Chapter 5

Elena's POV

The moment the money came through from my father, I rushed to the antique shop and handed the owner a check.

For a little while I forgot my dread of the North. There was only the anticipation, full and bright.

I remembered sitting on my mother's lap as a child, reaching up to touch that ruby, curious.

The feel of the stone surfaced under my fingers in my mind, and with it, almost within reach, my mother's gentle smile.

But after the owner took the check, his face turned awkward.

"I've sent the brooch out to be cleaned and restored. It'll be about a month before it comes back."

"Why not wait a little longer, Miss? I'll deliver it to your residence myself."

I thought of the manor and shook my head.

The servants there were always tormenting me. I toiled away for the gardener and other servants for an entire year, yet the wages I received were constantly shortchanged.

The Princess said that as Adrian's fiancée, I couldn't go out and take work; it would shame the Vampire Prince.

So I had no choice. Even though every servant in the manor knew how cold Adrian was with me, how he avoided me, even though they bullied me because of it. Still, I had to endure their mistreatment while laboring for them just to get a little money.

If they saw the shop owner come to deliver something, they might just confiscate it.

"That won't be necessary. I'll come for it myself."

A month later turned out to be the day before I left for the North.

If I went early, it wouldn't get in the way of anything.

The day before the wedding, I sat in the Valerie family's great hall in a gown they'd rushed together, waiting to meet the Lord of the North.

It was only a plain blue dress, the stitching a little rough, but the fabric was the finest I'd worn in years.

Even as Adrian's fiancée, I'd never had to go out with him to visit or receive guests, so once I was grown I just cycled through the same few outfits.

The dress I'd worn to ask him for thirty million was a secondhand thing I'd gritted my teeth and bought off a maid. The rain had ruined it.

That was the only reason the Valerie family had to throw a new dress together overnight.

They'd only prepared a wedding gown, never expecting the Northern Lord to arrive a day early, insisting on collecting his bride to the North himself the next morning.

Maybe he feared the Valerie family would back out at the last moment.

I sat there on edge, my eyes drifting again and again to the clock.

My appointment with the shop owner was almost here, and the Northern Lord still hadn't come. All I could do was wait.

I hesitated, frantic inside.

The clock struck again. The phone in my hand kept buzzing.

In the end, I couldn't bear it. I stood, made an excuse about the bathroom, slipped past my stepmother and father by a hair, and crept out the back door.

I ran through the streets in heels and made it into the antique shop at the last possible moment.

"Sir! I'm here for my brooch."

Out of breath, I braced myself against the doorframe and forced myself upright.

At the edge of my vision, I saw the ruby brooch.

Even now, the stone caught the light, lovely as ever.

A pair of long, elegant hands held it, turning it over, studying it carefully.

I looked up, and saw Adrian.

And beside him, Vicky, clinging to his arm, all sweetness.

"Young Master Adrian, this brooch is gorgeous. Are you going to give it to me?"

Adrian frowned. "I only brought you to see whether the style was simil—"

He looked up, saw me standing in the doorway, and stopped.

Adrian clearly hadn't expected me here. Surprise flickered across his face.

I only swept a flat glance over him and my stepsister, my expression unmoved.

He pushed Vicky's hand off and stepped aside, as if to clear himself of suspicion. But when I gave no reaction, his face slowly darkened.

"Sir, I'm here for my brooch."

The owner's face turned awkward.

He knew who Adrian was. It wasn't easy to simply take the brooch from his hands and give it to me.

A part of me burned with humiliation, and for a moment I couldn't move at all. I just stood by the counter.

I was about to leave for the North. I hadn't thought I'd have to suffer one more insult from Adrian before I went.

"That brooch has already been bought," I said. I drew a breath and made myself face him. "By me. Give it to me."

It was the first time I'd spoken to Adrian like that. My voice still shook, careful, but I wasn't so afraid anymore, and I didn't sneak looks at his reaction.

Strangely, after he'd called me greedy in front of everyone, it had stopped hurting.

After I cried my way back to my room that day, the tight, sour ache that had lived in my chest for so long was simply gone.

Adrian was right. I was only human. I wasn't worthy of him.

It was as if I'd seen it all clearly, all at once.

Those things he'd told me as a boy were only words spoken in delirium, to fool me.

He found me so repulsive, such a nuisance. There was no reason to cling desperately to those empty promises.

Looking at the calm, hollow look in my eyes, Adrian's brow drew tighter.

As if in retaliation, he wrapped an arm around Vicky's waist and stared straight at my face.

"And what if I happen to want this brooch for myself?"