Chapter 1

Elena's POV

After I said it, the room stayed quiet for a long time.

Adrian was still holding my wrist.

He'd frozen for a second without easing his grip, and my skin had gone red under his fingers.

Once, I would probably have cried from the pain.

Then I would have cried as I explained that I had never considered betraying him and had never been with him for money.

When the message came and I saw the words "nine million dollars," I already knew something was wrong.

When they mentioned the access crest, I was almost certain it was another test from him and Seraphina.

I had kept the crest close to me since the day Adrian gave it to me. I rarely took it off and had never considered handing it to anyone.

If I'd wanted to explain, all of it could have been explained.

I simply didn't want to say a word that day.

Seraphina laughed first.

"End it?"

She looked at me with open mockery in her eyes.

"Elena, you do not think you can turn this around, play the victim, and erase what just happened, do you?

"If you really had no intention of selling him out, why did you agree to come?"

I didn't answer.

She wasn't wrong.

This time, I really had come of my own accord.

After the message arrived, I sat in a hospital corridor for a long time.

Nurses passed back and forth in front of me.

My mother's room was already empty.

A few hours earlier she had still been lying in it.

By the end she could barely open her eyes, and she still held my hand and asked whether I was getting married tomorrow.

I nodded.

Relief filled her face, along with the grief of leaving me behind, but she still forced a smile.

What she told me next has stayed with me ever since.

After the message arrived, the words "nine million dollars" kept echoing through my mind.

And the timing had been too much of a coincidence.

When my mother first went into intensive care, nine million dollars was exactly the amount I was short.

And then there was the crest.

Adrian had put it into my hand himself. Apart from me and the people closest to him, almost nobody knew about it.

So I went.

I only wanted to be sure one last time.

I wanted to know whether Adrian would still doubt me on a stranger's word, even on the day before our wedding.

Now I know the answer.

"Elena."

Adrian finally let go.

There was a clear ring of red on my wrist.

His eyes weren't on it.

His gaze remained fixed on my tired, distant eyes.

"If it wasn't for money, then why are you here?"

I looked at him for a while.

It was the same question again.

Explain yourself again.

It had always been this way.

Someone said I had privately promised a noblewoman that once I married into the royal house I would use Adrian's influence to get her family a territory.

I said I hadn't.

Adrian asked me to prove it.

It took me an entire week to find the person who had started the rumor and the household staff who had been there that day and could testify for me.

After hearing my explanation and seeing the evidence, all he offered was a curt reply: "Understood."

Later, someone said I was using my position as the heir's fiancée to enrich myself in the human world.

I said again that I hadn't.

So I went and explained again.

I tracked down witnesses and pulled security footage.

I was afraid Adrian would misunderstand.

More afraid that he would think I really was what they said. That I was with him because he had money and power.

I proved myself over and over.

And the next time somebody stood up and said something, Adrian would look at me exactly the same way.

The way he was looking at me now.

Waiting for me to prove myself again.

Once or twice I could manage, because I still loved him that much.

But ten times. A hundred. A thousand.

I could no longer tell whether what I felt for him was love the way it had been, or only a refusal to let go.

I was simply exhausted. The thought that my future husband would keep looking at me this way made me unable to bear taking another step with him.

So be it.

"Understand it however you like."

Adrian's brows came together.

"What do you mean, however I like?

"Elena, I asked you a question."

I looked down.

The engagement ring caught the light.

A year ago Adrian had proposed to me. It had been the thing I loved most, and I had never once taken it off.

When my mother was first hospitalized, I thought about selling it.

By then my savings were gone.

I had borrowed from every relative and friend I had.

When there was nowhere left to turn, I thought about asking Adrian for a loan.

The money was nothing to him, and he refused.

He said he did not want anyone to think I was with him for his money.

Adrian didn't want what we had to be soiled.

It hurt, and I didn't really blame him.

It was his money. My inability to pay my mother's medical bills was my own problem, and by rights I should solve it myself.

But the bills the nurses brought got thicker every day, and I couldn't sleep. The second I closed my eyes, I was calculating what I owed tomorrow.

Someone told me the ring was worth a great deal.

If I sold it, I would at least be able to cover my mother's treatment for a while.

That day I sat by her bed, took it off, and looked at it for a long time.

She noticed.

She still had the strength then to sit up and stop me.

"Don't sell it."

I said it was only a ring, that Adrian would understand.

I told her I was only pawning it for a while.

Once I had money, I could buy it back.

My mother shook her head.

"That is the ring Adrian gave you.

"Haven't you always told me the two of you truly love each other?"

She spoke slowly and had to stop and rest every few words. "I don't want you selling something you treasure this much for my sake."

So I put it back on.

After that, I never considered selling it again.

I kept thinking that at least the ring was still there.

As long as I could see it, I could remember the day he proposed.

And tell myself that we really had loved each other once.

The doubts and arguments were only temporary; eventually, they would pass.

I raised my hand.

Adrian's eyes followed it.

Slowly, I took the ring off.