence wasn’t comfortable—it was suffocating. My fingers dug into the edge of my seat as I tried to calm the storm in my chest.I had just walked down the aisle and married Adrian Vale, the man who destroyed my family. And now, I was being taken to live under the same roof.My stomach churned. My pride screamed. My heart… betrayed me, fluttering in ways I hated.The moment we stepped into the penthouse, I realized just how impossible this was going to be. Floor-to-ceiling windows. Marble floors that gleamed like ice. A chandelier that could swallow a small car. And Adrian… standing there, arms crossed, waiting for me like a king in his throne room.“Your room is ready,” he said. His voice was calm, but there was something beneath it—a quiet authority that made the air tighten around me.I didn’t move. I couldn’t. My mind screamed at me to run, to leave, to throw myself back into the chaos I had escaped only to land in this gilded ca

The penthouse felt smaller tonight.The city lights outside the floor-to-ceiling windows glimmered like distant stars, but inside, the air was heavy, suffocating, alive with tension. I could feel Adrian before I even saw him. That presence—the predator, the king—looming behind every shadow.I was in the living room, pretending to read, pretending the tremor in my fingers wasn’t there, pretending my pulse wasn’t racing. My breath hitched every time he moved. He didn’t need to speak; his mere presence commanded the room.“You’re tense,” he said suddenly, stepping closer. The sound of his voice was velvet over steel, smooth, sharp, dangerous.“I’m… fine,” I whispered, my voice betraying me.He didn’t believe me. He never did. Adrian had a way of seeing through everything—pretenses, walls, defenses. And tonight, he wasn’t letting me hide.“I don’t think so,” he said, stopping a foot away. Close enough that I could feel his heat, smell the faint, intoxicating scent of him. “Your hands are