Chapter 1

Elena’s POV

The rain had been falling all night.

Blackwood Castle never saw daylight, and the raindrops pounding against the windows kept me from sleep.

I curled up at the edge of the bed, my hands pressed hard against my lower abdomen, the pain so severe I could barely breathe.

No footsteps outside my door.

No one was coming.

Adrian hadn’t been home in half a month.

The last time I saw him, we had a terrible fight that ended with both of us furious.

That day, I had just retrieved a letter from Celeste, one that had already been opened.

The letter was from a gallery in the human world.

They were inviting me to an art exhibition, even asking if I’d be willing to bring a few of my older pieces.

It was the first invitation I’d received from an old friend since the wedding.

I took the letter to Adrian, asking him why my personal mail had gone through Celeste’s hands first.

Celeste stood behind him, her expression gentle and innocent as always.

“Mrs. Blackwood is human. She doesn’t understand the dangers of the vampire world.”

“I was simply checking the letter first for anything concerning on Mr. Blackwood’s behalf.”

Adrian looked at the letter in my hand, and his expression slowly turned cold.

He didn’t ask Celeste why she had opened my mail.

He didn’t ask me if I wanted to go.

He just said, “Elena, you are Mrs. Blackwood now.”

This wasn’t the first time we’d argued about this, but every time he brushed off my feelings, offered me jewelry and gifts as a dismissal, reminded me of my position, hoping I’d know better and keep quiet.

“This is my personal mail. If I hadn’t found it, were you never going to let me see it?”

I felt frustrated and helpless, watching Adrian grow colder and more dismissive after our marriage, even annoyed by me, and there was nothing I could do about it.

The next second, his eyes darkened.

“You still want to go out and do that lowly work?”

Those words were like a needle driven into my ear.

I looked at him, barely able to believe this was the same man who had once stood at the gallery entrance and praised my artwork.

But he just stared at me coldly.

“The vampire world is too dangerous for you.”

“You’re just a human. You shouldn’t go out, don’t belong at banquets, and you shouldn’t be interacting with those kinds of people.”

Behind Adrian, I clearly saw Celeste slowly curl her lips into a smug smile.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I slammed the letter down on the table.

But he just frowned, as if my defiance had finally exhausted his patience.

“Why can you never understand?”

“I’m protecting you.”

After that, he put down his napkin and left the castle.

For the better part of a month, he didn’t come back.

The way the servants looked at me had long since shifted from silence to contempt.

They had never liked me.

In their eyes, I was nothing more than a short-lived, fragile, troublesome human.

An outsider who had stumbled into the position of Mrs. Blackwood because Adrian had a fleeting lapse in judgment.

I couldn’t stomach the food in the castle.

The porridge they brought was always cold.

A film of congealed grease floated on the soup.

The bread was hard as stone.

The so-called human meals were thrown together from some recipe they’d found somewhere, then placed in front of me without a second thought.

Only the dessert was always perfect.

Silky cream, beautifully dusted sugar.

Not a single crumb out of place on the plate.

Because that was the only human food Adrian had ever liked.

Back when we were still dating, he’d tried it at a bakery in the human district and thought it was good, so he started taking me there too.

I never actually liked overly sweet things.

But that day, for once, he acted like an ordinary man, pushing something he liked across the table to share with me.

So I smiled and said it was delicious.

After the wedding, everyone in the castle assumed it was my favorite.

I told them many times that I wanted hotter porridge, lighter soup.

The servants bowed their heads and agreed, then turned around and left the same cold trays at my door.

Once, I mentioned this to Adrian.

Celeste was there too.

She stood behind him, her voice so gentle it was bulletproof.

“Mrs. Blackwood is human. Her appetite is naturally hard to please.”

“The kitchen has done its best.”

“Perhaps she just misses going out so much that everything here seems lacking.”

Adrian looked at me, a slight furrow between his brows.

“Elena, don’t always assume the worst about everyone.”

From then on, no matter how I tried to tell him about my suffering, his eyes were always full of doubt.

“Don’t bother putting on an act for me, Elena.”

“You’re already my wife. When are you going to learn to be graceful and composed instead of constantly throwing tantrums?”

That was when I should have understood.

In this castle, not even my husband would take my side.

The pain twisted through my lower abdomen again.

I gripped the edge of the bed and pulled myself upright, but after just two steps, I felt a sudden warmth between my legs.

I looked down and saw blood dripping from the hem of my nightgown onto the carpet.

One drop.

Then another.

A blinding red.

My mind went blank for an instant, and then I staggered to the door, pounding on it.

“Someone, help!”

“Get me a doctor!”

The hallway was quiet.

I heard a faint rustling from the servants’ quarters next door, but no one opened their door.

I pressed the call bell on the wall.

It rang for a long time before it stopped on its own.

No response.

I stumbled downstairs and grabbed the night driver by the sleeve.

“Take me to the hospital.”

The driver kept his head down, unable to meet my eyes.

“Ma’am, without orders from Adrian or Celeste, I can’t drive the car.”

“But my stomach hurts so much...”

My voice shook so badly it didn’t sound like my own.

He was silent for a few seconds, then said only this:

“Adrian gave instructions that if you were just being difficult, we shouldn’t disturb him.”

In that moment, I almost laughed.

This wasn’t the first time they had stonewalled me, but even when I told Adrian, nothing changed.

When he had loved me, he’d promised to protect me, to love and cherish me, even though I was just a human.

Now he was tired of me, convinced I was nothing but an endless source of trouble. All because I was just a human.

I didn’t beg the driver again.

I gritted my teeth through the pain and climbed out through a second-floor window.