CHAPTER 7

ELENA 

I followed Mrs. Carter down the halls still trying to catch up to what had just happened in that office. Days ago I'd been a wife. Today I got divorced. And somehow, before the day had even ended, I'd agreed to become another man's wife....on paper, at least. Insane didn't begin to cover it.

I followed her down a hallway that led to another hallway, past doors that looked like they belonged in a hotel rather than a home. None of it registered the way it should have. My mind was still several steps behind my feet.

She stopped in front of a large white door. "Elias's room."

Something in my chest tightened at his name. She opened it quietly, and there he was...so small beneath an enormous blanket, lit only by the soft glow of a bedside lamp. Five years old, fast asleep, and looking younger than that in the dark.

The pain came without warning. I wasn't looking at Elias anymore. I was looking at a future I'd already started imagining for a child I would never hold. My hand found my stomach before I caught myself and lowered it.

Not tonight.

I breathed until the ache loosened its grip, then made myself smile at the sleeping boy in front of me. He hadn't done anything to deserve the sadness that clung to him. If I was going to be here, I'd spend every day trying to give him something better than that.

Mrs. Carter closed the door gently. "He's peaceful when he sleeps."

There was something sad in the way she said it.

"Come," she said. "A few things you'll need to know."

She walked me through the basics as we went. "Elias is your primary responsibility....meals, bathing, dressing, schoolwork, his general wellbeing. You'll have staff to help when you need it, but he comes first."

"Understood."

"Mr. Blackwood values privacy. No photographs of Elias without permission. No details about this family shared with anyone. No visitors without approval."

"Understood." It's not like I had anyone who would want to visit me, I was all alone.

"Your full schedule....his school, his doctors, his routines....comes tomorrow."

I nodded again, filing it all away as best I could.

Then she stopped so abruptly I nearly ran into her.

"One more thing, Miss Elena." Her tone had shifted, gone serious in a way that made me straighten. "Do not try to seduce Mr. Blackwood."

I blinked. "I'm sorry?"

"I'm being entirely serious. Women have come through this house claiming to want a caregiving position. Most of them wanted something else entirely." She lowered her voice. "They didn't last."

I nearly laughed....not because it was funny, but because the accusation was so far from anything on my mind it was almost absurd.

"You're here for Elias," she said. "Nothing more."

"I'm aware."

"You have no business with Mr. Blackwood."

"Understood," I said again, and meant it.

She studied me a moment longer, then seemed satisfied enough to let it go.

I couldn't help turning the warning over as we kept walking. "Seduce Mr. Blackwood." I'd just crawled out of one marriage that had cost me everything I owned. The last thing on earth I wanted was to hand any part of myself to another man....especially one so ruthless, so cold, so entirely out of reach of anyone like me.

I wasn't interested. Not in the slightest.

---

Mrs. Carter finally stopped at another door. "Your room."

It was beautiful...a bed that could have slept four people comfortably, a sitting area by floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking gardens I couldn't see the end of, a walk-in closet, a private bath.

"Wow."

"Your things are already here," Mrs. Carter said, gesturing to a small stack of boxes in the corner.

I crossed to them and opened the first one. A few clothes. Some books. One pair of shoes. The pendent my parents gave me for 16th birthday.Everything I owned in the world, and it barely filled a single box.

Once I'd had an entire life. Now it fit in a corner of someone else's guest room.

"I'll leave you to settle in," Mrs. Carter said.

"Thank you."

The door clicked shut behind her, and the silence that followed felt enormous.

I stood there for a long moment and whispered the only honest thing I had left to say.

"What have you gotten yourself into, Elena?"

I showered until the water ran cold, then climbed into a bed too large for one person and closed my eyes, certain sleep would take me the moment I stopped fighting it.

It didn't.

I turned left. Nothing. Right. Still nothing. I pulled the blanket up to my chin and lay still, counting minutes instead of sheep.... five, then ten, then twenty....while my mind refused every attempt to quiet itself.

My life had been running on autopilot for weeks, maybe longer. I couldn't remember the last time I'd actually rested....the last time I'd felt like the woman I used to be, before all of this.

Then it hit me, clean and complete: Daniel hadn't only taken my money, my marriage, my son. He'd taken my peace. My joy. Whatever version of me had existed before I learned exactly what he was.

I hated him for that more than for anything else he'd done.

A tear slipped free before I could stop it. I wiped it away and threw the blanket back, done lying in the dark waiting for sleep that clearly wasn't coming. Water. I needed water, or at least a reason to move.

The mansion was silent as I made my way down the hall, past doors I didn't recognize, taking wrong turns until I finally stumbled into a wide, dimly lit room that turned out to be the kitchen.

I stepped inside...and stopped.

Someone was already there.

A man stood with his back to me, tall, broad-shouldered, the low kitchen light catching bare skin.

Then he turned.

Adrian Blackwood. Shirtless, looking at me like he was as surprised to find me here as I was to find him.

I understood, all at once, exactly why Mrs. Carter had felt the need to warn me.